Smithsonian articles from September 2004

Smithsonian archives from September 2004

Deep science: from the Chesapeake Bay to Panama, scores of Smithsonian divers probe underwater mysteries.(From the Secretary)
September 1, 2004... The word "scuba" contains the name of an entire tropical island, so you might expect its origin to be at least a bit exotic. But no. Scuba dates from the early 1950s as a purely utilitarian acronym for "self-contained underwater breathing...

Easy riders: for whistle-stop campaigning or just rolling down memory lane, nothing could be finer than your own railroad car.(Points Of Interest)(costs of owning and operating a private railcar)
September 1, 2004... At the end of a string of sleek silver Amtrak coaches that have just pulled into the Manassas, Virginia, station, a man wearing a weathered porter's hat climbs down from the open rear platform of a green-and-blue car from another era. A woman...

Chestnutty: wielding cutting-edge science and lots of patience, James Hill Craddock hopes to restore the ravaged American chestnut tree to its former glory.(People File)
September 1, 2004... James Hill Craddock calls himself a chestnut breeder, but a truer description would be a chestnut evangelist. For the better part of his 44 years he has been preaching the virtue of the genus Castanea. "I think the world would be a better...

Comedy central: "Your Show of Shows," starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, pioneered madcap TV humor in the 1950s.(The Object At Hand)
September 1, 2004... The age of modern entertainment was born when the microphone replaced the megaphone as an amplifier of the human voice in the 1920s (a transition we might call "crossing the Rudy Vallee"). The bulky microphone soon took on a symbolic role,...

By the people: the first new museum on the National Mall in 17 years was created in close collaboration with Native American communities throughout the hemisphere.(National Museum Of The American Indian)
September 1, 2004... The Metis of Western Canada know a thing or two about traveling. Descended from Europeans and the Native people they encountered while trading furs in the 18th century, the Metis and their culture were literally born on the move. So it was in...

"A long time coming": prominent American Indians reflect on their peoples, their past, their humor--and their new museum.(National Museum Of The American Indian)
September 1, 2004... Ben Nighthorse Campbell 71; U.S. Senator (Republican); Colorado; Northern Cheyenne You need to start from one very, very important truism. And that is if you look at Indian culture, and all other minority cultures in America, there's a...

"We rise, we fall, we rise": a descendant of the capital city's original inhabitants comes home.(National Museum Of The American Indian)
September 1, 2004... I was born and raised in New York City, but I come from a people with a traditional territory encompassing Washington, D.C.--the swath of land in Maryland between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. We are called the Piscataway. Our...

This month in history: September anniversaries--momentous or merely memorable.
September 1, 2004... 140 YEARS AGO: "WAR IS CRUELTY" Four months after beginning his "Atlanta Campaign" in Tennessee, Union general William T. Sherman defeats Confederate general John Hood and occupies the Georgia city, September 2, 1864. "Atlanta is ours...

Lunch on the run: how food and drink got to work and school is a lesson in history.(Around the mall: scenes & sightings)(lunch boxes)
September 1, 2004... What do lassie, Roy Rogers and the Harlem Globe Trotters have in common with the winners of a tennis tournament in Litchfield, Connecticut, 96 years ago? In a word, sustenance. Lunchboxes sporting pop culture figures, and a thermos...

Painted ponies.(From The Attic)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... PAINTED PONIES "Word that a carrousel will be installed permanently on the Mall grounds," the New York Times reported in 1967, "disturbs some people." Wary of ideas that newly appointed Smithsonian secretary S. Dillon Ripley had...

Tucson trunk sale.(Around the mall: scenes & sightings)(Tucson Gem and Mineral Society's show)
September 1, 2004... At the nation's largest gems and minerals show, Smithsonian curators went looking for the goods from afar, the scene in the hotel parking lot in Tucson last February had all the appearances of thieves fencing stolen goods, but it was really...

Hurry in.(Around the mall: scenes & sightings)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... On view through December 12, "Playful Performers" is the first exhibition for and about children at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. Costumes and masks (left, an example from the Yoruba of Benin) worn by children at...

Meeting the Sioux: the corps and the Indians play "Let's Make a Deal." The Indians win.(Lewis and Clark)
September 1, 2004... In late September, the expedition encountered the Teton Sioux for the first time. President Jefferson was eager that the corps make trading partners of the Sioux, already recognized as a powerful nation. But from the beginning,...

Corrections.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2004... In "The Anti-Burb," David Andrew, of the University of New Hampshire, was incorrectly identified. Also, on page 98, the portrait identified as John Adams is in fact Samuel Adams.

From Russia with love: Tolstoy does "Oprah".(The Last Page)
September 1, 2004... "Last week, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was announced as the Oprah's Book Club summer selection. This week, it's No. 1 on the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list."--USA TODAY, June 9, 2004 OPRAH: Now let's visit with our special guest...

Declaration of Genocide.(Just Looking)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, where government-supported Arab militias have burned and looted their villages and forced more than a million people from their homes, take shelter in a Cariari, Chad, camp this past June. More than...

American Odyssey: they fled terror in Laos after secretly aiding American forces in the Vietnam War. Now 200,000 Hmong prosper--and struggle--in the United States.
September 1, 2004... Late one night this past April in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, a window in Cha Vang's split-level house shattered and a container filled with fire accelerant landed inside. Vang, his wife and three daughters, ages 12, 10 and 3, escaped...

Reluctant patriot: Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words that would become our national anthem, had opposed America's entry into the War of 1812.
September 1, 2004... One by one, the buildings at the heart of the American government went up in flames. On the evening of August 24, 1814, British troops torched the Capitol, the Treasury, the President's House (not yet called the White House). All burned...

Point, shoot, submit: our new and improved photo contest swings into gear.(Editor's Note)
September 1, 2004... Last year's photo contest, our first ever, was so successful--more than 12,000 entries yielding 50 finalists and 6 winners--that we've decided to do it again. And this year we will accept electronic entries as well as prints submitted by...

Becoming a full-fledged condor: the California condor learns from people, other condors and the school of hard knocks.
September 1, 2004... The stench of rotting calf carcasses hangs thick in the air, and bugs are buzzing about, attracted by the carrion laid out to lure seven California condors in from the wild. From the Big Sur coast, it has taken several fieldworkers from the...

Unveiling Afghanistan: two new books illuminate that nation's current conditions and recent history.(The Bookseller of Kabul)(Charlie Wilson's War)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL ASNE SEIERSTAD Translated by Ingrid Christophersen Little, Brown, $19.95 Arriving in kabul in 2002 after reporting on the coalition forces' search for remnants of Al Qaeda, Norwegian journalist Asne...

Lee Bontecou's brave new world: a star of the 1960s art scene returns with a triumphant exhibition of futuristic works.
September 1, 2004... Lee Bontecou, who vanished from the art world in the 1970s after a star-burst of fame, has spent the past few decades working in a remote Pennsylvania barn, producing a series of huge, ethereal, wire-and-ceramic sculptures that hang in...

Unexpected Antarctica: far from being a wasteland of ice and snow, the world's most remote region is alive with history, color and life.
September 1, 2004... Rosemarie keough almost died taking a penguin's picture. Camped on Antarctic sea ice with a small expedition of adventurers and photographers, she loaded film into three cameras and hiked half a mile in a snowstorm to capture a colony of...