Description: Sharon Reinckens, Deputy Director, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, has served as Acting Director, Senior Designer, and Supervisory Visual Information Specialist at the museum, 1980–present. Reinckens also produced award-winning documentaries about African American artists in Washington D.C for the museum. #Groundbreaker
Description: Mary Grace Potter, founding director of the Visitor Information and Associates’ Reception Center, 1971–2000, established and led the unit responsible for providing information to Smithsonian members and the public by mail, telephone, and in person. In 1978, Potter won the first annual Robert A. Brooks Award for Excellence in Administration. #Groundbreaker
Description: Alcione M. Amos, Curator at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum since 2009, researches the history of post-slavery societies and Afro-Brazilians from West Africa in the nineteenth century. She curated major exhibitions at the museum, such as Word, Shout, Song (2010–2011) and How the Civil War Changed Washington (2015). #Groundbreaker
Description: Each week, the Archives features a woman who has been a groundbreaker at the Smithsonian, past or present, in a series titled Wonderful Women Wednesday.
Description: Dr. Joan W. Nowicke, Curator, Department of Botany, was an internationally recognized palynologist specializing in pollen morphology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 1972–99. Nowicke earned special recognition in the 1980s for her work studying “Yellow Rain,” which some governments alleged was a form of chemical biological warfare. #Groundbreaker
Description: Marion Stirling Pugh began her career with the Smithsonian in 1931 as a secretary for her future husband, Matthew Stirling, Chief of the Bureau of Ethnology. For the next 40 years, the couple studied Olmec culture and the connection to greater Mesoamerica and South America. Pugh served as the president of the Society of Women Geographers from 1960 to 1963 and from 1969 to