Reference Request
Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Accession 08-084
Smithsonian Institution. Office of Telecommunications
Productions, 1981-1991, 1996, 1999
Descriptive Entry
This accession consists of videotapes and audiotapes created during the production of "Here At The Smithsonian" ("HATS"), an eight volume series of television productions. The series was conceived by Nazaret Cherkezian, Director, Office of Telecommunications (1976-1986) and produced by Ann Carroll (Volumes I-IV) and John P. Meehan (Volumes V-VIII). Due to funding cuts, the series ceased production in 1989.
"HATS" was a series of short features, designed and produced for broadcast via commercial newscasts to disseminate information about Smithsonian Institution exhibitions and research activities. The features were short (no more than 2 minutes) and flexibly produced. Segments utilized split track audio allowing stations to use either the voice of their own newscaster or the voice provided by the Smithsonian; beginnings and ends of the features were left with extra video and audio, permitting fade-in and fade-out; and no one appearing on the features was identified on screen, allowing stations to use the fonts and typefaces normally used for their own newscasts. The brevity of segments and flexible style of production made them easy to insert anywhere in a newscast.
During the second volume (1983), it became apparent that public television stations were much more interested in using the features than commercial news stations. Eventually, the features were lengthened to three to four minutes to suit the public television format and further refined. Changes included the use of fade-in and fade-out to black; fully mixed audio tracks; and identification of all on-screen persons. Also, a standard musical theme, opening and closing sequences, and titling, were added.
Volume I (1982) includes "At Home with the Apes;" "The Rebirth of Dinosaurs;" "Hooray for Amelia!;" "The Woolly Mammoth of Washington;" "How Does Your Sculpture Grow?;" "Diplomats in Buckskins;" "Hooray for the Red, White and Blue;" "A Festival of Animals;" "What Lives in Your Lawn?;" "Celebrations 'Round the World;" "Horse Races on the Mall;" "Living with the Eskimos;" "A Modern Noah's Ark;" and "Raphael Soyer: An Art of Real Life."
Volume II (1983) includes "Inside Meteorites;" "From Fiddles to Banjos;" "Corals in Captivity;" "A Life with Aviation;" "The Universe in a Box;" "The Ultimate Model;" "The Elephant's Tale;" "Japan's Ceramic Treasures;" "A Museum for the Community;" "The World of Mathew Brady;" "American Picture Palaces;" "Time Capsule of the Revolution;" "The Smithsonian's Giant Squid;" "Faulkner: A Living Portrait;" "Design for the People;" "Video Astronomy;" "France Meets New Jersey;" "Ballooning's 200th Birthday;" "The Art of Craft;" and "An Invasion of Painters."
Volume III (1984) includes "Keeping Perfect Time;" "Nature Through a Viewfinder;" "The Precious Legacy;" "Surgery is Painless;" "Islam in Africa;" "Big Ideas in Small Packages;" "The 20,000 Year-Old-Man;" "A Place for Touching;" "Microscopes Make it Big;" "The Plastic Historian;" "Panda Playground;" "More Than 'Whistler's Mother';" "Collecting the 'Stuff' of Politics;" "The Golden Age of Aviation;" "The Birdman of America;" "Celebrating American Folklife;" "Eyes on the Universe;" "Strike up the Band;" "An Ancient Game Reborn;" "Past Visions of the Future;" "That's Entertainment;" "Our Violent Universe;" "TR in Africa;" "Outer Space Artist;" and "Happy Birthday, Hirshhorn Museum."
Volume IV (1985) includes "Say It Ain't So, Wesley;" "Black Artists in the 19th Century;" "Mechanical Musical Marvels;" "America's Castle;" "The Vanishing Frontier;" "Deep Sea Mysteries;" "The Smithsonian's Model Shop;" "Keeping Orchids Alive;" "Something to Hang the Paint On;" "The World's Biggest Camera;" "The Tale of the Kite;" "Treasures of African Art;" "A Modern Noah's Ark" (repeat); "Restoring it to 'Wright';" "Diplomats in Buckskins" (repeat);" "Folklife '85;" "Advertising Yesterday and Today;" "Video Astronomy" (repeat);" "A Woman Ahead of Her Time;" and "The Old Country Post Office."
Volume V (1986) includes "Magnificent Voyagers;" "The Tale of the Kite" (extended); "A Gallery for Today;" "Balloon Astronomy;" "Hollywood: Legend and Reality;" "Black Wings;" "Art in New Mexico;" "At Home on the Road;" "Folklife '86;" "The California Artist;" "Brand New at the Zoo;" "Discover Graphics;" "Air and Space Anniversary;" "Reaching Rural Africa;" "At Mr. Hirshhorn 's Bequest;" "Corals in Captivity" (repeat); "A Smithsonian Holiday;" "Russia: The Land and the People;" "The Harlem Renaissance;" and "A Painter at Large."
Volume VI (1987) includes "From Field to Factory;" "Second Nature;" "Engines of Change;" "Meet the Beetles;" "Capturing the Spirit;" "A Grasp of Reality;" "Zoo Vets;" "Spanning the Distance;" "American Art Deco;" "The Making of a Dinosaur;" "TR in Africa" (repeat); "Contemporary Expressions;" "Remembering John La Farge;" "Folklife Festival '87;" "Building a Biosphere;" "Portrait of a Life;" "Treasures Down Under;" "African Splendors;" "Dr. Sackler's Gift;" and "A Garden for All Seasons."
Volume VII (1988) includes "Climbing Jacob's Ladder;" "Old and New Traditions;" "From Reliable Sources;" "A More Perfect Union;" "Magellans of the Air;" "From Field to Factory" (repeat);" "Spineless Wonders;" "King Herod's Dream;" "Splendidly Stradivarius;" "Different Drummers;" "The Unseen Smithsonian;" "New Deal Murals;" "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts;" "Folklife Exchange;" "New Political Conventions;" "Antietam Revisited;" "Warming up to Reptiles;" "Kalabari Kinetics;" "Crossroads of Two Continents;" and "On the Air."
Volume VIII includes "Cultural Crossroads;" "The Jeweler's Eye;" "Black Wings" (repeat); "The Perpetual Man Ray;" "The Portraits of Isamu Noguchi;" "African Sounding Forms;" "Rocks in a Hard Place;" "Zoo Vets" (repeat); "The Way to Independence;" "Aloha, Hawai'i!;" "A Continuity of Culture;" "The Brush of Innocence;" "Engines of Change;" "Tending a Sculpture Garden;" "A Holiday Celebration;" "A Smithsonian Holiday;" "A Touch of Glass;" "Duke Ellington, American Musician;" "Happy Birthday, National Zoo;" and "The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright."
Materials in this accession include original footage, segment masters, dub masters, dubs, interviews, and related materials on a variety of videotape formats and two reels of 1/4" audiotape.
Note: The original materials were created by the Office of Telecommunications. Some dubs that are part of this accession were made by its successor units, Smithsonian Press/Smithsonian Productions and Smithsonian Productions.
Note: Preservation copies of all episodes are located in Resv19, Boxes 5-8.
Restrictions
Access RestrictionRestrictions pertaining to the use of these materials may apply (based on contracts/copyright). Access restrictions may also apply if viewing copies are not currently available. Viewing copies can be made for a fee. Contact reference staff for details.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following access terms. These are links to collections with related topics, persons or places.
Name
- A Continuity of Culture (Television program)
- A Festival of Animals (Television program)
- A Gallery for Today (Television program)
- A Garden for All Seasons (Television program)
- A Grasp of Reality (Television program)
- A Holiday Celebration (Television program)
- A Life with Aviation (Television program)
- A Modern Noah's Ark (Television program)
- A More Perfect Union (Television program)
- A Museum for the Community (Television program)
- A Painter at Large (Television program)
- A Place for Touching (Television program)
- A Smithsonian Holiday (Television program)
- A Touch of Glass (Television program)
- A Woman Ahead of Her Time (Television program)
- Advertising Yesterday and Today (Television program)
- African Sounding Forms (Television program)
- African Splendors (Television program)
- Air and Space Anniversary (Television program)
- Aloha, Hawai'i! (Television program)
- America's Castle (Television program)
- American Art Deco (Television program)
- American Picture Palaces (Television program)
- An Ancient Game Reborn (Television program)
- An Invasion of Painters (Television program)
- Antietam Revisited (Television program)
- Art in New Mexico (Television program)
- At Home on the Road (Television program)
- At Home with the Apes (Television program)
- At Mr. Hirshhorn 's Bequest (Television program)
- Balloon Astronomy (Television program)
- Ballooning's 200th Birthday (Television program)
- Big Ideas in Small Packages (Television program)
- Black Artists in the 19th Century (Television program)
- Black Wings (Television program)
- Brand New at the Zoo (Television program)
- Building a Biosphere (Television program)
- Capturing the Spirit (Television program)
- Carroll, Ann
- Celebrating American Folklife (Television program)
- Celebrations 'Round the World (Television program)
- Cherkezian, Nazaret
- Climbing Jacob's Ladder (Television program)
- Collecting the 'Stuff' of Politics (Television program)
- Contemporary Expressions (Television program)
- Corals in Captivity (Television program)
- Crossroads of Two Continents (Television program)
- Cultural Crossroads (Television program)
- Deep Sea Mysteries (Television program)
- Design for the People (Television program)
- Different Drummers (Television program)
- Diplomats in Buckskins (Television program)
- Discover Graphics (Television program)
- Dr. Sackler's Gift (Television program)
- Duke Ellington, American Musician (Television program)
- Engines of Change (Television program)
- Eyes on the Universe (Television program)
- Faulkner: A Living Portrait (Television program)
- Folklife '85 (Television program)
- Folklife '86 (Television program)
- Folklife Exchange (Television program)
- Folklife Festival '87 (Television program)
- France Meets New Jersey (Television program)
- From Fiddles to Banjos (Television program)
- From Field to Factory (Television program)
- From Reliable Sources (Television program)
- Happy Birthday, Hirshhorn Museum (Television program)
- Happy Birthday, National Zoo (Television program)
- Here at the Smithsonian (Television program)
- Hollywood: Legend and Reality (Television program)
- Hooray for Amelia! (Television program)
- Hooray for the Red, White and Blue (Television program)
- Horse Races on the Mall (Television program)
- How Does Your Sculpture Grow? (Television program)
- Inside Meteorites (Television program)
- Islam in Africa (Television program)
- Japan's Ceramic Treasures (Television program)
- Kalabari Kinetics (Television program)
- Keeping Orchids Alive (Television program)
- Keeping Perfect Time (Television program)
- King Herod's Dream (Television program)
- Living with the Eskimos (Television program)
- Magellans of the Air (Television program)
- Magnificent Voyagers (Television program)
- Mechanical Musical Marvels (Television program)
- Meehan, John P.
- Meet the Beetles (Television program)
- Microscopes Make it Big (Television program)
- More Than 'Whistler's Mother' (Television program)
- Nature Through a Viewfinder (Television program)
- New Deal Murals (Television program)
- New Political Conventions (Television program)
- Old and New Traditions (Television program)
- On the Air (Television program)
- Our Violent Universe (Television program)
- Outer Space Artist (Television program)
- Panda Playground (Television program)
- Past Visions of the Future (Television program)
- Portrait of a Life (Television program)
- Raphael Soyer: An Art of Real Life (Television program)
- Reaching Rural Africa (Television program)
- Remembering John La Farge (Television program)
- Restoring it to 'Wright' (Television program)
- Rocks in a Hard Place (Television program)
- Russia: The Land and the People (Television program)
- Say It Ain't So, Wesley (Television program)
- Second Nature (Television program)
- Smithsonian Institution
- Something to Hang the Paint On (Television program)
- Spanning the Distance (Television program)
- Spineless Wonders (Television program)
- Splendidly Stradivarius (Television program)
- Strike up the Band (Television program)
- Surgery is Painless (Television program)
- TR in Africa (Television program)
- Tending a Sculpture Garden (Television program)
- That's Entertainment (Television program)
- The 20,000 Year-Old-Man (Television program)
- The Art of Craft (Television program)
- The Birdman of America (Television program)
- The Brush of Innocence (Television program)
- The California Artist (Television program)
- The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Television program)
- The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright (Television program)
- The Elephant's Tale (Television program)
- The Golden Age of Aviation (Television program)
- The Harlem Renaissance (Television program)
- The Jeweler's Eye (Television program)
- The Making of a Dinosaur (Television program)
- The Old Country Post Office (Television program)
- The Perpetual Man Ray (Television program)
- The Plastic Historian (Television program)
- The Portraits of Isamu Noguchi (Television program)
- The Precious Legacy (Television program)
- The Rebirth of Dinosaurs (Television program)
- The Smithsonian's Giant Squid (Television program)
- The Smithsonian's Model Shop (Television program)
- The Tale of the Kite (Television program)
- The Ultimate Model (Television program)
- The Universe in a Box (Television program)
- The Unseen Smithsonian (Television program)
- The Vanishing Frontier (Television program)
- The Way to Independence (Television program)
- The Woolly Mammoth of Washington (Television program)
- The World of Mathew Brady (Television program)
- The World's Biggest Camera (Television program)
- Time Capsule of the Revolution (Television program)
- Treasures Down Under (Television program)
- Treasures of African Art (Television program)
- Video Astronomy (Television program)
- Warming up to Reptiles (Television program)
- What Lives in Your Lawn? (Television program)
- Zoo Vets (Television program)
Subject
Physical Characteristics of Materials in the Collection
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-084, Smithsonian Institution. Office of Telecommunications, Productions