| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| August 1, 1848 | The chemical and physical apparatus of Dr. Robert Hare of the University of Pennsylvania is presented by him to the Smithsonian Institution. Secretary Joseph Henry hopes the gift will set a precedent for other potential donors and sees it as supportive of his plan for the Institution. |
| August 2, 1993 |  President William Jefferson Clinton signs legislation establishing an extension for the
National Air and Space Museum near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. |
| August 3, 1991 | A team of National Museum of American History archivists and curators travel to New York City to receive the gift of music manuscripts, photographs, recordings, business records, and other memorabilia of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, presented by the composer's sister, Ruth Kennedy Boatwright. With this gift, the museum's Duke Ellington Collection becomes the world's largest repository of Ellington materials. |
| August 4, 1908 | A female Alaskan bear born in the winter of 1908 arrives at the National Zoological Park. |
| August 5, 1977 | "Grass," a major show of approximately 550 works illustrating how many types of natural grasses have been used to make both functional and decorative objects in many cultures opens at the Renwick Gallery. Among the items displayed are an Egyptian necklace, Japanese raincoat, Swiss lace, Indonesian wine container, Iroquois mask, Zulu beer strainer, Amazon mating dance dress and a 12th century Peruvian basket, the oldest item in the show. |
| August 6, 1982 | "Flyers," the National Air and Space Museum's third IMAX film, sponsored by Conoco Inc., opens in the museum's Samuel P. Langley Theater. |
| August 7, 1986 | "Selections from the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The exhibition, which features about 80 paintings and sculptures and 70 works on paper, stems from the recent acquisition (early 1986) of over 5,000 additional artworks collected by Hirshhorn, and closes November 16. |
| August 8, 1980 | A sales exhibition opens in the Renwick, "Newer than New Glass, Part II." Consumers are able to purchase works by some of the American craftsmen exhibited in the "New Glass" exhibition. The exhibition lasts through September 26. |
| August 9, 1984 |  "Yesterday's Tomorrow: Past Visions of America's Future" opens
in the National Museum of American History's new temporary exhibition hall. The exhibition
was produced by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and displayed
more than 300 objects "to show how people in the past have predicted the
future." |
| August 10, 1846 |  By a vote of 26 to 13, the U.S. Senate passes the act organizing the
Smithsonian Institution which is signed into law by President James K. Polk. Among its
provisions, the Organic Act specifies: a Board of Regents, Chancellor, and Secretary; a
"suitable" building with rooms for the "reception and arrangement" of
objects of natural history, a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and
lecture rooms; the transfer to the Institution of all objects of art, natural history,
etc., belonging to the United States in Washington; and the deposit in the Smithsonian of
one copy of all publications copyrighted under the acts of Congress. The act stipulates
that the original legacy of $515,169, plus interest accrued at the rate of 6% on loan to
the U.S. Treasury, amounting to $242,129, shall be maintained as a trust fund, and all
expenditures and appropriations must come from interest accrued in this fund. |
| August 11, 1984 | "Treasures of the Smithsonian Institution" opens at the Royal Scottish Museum in conjunction with the thirty-eighth annual Edinburgh International [Arts] Festival. The exhibition was organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, designed and produced by the Office of Exhibits Central, and coordinated by the Office of Public Service. Symposia and musical performances were also presented in conjunction with the exhibition. |
| August 12, 1946 | President Harry S. Truman signs the Act establishing the National Air Museum, now the National Air and Space Museum, (P.L. 722). The Act directs that "the new museum shall memorialize the national development of aviation; collect, preserve, and display aeronautical equipment of historical interest and significance; serve as a repository for scientific equipment and data pertaining to the development of aviation; and provide educational material for the historical study of aviation." |
| August 13, 1979 | The Museum of African Art, established in 1964 as a private museum at the initiative of Warren Robbins, becomes a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. In the next year it will be renamed the National Museum of African Art. |
| August 14, 1994 | "Landscape as Culture: Photographs by Lois Conner" presents 80 large-format platinum prints of Asia by the American-born photographer in an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Most of the photographs were shot in China, but the exhibition also included images of Hong Kong, Japan, Burma, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam, and Cambodia. |
| August 15, 1969 | "Four Decades of Woodcuts by Werner Drewes" opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art. Drewes is a German-American expressionist artist who has lived in this country since 1930. The 36 prints on exhibit, most of them brightly colored, were chosen from some 300 in the museum's collection. His set of ten woodcuts entitled "It Can't Happen Here" rendered in 1934 are among the earliest totally abstract prints made in this country. |
| August 16, 1969 |  "Ten Italian Architects," an exhibition of 250 photographs
including architectural renderings and plans, opens at the National Museum of History and
Technology, now the National Museum of American History. The principal designs of ten
significant Italian architects, including Ignazio Gardella and Franco Albini, whose work
has been completed since 1945, are represented in this exhibit. The exhibition is under the
auspices of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. |
| August 17, 1988 | A press conference is held in the National Museum of Natural History to announce the discovery and excavation of a previously unknown Civil War burial site at Maryland's Antietam Battlefield. The dig was coordinated by the Anthropology Department in conjunction with the National Park Service. |
| August 18, 1992 |  The Cheetah Conservation Station exhibition at the National Zoological
Park opens. It recreates the appearance of an African savanna with bunch grasses,
reproductions of termite mounds, and a water hole. |
| August 19, 1887 |  Secretary Spencer F. Baird dies at the age of sixty-four, at the
headquarters of the United States Fish Commission at Wood's Hole, Massachusetts. |
| August 20, 1986 | "ZooArk" a special education exhibit opens at the National Zoological Park. The exhibit has interpretive, interactive modules in six animal houses that have thought-provoking quizzes and innovative computer games which encourage visitors to learn more about conservation issues. |
| August 21, 1980 | "New York: The Artist's View" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. |
| August 22, 1958 |  The ground is broken for the Museum of History and Technology, now the
National Museum of American History. The first shovel full of earth is turned by
Smithsonian Regent, Senator Clinton P. Anderson. The building is completed on January 23,
1964. |
| August 23, 1991 | Staff of the Freer Gallery of Art complete the four-month relocation and subsequent inventory of the gallery's entire collection of approximately 27,000 objects to a 13,300-square-foot lower level. With the completion of the gallery's expansion and construction on its lower levels, the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research moves from temporary quarters in the Sackler Gallery, which it had occupied since 1987, to a new 10,000-square-foot lab at the Freer. The facility offers expanded and modernized facilities for art conservation and research on ancient materials and technology. |
| August 24, 1956 |  One of the first X-ray tubes used by Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen is presented
to the United States National Museum for exhibit. Roentgen in 1895 discovered a new
radiation called "X-rays" or Roentgen rays. |
| August 25, 1988 | A new exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum highlights space science missions of the European Space Agency. It features full-scale models of the "Giotto" spacecraft, which approached within 370 miles of Comet Halley in 1986 and obtained the first detailed image of the comet nucleus; the "Ulysses" spacecraft, which will study the poles of the Sun; the "Hipparcos" satellite which will carry an astronomical telescope to bring unprecedented accuracy to the determination of positions and motions of the starts; and the "Exosat" satellite which will study x-ray sources in our galaxy and beyond. |
| August 26, 1977 | "We Were But a Handful," the story of the Woman's Party from Seneca Falls to the 19th amendment, opens at the National Portrait Gallery. |
| August 27, 1984 | A 168-carat emerald, a bequest of Anna Cast Mackay to the Smithsonian Institution National Gem Collection, is placed on permanent display in the National Museum of Natural History. |
| August 28, 1974 |  Distinguished visitors from Togo tour the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum on
August 28 with John R. Kinard, Director of the Museum, and Zora Martin, head of the
educational department at ANM. The Togolese officials were interested in the role of the
Smithsonian in the cultural life of the United States and Washington, particularly in
seeing how the neighborhood museum works with young people displaying arts and crafts
pertaining to the United States and Africa |
| August 29, 1838 |  James Smithson's legacy, in the form of gold sovereigns packed in eleven
boxes, as well as his personal effects, arrive with Richard Rush on the ship
"Mediator" in the harbor of New York. The personal effects are deposited with
the collector of the Port of New York on September 1. The gold is immediately deposited
with the Bank of America, until September 1, when it is transferred to the Treasurer of
the United States Mint in Philadelphia. The £104,960 and 8 shillings, 6 pence in gold
sovereigns is melted down and reminted into United States coins worth $508,318.46.
Smithson's personal effects remain in New York until June 1841, when the National
Institute requests they be sent to Washington. |
| August 30, 1890 | United States Congress appropriates $25,000 to fireproof the west wing of the Smithsonian Institution Building. The building had been severely damaged by fire in 1865. |
| August 30, 1984 |  "Jayathu," an Asian elephant dies, apparently suffering an allergic reaction to her infant formula. She was presented to President Ronald Reagan as a gift from J.R. Jayawardene of Sri Lanka and arrived at the National Zoological Park on June 12, 1984. |
| August 31, 1887 | The Smithsonian Institution participates in the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition. Assistant Secretary George Brown Goode appoints William V. Cox, Chief Clerk of the United States National Museum, to take charge of the Smithsonian exhibits. |
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