It all started with a surprise gift from an eccentric millionaire named James Smithson. A British scientist who had never visited America, Smithson bequeathed about $12 million (in today’s dollars) to the U.S. government upon his death in 1829, with the stipulation that it be used for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
Today, with 19 museums and galleries, plus a zoo, the Smithsonian has certainly lived up to its mandate for diffusing knowledge. But what about the increasing knowledge part of the deal? Should visitors to the Smithsonian Castle, where Smithson was eventually entombed, be on the lookout for a dapper, but angry, ghost?
The short answer is no, says chief Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas.
“Research is central to everything the Smithsonian does,” she says. “We are fairly similar to a university in the number of Ph.D.s that work here and in the amount that gets published in all fields, science and history, archaeology, everything.”
In fact, the Smithsonian employs at least 512 Ph.D.s, 127 more than Catholic University’s full-time faculty. Its publication record is equally impressive: Smithsonian staff wrote 2,099 journal articles, books and book chapters in 2013 alone.
If this is news to you, there’s good reason. The Smithsonian’s massive research and conservation operation takes place largely behind the scenes, at sites miles from the National Mall that aren’t open to the public. We poked around three secret Smithsonians, and here’s what we found.
Museum Support Center
Silver Hill, Md.
Of the estimated 138 million items held by the Smithsonian, only 2 percent are on display at any given time. Many of the rest are stored in the Museum Support Center, which looks like a bland office park on the outside, and an Ikea warehouse on the inside.
One of the five football-field-sized “pods” is mostly occupied by the National Museum of Natural History’s anthropology department. Yellow and blue racks rise three stories, and artifacts sit on custom-made pallets, cushioned with foam and sheathed in fire-retardant fabric.
“This is a fabric called Nomex,” says David Rosenthal, assistant collections manager. “It’s the same stuff that race car driver suits are made out of.”
Rosenthal raises a corner of one of the hand-sewn covers to reveal a bronze statue of the Buddhist figure Avalokitesvara. Per religious custom, the museum stores such artifacts as high as possible. They are supposed to be above all secular objects, Rosenthal says.
“Some need to be facing a certain direction, others can only be seen by men, or by women. We make sure these cultural issues are respected,” he says.
The biology department keeps the bulk of its treasures — dead animals floating in alcohol — in humble Mason jars.
Jeff Williams, manager of the fish collection, plucks a lumpy, frowning fish out of a jar with his bare hands.
“I caught this stonefish myself,” he says. “It’s the most poisonous fish in the world.”
Elsewhere in the pod are tanks holding gorillas, pandas and other large animals.
“Alcohol is a great preservative,” says Darrin Lunde, the mammals collection manager. “The whole animal is there. You can study the internal organs, the gut contents, any parasites.”
Every year, researchers pull jars off the shelves and discover new species. Williams has described 54 species of fish, and Lunde has more than a dozen rodent species to his name.
He and his colleagues recently found a genus of bat from South Sudan. Black and white, it looks a bit like a tiny flying panda. They dubbed it Niumbaha superba.
“It means small and beautiful in the local language,” Lunde says.
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Front Royal, Va.
As far as cheetahs, red pandas and clouded leopards are concerned, Virginia really is for lovers.
At the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, on 3,200 acres of land at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, these at-risk species (plus 29 others) have been hooking up like crazy. Ten cheetah cubs, seven baby red pandas, 47 black-footed ferret kits and one clouded leopard cub are among the conservation center’s successes within the past year.
In addition to increasing the populations of these species, scientists at SCBI study the animals and collaborate with groups that are reintroducing them into the wild.
Cheetahs have been particularly difficult to breed in zoos, says biologist Adrienne Crosier. Ninety percent of cheetah births in North America occur in dedicated breeding facilities. The peace and quiet helps, she says, but the main advantage is variety: SCBI is home to 27 cats.
“Female cheetahs tend to be picky,” Crosier says.
Each year, Crosier and her staff set up a round of cheetah speed dating. One by one, they bring male suitors to a female cheetah’s yard.
If the female isn’t interested, “she usually lets us know pretty fast,” Crosier says. “If she’s interested, she rolls around and engages in rubbing behavior.”
The SCBI cheetahs’ first cubs were born in 2010, and they’ve been churning them out ever since. That effort, combined with SCBI’s work to conserve cheetah habitat in Africa, are markedly improving the species’ chances for survival, says senior curator Paul Marinari.
The mysteries of cheetah reproduction are far from unlocked, however. It’s tough to predict when the females are ready to breed, and it’s nearly impossible to impregnate them through artificial insemination.
That’s why Smithsonian biologists, with researchers from George Mason University, are studying cheetah hormone cycles. A key tool in their arsenal: glitter. The scientists sprinkle a little on the cheetahs’ food, so they can tell which poop belongs to which animal when they measure for hormone levels.
“It’s just regular, non-toxic glitter, like from the craft store,” Crosier says.
Among the higher-tech tools in the institute’s fight against extinction is its on-site sperm bank, which can store genetic material from endangered species more or less indefinitely.
“I like to call it the frozen zoo,” Marinari says.
This weekend is your chance to visit the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute: The National Zoo’s research and breeding facility, usually closed to the public, is hosting its annual Autumn Conservation Festival Oct. 4-5.Visitors can meet the scientists that work there, and see some of the animals, including red panda cubs (if they aren’t too frightened by the noise). Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, 1500 Remount Road, Front Royal, Va.; Sat. & Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m., $30 per car.
Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory
At the Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Va.
The American bomber nicknamed “Flak-Bait” survived 207 missions in World War II, but it couldn’t evade the indignity of a bad ’70s paint job. Before the front part of the B-26 Marauder went on display at the National Air and Space Museum in 1976, someone spray-painted the seats.
“We have to figure out how to get this nappy paint off and return it to its original upholstery,” says Malcolm Collum, the museum’s chief conservator.
In the past, museums buffed up aircraft before they went on display. Today, conservators restore aircraft and other artifacts to their historic appearance. Collum and his colleagues at the Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory are at the forefront of that movement.
“You can see things shiny and sparkly anywhere, but to see something that has that original paint job and the scratches and dings from the shrapnel, that’s rare, that’s special,” he says.
Airplanes hold up pretty well over time, but spacesuits start disintegrating the moment they return to Earth.
“Some of the spacesuits, you can hear the pieces of rubber rattling around inside of them. It breaks your heart, because there’s not much we can do about that,” he says.
Collum is working on stopping Gemini-era (mid-’60s) spacesuit zippers from rusting, but first he has to determine what they’re made of. He could dig through reams of documentation, or he could just zap them with what he calls his “Buck Rogers taser gun.”
“This is a portable XRF. It shoots an X-ray beam and the energy that comes back into this thing will give us an elemental breakdown of whatever you point it at,” he says.
The Air and Space Museum’s spacesuits used to be stored haphazardly in warehouses, but now they are in a special storage unit at Udvar-Hazy, where the temperature and humidity are kept low and where they aren’t exposed to light.
Eventually, all of the museum’s artifacts that are in storage — entire aircraft as well as Star Trek memorabilia and ’60s stewardess uniforms — will make the move. First, each piece has to be catalogued, photographed and (for the smaller ones) housed in special boxes that will allow researchers to view them without touching them, says Samantha Snell, who is coordinating the move.
“A little time and effort now will go a long way to ensuring that future generations get to see these things,” she says.
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