Smithsonian Research Institutes
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art was founded in Detroit as an independent research institution committed to encouraging and aiding scholarship in the visual arts in America from the 18th century to the present. The Archives of American Art has its beginnings in 1954 when E.P. Richardson, the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Lawrence Fleishman, a Detroit businessman and art collector, conceived the idea for the organization and initiated a pilot project to microfilm art related papers in Philadelphia. After the success of the pilot project, the Archives was incorporated in 1955 with a national board of trustees.
In 1960, the headquarters moved to New York City, but a branch office remained in Detroit. Other branch offices opened across the nation, and various field projects were initiated to collect the records of American artists, including a project in Rome, Italy, in 1963. During the 1960s, AAA conducted over 400 interviews with artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s, and received an extensive photograph collection documenting the artists and art work associated mainly with the New York City Federal Art Project.
In 1970, the Archives officially became a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution and its headquarters were moved to Washington, D.C. The Archives also maintains East and West Coast research centers located in New York City and Los Angeles, as well as affiliated reference centers located at the Fine Arts Department of the Boston Public Library and the American Art Study Center of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco.
Today, the Archives of American Art holds the largest collection of primary source documentation on visual arts in America. The AAA holds some five thousand collections containing letters, diaries, sketches and sketchbooks, photographs, exhibition catalogs, scrapbooks, business records, art periodicals, and other documentation from the eighteenth century to the present. The collections also include some three thousand oral history interviews, nearly one thousand photographs of artists, five hundred thousand graphic images, and seventy five thousand works of art on paper.
Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education
A Conservation Research Laboratory was first established in 1963 under the direction of the United States National Museum (USNM). In 1964 the Laboratory was moved to new quarters in the Museum of History and Technology (MHT). In 1966 the Laboratory was renamed the Conservation Analytical Laboratory. CAL began its work by focusing narrowly on preservation and restoration. However, over time its focus has broadened so that it is now involved in study and treatment of collections; provides data for understanding museum collections; and supports training and education for Smithsonian and non-Smithsonian staff.
In 1987, at the urging of Senator Claiborne Pell, legislation establishing a Museum Support Center at the Smithsonian also created a center for research on museum object conservation research and training. The Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education moved to the Museum Support Center after it opened in 1983. The SCMRE specializes in two scientific pursuits: conservation science, which analyzes objects and their materials to determine suitable conservation treatment; and archaeometry, which aims to integrate scientific analysis of objects with their anthropological, archaeological, art historical, and cultural backgrounds.
 Conservation and Research Center
The National Zoological Park's Conservation and Research Center was established in 1975 on 3,100 acres at a former U.S. Army Cavalry Remount Station in Front Royal, Virginia, to encourage development of all aspects of animal sciences. The mission of the Conservation and Research Center is the conservation of biodiversity through scientific research, professional training, and environmental education. The CRC breeds and houses a wide range of endangered species, and conducts research in ethology, reproductive biology, and conservation biology. It also trains wildlife biologists from developing countries.
CRC research covers a broad array of subjects including ecology and biodiversity monitoring, reproduction and animal health, genetic diversity and systematics, and nutrition and geographic information systems. Staff are involved in groundbreaking research pertaining to the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems locally, nationally, and around the world. The goal of their research programs is to develop long-term, collaborative conservation initiatives that utilize the diverse array of scientific, cultural, and political tools to understand and protect species and their ecosystems.
Image (Above): Three of the five Bactrian camel calves (Katie, Lis and Berkley Jr.) born at the National Zoological Park's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, posed in front of a full-grown Bactrian camel. Negative Number: 96-1017
Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce
In 1971, the Fort Pierce Bureau, a marine research facility in Florida, was established as a separate bureau under the Smithsonian Assistant Secretary for Science. In 1982 the facility became known as the Smithsonian Institution Marine Station at Link Port, and was then administered by the National Museum of Natural History. In April 1995, the Smithsonian entered into an agreement with the MacArthur Foundation for the purchase of property near the Fort Pierce Inlet with access easement to the Indian River Lagoon for the purpose of relocating its facilities and program of research to a land-based laboratory.
In 1998, the Station was renamed the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, reflecting its new location. The overall mission of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce is support and conduct of scholarly research in the marine sciences, including collection, documentation and preservation of south Florida's marine biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as education, training, and public service. Specific research emphases are: 1) to analyze the systematics and biogeography of major groups of marine organisms in the Floridian coastal zone, focusing on issues of biodiversity; 2) to determine the evolutionary patterns, ecological significance and physiological mechanisms of life histories of marine organisms; 3) to investigate the complex interactions of marine organisms and the community structure of the diverse and productive habitats of south Florida.
 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Established on 1 March 1890 by Secretary Samuel P. Langley, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) was one of the earliest to practice the "new astronomy," or astrophysics. Originally housed in a shed behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, the Observatory initially focused its research on the study of solar radiation and the solar constant—the amount of energy from the sun that strikes the outer edge of the earth's atmosphere. Langley was Director of the Observatory until his death in 1906. Charles G. Abbot, who came to SAO in 1895 as an assistant, was appointed Director in 1907. Under Abbot's direction several solar observing stations were established in the United States, South America, and Africa to carry out research on solar radiation. Upon Abbot's retirement in 1944, Loyal B. Aldrich was appointed Director of SAO.
In 1955, the Smithsonian and Harvard University joined in an agreement to conduct astrophysical research, and the scientific headquarters of SAO was moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fred Lawrence Whipple, Chairman of the Astronomy Department at Harvard, was named Director, replacing Aldrich who retired. The move to Cambridge and a close alliance with the Harvard College Observatory generated an expansion of the SAO research program. Contributions to the national space program were made by optical tracking of satellites at SAO stations around the world. Orbiting astronomical observatory experiments, meteoritical and cometary studies, and theoretical astrophysics investigations were also undertaken. A major SAO observatory located at Mount Hopkins, Arizona, was opened in 1968. The Multiple-Mirror Telescope, a joint project of SAO and the University of Arizona, was dedicated at Mount Hopkins in 1979. The Mount Hopkins Observatory was renamed the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in 1981.
In 1973, the Smithsonian and Harvard University established at Cambridge the Center for Astrophysics (CFA) to coordinate the related research activities of SAO and the Harvard College Observatory under a single director. The consolidated CFA research program was organized into seven divisions: Atomic and Molecular Physics, High Energy Astrophysics, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Planetary Sciences, Radio and Geoastronomy, Solar and Stellar Physics, and Theoretical Astrophysics. Major SAO studies in hydrogen masers, submillimeter wavelength interferometers, and infrared telescopes were undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s.
Image (Above): The Astrophysical Observatory, established on 1 March 1890, in the South Yard behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, 1899. Negative number: 80-12955
To view more historic photographs of SAO
follow the link to the “Historic
Images of the Smithsonian” online exhibit: www.siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/historic/sao.htm
 Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) was established on July 1, 1983, when the Radiation Biology Laboratory was merged with the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies.
The history of the Radiation Biology Laboratory (RBL) can be traced to May 1, 1929, when the Division of Radiation and Organisms was established by Secretary Charles G. Abbot. Initially funded mostly by the Research Corporation, the Division's purpose was to undertake investigations of the effect of solar radiation on living organisms. In 1941, the Division was administratively placed under the Smithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory.
On February 16, 1965, the Division of Radiation and Organisms was abolished. Its work was continued by the newly established Radiation Biology Laboratory (RBL), an independent Smithsonian bureau reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Science. The research program at RBL was three-pronged—regulatory biology, or how sunlight regulates growth and development of biological organisms; solar radiation measurements; and carbon dating of samples submitted by Smithsonian and outside scientists. In 1970, RBL relocated from the old Astrophysical Observatory buildings in the south yard of the Smithsonian Institution Building to facilities in Rockville, Maryland.
The Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology
(CBCFB) was created on July 1, 1965, to conduct research
and promote education in ecosystem biology. CBCFB was established
at Java Farm, a 368-acre tract of land located seven miles
south of Annapolis, Maryland, on the western shore of the
Chesapeake Bay. Java Farm was bequeathed to the Smithsonian
Institution by Robert Lee Forest in 1962. Adjoining property
was purchased with funds contributed by private foundations,
and the Center's site eventually grew to 2,400 acres including
14 miles of shoreline on the Rhode River.
In 1969,the CBCFB changed is name to the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies (CBCES), and it was placed under the administration of the newly created Office of Environmental Sciences. CBCES became an independent Smithsonian bureau in 1973, reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Science.
In February 1966, the Smithsonian joined in an agreement with the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland to collaborate in biological research and education at CBCFB. In 1971, the three institutions joined with the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences to form the Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC) to "foster and facilitate research germane to the region of the Chesapeake Bay." CBCES became a major component of the CRC research program.
The RBL and CBCES were merged in to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in 1983. The mission of SERC is to continue basic research with the goals of measuring physical, chemical, and biological interactions in environmental settings. Operations of SERC were conducted at two sites—the old RBL laboratory at Rockville, Maryland, and the former CBCES facilities at Edgewater, Maryland. The Rockville laboratory closed on November 22, 1986, and all SERC activities were relocated to Edgewater.
Image (Above): The Jean C. Schmidt Environmental Building at the Chesapeake Bay Center for
Environmental Studies, now the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in
Edgewater, Maryland, 1975. Negative Number: 75-5432-19
To view more historic photographs of SERC
follow the link to the “Historic Images of the Smithsonian” online
exhibit: www.siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/historic/serc.htm
 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
In 1923 the Institute for Research in Tropical America, a group of private foundations and universities under the auspices of the National Research Council, first established a research laboratory on Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone, in order to investigate the flora and fauna of tropical America. It was called the Canal Zone Biological Area (CZBA). In 1940 an act of Congress placed the facility under control of a board composed of the heads of certain executive departments and prominent scientists. In 1946 the operation was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and was dedicated to conducting long-term studies in tropical biology. In 1966 it was renamed the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), and expanded its scope by extending its research to other areas in the tropics, and by establishing a marine sciences program with laboratories on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Panama. In 1974, these broader research interests were legally recognized by the Government of the Republic of Panama and were later included in the Panama Canal treaty of 1977. In 1985, the Government of Panama granted the Institute status as an International Mission in order to further facilitate its mission.
Today, research is conducted throughout the Isthmus at terrestrial and marine field stations equipped with modern laboratories and dormitory facilities. Central offices are located at the Earl S. Tupper Center in Panama City, which opened in 1990. The first directors of the Canal Zone Biological Area research station in Panama were James Zetek and Karl Koford. In 1957, Martin Moynihan began the expansion of STRI into other habitats in Panama and other tropical countries and into related fields, such as ethology and anthropology. Under the direction of Ira Rubinoff from 1973 onwards, STRI has continued to expand its work in the tropics, and now conducts research throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa .
Image (Above): Barro Colorado Island from Gatun Lake, with a tree stump visible in the water, 1940's. BCI was created when the Chagres River was dammed to create Gatun Lake as a watershed for the Panama Canal. Barro Colorado Island is part of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Negative number: 92-15292
To view more historic photographs of STRI
follow the link to the “Historic Images of the Smithsonian” online
exhibit: www.siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/historic/stri.htm |
