| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| November 1, 1848 | "Circular on Meteorology," by Secretary Joseph Henry and James P. Espy is published. They announce the establishment of a system of meteorological observations, particularly with reference to American storms, and request those interested in signing up as volunteer observers to contact the Navy Department. The Second Annual Report of the Secretary for the year 1848, presented December 13, 1849, includes the plan for a system of meteorological observations. Secretary Henry proposes to use the magnetic telegraph to notify distant observers of approaching storms. The system of telegraphic dispatches of weather conditions will begin the next year. This program leads to the foundation of the National Weather Service. |
| November 1, 1983 | "The Amsterdam School: Dutch Expressionist Architecture 1915-1930" opens at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, marking the first time this subject, with an English catalogue, is exhibited in this country. Because of its first time showing in this country, the exhibition attracts wide attention among the architectural profession as well as the public, and serves as an important documentation of this style and period. |
| November 2, 1979 | Freer Gallery of Art acquires a collection of Chinese calligraphy through the Board of Regents' program for acquisitions of outstanding quality. It includes 12 hanging and hand scrolls and is the Freer's first acquisition under the 5-year program established in 1978 by the Board of Regents, which authorized the Institution to use a combination of non- appropriated trust funds and private matching funds to make major acquisitions of "outstanding quality." |
| November 3, 1989 | A Grumman G-21 "Goose" amphibian is placed on display in the Hall of Air Transportation of the National Air and Space Museum. The aircraft on exhibit was retired in 1977 after many years in service in California, Florida, and the Bahamas. |
| November 4, 1981 |  Nancy Reagan officially presents the gown she wore at the inaugural balls
held on January 30, 1981 to the National Museum of American History's collection of First
Ladies' gowns. She announces a plan to establish a First Ladies' Fellowship, an annual
Smithsonian award to be offered at the Museum for the study of costume in America. |
| November 5, 1954 |  The Queen Mother visits the Smithsonian Institution on November 5.
Accompanied by Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower and Secretary Leonard Carmichael, the Queen Mother visits the First
Ladies Collection in the Arts and Industries Building. |
| November 6, 1990 | Secretary Robert McC. Adams and Anthony M. Frank, postmaster general of the United States Postal Service, sign an agreement to relocate the National Philatelic Collection to the new National Postal Museum. |
| November 7, 1966 | Congress accepts Joseph H. Hirshhorn's gift, authorizes a site for the construction of the museum, and provides statutory authority for the appropriation of construction and operating funds (P.L. 89-788). The gift includes nearly 5,000 paintings and drawings, more than 1,500 pieces of sculpture, and $1 million for future acquisitions. President Lyndon B. Johnson approves legislation to establish the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The act contained a ceiling of $15,000,000 for funds authorized to be appropriated for planning and constructing the Museum and Sculpture Garden. |
| November 8, 1985 |  "After the Revolution: Everyday Life in America, 1780-1800"
opens at the National Museum of American History. The exhibition features an 18th-century
log house, rooms from Virginia and Massachusetts, and more than 1,000 artifacts. This is
the first of the museum's reinstallations of its permanent exhibition halls. |
| November 9, 1983 | "The Precious Legacy: Judaic Treasures from the Czechoslovak State Collections," one of the largest and most important collections of Judaica in the world, opens at the National Museum of Natural History, circulated by the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service. |
| November 9, 1993 |  "The Power of Maps," opens at the International Gallery and will
last through January 23, 1994. It is an exhibit of more than 200 maps from a variety of
time periods and cultures. It was created by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and
is the first time a exhibit by the museum is shown on The Mall in Washington, D.C. |
| November 10, 1958 |  The Hope Diamond is presented to the Smithsonian by Harry Winston, a New
York gem merchant. The stone was acquired by Winston in 1949 from the estate of Mrs. Evalyn
Walsh McLean, who received it from her husband, Edward B. McLean, in 1911. The diamond's
known history dates to 1830 when David Eliason, a noted gem dealer, sold the stone to
Henry Thomas Hope. |
| November 11, 1979 | A National Portrait Gallery exhibition "Robert Edge Pine: A British Portrait Painter in America, 1784-1788" opens, featuring 38 portraits by this little-studied artist of the early Federal period. |
| November 11, 1983 | "Masterpieces from Versailles: Three Centuries of French Portraiture," a major loan exhibition from the Museum of the Chateau of Versailles, opens at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition presents three centuries of French portraiture--French monarchs, Louis XIII to Louis-Philippe, Napoleonic era personalities, and artists and intellectuals. |
| November 12, 1980 | Live video coverage, special lectures, and extended hours are part of "An Evening with the Planets" at the National Air and Space Museum to mark the encounter of the Voyager I spacecraft with the planet Saturn. |
| November 13, 1876 |  Over the signature of Secretary Joseph Henry, the National Academy of
Sciences asks the U.S. President to recommend to Congress the transfer to the Smithsonian
at Washington of the Government collection at the Centennial Exhibition as well as the
continued support of the collection. Eventually some 20 railroad cars of materials from
the exhibition will be transferred to the Smithsonian. |
| November 13, 1978 | The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's "Einstein" (HEAO-2) satellite is launched, carrying an x-ray telescope designed by scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. |
| November 14, 1975 | "Portraits from the Americans: the Democratic Experience," based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Daniel J. Boorstin, director of the National Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History, 1969-1973, opens on the renovated third floor of the National Portrait Gallery. |
| November 15, 1981 | The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory installs a new electronic image processing system, coupled with a VAX computer, for producing video and hard-copy images of observational data from both ground-based and space-borne telescopes. |
| November 16, 1985 |  National Air and Space Museum's Space Shuttle "Enterprise" flys
into Washington Dulles International Airport on November 16 atop a modified Boeing 747
carrier Aircraft. Using cranes, the "Enterprise" is removed from the top of the
747 and lowered to the tarmac at Dulles on November 17. On December 6 the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration transfers title of the "Enterprise" to
the National Air and Space Museum at a black tie gala at the airport. |
| November 17, 1982 | The "Spirit of Texas," the first helicopter to fly around the world, is placed on display at the National Air and Space Museum. The pilots, Jay Coburn and H. Ross Perot, Jr., later received the Samuel P. Langley Medal for their pioneering flight. |
| November 18, 1887 |  Samuel P. Langley is elected the third Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution at a special meeting of the Board of Regents. His term lasts 19 years, until
his death in 1906. Prior to his appointment, Langley was the Assistant Secretary in charge
of exchanges, publications, and the library. Prior to that he was director of the
Allegheny Observatory and professor of astronomy and physics at the Western University of
Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh). His pioneering research explored and
located completely new portions of the infrared spectrum. |
| November 18, 1992 |  The largest and most complex exhibit ever built at the National Zoological
Park, "Amazonia" opens to the public after seven years of planning and
construction. The 15,000 square foot rainforest habitat includes a tropical river and a
55,000 gallon aquarium, and a living tropical forest with more than 350 species of plants. |
| November 19, 1976 | "Chac-Mool: A Bicentennial Loan from Mexico," an official showing of one of Mexico's national treasures, the Chac-Mool from Chichen-Itza (Maya-Toltec sculpture: 10th-12th centuries, A.D.) opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. |
| November 19, 1987 | Ground is broken for the new Smithsonian Environmental Research Center laboratory at the bureau's site in Edgewater, Maryland. The building, to be named the Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., Laboratory, is scheduled for completion in the fall of 1988. The Center is named in honor of Mathias, former United States Senator from Maryland, because of his many years of championing legislation to protect the Chesapeake Bay from overdevelopment and pollution. |
| November 20, 1972 |  Secretary S. Dillon Ripley and the Honorable Warren E. Burger break ground
for the new National Air and Space Museum. |
| November 21, 1993 | "Contemporary Porcelain from Japan" opens at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The exhibition of 30 vessels by 30 Japanese artists celebrates The Japan Foundation's gift of these masterworks to the Sackler Gallery. The exhibition emphasizes the crafting of porcelain as a living art. |
| November 22, 1986 | The Environmental Research Center (formerly known as the Radiation Biology Laboratory) closes in Rockville, Maryland. Some of the lab's functions will continue at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. |
| November 22, 1992 | The south corridor galleries of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery open following refurbishment and feature two exhibitions, "Metalwork and Ceramics from Ancient Iran" and "Buddhist and Jain Sculpture from South Asia." These small exhibitions include objects on loan from private collections, as well as works from the permanent collection. |
| November 23, 1959 | Hall of the World of Mammals opens at the National Museum of Natural History, illustrating "biological principles." Henry W. Setzer is the curator in charge of the hall, Rolland Hower supervises the exhibits staff of the Natural History Laboratory, and Thomas Baker is the designer. The taxidermy work is supervised by Watson M. Perrygo, the mural is painted by Art Smith, and Robert C. Hogue painted the backgrounds of the habitat groups. |
| November 23, 1976 | "Treasures of Cyprus" opens at the National Museum of Natural History. Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service is circulating the exhibit as part of the International Salute to the States Bicentennial of the American Revolution program. |
| November 24, 1982 | "Contemporary Paintings from Pakistan" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The exhibition contains forty-three works by twenty-three artists of the twentieth century. |
| November 25, 1974 | The first in a series of television specials produced by the David L. Wolper Organization in association with the Smithsonian is broadcast by CBS. "MONSTERS! Mysteries or Myth" debuts at 8 p.m., and covers the Abominable Snowman, the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. It is narrated by "The Twilight Zone's" Rod Serling. The program draws a national rating of 31.8 (45% share of the market), approximately 50 million people. The film is shown in the Carmichael Auditorium (as part of the Free Film Theater series) on 8 and 9 January 1975. |
| November 26, 1992 | "The Collection Reviewed: Modern Art" opens at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, inaugurating a series of reinstallations of the permanent collection. Other shows during the year focus on contemporary art, Alexander Calder, and contemporary works on paper. |
| November 27, 1989 | More than 100 Associates from 26 states participate in the Smithsonian National Associate Program's "Update: Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R." Journalists Hedrick Smith and Peter Jennings, Assistant Secretary for Research Robert Hoffmann, and Kennan Institute staff and visiting scholars provide background and varied opinions on the dramatic changes taking place in these nations. |
| November 28, 1989 |  President George Bush signs legislation to establish the National Museum
of the American Indian, to be located on the National Mall between the National Air and
Space Museum and the United States Capitol. The museum is scheduled to open in the mid- to
late 1990's. The legislation also describes Smithsonian policy on the repatriation of
American Indian human remains and associated funerary objects. The legislation also
establishes the George Gustav Heye Center in the Alexander Hamilton Customs House in New
York City and provides for a storage, conservation, and research facility at the Museum
Support Center in Suitland, Maryland |
| November 29, 1972 | "Modern American Art" opens at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of America Art. The special installation contains some 50 contemporary paintings and sculptures, including part of the S. C. Johnson collection. |
| November 30, 1979 | At the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, "Hugo Robus (1885- 1964)," opens. The show includes a group of oils never before shown. |
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