Spring/Summer 1996 Smithsonian Institution Libraries page 4
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Development Watch

150th Committee Awards $15,000 for Libraries' Exhibition

The Smithsonian's 150th Anniversary Celebration Program has awarded $15,000 to support From Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institution, an official 150th exhibition organized by the Libraries. This funding complements earlier grants from the Smithsonian Women's Committee and the Smithsonian Educational Outreach Fund. Co-sponsored by the Libraries, the Office of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, and the Architectural History and Historic Preservation Division, and designed, edited, and produced by the Office of Exhibits Central, the exhibition opens in the Libraries' Gallery, National Museum of American History, on July 2.

Rare Astronautics Work Donated

e Reversal of GravitationJames R. Reed of Hammond, New York, provided funds to purchase a rare first edition of an early French contribution towards rocketry and astronautics, Alexandre Ananoff's La Navigation Interplanétaire (Paris: Société Astronomique de France, 1935). In 1950 Ananoff organized the first International Congress of Astronautics. The work has been added to the collections of the Ramsey Room, the rare book room of the National Air and Space Museum Branch Library.

Other Grants and Gifts

The Libraries received a grant of $10,000 from the Smithsonian Latino Pool for acquisition of library materials in Latino Studies.

The Smithsonian Women's Committee gave the Libraries' Preservation Services Department $3,450 to purchase 400 clam-shell boxes and labels for preservation of rare books in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Branch.

Ronald Wilkinson donated twelve rare titles in chemistry (18th and 19th century books, a pamphlet, and a broadside) to the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology in memory of Ellen B. Wells, former Head of Special Collections.

Gwen Leighty

150th

Libraries Creates 150th Fund

In celebration of the Smithsonian Institution's 150th anniversary in 1996, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries has established the Libraries 150th Fund.

The Fund will enable the Libraries to strengthen its book collections in a time of high inflation in book costs which has eroded the Libraries' purchasing power. Enhancing the book collection is an essential part of the Libraries' mission to provide up-to-date research resources for the Smithsonian's numerous scholars and scientists as well as the many interested researchers nationwide and across the world who use the collections.

Donors to the 150th Fund will be recognized on bookplates affixed to each book acquired through the Fund. We invite you to make a lasting contribution to the work of the Smithsonian by completing the form on the envelope and enclosing your gift.

Thank you.

For more information, contact

Gwen Leighty
Development Officer
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
NHB 24 MZ, MRC 154
Washington, D.C. 20560
(202) 786-2875

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