OU SHAED FUTUE:

COLLECTIONSHIGHLIGHTS

APIL 2023

The following stories highlight Smithsonian collections that help to shape and champion our 

strategic pan-Institutional initiatives, including Life on a Sustainable Planet. These highlights 

show how the Smithsonian is focused on diverse representation within the collections and also 

showcases how both collections and research come together in an attempt to educate and 

mitigate the impacts of climate change and other types of human impacts on nature.
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM MAKES HISTORIC ACQUISITION OF ASIAN AMERICAN ART

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is at the 

forefront of a movement by museums in the United States 

to focus on contributions by Asian American artists and 

correct the narrative that kept them in the margins for 

decades. Melissa Ho, SAAM’s curator of twentieth-century 

art, noted recently in the New York Times that this project 

aims to “complicate and enrich the narrative of American 

art,” adding that “recognizing the contributions of Asian 

American artists is a critical part of that.”

SAAM has embarked on an Asian American art initiative to 

expand and enrich the representation of Asian American 

experiences, perspectives, and artistic accomplishments in 

the museum’s collection and public displays. The museum 

seeks to preserve historic works of Asian American art and 

support new scholarship about Asian American artists and 

their communities. Efforts are focusing on the research 

and documentation of SAAM’s existing collection of works 

by artists of Asian descent and the pursuit of new acquisitions that reflect the diversity and historical depth of 

Asian America. Major works by Tiffany Chung, Tseng Kwong Chi, Christine Sun Kim, Jiha Moon, Tuan Andrew 

Nguyen, Chiura Obata, and Wanxin Zhang were recently added to the museum’s collection.

The collecting activities of the initiative build on the ongoing success of a partnership between SAAM and the 

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) established in 2020, in which each unit commits expertise 

and funds towards acquiring art by Asian American and Pacific Islander artists. Delayed by the pandemic, the 

first art purchases made possible through this partnership were realized in 2022, with the acquisition of 

significant works by Chitra Ganesh, Kapulani Landgraf (the first Native Hawai‘ian artist represented in SAAM’s 

collection), and Stephanie Syjuco. Through APAC, gifts of art by renowned Hawai‘i-based modernists Satoru 

Abe and Tadashi Sato also entered SAAM’s collection, courtesy of the Daniel K. Inouye Institute.

An important aim of SAAM’s initiative is to recuperate and reintroduce the achievements of Asian American 

artists who lived during the Exclusion Era (1882-1965), a period when numerous social and legal constraints 

were placed on people of Asian descent in the U.S. In 2023, SAAM acquired paintings by two such trailblazing 

Japanese American artists, Hisako Hibi and Matsusaburo George Hibi. The works were purchased from the 

artists’ families, with funds in part from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, now a part of 

the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. 

The Hibis were both part of a vibrant and diverse art scene that thrived in San Francisco between the World 

Wars. Immigrants from Japan, they met in the late 1920s when Hisako was studying oil painting at the 

California School of Fine Arts. Matsusaburo was already an established figure, having played a central role in 

the groundbreaking East West Art Society, an association that brought together artists and art traditions from 

Europe and Asia. Hisako was one of only three Japanese American women to have work included in the 

Golden Gate International Exposition (1939–40).

Hisako Hibi, Floating Clouds, 1944, oil on canvas, Smithsonian 

American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the 

American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, 

administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History 

Initiative, 2023.6.1
The United States’ entry into the Second World War and the 1942 

issuing of Executive Order 9066 upended the Hibis’ lives. Forced 

from their home, the Hibi family spent more than three years in 

government detention, mostly at the Topaz Relocation Camp in 

Utah. The Hibis created remarkable works of art while 

incarcerated at Topaz, including two paintings that went on public 

view at SAAM in January 2023 as part of the special exhibition 

Artist to Artist. Both works testify to the power of art to confront 

adversity. Coyotes Came out of the Desert (1945) by Matsusaburo 

masterfully conveys an atmosphere of dread and unease, 

emotions surely felt by the inmates as they lived under 

surveillance and grappled with the loss of their freedoms. 

Floating Clouds (1944) by Hisako looks beyond the oppressive 

environment of the camp towards the boundless sky as an 

emblem of freedom and mental escape.

BIRD HOUSE REOPENS AT THE NATIONAL ZOO

The National Zoo and Conservation Biology 

Institute (NZCBI) invites visitors to soar into its 

renovated Bird House that reopened on March 13. 

The innovative exhibit explores the fascinating world 

of migratory songbirds, waterfowl, and shorebirds 

native to North, Central, and South American 

ecosystems. Migratory birds are critical in pest 

control, pollination, and seed dispersal for trees, 

plants, and crops. Bilingual panels—in English and 

Spanish—tell the story of how migratory birds 

connect communities and contribute to healthy 

ecosystems across the Americas. 

As Zoo visitors “migrate” through the shores of the 

Delaware Bay, a lush prairie pothole, and a tropical 

Bird Friendly coffee farm, free-flighted birds stride, 

paddle, tweet, and fly all around them. These multisensory, immersive aviaries mimic natural ecosystems—places that are of critical importance to the annual life 

cycles of migratory birds and that boost human well-being. From this exhibit, visitors can learn seven simple 

actions to live bird-friendly to protect native species in their own backyards. 

“Now more than ever, raising awareness about the plight of migratory birds is key to their survival,” said Brandie 

Smith, Ph.D., John and Adrienne Mars Director, NZCBI. “As visitors walk through our spectacular aviaries and 

see these beautiful birds up close, I want them to appreciate the awe-inspiring journeys these animals make 

every year and walk away with the desire and knowledge to protect birds and their shrinking habitats.” 

Matsusaburo George Hibi, Coyotes Came Out of the 

Desert, 1945, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American 

Art Museum, Museum purchase through the 

Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 2023.5 

A black-and-white warbler sits in a tree in the Bird Friendly Coffee Farm 

aviary. Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute 

visitors will be able to see these migratory birds up close at the 

renovated Bird House
Upon reopening, more than 170 individual birds representing 56 species will be on view in the new Bird House 

and another 16 species in the surrounding outdoor exhibits on the bird plateau. “Rather than wait and see 

what fate holds for migratory birds, our team is proactively studying their husbandry, nutritional, and 

reproductive needs while they’re still common,” said Sara Hallager, curator of the Bird House. “Already, our 

team has had great success breeding several migratory species that breed in the United States, including 

indigo buntings, rose-breasted grosbeaks, Swainson’s thrush, and wood thrush. As populations decline 

drastically in the wild, the possibility of bringing them into human care to save their species becomes more 

real. We can’t wait until numbers have dwindled to a few hundred or dozen individuals.”

The Bird House closed for renovation on January 2, 2017. In keeping with NZCBI’s conservation mission, the 

renovated exhibit was built within the walls of the Zoo’s historic 1928 Bird House. More than 80% of the 

existing masonry walls were retained with the intention of reducing the building’s carbon footprint. The 

exhibit was designed to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards. LEED 

certification will take place about six months after the exhibit opens. The building’s glass contains a ceramic 

frit pattern of horizontal lines, making it more visible to birds in an effort to prevent window collisions. The 

public opening of the Bird House on March 13 marks the completion of this six-year, $69 million project.

MAPPING THE WORLD’S NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS

Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the National 

Museum of Natural History (NMHNH), and Ian 

F. P. Owens (formerly Deputy Director of NMNH 

and now the Executive Director of the Cornell 

Laboratory of Ornithology) co-led a group of 156 

museum directors and scientists to map the 

total collections from 73 of the world’s largest 

natural history museums in 28 countries. This is 

the first step of an ambitious effort to inventory 

global holdings that can help scientists and 

decision-makers find solutions to urgent, wideranging issues such as climate change, food 

insecurity, human health, pandemic

preparedness, and wildlife conservation. 

The survey confirmed an aggregate collection of more than 1.1 billion objects, managed by more than 4,500 

science staff and nearly 4,000 volunteers. The findings were in Science magazine on March 24 in the paper “A 

Global Approach for Natural History Museum Collections.” “We wanted to find a fast way to estimate the size 

and composition of the global collection so that we could begin to build a collective strategy for the future,” 

said Johnson.
FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN’S INAUGURAL ENSEMBLES ADDED TO HISTORIC FIRST LADIES COLLECTION

First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden formally 

presented the dress and coat ensembles she wore to 

both the 2021 presidential inauguration day and 

evening celebrations to the Smithsonian’s First Ladies 

Collection during a January ceremony at the National 

Museum of American History. Dr. Biden’s 

presentation of both sets of inaugural attire is a 

historic first for the exhibit. The two ensembles were 

immediately displayed at the center of the museum’s 

popular “The First Ladies” exhibition.

Dr. Biden’s daytime inaugural ensemble was an 

ocean blue wool tapered tweed dress, hand embellished with pearls and crystals in a delicate floral pattern, 

with its matching overcoat accented by a dark blue velvet collar and cuffs, designed by Alexandra O’Neill, 

Founder and Designer of Markarian. 

Dr. Biden also presented her evening inaugural attire, designed by Gabriela Hearst, Founder and Creative 

Director of Gabriela Hearst, which included an ivory silk wool cady dress and an ivory double-breasted 

cashmere coat, with embroidery reflecting the federal flowers from every state and territory of the U.S. as a 

symbol of unity. Also, marking the historic nature of the inauguration, conducted in the midst of the global 

COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Biden’s matching face mask for each ensemble will be on display for the collection. 

The COVID-19 pandemic precautions precluded an official inaugural ball for the first couple, who celebrated 

with a nationally televised inaugural concert and firework display. 

Dr. Biden joined the ranks of other First Ladies who also had inaugurations that did not feature balls due to 

war, the Depression or other reasons, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Edith Wilson, Florence Harding, Lou 

Hoover, Grace Coolidge, and Betty Ford.

Both ensembles are gifts of the individual designers to the National Museum of American History. 
BREEDING COLLECTIONS TO SAVE SPECIES: SIBERIAN TIGER BABIES

The mighty Amur tiger once 

prowled vast areas of northeast 

Asia, including eastern Russia, 

the Korean peninsula, and parts 

of China and Mongolia. Now,

there are more Amur tigers 

living in captivity in zoos around 

the world than in the wild. Also 

known as the Siberian tiger, it’s 

the largest cat on the planet.

The National Zoo and 

Conservation Biology Institute

(NZCBI) is home to two Amur 

tigers, Nikita and Metis. In early 

March, NZCBI staff performed 

an artificial insemination on the 

female tiger, Nikita, using sperm 

collected from Metis. It was an 

attempt to boost the tiger 

population, passing on the two 

endangered tigers’ genes to the 

next generation.

“These animals are rapidly on the decline, and we need to intervene as humans because a lot of the problems 

that they’re facing are human-caused problems,” says Craig Saffoe, curator of great cats at the NZCBI. Out of 

the nine tiger subspecies that once existed in the wild, three have already gone extinct. Amur tigers are 

endangered—there are only about 360 in the wild—and are threatened by poaching and habitat destruction 

from farms and urban sprawl.

Zoos help tigers and other endangered species survive by ensuring a sustainable, genetically diverse captive 

population of the animals—a sort of insurance policy in case wild populations are wiped out. This is called 

a species survival plan, and it’s coordinated with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

“We have studied animal reproduction for many decades, and we have developed all those techniques of 

assisted reproductive technologies that are really helping us to produce animals when they cannot breed 

naturally,” said Pierre Comizzoli, a reproductive physiologist who led a team of scientists performing the 

insemination.

“Our fingers are crossed,” says Saffoe. “This is kind of like, for any humans out there who have had anxious 

moments waiting to figure out if you’ve got a little one coming—it’s kind of the same thing, where we’re the 

anxious parents in this case.”

Zoo veterinary staff use an ultrasound machine on Nikita, a female Amur tiger, under anesthesia 

for an artificial insemination procedure.