Description: A twentieth century Renaissance man, Louis R. Purnell lived a remarkable life. His career began in the skies above Italy and Germany, where he flew 88 combat missions as an original member of the Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, while working at the National Museum of Natural History, he traveled the world’s oceans collecting marine specimens, taught himself geology and
Description: Eva J. PellSmithsonian Institution Archives Oral History Collection, SIA009640Eva J. Pell (1948- ), Smithsonian Undersecretary for Science from 2010 to 2014, cracked a glass ceiling by becoming the highest-ranking woman to serve as a science manager at the Smithsonian. She was born in New York City to immigrant parents who, from the start, encouraged her to pursue and value