| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| April 1, 1983 |  "Monkey Island," a new exhibit for primates consisting of a
25-foot high bluff of natural stone bordered on three sides by water and landscaped with
pine trees and aquatic plants and home to Barbary macaques, opens at the National
Zoological Park. |
| April 2, 1860 |  Secretary Joseph Henry issues a circular to entomologists, listing the
authors of several catalogues underway for different orders of North American insects, and
requesting the help of collectors to provide examples of specimens for these catalogues. |
| April 3, 1987 | Ground breaking ceremonies are held for the new Earl S. Tupper Research and Conference Center at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Ground was broken by His Excellency Don Eric Arturo Devalle, President of the Republic of Panama, and Glenn Tupper. In 1985, the Tupper Foundation donated $4 million toward the center's construction. |
| April 3, 1987 | Folkways Records, a commercial record publisher of folk and tribal music and spoken-word recordings, becomes part of the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to purchasing the Folkways published catalog, the Smithsonian will receive the Folkways archives, an extensive collection of unreleased material, including books, tapes, original glass disks and correspondence. The transfer agreement between SI and the estate of Moses Asch was signed February 27, after three years of negotiations. Folkways was founded in 1947 by Asch. |
| April 4, 1984 | "German Expressionist Sculpture" exhibition opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The exhibition includes more than 120 examples of wood, plaster, bronze and porcelain works by 33 artists, newly found or re-found. There are also related works on paper and photographs of destroyed sculpture. |
| April 5, 1984 | The "Golden Age of Flight" exhibition gallery opens at the National Air and Space Museum. This gallery is a major exhibition devoted to aviation from 1919 to 1939. |
| April 6, 1965 |  President Johnson appears to open the exhibit "The Vision of
Man" in the National Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of
American History. The exhibit illustrates the productive partnership of science and
government, and its primary objective is to stimulate student interest in the study of
science and engineering. The exhibit features scientific equipment and
spectator-participation devices. |
| April 6, 1974 | The Douglas World Cruiser "Chicago" is placed on exhibit in the Rotunda of the Arts and Industries Building to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe made in 1924. It was restored by Walter R. Roderick of the Silver Hill facility. |
| April 7, 1977 | "Oriental Calligraphy," a major showing of calligraphy from China, Japan, and the Near East, and Biblical manuscripts from the 3rd to 17th centuries, opens at the Freer Gallery of Art. |
| April 8, 1994 | The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute signs an agreement with the Honduras Coral Reef Fund to advise on management and protection of the Los Cochinos Archipelago, a group of small islands off the Caribbean coast legally protected by the Government of Honduras. STRI also designs a research and biological monitoring program for the area. |
| April 9, 1969 | "European Painters Today" opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art. The exhibition consists of 85 paintings by 49 contemporary, European-based artists, selected by an international jury of museum directors. |
| April 9, 1987 | "The Far Side of Science" opens at the National Museum of Natural History. The exhibition displays five hundred of Gary Larson's best "Far Side" newspaper cartoons. Poking fun at a wide range of natural history topics--from evolution to prehistoric man--these works offer hilarious and insightful twists on both human behavior and the human view of the natural world. |
| April 10, 1958 |  On April 10, a group of concerned neighboring citizens gather at the
Cleveland Park Library on Connecticut Avenue to organize what was to become Friends of the
National Zoo (FONZ). The Washington "Star" reported, "Dr. William M. Mann,
devoted retired Zoo director, last night shelled out $50 to become a charter member. Dr.
Mann, who has been suffering from arthritis, braved last night's cold showers to give his
blessings to the new group." Ernest P. Walker was also a charter member. |
| April 10, 1980 | "Six Belgian Artists: Selections from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden" opens at the Hirshhorn, in connection with the international symposium, "Belgium Today." The symposium opens April 20, with King Baudouin I of the Belgians giving the keynote address. |
| April 11, 1980 | Secretary S. Dillon Ripley visits Cuba and signs a memorandum of understanding which was to further cooperation between the Smithsonian and the Cuban Academy of Sciences. The agreement was also signed by acting president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, Dr. Tirso W. Saenz, and is intended to restore scholarly exchanges that were interrupted in 1969 when the U.S. and Cuba severed relations. Visits to Cuba by four Smithsonian scientists (Porter Kier, Eugene S. Morton, James F. Lynch and Storrs Olson) in October and November 1980 marked the first projects under the treaty. |
| April 11, 1992 | At the National Zoological Park, a new-born gorilla is adopted by a 10-year-old female who was still nursing her own 11-month-old baby. The natural mother apparently rejected her infant and permitted the adoption, an extremely rare phenomenon. |
| April 12, 1967 |  The Carousel on the Mall opens. The carousel is operated by the
Smithsonian Museum Service. Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley is seen riding a horse with visiting children. |
| April 12, 1996 | The exhibition "1846: Portrait of a Nation" opens at the National Portrait Gallery and will continue through August 19, 1996. The exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. |
| April 13, 1978 | "Els Quatre Gats: Art in Barcelona Around 1900" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The exhibition consists of fifty works by Picasso and thirteen of his colleagues at the café "Els Quatre Gats," all of whom helped shape and develop "modernismo." |
| April 14, 1954 | The new exhibit hall "Highlights of Latin American Archeology" is opened with a special ceremony in recognition of Pan-American Day. The hall (Hall 23) is the first permanent exhibit hall to be completely renovated since the building was opened to the public in 1910. The renovation was begun in 1951 and "presents man's cultural development from his earliest known beginnings in Latin America to the high civilizations of the Inca, Aztec, and Maya." |
| April 15, 1912 | In a first preview of the Freer Gallery of Art collections, 175 pieces, out of the more than 4,000 comprising the collection, are exhibited in one of the great halls of the Natural History Building. The American art side of the exhibition includes paintings by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas W. Dewing, Dwight W. Tryan, Abbott H. Thayer, and Winslow Homer. The oriental art side of the exhibition includes Japanese paintings of the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries; Chinese paintings, bronzes, sculptures; pottery from China, Japan, Korea, Persia and Mesopotamia; and glass specimens from Egypt. |
| April 16, 1972 |  Upon the occasion of the historic visit of President Richard M. Nixon to
China, the People's Republic of China presents two Giant Pandas, Hsing-Hsing (m) and
Ling-Ling (f), to the United States. They become residents of the National Zoological Park
on April 16, 1972 |
| April 17, 1879 |  Ground is broken for construction of the National Museum building, now the
Arts and Industries Building. Concrete foundations are begun on April 29th and the
brick-work of the walls on May 21st. The main walls will be completed by November 1. |
| April 17, 1980 | "Alexandra Exeter: Marionettes and Theatrical Designs" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. |
| April 18, 1951 |  The ceremonies commemorating the opening of the Adams-Clement Collection
are held in the west hall of the Arts and Industries Building. Speeches are given by Dr.
Remington Kellogg, director of the United States National Museum; Dr. Alexander Wetmore,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; art historian Katharine McCook Knox; and General
Ulysses S. Grant, III, president of the American Planning and Civic Association. The
collection was donated by Mary Louisa Adams Clement to the Smithsonian Institution in
1950. |
| April 19, 1883 |  At a ceremony attended by many notables and approximately 10,000
onlookers, the bronze statue of Joseph Henry is unveiled on the Smithsonian grounds. The
date for the event is selected to coincide with the annual meeting of the National Academy
of Sciences, of which Henry had been president at the time of his death. The United States
Congress, the Diplomatic Corps, the Executive Departments, and the public were invited to
attend. |
| April 20, 1880 |  On February 16, the United States Congress appropriates $20,000 to enable the
United States Fish Commission to prepare an exhibition on the part of the United States at
the Berlin International Fishery Exhibition. Secretary Spencer F. Baird appointed
Assistant Secretary George Brown Goode as commissioner in charge. Given the short time for
preparation, most of the exhibition comes from components of the Centennial Exhibition in
Philadelphia, plus a display of improved apparatus for fish culture. The Exhibition opens
on April 20, and is scheduled to close on June 1, but because of the popularity of the
display it is held over until July 1. The U.S. exhibit wins the grand prize for the best
display, a large vase beautifully worked in silver and gold. |
| April 21, 1981 |  The new Great Ape House at the National Zoological Park opens to the
public. The exhibit is scheduled to house the Zoo's four gorillas and four orangutans. The
animals are to be housed behind a protective glass barrier because apes are highly
susceptible to human infectious diseases and must be kept away from the visitors. |
| April 22, 1978 | "Exhibition Flight," the first traveling exhibition from the National Air and Space Museum collections, begins its tour at the San Antonio Transportation Museum, circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. |
| April 22, 1998 |  "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Dialogue on American Sweatshops,
1820-Present" opens at the National Museum of American History. The exhibition looks
at the history and origins of sweatshops, the effects of immigrants as workers and owners,
and international competition and technological innovation. The exhibition will last
through September 1998. |
| April 23, 1900 |  The United States Congress authorizes the Secretary of the Smithsonian, at
his discretion, to exhibit the old Ben Franklin printing press and other articles from the
United States National Museum of interest to the printing trades at the New York Printing Exposition to
be held from May 2 to June 2, 1900. |
| April 24, 1990 | "Flora Danica and the Heritage of Danish Porcelain," an exhibition surveying the forms, techniques, and decoration of Danish porcelain, opens at the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design. Princess Benedikte of Denmark attends the opening reception. |
| April 25, 1969 | "The American Poster" opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art. The extensive exhibit traces the history of the poster in the United States. It focuses on three periods in American poster history: a collecting craze in the 1890s; World War I which produced patriotic posters of unequalled force and vigor; and the post-World War II period when poster art by well-known painters became fashionable. Among the contemporary artists represented are Andy Warhol, Ben Shahn, Saul Steinberg, Norman Rockwell, and Saul Bass. |
| April 26, 1995 |  The National Zoological Park's 16-month baby Asian elephant,
"Kumari," the female calf of "Shanthi," dies at about 2 p.m. in her
outside enclosure in the Zoo. Kumari was the first elephant to be born at the NZP and
"one of only about 100 to be born in the country." Zoo veterinarians discover her death is due to a herpes virus. This discovery later saves the lives of other zoo elephant calves. |
| April 27, 1962 | The United States Congress approves a law to provide for a National Portrait Gallery as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution (P.L. 87-443). |
| April 27, 1994 |  "Science in American Life" opens at the National Museum of
American History. The exhibition demonstrates how science has changed the way American
have lived over the last 125 years. It is the first major effort of the museum to examine
science in a social and cultural context. The exhibition also includes an interactive
education center in the "Hands On Science Center." The exhibition was
underwritten by a grant from the American Chemical Society. |
| April 28, 1988 | "Horizons: The Drawings and Paintings of Robert Taylor" opens at the National Air and Space Museum. The exhibit contains more that 100 works by one of the world's most prominent aviation artists. Many of the thoroughly research and meticulously detailed paintings and drawings are highly realistic portrayals of incidents that occurred during Word War II. |
| April 29, 1846 | The U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 85 to 76, passes a bill organizing the Smithsonian Institution. The final form of the bill, H. 5, was a substitution by William Jervis Hough of New York, amended. |
| April 29, 1980 | "Close Observation: The Oil Sketches of Frederic E. Church" opens at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum on its final stop of an extensive national tour organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service from the Cooper-Hewitt collection. Seven of Church's finished oil paintings which related to sketches shown--and a selection of artifacts from Olana, Church's home on the Hudson--were borrowed for the New York showing. |
| April 30, 1890 |  United States Congress places the National Zoological Park under the
direction of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The Regents are
authorized to make such rules and regulations for the management of the park and of the
property, appurtenances, and collections of the park, as they may deem necessary and wise
to secure the use of the same for the advancement of science and the instruction and
recreation of the people. On April 30, 1891 The National Zoological Park officially opens to the public in the valley of Rock Creek. |
| April 30, 1928 |  Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh pilots the "Spirit of St. Louis" on
it last flight from St. Louis to Washington, and turns it over to the Smithsonian. It is
placed on public exhibition in the main entrance in Arts and Industries Building of the
United States National Museum on May 13, 1928. |
"This Day" Home || Smithsonian Institution Archives || Institutional History Division
Smithsonian Institution Home Page