Annual Report to the Board of Regents

Fiscal Year 2007

The National Zoo’s Asia Trail opened in October 2006, providing new habitats for 

(clockwise from top left) the Zoo’s red pandas, giant pandas, clouded leopards, sloth 

bears, Asian small-clawed otters, and fishing cats. 

January 2008
Public Impact

Visits to the Smithsonian 

In fiscal year 2007, the Institution counted 24.6 million visits to its museums in Washington, D.C., and 

New York, plus the National Zoo and Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center—up 7 percent from fiscal year 2006, 

despite the closing of the National Museum of American History for renovations. Looking only at units 

that were open for the whole of both years (thus excluding both the American History Museum and 

the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture), attendance was up 20 percent. Of 

particular note were the following: 

A 31 percent increase in visitation at the Smithsonian’s most popular venue, the National Museum of 

Natural History.

A 15 percent increase at the National Zoo, which already had experienced a strong surge in visitation 

in fiscal year 2006. (The increase in Zoo attendance over the past two fiscal years was over 50 percent.) 

A sustained rise in art museum visitation. For all art museums combined (excluding those in the 

Reynolds Center), visits were up 17 percent over fiscal year 2006 and 40 percent over fiscal year 2005.

A rebound in visitation at the National Air and Space Museum (up 18 percent) and the Smithsonian 

Castle (up 32 percent) after declines in attendance at those venues in fiscal year 2006. 

A 12 percent increase at the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall—the first annual 

increase at that venue since its opening in the summer of 2004. 

The Smithsonian also counted approximately 5.8 million visits to traveling exhibitions mounted by the 

Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, an increase of 29 percent over last year. The jump in 

visitation was due in part to the wide distribution of a poster exhibition.

Visits to Smithsonian Museums and Traveling Exhibitions

Fiscal Years 2005, 2006, and 2007

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0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

African Art

Air and Space

Udvar-Hazy

American History

American Indian-Mall

Heye Center-NY

Anacostia

Cooper-Hewitt-NY

Freer/Sackler

Hirshhorn

Natural History

Postal

Renwick

Reynolds Center

Ripley Center

SI Castle

National Zoo

SITES

(In Millions)

FY 2005

FY 2006

FY 2007

Report to the Regents—January 2008 1
Smithsonian Online

Smithsonian websites logged 183 million visits in fiscal year 2007, 

up 31 percent from fiscal year 2006.

In May, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences 

honored several Smithsonian websites with its 2007 Webby Awards, 

dubbed the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times.

In the Cultural Institution category, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative website won the judged 

competition, and the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies website won the 

People’s Voice Award (based on popular voting).

In the Art category, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s 2006 People’s Design Award website 

won the People’s Voice Award, and the Museum’s main website was an official honoree in the judged 

competition.

In the Education category, the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies website and 

Smithsonian American Art Museum website Del Corazon! Latino Voices in American Art were official 

honorees.

In the Navigation/Structure category, Cooper-Hewitt’s website for its exhibition Feeding Desire was 

an official honoree.

Other awards won by Smithsonian websites included the following:

The Smithsonian Photography Initiative website received an interactive design award from Applied 

Arts magazine and was selected as a finalist in the South by Southwest Interactive Web Awards. 

A series of video podcasts from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory received the 2007 Pirelli 

International Award for physics. 

The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System’s Art Inventories catalog won the 2007 

Building Better Communities Award for innovative use of technology to meet community needs.

The National Postal Museum’s Arago website received an honorable mention in the 2007 American 

Association of Museums’s MUSE awards for outstanding achievements in museum media.

The National Museum of African Art website won multiple awards in the 2006 International W3

Awards competition, judged by the Academy of Visual Arts. 

The Smithsonian Latino Center website won a bronze SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding 

and Reputation) Award for excellence in technical aspects of communication.

New website launches and features in fiscal year 2007 included the following: 

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened a virtual online museum 

designed to encourage public collaboration in 

developing content for the Museum. This marks the first 

time a Smithsonian museum has opened on the Web 

prior to the construction of its building.

With By Aeroplane to Pygmyland: Revisiting the 1926 

Dutch and American Expedition to New Guinea, 

Smithsonian Institution Libraries launched its 

series of original digital publications, Sources and 

Critical Interpretations. The site includes hundreds of 

photographs and two hours of vintage film footage.

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2 Report to the Regents—January 2008
The National Museum of American History launched The Object of History, featuring significant 

artifacts from its collections accompanied by curricular materials and interactive forums, and joined 

10 of the nation’s leading education organizations as a content partner for Thinkfinity.org, the 

Verizon Foundation’s online portal for free educational materials.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies’s online gateway to Smithsonian 

educational resources now includes a feature that aligns available resources with learning standards in 

every state, allowing educators across the nation to easily identify and access relevant materials.

The Anacostia Community Museum launched The Adam Francis Plummer Diary, featuring a fully 

imaged transcription of a diary kept by a Maryland slave in the mid-1880s. 

Cooper-Hewitt launched Design Across America, an interactive map that highlights design events all 

over the country.

The Archives of American Art launched Collections Online, providing free access to the digitized 

collections of noted artists, collectors, and other art world figures. Among the initial collections on 

offer are the papers of Alexander Calder, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Grant Wood.

The Arctic Studies Center of the National Museum of Natural History launched Sharing Knowledge: 

The Smithsonian Alaska Collections after five years of research with Alaskan Native elders.

Exhibition Highlights

The National Zoo’s Asia Trail opened in October 2006, featuring new habitats for giant pandas, sloth 

bears, clouded leopards, and other species. This $53 million exhibit covers nearly six acres and represents 

the most significant upgrade of the Zoo’s visitor experience and animal habitats in nearly 40 years.

The 41st Smithsonian Folklife Festival opened on the 

National Mall on June 27, 2007, featuring programs on 

Northern Ireland, the Mekong River region, and the roots 

of Virginia culture. More than 700 artists and performers 

engaged the public in more than 1,400 performances and 

demonstrations. Attendance topped one million. 

More than 150 Treasures of American History from the 

collections of the National Museum of American History 

are now on view at the National Air and Space Museum 

until renovations at the American History Museum are 

completed. These treasures include such iconic objects as 

Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Kermit the Frog, Lincoln’s top 

hat, Lewis and Clark’s compass, Jefferson’s Bible, and Edison’s light bulb.

Smithsonian art museums presented a diverse array of exhibitions to suit every art 

lover’s tastes. Among the highlights were the following: 

The Sackler Gallery presented two major, internationally acclaimed 

exhibitions: Encompassing The Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th 

and 17th Centuries, the largest exhibition ever displayed in the Sackler, 

explored the diverse cultures within Portugal’s trading empire; and In the 

Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 presented over 70 of the earliest 

biblical artifacts, many on display for the first time in the United States. 

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Report to the Regents—January 2008 3
On display at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden were 

Wolfgang Tillmans, featuring photographic works from one of the 

most significant artists to emerge in the 1990s; Collection In Context, 

highlighting sculptures from the Museum’s collection; and The 

Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture, showcasing the work 

of nine international contemporary artists.

African Vision, the first major exhibition of objects from the National 

Museum of African Art’s recently acquired Walt Disney–Tishman 

Collection, opened in February 2007 to an enthusiastic reception by 

the public. The Museum also displayed a critically acclaimed exhibition 

of works that incorporate script and graphic forms of communication, 

Inscribing Meaning: Writing + Graphic Systems in Africa.

The National Portrait Gallery had a busy schedule of exhibitions, 

including Great Britons: Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, 

London; Portraiture Now: Framing Memory, highlighting contemporary 

portraiture; Josephine Baker: Image and Icon, which presented the Jazz 

Age legend through vintage photographs, posters, drawings, and paintings; 

and Legacy: Spain and the United States in the Age of Independence, 

1763–1848, co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Latino Center.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum also offered several new 

exhibitions, including Saul Steinberg: Illuminations, featuring works by 

the artist whose drawings lit up the New Yorker for six decades; Joseph 

Cornell: Navigating the Imagination, the first major retrospective of 

Cornell’s work in more than 25 years; and Kindred Spirits: Asher B. 

Durand and the American Landscape, a retrospective of works by a 

celebrated leader of the Hudson River School.

In December 2006, Cooper-Hewitt launched its third triennial, Design 

Life Now, exploring the designs and ideas at the center of American 

culture from 2003 to 2006. Also appearing at Cooper-Hewitt were 

Design for the Other 90 Percent, which focused on products created 

for populations that have not traditionally been served by professional 

designers, and IDEO Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection, guestcurated by designers from one of today’s most innovative design firms.

The Renwick Gallery’s biennial contemporary 

craft series continued with From the Ground 

Up: Renwick Craft Invitational 2007, featuring 

works in glass, paper, and ceramic. 

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Warmly received by audiences, the National Museum of the American 

Indian’s Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native 

Women’s Dresses brought together dresses crafted by the Native peoples of 

the Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin regions. Also opening at the Museum 

was a small permanent exhibition, Return to a Native Place: Algonquian 

Peoples of the Chesapeake, which introduces visitors to the Native peoples of 

the Chesapeake Bay region.

4 Report to the Regents—January 2008
The inaugural exhibition of the new National Museum of African 

American History and Culture, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African 

American Portraits, co-sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery, opened 

in May 2007 at the International Center of Photography in New York and 

moved to the Portrait Gallery shortly after the end of the fiscal year.

Mexican Cycles: Festival Images by George O. Jackson de Llano opened 

at the National Museum of Natural History in September, featuring 

150 photographs of indigenous festivals. The Museum also displayed 

the Tiffany Diamond to celebrate the opening of a New Acquisitions 

Case in the Geology, Gems, and Minerals Hall; unveiled a Korea Gallery

that illustrates Korea’s culture through ceramics, paintings, textiles, and 

sculpture; and offered the beautiful images of Transitions: Photographs by 

Robert Creamer.

New displays at the National Air and Space Museum included Fly Now!,

an exhibition of colorful aeronautical posters; a Congressional Gold Medal 

bestowed upon the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first African American 

military aviators; and a display of rare Charles Lindbergh memorabilia. At 

the end of the fiscal year, the Museum was preparing for the grand opening 

of its thoroughly renovated and updated Air Transportation Gallery. 

The National Postal Museum opened three shows: Trailblazers and 

Trendsetters, showcasing original artwork for postage stamps; Out of the 

Mails, which examines how Revolutionary War–era colonists protested 

high postage rates by sending letters outside of the official post; and a new 

permanent exhibition, Postal Inspectors: The Silent Service.

The Smithsonian Latino Center’s Mexican Treasures of the Smithsonian, 

on display in the Ripley Center, featured objects from the Institution’s 

collections that ranged from pre-Columbian artifacts to contemporary 

works by Mexican and Mexican American artists.

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program’s Exit Saigon, Enter 

Little Saigon, commemorating the mass migration of Vietnamese to the 

United States after the fall of Saigon in 1979, had a run in the Ripley 

Center and then embarked on a three-year national tour.

To commemorate its 40th anniversary, the Anacostia 

Community Museum unveiled East of the River: 

Continuity and Change, which traces the development 

of the communities southeast of the Anacostia River 

from early history to today.

The George Gustav Heye Center of the National 

Museum of the American Indian inaugurated its new 

Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures with 

Beauty Surrounds Us, an exhibition of works from the 

Museum’s collection, . The Center offered two other 

new exhibitions: ItuKiagâtta! Inuit Sculpture from the 

Collection of the TD Bank Financial Group and Off the Map: Landscape in the Native Imagination.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 5
Collections Highlights

It was a good year for collections at the National Zoo: 

In April 2007, Zhou Wenzhong, Ambassador of the People’s 

Republic of China, announced that Tai Shan, the Zoo’s giant panda 

cub, will stay in Washington for two more years. Under the loan 

agreement between the Zoo and the government of China, Tai Shan 

was to be sent to a preserve in China after his second birthday in July 

2007. 

In July 2007, the Zoo saw its first giant anteater birth. Based on a 

public voting contest, the female animal was named Aurora. Visitors 

have enjoyed watching Aurora making the rounds of her enclosure, 

clinging to the back of her mother, Maripi.

The Zoo also saw its first-ever births of a wattled crane, hercules 

beetles, and a white-naped crane.

In December 2006, three African lions went on limited public 

exhibit at the Zoo. All came from a private reserve in South Africa. 

In December 2006, Sylvester Stallone donated several props from 

his Rocky film series to the National Museum of American History, 

including the boxing robe he wore in the original 1976 classic. 

The Freer and Sackler Galleries acquired the Gerhard Pulverer collection, the most important private 

collection of Japanese illustrated books outside Japan. The books date mainly from the Edo period 

(1615–1868) and Meiji era (1868–1912).

In fiscal year 2007, 10 Smithsonian museums and the Castle Collection loaned 184 artifacts to 14 

Smithsonian Affiliates, and over 100 more artifacts circulated to Affiliates via traveling exhibitions.

The National Collections Program hosted a day-long meeting of the Heritage Emergency National Task 

Force to discuss the lessons of Hurricane Katrina for collections preservation. The Task Force is cosponsored by Heritage Preservation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided grants to the National Museum of Natural History and 

the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to support the digitization of Latin American specimen 

collections. Under the guidance of John Kress and Rusty Russell, the National Museum of Natural 

History has applied these funds to the digitization of botanical-type specimens held by the Smithsonian 

that are used to by scientists to define species. 

Education, Event, and Program Highlights

The Encyclopedia of Life— an effort to document 

the Earth’s 1.8 million known species of insects, 

animals, plants, and other life forms, and make this 

information available on the Web—was launched 

in May 2007 by a partnership including the 

Smithsonian, the Field Museum, Harvard University, 

the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Biodiversity 

Heritage Library. This constantly growing resource consisting of text, photographs, videos, sounds, maps, 

and other data will be created and maintained by experts from around the globe.

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The National Museum of the American Indian held its National 

Powwow on August 10–12, 2007, at the Verizon Center in Washington, 

D.C., featuring Native arts, crafts, music, foods, and a dance 

competition in which performers from hundreds of tribal nations across 

the United States and Canada competed. 

Cooper-Hewitt’s first National Design Week (October 15–21, 2006), 

sponsored by Target, drew over 10,000 visitors to participate in events 

such as a teen design fair, a National Design Award winners’ panel, and 

an educator open house.

The Smithsonian Associates presented the program series Japan WOW! 

From Traditions to Trends, providing audiences of all ages opportunities 

to experience the history and cultural heritage of Japan through 

presentations by scholars, performers, and craftsmen.

On July 7, 2007, the National Museum of the American Indian hosted 

the Mother Earth event as part of the global Live Earth program. Among 

the speakers and performers were Native American leaders and scientists, 

country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, and Nobel Prize 

laureate Al Gore.

On January 29, 2007, Lonnie Bunch, Director of the National Museum 

of African American History and Culture, hosted a tribute to some of 

the guiding lights of the civil rights generation. Their conversations will 

form the core of a two-hour PBS documentary to air in February 2008.

The Heye Center hosted the 13th Native American Film and Video Festival, showcasing 125 new works 

from Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and the United States.

The Anacostia Community Museum marked its 40th anniversary with a gala celebration, Celebrating 

a History, Building a Future. The VIP-studded event paid tribute to the nation’s first Federally funded 

community museum dedicated to documenting, preserving, and interpreting African American history. 

On September 5, 2007, the Smithsonian Latino Center hosted its annual gala, ¡Smithsonian con Sabor! 

2007, celebrating the culture of Mexico, under the patronage of Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan. 

This year was the 10th anniversary of the Latino Center, a milestone marked by the publication of 

Hispanic Heritage at the Smithsonian: A Decade of Latino Initiatives.

The National Museum of Natural History’s Fossil Fest: Dinosaurs and 

More drew over 20,000 visitors of all ages to the Museum’s paleobiology 

exhibit halls to participate in 35 fossil-related activities.

Winners and finalists of Cooper-Hewitt’s 2007 National Design Awards

were feted at a White House luncheon hosted by First Lady Laura Bush.

The Udvar-Hazy Center’s Air and Scare Halloween family event was a 

great success, with nearly 20,000 in attendance.

The Smithsonian Folkways recording Invisible Face of the Beloved: 

Classical Music of the Tajiks and Uzbeks was nominated for a 2007 

Grammy award in the category of Best Traditional World Album.

The Freer and Sackler Galleries celebrated the centennial of Charles Lang Freer’s gift to the nation with a 

day-long celebration in October 2006, From Sunrise to Moonrise, attended by over 10,000 people.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 7
Washington’s Downtown Business Improvement District awarded the 2007 Momentum Award to the 

Donald W. Reynolds Center for its contribution to the downtown experience.

The Freer and Sackler Galleries’ Asiatica won first prize in the annual report category of the American 

Association of Museums’s Publications Design Competition. 

The Accessibility Program held its inaugural Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 

Celebration at the National Air and Space Museum, drawing 250 students with disabilities and 30 event 

partners, including foundations, corporations, government agencies, and community-based nonprofits.

The Hirshhorn launched ArtLab for Teens, a six-week program that invites teens to learn about art on 

view in the Hirshhorn’s galleries and to make their own artworks in response to it. 

National Outreach 

Smithsonian Affiliations offers museums, cultural institutions, and educational organizations across 

the country access to Smithsonian collections and resources. In fiscal year 2007, Affiliations signed 

agreements with nine new Affiliates, bringing the total to 156 Affiliates in 39 states, plus Washington 

D.C., Puerto Rico, and Panama. Affiliations’ National Conference in June attracted representatives from 

61 Affiliates; the Congressional Reception was attended by two senators and three U.S. representatives.

In fiscal year 2007, traveling exhibitions from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service 

(SITES) reached approximately 5.8 million visitors at 409 venues in all 50 states, plus the District of 

Columbia, Guam, and Canada. SITES also put 11 new shows on the road: 

The Way We Worked: Photographs from the National Archives opened at the 

Oregon Historical Society in Portland. 

Transitions: Photographs by Robert Creamer began its national tour at 

Lynchburg College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, after debuting at the National 

Museum of Natural History.

Jim Henson’s Fantastic World opened at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little 

Rock. 

Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration opened at the Statue of 

Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New 

York City.

Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon debuted at the Viet Art Center in Garden 

Grove, California, after a run in the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center. 

From Sea to Shining Sea: 200 Years of Charting America’s Coasts, a 

poster exhibition created in partnership with the National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration, was unveiled at 199 locations across the 

nation in June, after a preview in the Senate Russell Room.

New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music, the newest Museum 

on Main Street show, began its schedule of visits to rural towns throughout 

Idaho, Illinois, Mississippi, Washington, and Guam.

Earth from Space opened at the National Air and Space Museum.

A special version of 381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story was 

produced for annual display at AARP’s “Life@50+” convention.

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8 Report to the Regents—January 2008
Native Words, Native Warriors opened at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum in Arkansas City, 

Kansas.

More Than Words: Illustrated Letters from the Archives of American Art opened at the Norman 

Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. 

A number of Smithsonian museums also organized traveling exhibitions that began to tour the nation 

in fiscal year 2007, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Joseph Cornell: Navigating the 

Imagination; Cooper-Hewitt’s Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the 

American Landscape; and the trilingual (English/French/Spanish) Jamestown, Québec, Santa Fe: Three 

North American Beginnings, co-organized by the National Museum of American History.

The Smithsonian Associates (TSA) reached into 20 communities in 14 states with a variety of 

programs that brought Smithsonian experts to local schools, museums, universities, libraries, and civic 

organizations; over 17,000 people participated in TSA regional programs around the nation.

In collaboration with Muncie, Indiana–based Ball State University, the National Museum of the 

American Indian broadcast a live television program, Listening to Our Ancestors, from Juneau, Alaska. 

Over 20 million elementary and middle-school students were registered to view the program.

Web-based broadcasts produced by the Education Division of the National Air and Space Museum 

in collaboration with Fairfax County, Virginia, are now available to more than 28,000 schools and 11 

million students across the nation.

A five-year strategic plan for educational outreach was the main agenda item at the third meeting of the 

Smithsonian–Council of Chief State School Officers’s steering committee in February. The plan outlines 

measures to increase awareness of Smithsonian Web, print, and program offerings, and calls for closer 

collaboration with state educators in the development of Smithsonian educational resources.

The National Science Resources Center held two symposia in Washington, D.C. (for leaders from 

industry and state education leaders, respectively) and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico (for scientists and 

engineers), resulting in many expressions of interest in working with the Center to improve science 

education programs at the state and district levels. The Center also engaged approximately 400 educators 

in professional development opportunities.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies hosted 1,600 educators at its annual 

Smithsonian Teachers’ Night event, held at the National Postal Museum.

Focused, First-Class Scholarship

Science Units

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)

During fiscal year 2007, SAO researchers and their colleagues published 361 articles in peer-reviewed 

journals and another 789 papers in non-peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. SAO was 

referenced in 41 news articles in the New York Times and United Press International.

Three SAO-affiliated astronomers have been recognized for their innovative work by leading national 

magazines: 

David Charbonneau was named “Scientist of the Year” by Discover magazine for his contributions to 

our understanding of the worlds beyond the one we inhabit. 

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Report to the Regents—January 2008 9
Gàspàr Bakos was designated one of the year’s “Brilliant 

Ten” by Popular Science for creating the HATnet system 

to find planets orbiting distant stars. 

Lisa Kaltenegger was honored as one of Smithsonian 

magazine’s “Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences” 

for her work modeling the spectra of hypothetical planets 

orbiting distant stars.

Three major facilities in which SAO plays a lead role began 

collecting data this year: the Very Energetic Radiation 

Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), a ground-based 

gamma-ray observatory; the South Pole Telescope (SPT), for 

conducting large-area millimeter and sub-millimeter-wave 

sky surveys of faint, low contrast sources; and Hinode, a 

satellite launched to study the sun’s magnetic field.

Using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer 

Space Telescope, SAO researchers have been studying the 

atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system, finding 

evidence for a “hot spot” about twice as big as the great 

red spot on Jupiter and powerful winds blowing at 1000 

kilometers-per-second.

National Zoological Park (NZP)

In fiscal year 2007, NZP researchers had 140 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

In an article in Nature, Shannon LaDeau and Peter Marra of the Zoo’s Migratory Bird Center and A. 

Marm Kilpatrick reported on the impact of West Nile virus on 20 species of North American birds, 

demonstrating continental-scale declines in seven species. The impacted species include some of the most 

common and familiar: the American robin, American crow, blue jay, Eastern bluebird, house wren, tufted 

titmouse and black-capped chickadee. Although it had been known that the virus caused bird mortality, 

the massive scale of the impact had not been appreciated before now.

Inventories of tree species in North American forests show a decline in young oak trees due to changes 

in forest management, new pests and pathogens, and increased deer populations, according to a paper 

written by NZP’s William McShea and colleagues, and published in the Journal of Wildlife Management.

In a recent article in BioScience, the NZP team of Peter 

Leimgruber, John Seidensticker, and Melissa Songer—in 

collaboration with researchers from the World Wildlife 

Fund and Wildlife Conservation Society—presented the 

most comprehensive review of the status of wild tigers ever 

undertaken.

NZP’s Mary Hagedorn and Mike Henley traveled to Puerto 

Rico to collect and artificially inseminate endangered 

elkhorn coral. Behind the scenes at the Invertebrates 

House, NZP scientists are coaxing the development of a 

microscopic coral colony and hope to one day return it to 

its ocean habitat.

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The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) selected NZP’s Conservation and Research 

Center in Front Royal, Virginia, as one of 20 “core sites” for NEON’s ground-breaking environmental 

monitoring initiative, which will scan ecosystems across the nation over several decades.

National Museum of Natural History (NMNH)

NMNH researchers authored or co-authored 459 publications in fiscal year 2007 (as of August 30, 

2007), of which 119 (nearly a quarter) appeared in high-impact journals.

An international team of researchers led by NMNH’s 

Matt Tocheri published in Science a new study on Homo 

floresiensis (the “hobbit”), a three-foot-tall, 18,000-yearold hominin skeleton discovered recently in Indonesia. 

It offers striking confirmation that Homo floresiensis was 

indeed a species very different from modern humans, 

and that the remains date back to the earliest migrations 

of humans to Asia. 

A team including NMNH’s Tim McCoy and 

postdoctoral fellow Mariek Schmidt have been 

analyzing data sent back to Earth by a Mars 

Exploration Rover to evaluate the red planet’s geological 

past. The first report on this investigation was published in the May 4, 2007, issue of Science. 

Dolores Piperno and her colleagues reported on a study of lake deposits from the Central Balsas 

watershed in Mexico in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. The region is of great interest to 

archaeologists and environmental historians because molecular evidence indicates that maize and other 

important crops such as squashes were originally domesticated there.

Mexican cuisine, one of the world’s most popular, may also be one of its oldest. Plant remains from two 

caves in southern Mexico analyzed by NMNH’s Linda Perry and a colleague indicate that inhabitants of 

the region enjoyed a spicy fare 1,500 years ago that was similar to Mexican cuisine today. The study was 

published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)

STRI reported over 300 scientific publications for fiscal year 2007 (including four books) and hosted 

several international conferences and symposia, including the International Workshop on Crocodilian 

Genetics and Genomics; the Neotropical Lepidoptera Conference; the Global Marine Species Assessment 

Workshop; an International Collaborative Biodiversity Groups meeting; a meeting of the International 

Society of Invertebrate Reproduction and Development; and STRI’s Annual Science Symposium. 

Panama has designated the Las Perlas Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean as a special coastal-marine 

management zone. This designation was based on several studies conducted under the leadership of 

STRI’s Héctor Guzmán and James Mair from Heriot-Watt University of Scotland.

STRI acquired a 17.5 acre site in Gamboa for a new campus that will support advanced research on 

plant physiology and global climate change, as well as the role tropical forests play in providing ecosystem 

services, such as clean water and carbon storage, under changing environmental conditions. 

According to the first global assessment of forest fire control effectiveness in tropical parks, poverty and 

corruption correlate closely with a lack of fire protection in tropical forests. The survey, by STRI’s 

S. Joseph Wright and colleagues, was published in Ecological Applications.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 11
Rainforests are the world’s treasure houses of biodiversity, 

but all rainforests are not the same and may require different 

management strategies. That is a conclusion of a large-scale 

study of a lowland rainforest in New Guinea by researchers 

from STRI and the National Museum of Natural History, 

published in the journal Nature.

STRI received a grant from HSBC, one of the world’s largest 

banks, to establish the Smithsonian Institution Global Earth 

Observatories, which will monitor global climate change, 

providing scientific data on ecological, hydrological, soil, and 

meteorological processes via the Web to scientists, politicians, 

and other interested individuals.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)

SERC scientists published 78 journal articles, book chapters, 

and peer-reviewed reports, including one in Bioscience, one 

in Science, and two in Proceedings of the National Academy of 

Sciences. More that 350 scientific talks were presented under 

SERC auspices. SERC scientists submitted 78 extramural grant 

and contract proposals totaling $14.4 million and received 

awards on 58 proposals totaling $5.9 million. 

SERC scientists have been investigating and educating the public 

about a high-profile invasive species story. Chinese mitten crabs, 

first reported in the Chesapeake Bay in 2005 and never before 

seen in the coastal waters of the United States, now appear to be 

more widespread than initially thought.

In a special issue of the journal Wetlands, Thomas Jordan, Donald Weller, and Dennis Whigham 

of SERC and their colleagues reported a promising method of wetland assessment that will help 

environmental managers quickly take stock of an entire watershed. Tools for rapid watershed-scale 

assessment that rely on a few easily measurable factors have been previously unavailable.

Reducing atmospheric mercury emissions should cut mercury levels in lake fish within a few years, 

according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences co-authored by 

SERC’s Cynthia Gilmour. The potential effectiveness of emissions regulations intended to reduce 

mercury in fish, and the time frame in which they could be expected to work, were previously unknown.

In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, SERC researchers reported the results of a six-year 

experiment in which atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were doubled in a Florida scrub oak ecosystem. 

The findings suggest that elevated levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, may alter microbial 

communities in a way that turns soil from a carbon sink into a carbon source.

SERC’s Whitman Miller and Greg Ruiz received a contract from the Department of Homeland Security 

to support the National Ballast Information Clearinghouse, a collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard 

that seeks to quantify the volume of ballast water in ships arriving at U.S. ports. This information is 

critical to assessing the risk from invasive marine species in coastal waters. 

12 Report to the Regents—January 2008
Museum Conservation Institute (MCI)

Over the past fiscal year, MCI initiated or completed 110 projects with 19 Smithsonian museums and 

research centers, in the process producing 12 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 10 peer-reviewed book 

chapters, two edited books, and 53 professional presentations, and hosting a professional symposium on 

Mitigation of Pesticides on Museum Collections that focused on the accumulation of toxic substances 

on cultural and natural history artifacts.

MCI’s collaborative effort with the National Air and Space Museum and NASA to investigate the effects 

of lunar dust on spacesuit materials will be applied to the design of spacesuits for a planned 2020 return 

to the moon. 

MCI’s Jeff Speakman has published an edited volume entitled Archaeological Chemistry: Analytical 

Techniques and Archaeological Interpretation, which presents classic case studies of archaeological 

chemistry—an interdisciplinary field in which techniques from the chemical, biological, physical, 

geological, environmental, and statistical sciences are employed to expand archaeological inquiry. 

Other Scientific Research 

Igor Krupnik, Michael Lang, 

and Scott Miller are coordinating 

the Smithsonian’s involvement 

in the International Polar Year 

(IPY) initiative, organized by the 

International Council for Science 

and the World Meteorological 

Organization. The initiative aims to 

educate scientists and laymen alike 

about how environmental changes 

taking place in the remote poles affect 

people everywhere. 

Researchers at the National Air and Space Museum (including the Center for Earth and Planetary 

Studies, Space History Division, and other divisions) produced six books, 21 papers in peer-reviewed 

journals, and 32 significant conference presentations.

Art Units 

Cooper-Hewitt released six scholarly publications in fiscal year 2007, 

including catalogues for Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 

and Design for the Other 90%. In addition, the Museum’s book Feeding 

Desire was named a Best Book of the Year by the Association of Art Museum 

Curators.

The first of three planned volumes to accompany the Sackler’s Encompassing 

the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries was 

published in June 2007. It features illustrations of more than 250 exhibition 

objects and overview essays by leading experts. The Freer and Sackler 

Galleries also published the proceedings of a conference held at the Freer, 

Scientific Research on the Sculptural Arts of Asia.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 13
Smithsonian art museums published many other catalogues to accompany this year’s exhibitions, 

including In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 (Freer and Sackler Galleries); African Vision: 

The Walt Disney–Tishman African Art Collection (National Museum of African Art); An Impressionist 

Sensibility: The Halff Collection; From the Ground Up: Renwick Craft Invitational 2007; and Variations 

on America: Masterworks from American Art Forum Collections (the last three from the Smithsonian 

American Art Museum).

The Hirshhorn is collaborating with the Getty Conservation Institute, the National Gallery of Art, and 

the Tate Britain to study the preservation of Color Field paintings and works created on unprimed 

canvas. The results of this three-year project will be highlighted in a future exhibition.

Artists in Their Studios: Images from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, by the Archives’s Liza 

Kirwin and Joan Lord, was published by Collins Design. The Archives also co-hosted (with the City 

University of New York) a day-long symposium on the theme of this publication.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Faces of Discord: The Civil War Era at the National Portrait Gallery 

won second place in the Scholarly/Reference category at the Bookbinders’ Guild of New York, New York 

Book Show.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s scholarly journal, American Art, celebrated its 20th anniversary 

with commentaries on “New Themes, New Voices” in its Summer 2007 issue.

In conjunction with its exhibition In the Beginning, the Freer and Sackler Galleries hosted two symposia 

for biblical scholars.

History and Culture Units

More than 100 researchers from five nations worked to document 

cultural traditions along the Mekong River in preparation for the 2007 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The results will reside in the Smithsonian’s 

Rinzler Archives and in host-nation institutions.

The scholarly output of the National Museum of American History

included 34 print publications, eight electronic publications, nine media, 

seven scholarly accolades, and 74 scholarly presentations. Highlights 

included:

James B. Gardner’s invited lecture “Should the Parts Add Up to a 

Whole? Re-Visioning a National Museum” at the Conference on 

National Museums in a Globalized Society in Copenhagen; 

Paul Forman’s article “The Primacy of Science in Modernity, of 

Technology in Postmodernity, and of Ideology in the History of 

Technology” in History and Technology 23 (March/June 2007); 

the book Jamestown, Quebec and Santa Fe: Three North American 

Beginnings; and.

Michelle Delaney’s book Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: A 

Photographic History by Gertrude Käsebier, featuring more than 100 

original prints of Native American performers in Buffalo Bill Cody’s 

Wild West Show. The images are from a renowned set of 19th century 

photographic portraits in the Smithsonian’s collections. 

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14 Report to the Regents—January 2008
The Smithsonian Institution Archives’s Papers of Joseph Henry, volumes 1–11, won the 2007 Eugene S. 

Ferguson Prize for Outstanding Reference Works by the Society for the History of Technology. 

The National Museum of African American History and Culture started recording nearly 1,500 oral 

history interviews to document the life stories of African American families. The results of the project—a 

collaboration with StoryCorps and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—will be housed in the 

Museum’s archives and at the Library of Congress.

A symposium entitled The Spanish Contribution to the Independence of the United States: Between 

Reform and Revolution was held at the National Portrait Gallery in September 2007. It brought together 

scholars from Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The National Postal Museum hosted the first biennial Blount Symposium on Postal History on 

November 3–4, 2006. It offered philatelists, academic historians, and industry professionals an 

opportunity to discuss ongoing research into the history of postage and postal systems. 

The National Museum of the American Indian launched Mother Earth, a research initiative on 

indigenous cosmological traditions and natural resource management; published Identity by Design: 

Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women’s Dresses to accompany the exhibition of the same 

name; and published Do All Indians Live in Tipis?: Questions and Answers from the National Museum 

of the American Indian, a collection of authoritative answers to frequently asked questions about Native 

peoples and cultures. In addition, Museum scholars led a panel at the United Nations Indigenous Forum 

entitled The Birth of Human Rights. Overall, the Museum’s research unit was responsible for three books, 

five book chapters, 20 publications in print and electronic formats, 31 scholarly presentations, and four 

conference panel sessions or university seminars.

Management Excellence

Leadership Milestones

Fiscal year 2007 saw major shifts in senior management at the Smithsonian. Leaving were Secretary 

Lawrence Small, Deputy Secretary Sheila Burke, Under Secretary for Science David Evans, and 

Smithsonian Business Ventures CEO Gary Beer. Several museum directors also announced their 

resignations: Richard West at the National Museum of the American Indian, Marc Pachter at the 

National Portrait Gallery, and Olga Viso at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. 

A completely new leadership team was in place at the end of the fiscal year. 

Taking over as Acting Secretary was Cristián Samper. Samper joined the Smithsonian 

in 2001 as Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and became 

Director of the National Museum of Natural History in 2003.

Ira Rubinoff, formerly Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, was 

appointed Acting Under Secretary for Science. Rubinoff had overseen the Tropical 

Research Institute since 1974.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 15
Richard Kurin was named Acting Under Secretary for History and Culture. He joined 

the Smithsonian in 1976 and has served as Director of the Smithsonian Center for 

Folklife and Cultural Heritage and Director of Smithsonian National Programs. 

Alison McNally became Acting Under Secretary for Finance and Administration. She 

joined the Smithsonian in 2005 as senior executive officer in the Office of the Under 

Secretary for Science. Before this, she spent over 20 years at NASA.

Tom Ott, President of Smithsonian Publishing since October 2005, was named Acting 

CEO of Smithsonian Business Ventures. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Ott was 

general manager of the Home and Garden Division of Reader’s Digest North American 

Publishing Group.

Kevin Gover was named Director of the National Museum of the American Indian. 

Gover, a member of the Pawnee tribe, was a professor of law at Arizona State University, 

affiliate professor in the University’s American Indian Studies Program, and coexecutive director of the University’s American Indian Policy Institute. 

Eldredge Bermingham became Acting Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research 

Institute. Bermingham joined the Institute’s scientific staff in 1989 and has served as 

deputy director since 2003.

Paul Risser was named Acting Director of the National Museum of Natural History. 

His previous leadership positions include Chancellor of the Oklahoma State System 

of Higher Education, President of Oregon State University, and President of Miami 

University of Ohio. 

A. Sprightley Ryan was named Inspector General (IG) for the Smithsonian after 

serving as Acting IG since June 2006. She joined the IG’s office in October 2003 after 

a legal career that included positions with the Justice Department and the law firm of 

Beveridge and Diamond.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 16
Ann T. Speyer was named Chief Information Officer (CIO), after serving as Acting 

CIO since September 2006. Before joining the Smithsonian, she held technology 

leadership positions at the Department of Health and Human Services, Gelco 

Information Network, and PeopleSoft. 

Anne Van Camp became Director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. She 

comes to the Smithsonian after serving as Director of Member Programs for Research 

Libraries Group, Inc., since 1996.

John K. Lapiana was named Chief of Staff to the Regents, a new position designed 

to provide support and counsel to the Regents in their efforts to address critical 

governance and transition issues. He joined the Smithsonian in 1998 as Assistant 

General Counsel and was appointed Senior Program Officer in the Office of the 

Deputy Secretary in 2002. He previously worked with the U.S. Justice Department, 

clerked for a Federal appellate judge, and worked for a private D.C. law firm.

Governance Reform

In the spring of 2007, in response to congressional and public concern about executive compensation, 

transparency, and the handling of expenses by senior Smithsonian leadership, the Board of Regents 

initiated a comprehensive review of governance at the Smithsonian. This involved the creation of an 

internal Regents’ Governance Committee, chaired by Regent Patricia Stonesifer, and the commissioning 

of an Independent Review Committee, chaired by the Honorable Charles A. Bowsher, former 

Comptroller General of the United States, to provide an outside perspective. The two groups worked in 

parallel, and reached similar conclusions.

The Governance Committee’s report identified three major weaknesses in the Regents’ oversight: 

The Regents did not routinely demand or receive the information necessary for debate and wellreasoned decision-making. 

The Regents did not maintain critical relationships with key staff (in particular, the General Counsel, 

Chief Financial Officer, and Inspector General) in a position to identify important issues and 

concerns. 

The Regents lacked monitoring systems that would raise “red flags” about impending problems, and 

did not adequately question what they were told by Smithsonian managers. 

The Governance Committee’s report offered 25 recommendations that not only addressed immediate 

concerns, but offered a comprehensive plan for improved governance—a “Blueprint for Better Governance.” These recommendations, adopted by the Regents at their June 2007 meeting, are wide-ranging 

and address key governance issues. The major areas addressed are the following: 

Smithsonian policies, such as clarifying or revising policies on travel, use of trust funds for gifts, 

and direct access to the Regents for the General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer. Further, the 

three areas where Smithsonian Business Ventures is not subject to Smithsonian policy—financial, 

contracting, and travel—are under review to determine whether these exceptions are necessary.

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Report to the Regents—January 2008 17
Board of Regents’ function and role, such as clearly defining duties and expectations for Regents, 

creating a new Chair of the Board position, establishing an Office of Regents separate from the Office 

of the Secretary, increasing the minimum number of plenary Board meetings to four per year, and 

established new criteria for citizen Regent nominations.

Ethics and oversight, such as creating a “Statement of Values and Ethics,” establishing an ethics 

hotline for employees, implementing a new leave policy for senior staff, and setting new restrictions 

on outside board service for Smithsonian employees.

Public outreach and communications, such as including information about the Regents and their 

meetings on the public Smithsonian website and implementing a new Freedom of Information Act 

policy. 

Executive compensation, such as engaging an independent consultant to work on an appropriate 

compensation range for the next Secretary and developing a unified compensation structure for 

executive positions based on Federal executive pay scales wherever possible.

Facilities, such as establishing a permanent Regents’ Facilities Revitalization Committee and 

developing a comprehensive strategy to cover the shortfall of funds for facilities.

A “governance scorecard” issued January 2008, after the end of fiscal year 2007, reported that only one of 

the 25 areas addressed in the Governance Committee report showed a lack of action to date. Action steps 

were fully completed in 13 areas and were on target for completion in another nine areas. The remaining 

two areas showed a mix of completed steps, steps on target for completion, and steps yet to be taken.

Management Initiatives

In the fall of 2007, the Smithsonian 

inaugurated its first-ever Smithsonian 

Leadership Development Program, which 

seeks to cultivate a strong pan-Institutional 

leadership team. Eleven diverse and 

highly qualified personnel from across the 

Institution were selected to participate in 

a curriculum that includes assessment, 

coaching, mentoring, educational 

opportunities, and leadership briefings with 

top Smithsonian leaders, with the goal of understanding the opportunities and challenges facing the 

Institution in the future.

The National Zoo started a comprehensive process to identify facilities and infrastructure needs, as well 

as implementation strategies, as part of its 10-year strategic plan to be the world’s finest zoo by 2016. 

Museum Conservation Institute Director Robert Koestler and Office of Policy and Analysis Director 

Carole Neves received a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding to facilitate the training of 

conservators from the Republic of Georgia’s National Museum and Parliamentary Library.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is completing its new long-term master plan for 

facilities at the Rhode River, Maryland, site. It will go to the Regents for review and comment in early 

2008.

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18 Report to the Regents—January 2008
Information Technology

Digitization

As part of a pan-Institutional initiative to confront the challenges of digitization, a Spotlight on 

Digitization conference was held on October 30, 2006. This was followed on November 29, 2007, by 

a day-long workshop, Digitization @ SI: Challenges and Opportunities, in which 137 Smithsonian 

staff participated. In March 2007, the Digitization Steering Committee published its final report, with 

recommendations that emerged from these events. Based on these recommendations, the Office of the 

Chief Information Officer established a Central Digitization Office and launched a major initiative 

to create an Enterprise Digital Asset Network that gives scholars, scientists, and the general public the 

ability to locate and retrieve digital files stored across multiple systems within the Institution, without 

having to access each system individually.

Modernization

The Office of the Chief Information Officer continues to modernize information technology 

infrastructure, as well as financial and administrative systems. It replaced nearly 3000 computers and 

over 200 printers; installed 10,000 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones (completing the 

modernization of telephone systems in D.C. metro area Smithsonian units); and completed the transition 

to eGov’s e-Travel and a three-year migration from Novell to Microsoft Active Directory/Exchange. 

Major Construction, Renovation, and Facilities Projects

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture

$298 million total estimated project and program cost

At the end of the fiscal year, finishing touches were being put on 

construction of the privately funded courtyard enclosure, in preparation 

for its opening on November 18, 2007. The final design for the F Street 

stair reconstruction, exterior landscape, and perimeter security was 

approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital 

Planning Commission in October and November 2007, respectively. The 

stair will be privately funded, and the current five-year capital facilities 

plan includes a Federal request for the landscape and security in fiscal 

year 2013.

National Zoological Park

$104.6 million total estimated project and program cost for Asia Trail, phases I and II 

The second phase of Asia Trail, currently nearing the end of its design stage, will renovate the historic 

elephant house and expand the elephants’ habitat. The projected cost of this phase is $51.9 million 

($35.6 million Federal), with construction funding provided in fiscal years 2006 ($8 million), 2007 

($13 million), and 2008 ($9 million). A design-build contract (for both design and construction) was 

awarded in September 2006 and 98 percent design documents have been developed. The project has 

received final approval from both the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning 

Commission. Pending Smithsonian review and approval of the 100 percent documents and cost estimate, 

construction will begin in November 2007 and is scheduled for completion in April 2011.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 19
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center

Central core: $85.1 million total project cost

The National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, is currently closed to the 

public for its largest renovation in over 40 years, including relocation of the Star-Spangled Banner. 

Construction is estimated to be 35 percent complete. Demolition, hazardous materials abatement, 

and installation of the new mechanical system continue, and the central core roof has been opened for 

installation of the new skylight. The Federal contribution is $4 million for design and $41.9 million for 

public space renewal. The entire 

Federal appropriation and the Trust 

contribution for central core area 

construction have been received, 

as well as the Trust contribution 

for the Star-Spangled Banner 

exhibit. Reopening is scheduled for 

summer 2008. Construction has 

been slower than anticipated and 

remedial action is under review 

with the general contractor.

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Total project and program cost to be determined

Shortly after the end of fiscal year 2007, the Smithsonian selected Freelon Bond to conduct an 18-month 

pre-design study to inform the design of the Museum building. A draft Environmental Impact Statement 

(EIS) was received and was to be published in December 2007. The EIS/Section 106 Historic Resource 

Review documentation will be completed in May 2008.

National Museum of Natural History, Ocean Hall Exhibition

$46.1 million total estimated project and program cost

Following infrastructure renovation and restoration of the space that will house it, installation of the 

Ocean Hall exhibition began in April 2007. The total estimated cost of the Ocean Hall is $46.1 million: 

$21.7 million in Federal funding for fiscal years 2002 through 2006, and $24.4 million from grants 

provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other donors. Construction of 

the Federally funded portion is 97 percent complete. The exhibition will open in September 2008.

Museum Support Center of the National Museum of Natural History, Pod 5 

$42.7 million total estimated project cost

Construction of a fifth storage pod at the Museum Support Center (MSC) in Suitland, Maryland, began 

in October 2005 and was completed in April 2007. Pod 5 will house most of the alcohol collections 

currently in the Natural History Building and all collections from Pod 3 at MSC. It will eliminate a 

major safety concern by moving 365,000 gallons of alcohol off the Mall and into a facility with state-ofthe-art fire protection systems. Congress has provided $42.7 million through fiscal year 2007. Transfers of 

specimens to Pod 5 will be completed by December 2008.

Report to the Regents—January 2008 20
Arts and Industries Building Staff and Programs Relocation and Building Closure

$34.4 million total project cost (Federal), exclusive of tenant improvement allowance

All staff, programs, and furniture have been moved from the historic Arts and Industries building, 

and access is now limited to essential maintenance and security staff. A draft request for qualifications 

(RFQ) for a public-private partnership to restore the building has been reviewed by Congress and by 15 

preservation, civic, and regulatory organizations, and their concerns have been incorporated. Responses 

to the RFQ are expected in January 2008.

Victor Building Staff Relocation and Consolidation

$17.6 million total estimated project cost, exclusive of tenant improvement allowance and SBV funding

All moves from the Victor Building were completed in January 2007, and consolidation of units 

remaining in the building was completed in March 2007. A severely compressed design and construction 

schedule, late changes in scope, and the unexpectedly high cost of the small business contracting strategy 

contributed to a $3.9 million cost overrun. The Regents approved the use of an additional $2.5 million 

from the proceeds of the building’s sale, and $1.4 million in SBV funding, to cover this overrun.

Permanent Physical Security Barriers

$55 million total project cost

Perimeter security improvements at the National Air and Space Museum were finished in December 

2006. Construction of security barriers at the National Museum of Natural History is under way, and 

the first phase will be completed in spring 2008. The design for barriers at the National Museum of 

American History is complete, and the construction award is expected in early fiscal year 2008, pending 

an acceptable cost proposal. Funds to design barriers for the Castle and quadrangle area have been 

requested for the fiscal year 2009 budget.

Financial Strength

At fiscal year-end, the Institution reported a sound financial position. Private-sector giving exceeded 

budget by 44 percent, net income from Smithsonian Business Ventures was above expectations, and the 

Endowment outperformed benchmarks, reaching an all-time high market value of $999 million (18.5 

percent above fiscal year 2006).

Smithsonian Institution Year-End Endowment Value ($ in millions)

999

869 843 779

697

638

552

0

400

800

1200

FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07

Budg

FY07

Actual

Report to the Regents—January 2008 21
Financial Performance

Revenues for fiscal year 2007 exceeded budget by $73 million, due primarily to an unanticipated increase 

in gifts, an increase in interest earned on the payout from the Endowment and short-term investments, 

and an unbudgeted change in the manner in which proceeds from the sale of the Victor Building are 

recognized. These were partially offset by a decrease in Federal revenues due to a reduction in facilities 

funding—the result of a continuing resolution approved by the Congress for fiscal year 2007 that held 

overall funding for facilities to fiscal year 2006 levels.

Expenses for fiscal year 2007 exceeded budget by $24 million, due primarily to increased spending out of 

restricted Trust funds received and recognized as revenue in prior years.

The Endowment return reinvested exceeded budget by $91 million, and the Institution continued to 

diversify the Endowment’s assets to reduce risk and improve long-term expected returns. Total return on 

the Endowment over the last five years (15.1 percent) exceeded market return (14.9 percent).

A negative budget variance in the “Other” category reflects, among other things, the $3.5 million 

purchase by the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Gerhard Pulverer collection, which was not budgeted.

The overall increase in the Institution’s net worth of $221 million exceeded budget by $129 million.

Smithsonian Institution Financial Performance for Fiscal Year 2007 ($ in millions)

FY2007 Budget FY2007 Forecast Variance to 

Budget

Revenues 927 1000 73

Expenses 863 887 (24)

Endowment Return 

Reinvested

29 120 91

Other (1) (12) (11)

Growth in Net Assets 92 221 129

Financial Summary

The facilities capital appropriation for fiscal year 2007 was well-short of what would be required to make 

significant progress in addressing the Smithsonian’s maintenance backlog. A September 2007 report 

from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) supports the Smithsonian’s estimated requirement 

of $2.5 billion for facilities over the six-year period of fiscal years 2008-13—$1.9 billion for facilities 

revitalization and construction and $600 million for facilities maintenance.

Funding for Smithsonian Facilities Revitalization ($ in millions)

93

81

118

98

83

68

0

50

100

150

FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07

Report to the Regents—January 2008 22
The Institution’s interim leadership team seeks to balance resources between the need to revitalize 

physical infrastructure and the imperative to invest in scientific, educational, and collections programs. 

Securing adequate Federal funding and sustaining it over the long term remain enormous challenges. The 

GAO makes it clear that there is a compelling case for dramatic increases in facilities funding; likewise, 

adequate operations funding is needed to forestall further erosion in core programs. 

External Affairs

In fiscal year 2007, the Smithsonian generated $166 million in private support from individuals, 

foundations, and corporations ($175 million recognized for financial statement purposes, due to the 

accretion and discounting of pledges). This is 44 percent above the $115 million goal for the year. It is 

the third-largest amount raised during a single year. 

Thirty-five leadership gifts of $1 million or more were received, an increase of 11 gifts over fiscal year 

2006. In the final quarter of the year, newly received leadership gifts included the following: 

$2.4 million from the estate of Edward P. and Rebecca R. Henderson to benefit the meteorite and 

mineral collections at the National Museum of Natural History; 

$1 million from The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston to the Archives of American Art for 

recording oral histories and preservation of both electronic and paper documents; 

$1 million from Shell to the National Science Resources Center for work with school districts in New 

Orleans and Houston; and 

A combined cash and in-kind gift with a total value of more than $1 million from 3M to the 

National Museum of Natural History to support the Ocean Hall.

Leadership gifts have provided major support for 12 Smithsonian units, funding exhibitions, research, 

acquisitions, educational programs, construction, renovation, and technological infrastructure. Eleven of 

these gifts were directed to endowments.

Seventeen Smithsonian museums and research centers exceeded fund-raising goals in fiscal year 2007.

The National Museum of Natural History raised $42.7 million, more than six times its goal of 

$6.8 million.

The National Museum of American History brought in more than twice its goal of $7 million, with 

$16 million raised (including slightly less than $14 million for its Star-Spangled Banner Campaign).

Cooper-Hewitt raised $15.35 million, almost two-and-a-half times its goal of $6.36 million, with 

leadership gifts from four Board of Trustees members. 

The National Air and Space Museum realized 170 percent of its goal of $11.6 million, raising 

$19.7 million (including $6.1 million for phase two construction at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy 

Center).

The Contributing Membership raised $14.1 million in unrestricted funds, a slight increase over last 

year’s $13.9 million and a good result for a year in which leadership transitions affected acquisitions and 

lower tier memberships. Membership remained stable at about last year’s level of more than 84,000. The 

James Smithson Society, the Smithsonian’s membership program for individuals contributing $2,000 

to $10,000 in annual dues, raised $1.53 million. Of the funds raised by the Contributing Membership, 

$219,000 were generated through Internet transactions. The monthly e-newsletter Smithsonian Focus

launched in June 2006, increased its subscribers from 12,000 to 65,000. 

Smithsonian National Board members gave $13.7 million in new gifts and payments on pledges. The 

National Board’s annual giving program, which raises unrestricted funds, raised $1.1 million, surpassing 

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Report to the Regents—January 2008 23
its $1 million goal and making this the most successful annual giving year to-date for the Board. For the 

third consecutive year, the Board had 100 percent participation.

Smithsonian Business Ventures (SBV) 

SBV ended the fiscal year with a net gain of $26.6 million on revenues of 

$166.9 million—5.2 percent ($1.3 million) over budget and an increase 

of 11.3 percent ($2.7 million) over last year, despite an $8 million revenue 

decline from the closure of the National Museum of American History 

and its retail operations. Improved financial results were largely driven by 

new business lines for Smithsonian Networks and Smithsonian Student 

Travel, stronger-than-expected museum visitation, Museum Retail 

operating expense controls, and extra issues of Smithsonian and Air & Space 

magazines.

Smithsonian Networks successfully launched its first television service, 

Smithsonian Channel, on the satellite distributor DirecTV, providing 

unique programs in stunning high-definition quality. 

The Publishing Group aggressively moved into digital media with the 

re-launch of smithsonian.com and the launch of goSmithsonian.com, 

a companion to the printed guide.

Special issues were published by Smithsonian and Air & Space

magazines, focusing on “37 Under 36” (America’s top young innovators 

in the arts and sciences) and “10 New Ways to Fly,” respectively. 

Paul Theroux’s Smithsonian magazine essay “Living with Geese” 

(December 2006) was nominated for a National Magazine Award, the 

industry’s highest honor, in the essay category.

Smithsonian Books published numerous well-received titles, including 

Smithsonian Treasures of American History, which is already in its second 

printing; Let Your Motto Be Resistance, the first book from the National 

Museum of African American History and Culture, which is close to 

selling out in hardcover; and Do All Indians Live in Tipis? from the 

National Museum of the American Indian.

In October, the Licensing Group debuted the Smithsonian Collection 

for the Home, its collection of furniture, lighting, and home decorative 

products based on Smithsonian collections. The Licensing Group plans 

to expand this into other categories in the near future.

Retail Operations thrived at the National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of Natural 

History, where sales increased from fiscal year 2006 levels by more than 15 percent. Smithsonian 

Stores in the Dulles and Newark Airports increased sales by 25 percent and 19 percent, respectively, 

and the store in Reagan National Airport is the highest-selling specialty retail store in that airport.

SBV launched an innovative multi-channel marketing alliance with American Express through which 

Smithsonian Journeys has become a preferred provider for American Express Travel Related Services 

and Smithsonian products are offered through the American Express Membership Rewards program. 

Cardmembers can redeem points for discount vouchers to travel with Smithsonian Journeys, 

subscribe to Smithsonian magazine, or shop at SmithsonianStore.com.

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Report to the Regents—January 2008 24