Information

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Number 94

Winter 2007

Warren M. Robbins Library, National 

Museum of African Art 35th Anniversary

Left: Professor Stanisław Chojnacki with reception guest Mimi Mekbib

Right: Lecturing to the crowd on Ethiopian religious art page 2
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

Fund-raising and building new revenue streams are 

major activities at the Smithsonian, and the Libraries is no 

exception. Our donors provide financial support, but many 

also generously donate marvelous books and journals (p. 5) 

that add depth to our print collections. Enjoy reading (p. 6) 

about how a real sow’s ear was made into a silk purse, one 

of the more unusual stories from our trade 

literature collection.

We feature here our Warren Robbins 

Library, an internationally renowned African 

art collection that draws researchers from 

all over the world. With a committed group 

of volunteers and the National Museum of 

African Art, last August SIL launched an 

appeal for funds to create an endowment for 

the library on the occasion of its 35th anniversary. With $59,000 raised so far, we hope this is only the 

beginning.

Our staff is often lauded, but not often given an actual 

peer recognition award by a museum (p. 7). Several museum staff also provide financial support, the best way of 

showing their appreciation for the work that we do on their 

behalf.

In future issues you will read of our master space planning efforts, our project to build a Biodiversity Heritage Library, our 40th Anniversary celebration in 2008, and other 

activities and challenges in 2007. For now, we pause to 

thank all those who believe that the Smithsonian Institution 

Libraries is crucial to the research and education efforts of 

the Institution—and who show it by their gifts. We dote on 

our donors!

Nancy E. Gwinn

from the director

2

Image credits:

Cover, 2 ✦ Ethiopia: Illuminated Manuscripts, UNESCO, 1961.

✦ Chojnacki lecture photos by Rich Strauss.

Page 5 ✦ Dibner Library lecture photos by Rich Strauss.

Page 6, 8 ✦ DCLA and Peer Recognition photos by Aaron Brown.

Page 11 ✦ Amy Levin photo by Aaron Brown.

Top: Librarian Janet Stanley and 

Stanisław Chojnacki.

Middle: Ethiopian processional 

cross.

Bottom: Professor Chojnacki 

lectures to the crowd.

Ethiopian Orthodox processional cross, 15th c., copper alloy, National Museum of African Art, Accession # 2004-7-8.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

library focus

3

The Warren M. Robbins Library, at the National Museum of African Art, is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2006. SIL’s African art library 

is the leading library in the world for 

the research and study of African visual 

arts. Founded in 1971 as part of the 

Museum of African Art, the library was 

originally located in the historic Frederick Douglass House complex on Capitol 

Hill. In 1987, it moved to its spacious 

quarters in the new museum on the 

National Mall and was renamed in 1988 

in honor of the museum’s founder. Janet 

Stanley, who has served as museum 

librarian for nearly 26 years, worked at 

a university library in Nigeria and at the 

Library of Congress before joining the 

African Art Library. Since 1979 she has 

built the library collections from 2,500 

volumes to more than 32,000 today.

The library embraces classical and 

contemporary African arts with strong 

supporting collections of African history, archaeology, religion, ethnography, oral tradition and photography. Additional holdings cover 

African music, theater, dance, cinema and literature, popular culture, 

curriculum materials, children’s books, cookbooks, maps, posters, 

video recordings, and more than 2,800 artists’ fi les. Reference service is the major activity of the library staff, who offer expert guidance to everyone from high school students and teachers to leading 

experts in the fi eld of African art. Users also include museum curators, archaeologists, artists, collectors, fi lmmakers and journalists. 

The library lends materials around the country and answers queries 

from around the world via email and telephone.

In order to ensure continued growth in the coming years as the cost of 

books, journals and new electronic resources continues to rise, the library recently announced the creation of the Warren M. Robbins Library 

35th Anniversary Fund. Contact the library for additional information at 

202.633.4681, or via email: jstanley@si.edu. ✦ Janet Stanley

Warren M. Robbins Library, National 

Museum of African Art Marks 35 Years

Dandy Masquerade, Sokari Douglas Camp 

(artist), Christmas card, 1995

Blue Head, William Kentridge (artist), 1993-1998 drypoint 

print edition of 35

Gavin Younge, print from Working proof: a portfolio of 

lithographs. Cape Town: Michaelis School of Fine Art, 2003

George Francis Lyon, plate from A narrative of travels in 

Northern Africa, in the years 1818, 19, and 20, London: 

John Murray, 1821
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

An inquiry from a woman in New York about an oil portrait of an 

Ethiopian woman acquired by James M. Landis, U.S. Minister to the 

Middle East, from Emperor Haile Selassie in the 1940s launched an 

interesting series of revelations.

First, Librarian Janet Stanley consulted Professor Chojnacki, who 

happened to be in residence. He suggested Agegnehou Engida (1905-

1950) was the painter. Stanley’s research concluded that although 

the artist had some prominence in the 1930s, there were few known 

paintings by him. One bibliographical source reproduced a selfportrait of the artist. The treatment of the eyes strongly suggested 

that the Landis painting was indeed by the same artist. Stanley then 

provided an image of the painting to a scholar who had written about 

Engida. He confirmed that it was indeed by Engida and sent by return 

email another portrait by Engida. Since this colleague is curating an 

Ethiopian art show in 2007 with works by Engida, he was thrilled to 

track down an unknown painting.

He was put in touch with the original inquirer. She wrote: “Janet, 

your email sent a tingling sensation down my spine when I read it. 

How thrilling to learn we have a painting by such a revered Ethiopian 

artist. Our young lady has been serenely gazing at our living room 

all these years, a mute observer of many parties, a silent guest on 

Christmas mornings. And now her mysterious creator is named...My 

family and I are very excited about this news, which we might never 

have learned if it weren’t for you.” ✦ Janet Stanley

Members of the District of Columbia Library 

Association visited the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd 

Library on December 12, 2006, for a private 

viewing of Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the 

Last Himalayan Kingdom.

Associate Director Mary Augusta Thomas 

joined Director Nancy E. Gwinn and Curator 

Leslie Overstreet in presenting the 5 foot by 

7 foot book to the group. Fascinated with the 

book’s size, binding and brilliant color images, 

the librarians engaged in a lengthy question and 

answer session followed by lunch in the Natural 

History Building café. ✦

4

District of Columbia Library Association 

Views “World’s Largest Book”

collections

African Art Library Solves 

Portrait Mystery

Agegnehou Engida, artist, 1905-1950 (detail.) The painting is not titled; the sitter is unknown, but the African Art 

Library (through subsequent research) thinks it is a portrait 

of Empress Menen, wife of Emperor Haile Selassie. Though 

untitled, the library refers to the painting as “Basket Weaver, 

from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Bruce S. Brown, 

Pittsford, New York.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

The family of Alvin B. 

Josephy, Jr., a well known 

historian of Native American studies, donated Mr. 

Josephy’s library of approximately two thousand 

Native American titles to 

the National Museum of 

the American Indian Library.

Mr. Josephy is credited 

with writing the defi nitive 

work on the Nez Pearce 

and his works on indigenous peoples were among 

the fi rst to be written from 

the native perspective. 

Mr. Josephy died in October of 2005.

In the early 1990s, Mr. 

Josephy was the founding board chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American 

Indian. The Josephy donation is now in the 

stacks at the NMAI Library and processing the collection has begun. The titles are 

a wonderful mix of information, much of it 

concerning fur trading, early exploring expeditions, and public land use as well as important titles on Middle and South America and 

Native American art. The collections of the NMAI Library, the NMAI 

Resource Centers, and other Smithsonian Libraries will be measurably 

enhanced by the addition of the Native American titles from Alvin M. 

Josephy, Jr.’s library. ✦ Lynne Altstatt & Mary Augusta Thomas

SI Libraries Receives Josephy Collection

In her book, Asbestos and Fire, (Rutgers Univerity Press, 2005), Rachel Maines, who 

made extensive use of SIL trade literature on asbestos, praises the “Smithsonian Libraries collection [of trade literature, including] “...nearly ten linear feet of materials from asbestos-products manufacturers from the mid 19th century through the 

third quarter of the 20th.” 

All images: The Book of American Indians: 

containing comprehensive details of 

Indian battles, massacres, border warfare, 

biographical sketches of distinguished 

Indians, &c., Dayton, O.: B.F. Ells, 1854, 

c.1853

5
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

Cassie Mancer, one of our trade literature inventory 

team members, found an item on making silk purses 

from sows’ ears in the trade literature for the Arthur D. 

Little company material. What makes this interesting is 

that there is in the Museum of American History collection a silk purse made from a sow’s ear, a gift from 

the Arthur Little company: http://historywired.si.edu/

object.cfm?ID=535

“The full title of the 

pamphlet is On the 

Making of Silk Purses 

from Sows’ Ears: A 

Contribution to Philosophy It was published 

in 1921.

The title and the idea 

to try to manufacture 

the purse refl ect the pioneering spirit and 

quirky sense of humor that periodically 

emerges in Arthur D. Little, Inc. publications--other titles include Chemistry in 

Overalls, published circa 1918, and the 

Industrial Bulletins from 1954 that profi le 

industrial developments. Industrial Bulletin columns bear such titles as “Success 

Pools,” describing sewage treatment plants 

and uses for the end-products produced by 

them, “Spinning a Yarn” on textile machinery and cotton, and “Here’s the Pitch” on 

the science of baseball pitching and the opportunities for operations research in baseball. [The “Here’s the Pitch” article also includes the sentence, “The only thing to resist change in 

our national pastime seems to be the Yankees.” Ha!]

The Sows’ Ears pamphlet includes a color print of the 

original purse. It describes how silk is formed in nature, 

by glands at the back of a silkworm’s head. The glands 

form a viscous liquid that hardens when exposed to air, 

forming strands. The company developed a substance 

similar to this compound by contracting with Wilson 

& Co., a meat packing fi rm out of Chicago, who supplied one hundred pounds of sows’ ears. The ears were 

processed into glue in the research labs at Wilson & Co. 

by Frank R. Johnson. Mr. Johnson signed an affi davit 

certifying that the ten pounds of gelatin produced was 

“manufactured wholly from sows’ ears.” They identify the sow pictured on the cover of the pamphlet as 

“Sukie,” an imaginary construct/representative of the 

large number of sows slaughtered, who seems to be a 

mascot for the project. The pamphlet then describes the 

process through which the purse was actually manufactured. The glue was “dispersed in water” and mixed 

with acetone and 

chrome alum to 

make it set. It was 

then pressure-fi ltered and placed 

in a spinning apparatus. It was 

extruded into a 

“coagulating and 

hardening mixture of acetone and formaldehyde contained in a large V-shaped glass tube...

with arms about three feet long.”

The glue mixture was pressure extruded 

through these tubes, and the two fi laments 

would join up to create one continuous fi ber. 

It was removed from the acetone/formaldehyde 

mixture with a hook, went into another formaldehyde/acetone bath, and was placed on a reel 

to dry. At this point the thread was very brittle, 

but when soaked in glycerin solution and dyed, 

it had developed a “bright lustre [and]...soft, 

silky feel.” The threads were woven into fabric 

on a hand loom and were sewn into the form of 

a silk purse.

On why they did it: “...We made this silk purse from a 

sow’s ear because we wanted to, because it might serve 

as an example to clients who come to us with their ambitions or their troubles, and also as a contribution to 

philosophy...This making of silk purses of sows’ ears 

was merely a diversion of chemistry at play. When 

chemistry puts on overalls and gets down to business, 

things begin to happen that are of importance to industry and to commerce. New values appear. New and 

better paths are opened to reach the goals desired.” 

✦ Cassie Mancer and Jim Roan

From the Trade Literature Collection

On the Making of Silk Purses from 

Sows’ Ears, Cambridge, 1921

collections

6
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

Fourteen members of the National Museum of Natural History Libraries staff were selected for a 2006 

Team Peer Recognition Award because of their exemplary service in support of a vast array of research 

interests and needs.

According to the nomination, “They 

provide prompt and personalized attention. They offer to train their customers at 

their desks, organize their PC desktops, 

provide a comfortable and welcoming 

environment, help find them resources to 

get started, or to help finish their work.

“The commitment to support the 

research and outreach activities of 

National Museum of Natural History 

(NMNH) staff by each and every Library staff member is 

truly remarkable, and deserving of recognition. 

“For all this and much more, the NMNH community recognized: Maggie Dittemore, Carmen Eyzaguirre, 

Richard Greene, Angela Haggins, James Haug, Joan Horn 

(volunteer), Ann Juneau, Polly Lasker, Ron Lindsey, 

Martha Rosen, Ruth Schallert, Courtney Shaw, David 

Steere, and Gil Taylor.

The award certificates and award pins were presented to each of them during the National Museum of 

Natural History Peer Recognition Awards ceremony on 

December 12, 2006. ✦

service

National Museum of Natural History

2006 Peer Recognition Awards

Maggie

Dittemore

Carmen

Eyzaguirre

Ruth

Schallert

Courtney

Shaw

Jim

Haug

Ann

Juneau

Polly

Lasker

David

Steere

Martha

Rosen

Ron

Lindsey

Angela

Haggins

Gil

Taylor

Richard

Greene

7
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

outreach

Over 75 people gathered in Schermer Hall in the 

Smithsonian Institution’s Castle 

Building on December 13th for 

the 2006 Dibner Library Lecture. 

Dr. Joyce E. Chaplin, James 

Duncan Phillips Professor 

of Early American History at 

Harvard University, spoke on 

Benjamin Franklin in a talk 

entitled, “Science for a New 

Country: Benjamin Franklin’s 

Political Arithmetic.” The year 

2006 marks Franklin’s tercentenery.

The Dibner Library opened 

its doors in the fall of 1976 

after collector Bern Dibner 

donated 10,000 books 

and manuscripts to the 

Smithsonian on the occasion 

of the nation’s Bicentennial

 The Library, which normally 

operates out of the National 

Museum of American History, 

is closed 

to the 

public 

while renovations 

are made 

to the 

museum. 

The 

museum 

and the 

Library 

are 

expected to reopen in 2008.

As part of an effort to determine a master space 

plan for Smithsonian Libraries, the Office of Policy 

and Analysis (OP&A) conducted a study of library 

use in the National Museum of American History, 

Behring Center (NMAH), and the National Museum of 

National History’s Natural History Building (NMNH). 

The study revealed a picture of current use and what 

the institution’s library needs will be in twenty years.

The OP&A found 

that the predominate 

users of the Libraries 

are curators, scientists 

and collections management personnel and 

outside researchers and 

graduate students to 

a lesser degree. Users 

universally agreed 

that the Libraries’ collections are one of 

three separate pillars 

of superior academic 

research alongside staff 

and collections. Users 

also highly valued 24/7 

access to the collections and the 

Libraries’ proximity to researchers’ 

offices. There was also consensus 

that the demand for both print and 

digital materials will not diminish. 

Researchers at the NMAH and NMNH 

said they see the Libraries’ collections as one of the Smithsonian’s 

strengths that underpin the “increase 

of knowledge.” The OP&A investigators concluded that physical 

libraries will continue to be a critical 

resource for research by both internal 

and external users at the NMAH and NMNH; the Libraries 

is a necessary partner in the Smithsonian’s pursuit of 

excellence in research. ✦

Smithsonian Office of Policy and Analysis 

Studies Libraries’ Use

2006 Dibner Library 

Lecture a Big Success

Above and below, right: Dr. Joyce 

E. Chaplin addresses the crowd at 

the 2006 Dibner Library Lecture, 

held in the Smithsonian Castle 

Library.

8
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

The Libraries’ Galaxy of Knowledge launched 

a new look 

in January 

2007. The 

site features 

a number 

of new features including sections 

for featured 

online 

projects, 

news and 

events, and 

Smithsonian 

Institution Libraries’ highlights. 

Digital collections will be easier to find, including the recently created “Sources and Critical 

Interpretations” series and over 200,000 pages of 

literature from the Biodiversity Heritage Library 

collections. 

The launch of the new design corresponds with 

completion of new web-page designs for each 

of SIL’s twenty libraries. Galaxy of Knowledge

receives over 300,000 visitors per month and 

serves as the main entry point for SIL’s digital 

offerings to the public. The bold new design, by 

former SIL web-designer Nicole Van Doren, will 

provide an enhanced user experience. Click over 

and take a look! ✦ Martin Kalfatovic

9

New Look for Libraries’

Galaxy of Knowledge Website

A vital component to the Galaxy 

of Knowledge website and continually growing, the Galaxy of 

Images gathers together more 

than 10,000 images from the 

Libraries’ collections into a single 

site that can be searched and 

browsed.

http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/

Collection highlights:

Animal World

Art and Design

Bones and Fossils

History and Material Culture

Literature

Natural World

Plants and Flowers

Portraits

Science and Invention

Scientific Instruments and 

 Apparatus

Society and Culture

Technology and 

 Transportation

Trade Literature

From Galaxy of Images:

Left: La Répertoire du Gout 

 Moderne, 1928-1929.

Below: Eric Carle, The Honeybee 

 and the robber.

http://www.sil.si.edu

Galaxy of Images
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

When David Furth, PhD, with 

the Department of Entomology at 

the National Museum of Natural 

History, began working on his graduate 

degree at Cornell University, his appreciation of libraries increased as he accessed the scientific literature he 

needed.

When Furth moved on to Yale, he used all of the school’s libraries, 

including Sterling, the College’s main library, where these words are 

engraved above its entrance, “The library is the heart of the university.” 

Furth believes similarly that libraries and collections are the heart of a 

museum: “The two most important aspects of a museum that facilitates 

good research are its collections and its libraries.”

So it came as no surprise when Furth stopped by Libraries Director 

Nancy Gwinn’s office before Christmas to deliver a donation for the 

Smithsonian Libraries. He had been moved to do so after observing the 

‘dire economic situation’ the libraries is facing. Coupled with his strong 

feelings for libraries as institutions, becoming a donor was the next logical 

step. Plus, Furth says he has also been strongly affected by fellow entomologist, Chris Thompson, whose own philanthropy for both the Libraries 

and the Entomology Department is well known.

Furth feels his gift will make a difference for the scientists using the 

Libraries today as well as the generations of researchers that will utilize the 

collections in the future. ✦ Catherine Fraser

Catherine Fraser has been hired as the new director of development.

Fraser, who formerly worked as development director for the College of William and Mary’s Earl 

Gregg Swem Library and the American Society of 

Interior Designers’ Foundation, will oversee fundraising for the Libraries and assist with public relations and marketing.

Director Nancy Gwinn says, “Catherine brings 

extensive experience in public radio broadcasting 

as well as development, which will help the public 

learn much more about the Libraries and our collections and 

services.” ✦

10

Libraries Announces New 

Development Director

Having Heart...

“The two most 

important 

aspects of a 

museum that 

facilitates good 

research are its 

collections and 

its libraries.”

David Furth

Department of 

Entomology

National Museum 

of Natural History

All images this page: Biologia 

Centrali-Americana. Insecta.

Frederick Godman, 1879-1901

giving to the libraries
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Winter 2007

Kay Dryden of San Francisco has been selected by 

the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents as the 

newest member of the Smithsonian 

Libraries Board. A resident of 

San Francisco, Kay was born in 

Washington and lived in Bethesda, 

Maryland, until she left to attend 

Barnard College in New York. 

She said she was both “totally surprised” and excited to learn of her 

selection to serve on the board of 

such an “august institution.”

“My impression of the 

Smithsonian is evolving. It is a national treasure, but it 

is also more complex and extensive than I believed it to 

be...I did not realize that it is such a rich resource for 

academic research.”

Kay has loved libraries and books since she “became 

devoted to the Bethesda Public Library” as a young girl. 

“I learned to read early and discovered the wonders of 

escaping into the world of imagination and adventure.”

A big believer in giving back, Kay says, “In philanthropy, we see the best side of humanity, both in those 

who give and in those who receive.” Kay’s term on the 

board began in January 2007. ✦ Catherine Fraser

11

Newest Board Member 

Excited to Serve

Amy Levin remembers the first 

time she witnessed the effect a 

not-for-profit gift can make. She 

remembers accompanying her father, a Professor of Physiology at 

the University of Minnesota Medical School, to the National Library of 

Medicine in Bethesda, MD, where 

he donated an old 

German book on cardiovascular physiology to the rare book 

section. Amy vividly 

recalls the library 

staff’s excitement 

when they saw the 

book and realized it 

was to be theirs. The 

powerful effect of 

making such a gift has stayed with 

her ever since.

Today, Amy is Head Librarian with 

the Museum Studies & Reference 

Library, and a new member of the 

Spencer Baird Society, the Libraries’ 

annual fund and donor recognition 

program. 

Amy has spent most of her life 

working with the Libraries, beginning her career in 1974 in “what 

used to be Access Services and 

Central Reference and Loan.” During her tenure, Amy has assisted 

customers from all over the world, 

from Canada to London to Nepal. 

She has even received requests 

from school students working on 

class projects. 

“Sometimes I think if people don’t 

know something they decide to 

call the Smithsonian because they 

believe we can find out anything.” 

Museum Studies & Reference Library

http://www.sil.si.edu/libraries/msrl/

A Lifetime with 

the Libraries

Kay Dryden

Amy Levin

“I really do believe that every little bit 

helps. If I make an unrestricted gift to 

the Libraries, I know I’m helping every 

department (of the Libraries) in some 

way. Today, the price of just one 

serial (publication) could cost several 

thousand dollars.”

Amy Levin

Museum Studies & Reference Library

levina@si.edu
new, ongoing & upcomingPenalty for Private Use $300

Washington, DC 20013-7012PO Box 37012

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

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U.S. Postage

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Washington, DC

in this issue

2 From the Director

3 Library Focus

4, 5, 6 Collections

7 Service

8, 9 Outreach

10, 11 Giving to the 

 Libraries

Exhibitions & Programs

Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration

 Libraries panel exhibition at the MLK Public Library, 

 Washington, D.C., March 2007

From the Digital Library

A Jules Verne Centennial: 1905 - 2005

 http://www.sil.si.edu/OnDisplay/JulesVerne100/

Biodiversity Heritage Library Project

 http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/BHLCollections/

Your Smithsonian Libraries 

 http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/yoursmithsonianlibraries/

INFORMATION is published 

quarterly to inform users 

and benefactors about 

services, programs and 

issues affecting the 

Libraries.

Designer/Editor: 

Elizabeth Periale

To be added to the mailing 

list, or to request this 

publication in a digital format, 

please contact:

Smithsonian Institution 

Libraries Development Office

NHB, 24mz - MRC 154

P.O. Box 37012

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Telephone

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Fax

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Email

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Internet

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Happy Anniversary Smithsonian Institution Libraries...

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries will celebrate 40 years of service to 

researchers and the public in 2008. A year of special activities is being planned in 

conjunction with the Libraries’ 40th anniversary. Stay tuned for details!