| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| December 1, 1848 |  The first volume of Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge is published
and distributed: "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, comprising the results
of Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations," by E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis. It
is illustrated by 48 lithographic plates and 207 wood engravings. The manuscript was
submitted to Secretary Joseph Henry on May 15, 1847, who then requested that members of
the American Ethnological Society review it. They quickly sent a favorable review. Henry
reports that the publication quality of the volume compares with any publication ever
issued from the American press and decides against copyrighting this or any Smithsonian
publications. The first volume of Contributions will be distributed to learned societies
in approximately 25 foreign countries. |
| December 1, 1983 | "Sawtooths and Other Ranges of Imagination: Contemporary Art from Idaho" opens at the National Museum of American Art with forty-one works by twenty-eight artists documenting the fine arts in the state of Idaho. There is also a panel discussion, in which five of the featured artists participate. |
| December 2, 1976 | "Peter Plagens: Works on Paper," a West Coast artist's first one-man show in a major museum, opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. |
| December 3, 1846 |  Professor Joseph Henry of Princeton University receives seven out of
twelve votes cast by the Board of Regents for the position of Secretary (the executive
officer of the Smithsonian Institution). The Board then unanimously passes a resolution
approving the election of Henry, who went on to serve a 32-year term: 1846-1878. The
49-year-old Henry (born December 17, 1797) is well known in the scientific world as a
"natural philosopher" because of his basic discoveries in the field of
electromagnetism. |
| December 4, 1960 |  The white tigress, Mohini of Rewa, arrives at the National Zoological Park on December 4, 1960. This
ice-blue eyed animal is the gift of the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation of New York
and Ralph Scott of Washington, D.C. Mohini is formally presented to President Dwight D. Eisenhower
on the White House lawn by John Kluge, president of the Board of the Metropolitan
Broadcasting Corporation. |
| December 5, 1975 | "Peggy Bacon: Personalities and Places" opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art. The exhibition contains 192 paintings, prints, drawings, and pastels. The follies and foibles of mankind are depicted by metaphorically using animals, and her satirical portraits provide a witty and revealing record of society in the '20s and '30s. |
| December 6, 1979 | "The Drawings of Morris Louis," with 57 drawings shown for the first time, opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art. |
| December 6, 1985 |  The Space Shuttle Enterprise is officially transferred by the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration to the National Air and Space Museum at a black-tie
gala at Dulles International Airport. |
| December 7, 1991 | "Time Covers the War: Personalities from World War II" opens at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The exhibition includes 36 original portraits commissioned for covers of "Time" between 1938 and 1945. |
| December 8, 1927 | Charles Lindbergh, not long after his triumphal solo flight to Paris, is presented the Langley Medal for Aerodromics by the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents. |
| December 8, 1992 |  The "Hand on History Room" opens at the National Museum of
American History. The 3,000 square-foot room features more than 40 hands-on activities for
museum visitors to try. |
| December 9, 1976 | "Not a Model Boy" opens at the National Portrait Gallery, marking the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." |
| December 10, 1974 | The Executive Committee of the Smithsonian Institution approves (in principle) the establishment of an on-site learning center for the children of Smithsonian staff. Joyce R. Manes, Learning Center Coordinator, takes responsibility for developing and implementing the program. |
| December 11, 1980 | The Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China (Academia Sinica) and the Smithsonian Institution sign an agreement to foster joint research and other exchanges. Secretary S. Dillon Ripley and Academy Vice President Qian Sanqiang sign the agreement, which was written in both Chinese and English. |
| December 12, 1992 |  A new permanent exhibition, "Where Next, Columbus?" opens at the
National Air and Space Museum. This is the final exhibition to the 1992 Quincentenary
commemoration of Columbus's voyages. The exhibition focuses on the challenges and
opportunities of the next 500 years of space exploration. It deals largely with the many
technical and physiological challenges that humans must overcome to cross vast distances
of space or exist on other planets. |
| December 13, 1847 |  The Board of Regents adopts Secretary Joseph Henry's "Programme of
Organization of the Smithsonian Institution." Henry's plan contains fourteen guiding
considerations, including the suggestion that the Smithsonian only undertake programs that
cannot be adequately carried out by existing United States institutions. A key feature of
the plan is the publication of Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge and
periodical reports on scientific progress. |
| December 14, 1993 |  "Kumari," an Asian elephant, is born to "Shanthi" at
the National Zoological Park. She is the first elephant to be born at the Zoo. Kumari
later dies on April 26, 1995. Research uncovers a herpes virus as the cause of death. This research is used to save the lives of young elephants born in other zoos. |
| December 15, 1890 |  The "Statue of Freedom" plaster figure used to cast the statue
atop of the United States Capitol Building designed by sculptor Thomas Crawford in Rome is
given to the Smithsonian Institution. The statue first came to Washington, D.C., in 1858
and was placed in the old hall of the House of Representatives, then in the basement of the
Capitol. In 1890 when it comes to the Smithsonian, it is placed in the Rotunda of the
Arts and Industries Building where it remains until 1967. |
| December 15, 1983 | An original wooden propeller from the Wright Brothers' Flyer is presented to the National Air and Space Museum by Wilkinson Wright, a grand nephew of the Wright Brothers in a public ceremony held in the milestones of Flight Gallery. There is also a symposium "The Wright Flyer: An Engineering Perspective." This symposium marks the eightieth anniversary of the first flight of the Wright Brothers, and is held December 17, 1983. |
| December 16, 1976 |  "Person to Person," an exhibition celebrating the 100th
anniversary of the telephone opens at the National Museum of History and Technology, now
the National Museum of American History. The exhibition is a multi-media display
showing how lifestyle and technology affected the development of person-to-person
communication. Simple voice transmitter devices to complex communications systems spanning
the globe are exhibited including Alexander Graham Bell's early experimental telephones
and the same wire used for his first message "Mr. Watson -- come here-- I want to see
you." Instruction sheets are available for four phones to be made with household
materials. |
| December 17, 1912 |  The Star Spangled Banner is accessioned into the permanent collection of
the United States National Museum. The flag was first loaned to the museum July 9, 1907 by
Eben Appleton, grandson of Major George Armistead, the defender of Fort McHenry. In 1912
Appleton decided to make a permanent gift of the flag to the museum. |
| December 17, 1948 |  Orville and Wilbur Wright's airplane the Wright Flyer is acquired by the
National Air Museum, now the National Air and Space Museum, at a ceremony held in the Arts
and Industries Building. It is put on display in the National Museum on the forty-fifth
anniversary of its flight. |
| December 17, 1973 | Charles Greeley Abbot, an astrophysist, fifth Secretary of the Smithsonian (1928-1944), and Smithsonian Institution employee since June 1895, dies in suburban Maryland at the age of 101. |
| December 17, 1983 | "'O Write My Name:' American Portraits, Harlem Heroes," photographs of black Americans by Carl Van Vechten, opens at the National Portrait Gallery. |
| December 18, 1987 | The National Portrait Gallery's exhibitions, "Then and Now: American Portraits from the Past Century," opens in Hong Kong, marking the beginning of the first overseas tour of a major exhibition from the gallery. |
| December 19, 1993 | "Before Freedom Came: African American Life in the Antebellum South" opens at the Anacostia Museum and will run through March 1994. The exhibition explores the life styles of enslaved and free black people, their regional work patterns, struggles, and triumphs. |
| December 20, 1980 |  "Grendel," a 35-pound, 36-inch long gray seal pup, is born at
the National Zoological Park, one of only ten grey seal pups to have been born and survive
in captivity in the United States. |
| December 21, 1981 | The first live satellite radio program of a special holiday concert produced by the Division of Performing Arts and Office of Telecommunications is broadcast from the Institution to more than 110 National Public Radio stations across the country. |
| December 22, 1976 | "John White Alexander (1856-1915)," opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art. The exhibition includes watercolors, drawings, illustrations and oils, creating the first comprehensive exhibition of Alexander's work in sixty years, from his portraits of women to mural designs. |
| December 23, 1981 |  A $960,000 Congressional appropriation is set aside for the planning of
the Quadrangle project. The Quadrangle will be a new museum complex that will serve as a
center for African, Near Eastern and Asian cultures. This is the first federal
appropriation for the project, whose planning has been underway since 1978 with support
from unrestricted trust funds. |
| December 24, 1949 | The first Smithsonian Christmas Party is held. An aid in archeology, Bob Jenkins, arranges for a program to be held at noon on Christmas Eve in the auditorium of the Natural History Building. Although it is initially planned only for the employees of that building, all Smithsonian staff are invited. Charles Terry, aid in archeology, reads the Christmas story and employees sing carols. Secretary Emeritus Charles G. Abbot plays a cello solo accompanied on the piano by Loyal Aldrich (retired director, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory). |
| December 25, 1895 | A complete set of the publications of the Smithsonian Institution is deposited in the Library of Pembroke College, Oxford, the college from which James Smithson was graduated. |
| December 26, 1972 | "Joseph Henry Papers" exhibit opens in the Great Hall of the Smithsonian Institution Building. The exhibit contains rare books, pictorial material and original manuscripts illustrating the scientific career of the American physicist who was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian. The exhibit marks the publication by the Smithsonian of the first volume of "The Papers of Joseph Henry." |
| December 27, 1982 | "Miners in the Sierras" (1851-1852), by Charles Nahl and Frederick Wenderoth, and "Saxon" (1966-1967), by Deborah Remington, are accessioned by the National Museum of American Art, gifts from the Fred Heilbron Collection and Flora M. Biddle respectively. |
| December 28, 1985 | The Cooper-Hewitt Museum receives 283 pieces of antique cutlery from the Robert L. Metzenberg collection, dating from the 16th through the 19th centuries. |
| December 29, 1904 | President Theodore Roosevelt gives a sparrow hawk to the National Zoological Park. |
| December 30, 1986 | The National Museum of American Art acquires 378 folk art objects of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, a purchase and a major gift from Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., whose holdings are acknowledged to be among the finest in private hands in the United States today. |
| December 31, 1887 |  The Department of Living Animals opens to the public in a building on the
south side of the eastern wing of the Smithsonian Institution Building, made of materials from the old
demolished New Orleans Annex building. According to the United States National Museum Report for 1888, the
department had been established to afford the taxidermists an opportunity to observe the
habits and positions of various species, and use this knowledge in mounting skins for
exhibition. |
| December 31, 1936 | Andrew W. Mellon donates his collection of paintings and sculptures and more than $15 million to provide for a building to house the collection and an endowment for salaries and acquisitions. The gallery is to operate as a bureau of the Smithsonian administered by its own trustees. |
September || October || November || December
"This Day" Home || Smithsonian Institution Archives || Institutional History Division
Smithsonian Institution Home Page