COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

APRIL 2020
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ACQUIRES PREMIER BUTTERFLY COLLECTION

The Kenneth Philip Collection of 

Arctic Lepidoptera arrived at the 

National Museum of Natural 

History (“NMNH”) in autumn 

2019, including 43,200 pinned 

butterflies and moths from Alaska, 

Siberia, and other areas. Another 

5,000 pinned specimens were 

shared with the Museum of the 

North, Fairbanks, Alaska for use by 

scientists at the University of 

Alaska. This collection is the 

premier, comprehensive collection of Alaskan Lepidoptera. The Siberian collections were shared with 

institutions in Siberia and are otherwise barely represented in other museums. Most of the collections were 

made between 1970 and 2000 and resulted from a collaboration between the late astrophysicist/lepidopterist 

Ken Philip and the National Museum of Natural History Department of Entomology. Besides the evident 

scientific value of this collection, and that as the national museum NMNH has a mandate for the collections to 

be representative of the nation, the primary significance of the Philip Collection is the vast number of 

historical records of where and when species existed before and during the advent of global warming.
“STEMMING THE TIDE” SYMPOSIUM, A RESOUNDING CALL TO ACTION FOR CULTURAL 

HERITAGE PROFESSIONALS

On March 5 and 6, the Smithsonian American Art Museum

(“SAAM”) and the Smithsonian’s National Collections Program

(“NCP”) co-organized an informative, inspirational, and actionoriented two-day symposium entitled Stemming the Tide: 

Global Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Through 

Climate Change at the Smithsonian. The event was part of the 

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism programming in 2020 in 

celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.

The objective of the symposium was to empower cultural 

heritage authorities, managers, and advocates to pursue more 

ambitious engagement and collaborative approaches to the 

climate crisis. With 250 registrants and 1,100 live web stream viewers representing 33 states and 25 countries 

ranging from the United Kingdom, Spain, and Greece to Canada, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago, the 

conference examined the impact of climate change on cultural heritage and communities worldwide, 

discussed the responsibilities of stewards of cultural heritage in fostering collaborative solutions, addressed 

urgent questions of equity and inclusion, and identified strategies that leverage cultural heritage for climate 

action.

On March 5, keynote and subject matter speakers presented information about what needs to be done to 

adapt to and combat climate change including innovative actions their organizations are currently 

implementing. The second day included dynamic breakout sessions—hosted at six Smithsonian museums and 

research centers—that explored six categories of cultural heritage identified by the International Council on 

Monuments and Sites (“ICOMOS”): Museums and Collections, Archaeological Sites, Built Heritage, Cultural 

Landscapes and Historic Urban Landscapes, Cultural Communities, and Intangible Cultural Heritage. The 

symposium concluded with a public program, Heritage at Risk: A Dialogue on the Effects of Climate Change, 

attended by more than 125 people. Moderated by the President of the International Institute of Conservation 

of Historic and Artistic Works, the program panel of six specialists in the field of cultural heritage included the 

Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the National Museum of American History Anthea Hartig. 

The symposium’s discussions will provide a framework from which the Smithsonian may consider future 

national and international programming and new Institutional initiatives toward greater sustainability of 

cultural heritage and the natural environment. The symposium proceedings will be published by the 

Smithsonian Scholarly Press by October.

Stemming the Tide: Global Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Through Climate Change was hosted by 

the Smithsonian American Art Museum and made possible with support from the Smithsonian's National 

Collections Program, and the Provost’s One Smithsonian Symposia award.
GUIDANCE IMAGES FOR THE PERSON WITH HEADSCARF EMOJI FROM THE 

COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM COLLECTION

New to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s (“CHSDM”)

growing digital collection, the guidance images for the Person With 

Headscarf Emoji were proposed to Unicode Consortium in 2016 and 

approved that year. The design of the guidance images depict one of three 

iterations for the proposed emoji: the bust of a woman with black clothing 

and a beige headscarf; a beige headscarf in a ghost state with phantom 

wearer; and a beige scarf as a loose item of clothing. The three pictographs 

were designed by Aphelandra Messer for a Unicode Consortium proposal 

initiated by Rayouf Alhumedhi, in collaboration with Jennifer 8. Lee and 

Alexis Ohanian. 

Emoji are picture-based characters used in digital communications. Since 

their origins in Japan in 1997, emoji have come to be recognized as a visual 

communication system, offering the ability to add emotional nuance to 

digital text and providing universal ways to express information. In 2007 

and 2009, Google and Apple petitioned Unicode Consortium, the global 

regulator that maintains text standards across digital devices, to accept 

emoji as a language system for standardization. By 2010, Unicode recognized emoji as a communication 

system and Apple introduced the first emoji keyboard in 2011. 

Today, each pictograph added to the emoji keyboard is overseen by 

Unicode Consortium. Anyone can propose a new emoji. The formal 

proposals are submitted to the Consortium for review by the Emoji 

Subcommittee and can take up to two years to be approved. The proposal 

must include guidance images, such as those proposed here for 

acquisition, along with technical information about the proposed emoji, 

including expected usage level, search, image distinctiveness, suitability, 

compatibility within the emoji system, and more. Once an emoji is 

approved by Unicode, the guidance image is shared with vendors 

(including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Twitter, Facebook, and 

more) to render the emoji based on their device, platform, aesthetics, and 

operating standards. 

The Person With Headscarf Emoji was initiated by Rayouf Alhumedhi, at 

the time a 15-year-old Muslim student living in Berlin, Germany. In a group 

chat with friends, each of Alhumedhi’s friends used an emoji to represent themselves, but there wasn’t an 

emoji to represent Alhumedhi, who is Muslim and wears a hijab. (She previously used the Man With Turban 

Emoji and Woman Emoji, connected by Left-Right Arrow Emoji.) This led her to draft a proposal that caught 

the attention of Jennifer 8. Lee, vice-chair of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee and co-founder of Emojination, 

a group that seeks to make emoji more inclusive and representative. Lee collaborated with Alhumedhi to 

strengthen the proposal and commissioned Messer to design the guidance images.

In Messer’s design, she rendered the Person With Headscarf guidance images as flat, vector-based works 

following the Google emoji scheme, rather than in the shaded, semi-realistic scheme common in Apple emoji. 

Emoji appear on a white background on emoji keyboards; in text conversations they often appear on gray or 

blue backgrounds, thus Messer avoided using these colors in her design. The proportions of emoji “keys” are a 

square, with the glyphs needing to take up as much room as possible in that square so they are distinguishable 

Guidance images, Person 

With Headscarf Emoji, 2016; 

Concept by Rayouf 

Alhumedhi (Saudi, born 

2001), designed by 

Aphelandra Messer 

(American, born 1993), with 

Jennifer 8. Lee (American, 

born 1976), Emojination (San 

Francisco, California, USA, 

founded 2015), and Alexis 

Ohanian (American, born 

1983); SVG and PNG files; 

Gift of Emojination; 2020-1-1
at incredibly small scale on emoji keyboards. Messer also uses color to make a proposed guidance image stand 

out to Unicode reviewers. She started with a woman wearing a purple hijab, but after review by Alhumedhi 

and Lee, they changed the hijab to a neutral beige color to be more applicable across cultures. Messer also 

created clothing options in case Unicode preferred to approve the hijab as a piece of clothing. 

As a language system, there are a few things that emoji do well. They effectively represent nouns that are 

objects, verbs that are active, and emotional states, but adjectives are difficult in emoji. Significantly, there are 

no glyphs for “I” or “you.” This is likely a driver for users to want emoji that represent them on the keyboard. 

The Person With Headscarf Emoji guidance images represent a key step towards diversifying the people and 

cultures available on the emoji keyboard, signifying emoji’s global spectrum of users.
“ZEN MOTORCYCLE” TAKES FINAL JOURNEY IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

The National Museum of American History (“NMAH”) is now 

the new home of American author Robert M. Pirsig’s 1966 

Honda Super Hawk motorcycle featured in his book, Zen and the 

Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values. Pirsig’s 

book, originally published by William Morrow in 1974, has sold 

more than 5 million copies and has been translated into 27 

languages. The inspiration for the book stemmed from a monthlong summer motorcycle road trip Pirsig (1928–2017) took with 

his 11-year-old son Chris in 1968, which became a personal and 

philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of life.

As they rode along the 5,700 miles from the Twin Cities of 

Minnesota to San Francisco and back, Pirsig became better acquainted with his son and himself. The book 

kick-started an international cultural movement to rethink how people interact with technology and find 

balance in life. The object is the most famous forgotten motorcycle in American history and literature, which 

was owned by a trailblazer in motorcycle touring and documenting its celebration of freedom and the open 

road. In addition to presenting his philosophical ideas, Zen was a testament to Pirsig’s patience and 

perseverance, as the autobiographical novel was rejected by 121 publishers before being picked up by 

Morrow. Since then, the text has formed the core of college courses, and dedicated fans have retraced the 

novel’s cross-country trip.

Stored for decades in the family’s New England garage and recently mechanically restored, the motorcycle 

was a gift from Pirsig’s widow, Wendy K. Pirsig. In addition to the motorcycle, the donation included Pirsig’s 

leather jacket, maps, shop manual and other gear from the 1968 ride, together with a manuscript copy and 

signed first edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Pirsig’s favorite toolboxes, with tools for 

maintaining his bike and other vehicles as well as tools he made himself, were also part of the donation.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY RECEIVES SAVES AMERICA’S TREASURES GRANT

The National Museum of American History (“NMAH”) received a $488,000 

grant from the Department of Interior, National Park Service (“NPS”) through 

the Save America’s Treasures (“SAT”) grant program, for conserving sound 

recordings from Alexander Graham Bell’s Washington, D.C., Volta Laboratory. 

Dating from 1881 to 1892, they are among the earliest recordings ever made.

This is one of 41 grants awarded in fall 2019, totaling $12.6 million, given in 

collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment 

for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. With 

Save America’s Treasures funds, organizations and agencies conserve 

significant U.S. cultural and historic treasures that illustrate, interpret, and are 

associated with the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to the 

nation’s history and culture. The Alexander Graham Bell Foundation in 

Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada, has pledged matching funds.

The NMAH, through an ongoing collaborative project with the Library of 

Congress and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (“Berkeley Lab”), has recovered sound from 20 

experimental Volta Laboratory recordings in 2011, 2013, and 2019, including the only documented recording 

of Bell’s voice. The earlier conservation work received funding from the Grammy Foundation, Smithsonian 

Women’s Committee, and the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies program. The SAT grant will permit the 

continuation of this project, enabling the team to work with the museum’s collection of nearly 300 more 

experimental recordings from Bell’s laboratory and with additional Bell recordings in the collections at Parks 

Canada’s Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck. This project will revive sounds from 

recordings in two Bell collections and reunite the collections digitally, thereby enhancing what we know about 

the earliest days of experiments with recorded sound.
CENTER FOR FOLKLIFE AND CULTURAL HERITAGE RECEIVES $1.5 MILLION PHILANTHROPIC GIFT

The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (“CFCH”) 

has recently received $1.5 million from Ferring 

Pharmaceuticals for its Cultural Sustainability Program. 

Ferring’s latest contribution, and the CFCH’s largest gift 

to date, provides the resources necessary to build longterm infrastructure for the Center’s Cultural 

Sustainability Program.

For more than 50 years, CFCH has worked with 

communities across the United States and around the 

world to document, preserve, and present their cultural 

heritage to diverse audiences. Through this work, The 

Center has seen a common and alarming thread: a significant and accelerating decline in cultural 

vitality. Globalization connects people in new ways, but it is also a major threat to the world’s cultural 

diversity. Social and economic forces pressure traditional cultures to assimilate. Urbanization, political 

oppression, war, genocide, climate change, and mass production of culture wreak havoc on Indigenous 

communities and their individual members’ sense of identity and belonging. What is at stake is enormous: the 

extinction of Indigenous languages, art and craft, traditions, and economic self-sufficiency.

The Cultural Sustainability Program works with communities to design and implement strategies 

to sustain their languages and cultural heritage. Community needs drive the work, which uses the CFCH’s

knowledge, experience and networks to find solutions based on specific social, economic, and cultural 

contexts. The program seeks to understand and mitigate threats to cultural sustainability; scale the CFCH’s

impact through partnerships, convenings and thought leadership; and transform public understanding about 

cultural diversity. This gift will allow the Center to scale the impact of their Cultural Sustainability Program.

As part of the program, CFCH recently developed a “Shared Stewardship of Collections” policy for sound 

recordings, photographs, and moving images. With these guidelines, which were reviewed by Indigenous and 

non-Indigenous colleagues on three continents, the Center aims to foster sustained dialogue with source 

communities, promote greater engagement, and shared responsibility for the respectful management of the 

intangible cultural heritage in its care, and ensure culturally appropriate collections care, interpretation, 

display, and public access of these collections.