OU SHAED FUTUE:

COLLECTIONS HIGHLIGHTS

APIL 2022

The following stories highlight recent additions to the Smithsonian collections that have helped 

to shape and champion our strategic pan-Institutional initiatives including Life on a Sustainable 

Planet and Solving the Mysteries of the Universe. These highlights also show the collaborative 

nature of the Institution’s research collections, not only across Smithsonian units but in 

connection with leading research, art, and cultural organizations as well as government partners.
WOOD-BORING BEETLE COLLECTION: NOT SO BORING AFTER ALL

Researchers within the Agricultural 

Research Service's (“ARS”) Systematic 

Entomology Laboratory (“SEL”) are 

currently preparing for more intense 

study of beetles in the genus Agrilus, 

thanks to their recent acquisition of 

the Eduard Jendek Collection. The 

collection was developed over the last 

30-40 years in Slovakia by 

world Agrilus expert Eduard Jendek. It 

boasts over 25,000 specimens, making 

it one of the largest private collections 

of metallic wood-boring beetles in the 

world, and a major step forward for 

the Nation's preventative efforts to 

address agricultural challenges. 

Several agencies within the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) 

(Agriculture Research Service, the U.S. 

Forest Service, and the Animal and 

Plant Health Inspection Service) 

partnered with the Smithsonian to acquire the collection because of the importance of the beetles to forest 

health, including current and potential invasive species. The collection is housed at the National Museum of 

Natural History (“NMNH”) and cooperatively curated by USDA and Smithsonian staff.

Before his retirement, Jendek undertook hundreds of expeditions in highly remote and difficult to access 

areas—or areas that have since been deforested or are no longer accessible. The collection is the most 

complete private collection of the genus Agrilus ever assembled and represents half of the known valid 

species in the genus, contains more than 95 percent of the known species diversity in Russia and China, and 

holds more than 80 percent of the known diversity of species in South and Southeast Asia.

"The result of Jendek's efforts is manifested now in a collection that includes thousands of authoritatively 

identified specimens, many reared from recorded host plants and rare species known only from the single 

type specimen," said ARS Research Entomologist Lourdes Chamorro. "The collection is also especially unique 

in that it is databased and includes specimens from new, unpublished distribution records."

Members of the genus Agrilus are often considered potentially invasive and therefore, destructive towards 

agriculture, forestry, and other natural resources. The beetle poses a threat to ash trees in the eastern United 

States, and in two recent instances, the collection and Eduard Jendek have been the only ones to confirm the 

identity of these new pests. SEL researchers will use the collection to prepare and prevent future economic 

damage as they study the species and make predictions about the next serious pest that shares the same 

genes.

Image: At the Systematic Entomology Laboratory, located at the Smithsonian’s 

National Museum of Natural History, ARS research associate, Kojun Kanda (Lt) 

and ARS research entomologist, Lourdes Chamorro inspect and catalog the 

newly acquired — world's largest — Agrilus beetle collection. Photo by Matt 

Buffington, USDA-ARS.
NEW CHSDM ACQUISITIONS RESPOND TO CURRENT ISSUES

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (“CHSDM”) has 

announced the addition of several important works to the 

permanent collection. The museum holds one of the world’s 

most diverse design collections—over 215,000 objects that 

span 30 centuries. Among the current collecting priorities are 

to add born-digital and sustainability-minded works; bolster 

the diversity of designers represented; and acquire major 

historical pieces.

In addition to furniture, metalwork, glass, ceramics, jewelry, 

woodwork, born-digital work, textiles, and wallcoverings, 

CHSDM has one of the most significant collections of drawings 

and prints in the United States. Since its founding, the mission 

of the collection has been to highlight history, innovation, 

process, technique, use, aesthetics, and social context.

The new works were acquired through the Responsive 

Collecting Initiative, which was launched in September 2020 as 

a collaborative mechanism for the museum to work with staff 

across departments to solicit, review, and ultimately add 

objects to the permanent collection that tell design stories 

about the current moment, including the COVID-19 pandemic, 

the movements for racial and social justice, the 2020 election 

and the climate crisis.

Among the items is a major collection of 61 architectural 

illustrations of the World Trade Center by Carlos Diniz donated 

by Mark Cuban on the 20th anniversary of September 11. One 

of the foremost architectural delineators of the 20th century, 

Diniz served as the project recording artist for the World Trade Center commission, hired by Minoru Yamasaki. 

He was tasked with doing sketches that would help situate the buildings in Lower Manhattan and highlight the 

project at scale with its surroundings. Diniz’s illustrations, dating from the 1960s, showcase the World Trade 

Center as an idealistic place where people of all ethnicities and walks of life come together. In the early years of 

the project, Diniz’s line sketches were shown to Port Authority developers. He then developed large-format line 

drawings that showcased how the World Trade Center’s major public spaces would be developed.

After the artist's family offered the World Trade Center drawings for sale, the entrepreneur and Dallas 

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gifted them to the Smithsonian. "It strikes an emotional chord with every 

American," Cuban said. "I wanted the actual drawings to be where any American can see them, and the 

Smithsonian was the right home."

Drawing, View of Towers from Ground Level, World 

Trade Center, 1962–1968; Illustrated by Carlos Diniz 

(American, 1928-2001) for Minoru Yamasaki & 

Associates (Troy, Michigan) and The Port Authority 

of New York and New Jersey (New York, New York); 

Gift of Mark Cuban, 2021-23-15; Cooper Hewitt, 

Smithsonian Design Museum; Photo: Matt Flynn © 

Smithsonian Institution
NEW ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GUIDE FOR YOUTH

The Smithsonian Science Education Center (“SSEC”), in collaboration 

with the InterAcademy Partnership, has developed Environmental 

Justice! How can we create environments that are healthy for 

everyone?, a new community research guide for youth ages 11–17. 

Based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it aims to help young 

people assess and take action to create sustainable, healthy, and just 

environments.

In this guide, young people explore the question “How can we create 

environments that are healthy for everyone?” Students research 

historical approaches to environmental justice, learn about a specific 

environmental issue in their area and its causes, examine how different 

environments can affect the health of a community, discover the 

themes of injustice, and plan innovative solutions to environmental 

problems.

The guide includes new research, activities, and perspectives from subject-matter experts. It also integrates 

inquiry-based science education with social and emotional learning and civic engagement. By examining their 

own perspectives and the perspectives of subject-matter experts featured in Environmental Justice!, students 

generate customized solutions for the conflicts in their community and contribute to a more equitable and 

sustainable planet.

“I want to thank the dozens of experts from across the Smithsonian and the globe who served as advisors and 

helped to shape this guide,” said Carol O’Donnell, director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center. “This 

community research guide encourages young people to discover, understand and act on sustainable 

approaches to complex socio-scientific questions and create change within their own communities. It is an 

important step forward in the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s effort to create and promote a 

transdisciplinary approach to STEM Education for Sustainable Development, in line with the Smithsonian 

Institution’s mission to promote life on a sustainable planet.”

The Smithsonian Science Education Center will disseminate the information to youth worldwide in 

collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership. The guide is free.

 
CORAL REEF COMES TO LIFE IN AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCE

The Smithsonian, The Hydrous, and Adobe teamed up to build an educational, interactive Augmented Reality 

(“AR”) experience, exploring the ocean’s coral reefs, and the threats that they face. This immersive, free 

educational experience is available via the Adobe Aero app.

This collaboration was started to create an interactive, immersive experience that raises awareness about the 

threats facing ocean ecosystems like coral reefs. It also underscores the complexity and importance of marine 

habitats to the health of our planet and ourselves—a beautiful story of how we are all connected. This 

initiative is part of a program, led by the Hydrous, called The Decade of Ocean Empathy. It has been endorsed 

under the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

This project blossomed from a 2018 collaboration between the Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Office, the 

National Museum of Natural History (“NMNH”), and The Hydrous to digitize and create rich educational 

experiences for 90 coral type specimens. What is a type specimen? In taxonomy, the type specimen serves as 

the scientific name-bearing representative for any animal or plant species. That means these specimens are 

ideal representations of their species and are invaluable to research.

All of the 3D models from this collaboration are downloadable and usable for any purpose thanks to 

Smithsonian Open Access. Download the models yourself at 3D.si.edu/corals. To view in mobile AR you will 

need the Adobe Aero app downloaded on your iOS mobile device, or the Aero Player, which is now available in 

beta for some Android devices. The experience may take a few seconds to load.
NATIONAL FOSSIL COLLECTION COMPLETES ITS MOVE TO NMNH

Under the grass, gravel, soil, and sand lies layers of

rock containing a record of past life. In North America, 

paleotonologists have been studying this record for over 

150 years. Many of the fossils they unearthed were stored 

in the United States Geological Survey’s ("USGS") Denver 

Fossil Collection.

“The collection holds specimens that were used to build our 

understanding of North American geology,” said Kathy 

Hollis, the collections manager for the National Fossil 

Collection at the National Museum of Natural History

(NMNH”).

The last of the USGS collection's 1.2 million fossils arrived at 

the museum, completing an acquisition that began back in 

2018 but had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But the acquisition was only one step in a bigger plan to 

systematize and digitize the USGS fossils for scientists 

everywhere to access for research. "We now have the 

capacity, the technology, and the big picture vision of how to get this collection organized. What might have 

been aspirational ten years ago, we’re actually doing now,” said Hollis.

Some of the fossils are large, like dinosaur bones and mammal skeletons. Others are smaller in stature but just 

as scientifically valuable, like ammonites—a taxonomic class of ancient marine mollusks that help 

paleontologists date layers in the fossil record. “Rock layers, and therefore, the fossil record is patchy,” said 

Hollis. “Ammonites can help us connect those patchy records to each other so we can understand how ancient 

landscapes and oceans have changed over millennia.”

Since the 1800s, scientists have been adding ammonites to the USGS collection and using these fossils as 

geologic markers to improve their chronological understanding of past life. After it’s processed, the USGS 

collection will remain in the museum’s National Fossil Collection with around 40 million other fossils. The 

collection’s rehoming represents a longstanding relationship between the museum and the USGS that started 

back in the late 1800s. “We’ve always had some of the USGS collection,” said Little. “Now, the vast majority of 

it will be at the Smithsonian including all of those valuable archival resources.” 

Soon researchers will be able to access the digitized specimens and all their accompanying materials to learn 

more about North America’s prehistoric biodiversity and geography.

Ammonites are a family of prehistoric marine mollusks 

that lived from roughly 400 million years ago to 66 

million years ago. They’re known for their tightly 

spiraled shells. Smithsonian Institution, USNM PAL 

376968