| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| February 1, 1964 |  S. Dillon Ripley (Secretary from 1964-1984) takes office as the eighth
Secretary. Before becoming Secretary, Ripley was a professor of biology at Yale
University, and director of its Peabody Museum of Natural History. He was trained as a
biologist with a particular interest in ornithology. |
| February 1, 1991 |  The Experimental Gallery opens in the Arts and Industries Building to
offer subjects not often included in museum exhibitions. |
| February 2, 1980 | "We'll Never Turn Back," a show including the work of thirteen photographers of the Civil Rights movement, opens at the National Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History. It is co-sponsored by the Division of Performing Arts and Howard University. A conference, "Voices of the Civil Rights Movement," was held at the National Museum of History and Technology January 30- February 3, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins. |
| February 3, 1853 | The Board of Regents authorizes the expenditure of $1,100 to build a magnetic observatory on the Smithsonian grounds. It will consist of a small underground room, twelve by sixteen feet and an above-ground portion, constructed of wood and designed to correspond somewhat to the architecture of the Smithsonian Institution Building. |
| February 3, 1977 | "14 Canadians: A Critic's Choice" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculptor Garden on February 3, 1977. The exhibit is in conjunction with the "20th Century Canadian Culture: A Symposium" symposium, an eleven-week series of lectures, panel discussions, and films on Canadian arts and humanities, opened at the Hirshhorn Museum on February 2, 1977. |
| February 4, 1974 |  Restoration of the exterior of the Renwick Gallery is completed when
statues of Peter Paul Rubens and Estaban Murillo are placed in second floor niches on the
outside of the renovated museum building. The sculptures are duplicates of the originals
by Moses Ezekiel that occupied the niches in the late 19th century when the Renwick served
as the first Corcoran Gallery of Art . |
| February 5, 1966 |  Mohini of Rewa, the famous white tiger, gives birth to an orange-striped
tiger cub at the National Zoological Park. |
| February 6, 1981 | "How Fleeting is Fame" opens at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit consists of lithographic portraits of 19th century celebrities whose fame did not withstand the test of time. |
| February 7, 1996 |  The new Smithsonian 150th Anniversary stamp is issued. There is a short
ceremony in Baird Auditorium unveiling the stamp and sheets of the new stamp and envelopes
with first-day cancellations are available for sale in the rotunda of the National Museum
of Natural History. |
| February 8, 1855 | The Great Hall of the Smithsonian Institution Building is opened to the public, occupied by the Metropolitan Mechanics' Institute fair. Secretary Joseph Henry is the president of the MMI. |
| February 8, 1867 | Act is passed by Congress providing that the residuary legacy of Smithson should be received and added to the Smithson Fund, and allowing the Regents to increase that fund in the Treasury of the United States by savings, donations, and otherwise, to one million dollars. |
| February 9, 1996 |  "America's Smithsonian" exhibition opens at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It is the first stop on national tour of the exhibition celebrating the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary. |
| February 10, 1910 | 
The Board of Regents awards the first Langley Medal to
Wilbur and Orville Wright for their successful investigations and demonstrations of the
practicability of mechanical flight by man, and it is presented to them on February 10, 1910. The Board of Regents approved the giving of the medal to the Wright brothers on February 10, 1909. |
| February 10, 1977 | A rare 1880 self-portrait by Mary Cassatt is acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, and is one of only two painted by the artist. |
| February 11, 1983 | Washington's third largest snowstorm of the century forces the Smithsonian Institution museums to close at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, February 11, and to remain closed all day on Saturday, February 12. The buildings reopen on Sunday, February 13, but only 15,073 (compared to an average of 50,000) visited the museums. |
| February 12, 1978 | "The Frederick Douglass Years" opens at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. The exhibition explores the life of Frederick Douglass and the times in which he lived--his years as a slave, his escape, the part he played in events leading to the Civil War, his subsequent appointment to Assistant Secretary to the Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo and as U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia, and finally resident of Anacostia. |
| February 13, 1874 | Paintings, statuary, engravings, and books on art belonging to the Smithsonian Institution are deposited in the Corcoran Art Gallery. |
| February 14, 1966 | The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service is transferred from the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, under whose jurisdiction it had been since 1952, to the United States National Museum. Expansion of the scope of the exhibits into crafts, history, technology, science and education was initiated. |
| February 15, 1992 | "Sugar and Spice," a free festival held in conjunction with the "Seeds of Change" exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, and features demonstrations, food, and music illustrating the impact of the Caribbean sugar industry on Europeans, African slaves, and indigenous Americans. Subsequent festivals feature potatoes and corn. |
| February 16, 1965 | The Division of Radiation and Organisms becomes the Smithsonian Radiation Biology Laboratory, which has independent status within the Smithsonian Institution (separate from the Astrophysical Observatory) and whose director reports to the Secretary through the Assistant Secretary for Science. The Laboratory is headed by Dr. William H. Klein, with assistant Dr. Walter Shropshire, and is located in west end of the basement of the Smithsonian Institution Building. |
| February 16, 1989 | An evening of Persian music on the tar and setar by Dariush Dolat-shahi is the first event in a free, public two-month celebration of Persian art and culture cosponsored by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Foundation for Iranian Studies. Also included in the celebration are calligraphy and illumination workshops, lectures, and an evening of reading from the tenth-century Persian epic poem, the "Shahnama." |
| February 17, 1984 | "Korean Influences on Japanese Ceramics" opens at the Freer Gallery of Art. The exhibit includes 50 objects to examine the Japanese appreciation of Punch'ong ware, Korean ceramics that entered Japan in the sixteenth century. Korean techniques of applying slip to dark-bodied wares became major elements in the styles of ceramics centers founded by Korean potters in Japan and spread in various forms elsewhere in that country. |
| February 18, 1848 | William Scoresby, an Anglican minister, Arctic explorer, and lecturer, begins lectures on the construction and use of the Rosse telescope. The lecture takes place in Odd Fellows Hall in Washington, D.C., and is the first lecture delivered under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. |
| February 19, 1979 | On February 19-20, 1979 the Smithsonian Institution museums are forced to close for two days because of weather conditions. This is the first time in at least 50 years that the museums are closed for two consecutive days because of weather conditions. The National Zoo is closed February 21, 1979 as well. |
| February 19, 1987 |  Senator John Glenn holds a news conference at the National Air and Space
Museum for the 25th anniversary of his orbit around the Earth in the Mercury Friendship 7
spacecraft. |
| February 20, 1994 | "Korean Arts of the Eighteenth Century: Splendor and Simplicity" opens at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. This is the first major exhibition of Korean art at the Sackler. |
| February 21, 1966 |  Opening of Guggenheim Collection of early aeronautical prints and
reception honoring Harry F. Guggenheim and James E. Webb in the Arts and Industries
Building. The Guggenheim Collection is the first public exhibition of a collection of
18th- and 19th-century early aeronautical prints and drawings and paintings. The exhibit
covers the first 100 years of flight, from the balloon flight of the Montgolfier brothers
in 1783. The Guggenheim Collection was given to the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences in
1940 and transferred to the National Air Museum, now the National Air and Space Museum, in
1963. |
| February 22, 1969 | "The Nineteenth Century Gallery of Distinguished Americans" opens at the National Portrait Gallery. In this exhibition of art of the Jacksonian era produced by one of the finest engravers and portraitists of the nineteenth century, James Barton Longacre, the National Portrait Gallery acknowledges its 130-year-old debt to a publication, "The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans" (1834-39). In 1831 James Herring, a portrait painter and promoter of the arts, persuaded the American Academy of Fine Arts to support the publication of the book. His partner in the venture was James Barton Longacre, a well-known Philadelphia engraver who, from 1844 until his death, was Chief Engraver to the United States Mint. The publication was to build "a monument of national gratitude ... and indicate to the world the high destiny of the republic" through portraits and biographies of great Americans. It was hoped to collect the portraits at the Academy for the use of artists and scholars a goal not realized until the 1968 opening of the National Portrait Gallery. The first volume of the book appeared in 1834; the fourth and final one in 1839. Paintings by 50 artists, among them Stuart, Copley, Trumbull, Sully, Leslie, and Durand were executed by 24 engravers. These engravings often became the best known likenesses of America's great. The present exhibition represents the largest number of the original portraits, their copies, and engravings ever gathered together, including portraits done by Longacre and not included in the published volumes. |
| February 23, 1976 | "The Federal City: Plans and Realities," a three-dimensional look at the plans of the city, opens in the Great Hall of the Smithsonian Institution Building, "Castle". |
| February 24, 1847 |  The Board of Regents authorizes the creation of a seal of the Smithsonian
Institution, with a likeness of James Smithson. A bronze medallion portrait of James
Smithson is copied from one attributed to Italian artist Antonio Canova. A noted
manufacturer of seals, Edward Stabler, is hired to engrave the seal based on the medallion
portrait and a design by Regent Robert Dale Owen. On March 17, the design is approved. |
| February 24, 1978 | "Mary Cassatt: Pastels and Color Prints" opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, the first major Cassatt exhibition since a 1970 show at the National Gallery of Art, and features 36 pastels and 14 color prints. Guidance for the exhibit is provided by National Collection of Fine Art consultant, Adelyn Breeskin. |
| February 24, 1992 | The establishment of the Mpala Wildlife Research Trust is announced. The joint project of Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution, Kenya Wildlife Service, Mpala Wildlife Foundation, and the National Museums of Kenya provides an interdisciplinary research and training program in ecology, evolution, geology, and resource management at the Mpala Ranch in Kenya. |
| February 25, 1980 | An agreement is reached whereby the Smithsonian Institution purchases, jointly with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the portraits of George and Martha Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart. |
| February 26, 1850 | The framing and floor of the southeastern end of the main building, first floor (Great Hall), collapse. Professor Louis Agassiz had just concluded his first lecture in the east wing lecture hall. A committee, consisting of architects E.B. White, Mr. Turnbull, and John Niernsee, is appointed on March 4 to investigate the collapse. They find the contractor responsible for $12,000 worth of damages for inferior work. Architect James Renwick, Jr., proposes a plan to fireproof the main building. |
| February 27, 1965 |  The National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, opens the exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Jordan in the Foyer Gallery of
the Natural History Building. The exhibition, sponsored by the Government of Jordan, ran
from 27 February to 21 March, and drew approximately 209,643 visitors. The scrolls then
moved to the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, where they were displayed
from 3 to 25 April as part of a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
exhibit. Negotiations for the loan of the specimens and accompanying photos had been in
progress since 1960 with the Government of Jordan. |
| February 28, 1966 |  The Smithsonian unveils a large mural showing an Inca surgeon cutting open
the skull of a living patient in the ancient city of Machu Pichu, high in the Peruvian
Andes. The 7 by 12 foot mural, painted by Alton S. Tobey of New York is put in the new
Hall of Physical Anthropology, located in the National Museum of History and Technology,
now the National Museum of American History. |
| February 29, 1976 | The Horticultural Services Division of the Office of Plant Services reorganizes and is transferred to the Office of Museum Programs as the Office of Horticulture. Although the discipline of horticulture was added to the Smithsonian Institution in 1972, it was first recognized as an official museum program in 1976 rather than as a maintenance program. |
| February 29, 1980 | "Georg Jensen Silversmithy: 77 Artist, 75 Years" opens at the Renwick Gallery. The exhibition features flatware, jewelry, hollow ware and accessories. |
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