Description: Last week, Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar was named director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Chavez Lamar has worked at the Museum throughout her career, from an internship in 1994 to her current role as acting associate director for collections and operations. Between 2000 and 2005, she was an associate curator, leading the work on “Our Lives,” one of
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_9227,size=200,left]The foremost grass specialist of her time ended her formal education after grammar school. She began collecting and illustrating plants in her twenties, and was hired by Chicago's Field Museum in 1901 and later as a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientific illustration was a way for