Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_14623,size=300,left]Born in 1936 in Washington DC, John Robert Edward Kinard would become the first African American director of a Smithsonian museum at the age of 31. Kinard’s circuitous path into museum work took him from development work in Africa to community organizing on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to a dilapidated theater on Nichols Street in DC’s
Description: When the men and women of the Smithsonian heard the call to duty in World War II, they again took up the call as they had during World War I. Secretaries Charles G. Abbot and Alexander Wetmore provided leadership that brought the Smithsonian’s resources to the aid of the nation, while safeguarding its primary mission: the increase and diffusion of knowledge. Once again,