- James Smithson
James Smithson, F.R.S., M.A. (1765 - June 27, 1829) was a British mineralogist and chemist noted for having left a bequest in his will to the United States of America, which was used to initially fund the Smithsonian Institution. - Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry (December 17 1797 - May 13 1878) was a Scottish-American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest American scientists since Benjamin Franklin. While building electromagnets, Henry discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance independently of Faraday, though Faraday was the first to publish his results. - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy
Steven Ferencz Udvar-Hazy (or Steve Hazy) (born 1946, Budapest, Hungary) is the Chairman and CEO of International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which is one of the two largest aircraft lessors in the world (the other being GECAS.) As of 2006 he is the 83rd richest American with a net worth of US$3.1 billion. The Udvar-Hazy family came to the United States in 1958, fleeing the Soviet occupation of Hungary. Hazy attended the University of California, Los Angeles. - Lawrence M. Small
Lawrence M. Small was the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association and the 11th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. - John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 - September 23, 1902) was a U.S. soldier, geologist, and explorer of the American West. He is famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers that included the first passage through the Grand Canyon. - William C. Sturtevant
Dr. William C. Sturtevant (1926 - 2007) is best known as the general editor of the 20-volume "Handbook of North American Indians". He obtained his Ph.D. from Yale in 1955 and served first as a research anthropologist for the Bureau of American Ethnology before being appointed Curator of North American Ethnology in the U.S. National Museum (later the National Museum of Natural History), Smithsonian Institution. Sturtevant died on March 2 2007 from emphysema. - Harry Winston
Harry Winston (March 1, 1896 - December 8, 1978) was an American jeweller. He donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade. He once sent a 726 carat (145 g) rough diamond, "The Jonker", through the US Postal Service, foregoing other more conventional means of secure transfer. Harry Winston's jewelry empire began with his acquisition of Arabella Huntington's famous jewelry collection. - Michael Collins
Major General Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930) is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was "Gemini 10", when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was "Apollo 11" where he served as the command module pilot. - Thomas Lovejoy
Dr. Thomas Eugene Lovejoy III is chief biodiversity adviser to the president of the World Bank, senior adviser to the president of the United Nations Foundation, and president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. He coined the term "biological diversity" in 1980. Lovejoy, a tropical biologist and conservation biologist, has worked in the Amazon of Brazil since 1965. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University. - Dennis Stanford
Dennis Stanford is the head of the Archaeology Division and Director of the Paleo-Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Along with Dr. Bruce Bradley, Stanford is known for advocating the Solutrean hypothesis, which contends that stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture in prehistoric Europe may have influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making culture in the Americas. - Samuel Pierpont Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22 1834, Roxbury, Massachusetts (near Boston) - February 27 1906, Aiken, South Carolina) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. He graduated from Boston Latin School, was an assistant in the Harvard College Observatory, then became chair of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy. - Ralph Rinzler
Ralph Rinzler (1934-1994) was the co-founder of the annual Folk Life Festival on the Mall every summer in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a curator for American art, music, and folk culture at the Smithsonian. This festival was from the beginning and continues to be a major event for musicians, artistans, and craftsman from a broad variety of American culture, including African American, Native American, Appalachian, Southern, Western, and other groups in this country. - Ives Goddard
R. H. Ives Goddard, III is curator and senior linguist in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonquian languages and the Algic language family that contains it. His own field research has concentrated on the Delaware language and Meskwaki (Fox), but he is also known for work on the Massachusett language, the history of the Cheyenne language, … - Spencer Fullerton Baird
Spencer Fullerton Baird (February 3, 1823 - August 19, 1887) was an American ornithologist and ichthyologist. - James Renwick Jr.
James Renwick, Jr. (b. November 11, 1818, Bloomingdale, New York - d. June 23, 1895, New York City, United States), was a well-known American architect in the 19th-century. "The Encyclopedia of American Architecture" calls him "one of the most successful American architects of his time." He was born into a wealthy and well-educated family. His mother, Margaret Brevoort, wealthy and socially prominent, was from a well-established New York family. - Alexander Wetmore
Frank Alexander Wetmore (June 18, 1886 - December 7, 1978) was an American ornithologist and avian paleontologist. Wetmore was born at North Freedom, Wisconsin and studied at the University of Kansas. He later studied at George Washington University, receiving his masters degree and doctorate. Wetmore began federal service in 1910, working for the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture. In 1915, he researched the use of lead shot in causing death in waterfowl. - Charles Doolittle Walcott
Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850 - February 9, 1927) was an eminent American invertebrate paleontologist. He has become well-known for his discovery in 1909 of well-preserved fossils in the Burgess shale formation of British Columbia, Canada. - Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon is a composer, singer, historian, and author specializing in African American oral, performance, and protest traditions. She is founder and artistic director of Sweet Honey in the Rock, for whom she has composed numerous works. She is a Distinguished Professor of History at American University, and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History. - Frank Hamilton Cushing
Frank Hamilton Cushing July 22, 1857- April 10, 1900 was born in Northeastern Pennsylvania, later moving with his family to western New York. As a boy he took an interest in the Native American artifacts in the surrounding countryside and taught himself how to knap flint (make arrowheads and such from flint). He published his first scientific paper when he was only 17. After a brief period at Cornell University at 19, … - Brent Glass
Brent D. Glass is director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, since October, 2002. Glass holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1980), a Master's degree from New York University (1971) and a Bachelor's degree from Lafayette College (1969) Prior to attaining his current position, Glass was Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Harrisburg, … - William Henry Holmes
William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 - April 20, 1933) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, geologist and museum director. Born in Harrison County, Ohio, Holmes graduated from McNeely Normal College in 1870 and briefly went into teaching. In 1872 he became an artist with the F. V. Hayden survey. After it was absorbed into the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879, he was assigned to work as a geologist in the southwestern United States. - Frederick Webb Hodge
Frederick W. Hodge was an editor, anthropologist, archaeologist, and historian born in Plymouth, England to Edwin and Emily (Webb) Hodge. His parents moved to Washington, D.C. when Frederick was seven years old. In Washington, he attended Cambridge College (George Washington University). He was awarded the honorary degree of Sc.D. by Pomona College in 1933, LL.D. by the University of New Mexico in 1934, and Litt.D. by the University of Southern California in 1943. - Daniel J. Boorstin
Daniel Joseph Boorstin (October 1, 1914 - February 28, 2004) was a prolific American historian, professor, attorney, and writer. He served as the U.S. Librarian of Congress from 1975 until 1987. Boorstin was born in Atlanta, Georgia and died in Washington, D.C. Boorstin was of Jewish descent. Boorstin graduated with highest honors from Harvard, studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his PhD. at Yale University. - Robert Bateman
Robert Bateman is a Canadian naturalist. He was born in Toronto. Even as a child he was interested in art and wildlife. He found inspiration from the Group of Seven, making abstract paintings of nature. It wasn’t until the mid 1960’s that he changed to his present style, realism. Bateman was always interested in art, but he never intended on making a living from it. He was fascinated by the natural world in his childhood. - Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart (born September 11, 1943) is best known as one of the two drummers from the rock band the Grateful Dead. He and fellow Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann earned the nickname "the rhythm devils". He joined the Grateful Dead in September 1967, and left in February 1971, after some bad business deals by his father Lenny Hart, who had briefly managed the Dead. During his sabbatical, in 1972, he recorded the album "Rolling Thunder". - David White
David White (1862 - 1935) was an American geologist, born at Palmyra, New York. He graduated from Cornell University in 1886, and in 1889 became a member of the United States Geological Survey. Eventually, he rose to be chief geologist. In 1903 he became an associate curator of paleobotany at the Smithsonian Institution. He wrote numerous papers on geological and paleontological subjects. - Robert P. Kogod
Mr. Kogod, a resident of the District of Columbia, was formerly the Co-Chairman & Co-CEO of the Charles E. Smith Companies, a major development, construction, leasing and management firm of investment real estate properties. He currently is President of CESM, Inc. and does consulting work. Mr. Kogod serves on the Board of Trustees of Vornado Realty Trust and Archstone-Smith Trust, two real estate investment trusts listed on the New York Stock Exchange. - Howard I. Chapelle
Howard I. Chapelle (1901-1975) was curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.. In addition, he authored many books and articles books on maritime history and marine architecture. From 1919, Chapelle worked as a marine apprentice and designer for a number of shipbuilders. After 1936, he went into business for himself, and later served as head of the New England section of the Historic American Merchant Marine Survey, … - Charles Greeley Abbot
Charles Greeley Abbot (May 31, 1872 Wilton, NH - December 17, 1973, Washington D.C.) was an American astrophysicist, astronomer and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was born in Wilton, New Hampshire. - Clyde Roper
Clyde F. E. Roper is a zoologist at the Smithsonian Institution. He has organised many expeditions to New Zealand to study giant squid, in 1997, 1999, and possibly 2003. He is a 1959 graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. - Curtis Peebles
Curtis Peebles is an aerospace historian for the Smithsonian Institution and the author of several books dealing with aviation and aerial phenomena. He is probably best known as a leading skeptic of UFO sightings and incidents, and he has been a talking head in several documentaries dealing with UFOs. He has appeared in the A&E Network's 1997 documentary "Where Are All the UFOs?", … - Leonard Carmichael
Leonard Carmichael was a U.S. educator and psychologist. Born on November 9 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received his B.S. from Tufts University in 1920 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1924. He was a brother in the Theta Delta Chi fraternity during his time at Tufts. After being part of the Brown University faculty, Carmichael served as the president of Tufts from 1938 to 1952. - Joy Hakim
and a Master's Degree and honorary doctorate from Goucher College. She was a schoolteacher (in Syracuse, NY, Omaha, Nebraska, and Virginia Beach, VA and an assistant editor of McGraw-Hill's World News (foreign news service), a reporter for the Ledger-Star in Norfolk, VA and, in 1978, an editorial writer for the "Virginian-Pilot" in Norfolk, Virginia. Her first published work was the well-received, eleven-volume, "A History of US", from Oxford University Press. - Robert Ridgway
Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 - March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist. Born in Mount Carmel, Illinois, Ridgway was a protege of zoologist Spencer Fullerton Baird, who, on becoming the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, appointed Ridgway the first full-time curator of birds at the U.S. National Museum. He served from 1880 until his death in 1929. Ridgway also published one of the first and most important color system for bird identification, … - Matilda Coxe Stevenson
Matilda Coxe Stevenson (1855-1915) was an American ethnologist, born at San Augustine, Tex. In 1872 she was married to James Stevenson, an ethnologist (died 1888), with whom she spent 13 years in explorations of the Rocky Mountain region. After 1889 she was on the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. Mrs. Stevenson explored the cave, cliff, and mesa ruins of New Mexico, studied all the Pueblo tribes of that State, … - Francis La Flesche
Francis La Flesche (1857-1932) was the student and adopted son of anthropologist Alice Fletcher. A Native American of the Omaha tribe, he worked with her to record Omaha culture, which both of them believed was vanishing. He was the son of the Omaha chief Iron Eye, and the brother of Susette "Bright Eyes" La Flesche Tibbles and Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte. - John Burns
John Burns is an entomologist, curator of Lepidoptera and professor at Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution. - Robert Dale Owen
Robert Dale Owen (November 7, 1801-June 24, 1877) was a longtime exponent in his adopted United States of the socialist doctrines of his father, the Welshman Robert Owen, as well as a politician in the Democratic Party. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Owen emigrated to the United States in 1825, and helped his father create the Utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana. After the community failed, Owen returned briefly to Europe, … - William Temple Hornaday
William Temple Hornaday, Sc.D. was an American zoologist, born at Plainfield, Indiana, and educated at the Iowa State Agricultural College and in Europe. He spent 1.5 years, 1877-1878 in India and Ceylon collecting specimens. In May 1878 he reached southeast Asia and travelled in Malaya and Sarawak in Borneo. He served as chief taxidermist of the United States National Museum in 1882-90. He was appointed director of the New York Zoölogical Park in 1896, … - J. Walter Fewkes
Jesse Walter Fewkes (1850-1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer and naturalist. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and initially trained as a zoologist at Harvard University. He later turned to ethnological studies of the native tribes in the American Southwest. In 1889, with the resignation of noted ethnologist Frank Hamilton Cushing, Fewkes became leader of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition.
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