RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

JANUARY 2021 
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ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART PANDEMIC ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

To document the cascade of public health, social, and 

financial crises set in motion by COVID-19, the Archives of 

American Art created an oral history series that recorded 

responses to the global pandemic across the American art 

world. Conducted virtually, the Pandemic Oral History 

Project features eighty-five short-form interviews with a 

diverse group of artists, teachers, curators, and 

administrators. Averaging twenty-five minutes long, each 

interview provides a firsthand account of and urgent 

insights into the narrator's triumphs and tragedies in the 

summer of 2020. With more than thirty hours of recorded 

video and audio, the series bears witness to an 

unprecedented era as it unfolded in real time.

The videos will be released in batches on our YouTube 

Channel, iTunes, and Archives of American Art site. 

MUSEUM CONSERVATION INSTITUTE SUPPORTS THE CAPITOL FOLLOWING JANUARY 6 RIOT

The Museum Conservation Institute’s Physical Scientist in 

Proteomics Asher Newsome and Senior Conservator Carol 

Grissom are providing analysis and consultation to the 

Curator for the Architect of the Capitol (Michele Cohen), the 

Curator and the Collections Manager of the U.S. House of 

Representatives (Farar Elliott and Karen McKinstry), and the 

Curator, the Collections Manager, and the Historic 

Preservation Officer of the U.S. Senate (Melinda Smith, 

Jennifer Krafchik, and Kelly Steele) on potentially corrosive 

residues deposited on sculptures, paintings, and other 

historic objects at the U.S. Capitol during the riot of January 

6, 2021. The residues are expected to be from fire 

extinguisher contents, pepper spray, tear gas, and other 

substances sprayed or smeared on surfaces during the 

melee. This information will be used to guide repair and 

conservation of the historic building and its contents. The Smithsonian’s work was mentioned in the January 8, 

Washington Post article “The Capitol mob desecrated a historical workplace — and left behind some 

disturbing artifacts.”

Composite screenshots of 77 video interview 

participants, 2020. Archives of American Art, 

Smithsonian Institution

A statue was defaced during the riot on Jan. 6 

at the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Katherine Frey/The 

Washington Post
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SMITHSONIAN VETERINARIANS AT MPALA, KENYA, LEAD EFFORTS TO CURB RABIES

In the U.S., dying from rabies is virtually unheard of. But around the world, rabies kills 59,000 people every 

year. Ninety-nine percent of those deaths are caused by dog bites; half of the people killed are children. 

There's a relatively simple way of preventing these deaths—vaccinating dogs against the disease—but 

systemic challenges make that easier said than done. In a new study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, an 

international team of researchers reported on a multi-year effort to vaccinate dogs in Kenya and highlighted 

some of the challenges scientists and public health officials face in eradicating the disease. They found that 

grassroots efforts helped lots of individuals—but that to stop the disease once and for all, these smaller 

campaigns must be coupled with large-scale efforts.

The goal of the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign (“LRVC”) is the eradication of rabies in Kenya by 2030. 

Using a ‘One Health’ approach, the LRVC has piloted a robust and effective field-based effort towards this 

goal. Over the past 5 years, the Mpala Research Centre has worked closely with a wide range of partners from 

neighbors, communities, the Laikipia county government, national, and international institutions to develop a 

unified approach towards the eradication of rabies in Laikipia. The team included Dr. Suzan Murray, head of 

the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Global Health Program and Dr. Maureen Kamau, MpalaSmithsonian Veterinary Research Fellow in One Health. 

As the world currently battles a pandemic caused by a virus, the success of the LRVC can serve as an example 

of how to tackle the challenge of diseases using an integrated and grassroots-led approach.

The paper was published in the open access journal Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases. 

A group of people from Kenya's Laikipia County bringing their dogs to get 

rabies vaccines. Credit: Ravi Ruparel
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TURBULENT ERA SPARKED LEAP IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND ADAPTABILITY

For hundreds of thousands of years, early humans in the East African Rift Valley could expect certain things of 

their environment. Freshwater lakes in the region ensured a reliable source of water, and large grazing 

herbivores roamed the grasslands. Then, around 400,000 years ago, things changed. The environment became 

less predictable, and human ancestors faced new sources of instability and uncertainty that challenged their 

previous long-standing way of life. 

The first analysis of a new sedimentary drill core representing 1 million years of environmental history in the 

East African Rift Valley shows that at the same time early humans were abandoning old tools in favor of more 

sophisticated technology and broadening their trade networks, their landscape was experiencing frequent 

fluctuations in vegetation and water supply that made resources less reliably available. The findings suggest 

that instability in their surrounding climate, land, and ecosystem was a key driver in the development of new 

traits and behaviors underpinning human adaptability.

A bird’s eye view of the Olorgesailie Basin in southern Kenya. Credit: aerial photo by Richard Potts, 2005
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In the October 21, 2020, issue of the journal Science Advances, an interdisciplinary team of scientists led 

by Richard Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the National Museum of Natural History, 

describes the prolonged period of instability across the landscape in this part of Africa (now Kenya) that 

occurred at the same time humans in the region were undergoing a major behavioral and cultural shift in their 

evolution.

Potts and colleagues documented this behavioral and cultural shift based on artifacts recovered at an 

archaeological site known as Olorgesailie. Decades of study at Olorgesailie by Potts’ team and collaborators at 

the National Museums of Kenya have determined that early humans at Olorgesailie relied on the same tools, 

stone handaxes, for 700,000 years. Their way of life during this period was remarkably stable, with no major 

changes in their behaviors and strategies for survival. Then, beginning around 320,000 years ago, people living 

there entered the Middle Stone Age, crafting smaller, more sophisticated weapons, including projectiles. At 

the same time, they began to trade resources with distant groups and to use coloring materials, suggesting 

symbolic communication. All these changes were a significant departure from their previous lifestyle, likely 

helping early humans cope with their newly variable landscape, Potts said. 

“The history of human evolution has been one of increasing adaptability,” Potts said. “We come from a family 

tree that’s diverse, but all of those other ways of being human are now extinct. There’s only one of us left, and 

we may well be the most adaptable species that may have ever existed on the face of the Earth.”

While some scientists have proposed that climate fluctuations alone may have driven humans to evolve this 

remarkable quality of adaptability, the new study indicates the picture is more complicated than that. Instead, 

the team’s analysis shows that climate variability is but one of several intertwined environmental factors that 

drove the cultural shift. The new analysis reveals how a changing climate along with new land faults 

introduced by tectonic activity and ecological disruptions in the vegetation and fauna all came together to 

drive disruptions that made technological innovation, trading resources, and symbolic communication—three 

key factors in adaptability—beneficial for early humans in this region. 
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REPORT HIGHLIGHTS LONG-TERM BENEFITS OF SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS

The Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press has published a 

report exploring the benefits of the nation’s scientific 

collections. The report, a joint effort of 15 federal departments 

and agencies led by the Smithsonian and the U.S. Department 

of Agriculture (“USDA”), provides illustrative examples of the 

many ways federal scientific collections serve the nation, from 

vaccine development to earthquake preparedness.

While the report focuses on federal collections, it also serves as 

a guide for other museums, universities, research institutions 

and industries. The publication offers evidence-based methods 

for measuring the benefits of scientific collections against the 

costs of maintaining them.

The report, Economic Analyses of Federal Scientific Collections: 

Methods for Documenting Costs and Benefits, was 

commissioned by the Interagency Working Group on Scientific 

Collections (“IWGSC”), part of the White House National 

Science and Technology Council. IWGSC is co-chaired by the 

Smithsonian and USDA.

“Although the report is focused on federal scientific collections, its content applies to myriad collections and 

leads to many public benefits,” said Scott Miller, Smithsonian Chief Scientist and IWGSC co-chair. “The report 

is especially timely given the economic stress on research and organizations because of COVID-19.”

Federal scientific collections are diverse and immense. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History 

alone has more than 146 million specimens and samples in its collections, acquired from the oceans to outer 

space––including plants, animals, and insects; rocks, minerals, and meteorites; and fossils and human artifacts.

Institutions like the Smithsonian preserve these vast collections for research, education, and public outreach. 

They offer a wide variety of benefits for the nation, from insurance against future emergencies to the 

development of new technologies. Examples from the report highlight how USDA’s collections of agricultural 

pests help protect the U.S. food supply, or how a bacteria sample from a national park provided the basis for a 

major biotechnology breakthrough.

The authors note that demonstrating the long-term value of scientific collections can help institutions 

preserve these vital services for the future.

“USDA’s agricultural collections are some of the largest and most diverse in the world,” said Dionne Toombs, 

director of USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist and IWGSC co-chair. “We are proud to be stewards of these 

valuable resources that ensure the preservation, diversity, and safety of these collections for current and 

future generations.”