G. Wayne Clough

Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, asks “How can we prepare ourselves to reach the generation of digital natives who bring a huge appetite—and aptitude—for the digital world?” He explains how the Smithsonian is tackling this issue in Best of Both Worlds: Museums, Libraries, and Archives in a Digital Age. Libraries and archives have already made many documents available through the Internet. The digital world presents a bigger challenge for museums; producing images of 3D objects is more complicated, and collections are built with exhibitions in mind rather than open access on computers. In 2009, the Smithsonian began digitizing its vast collections to make them accessible to the millions of people who do not visit the museums in person. “Digital access can provide limitless opportunities for engagement and lifelong learning.” Clough sees museums gradually moving beyond showcasing collections to engaging the public online so “visitors” can access the objects they find most interesting. Education has always been at the core of the Smithsonian. Today, the Smithsonian offers materials and lesson plans that meet state standards for K–12 curricula; online summits on many diverse subjects; the Collections Search Center website; and apps. The Smithsonian’s website, www.seriouslyamazing.com, draws people in with fun questions and then takes them deeper into the subject. The question “What European colonizer is still invading the U.S. today?” reveals not only the answer—earthworms—but also in-depth info on worms from environmental researchers. Clough concludes with this thought: “While digital technology poses great challenges, it also offers great possibilities.”

Museums, Libraries, and Archives in the Digital Age

Best of Both Worlds

Brian O'Doherty

Elizabeth Broun

Edwin C. Anderson

"The dynamic partnership of Christo and Jeanne-Claude spans more than four decades, and their enormous outdoor art installations are known the world over ... from 1972 to 1976, Christo and Jeanne-Claude conceived, planned, and created the Running Fence, an eighteen-foot-high white nylon fence that stretched more than twenty-four miles across Marin and Sonoma counties in northern California. ... It was a landmark event in contemporary art. [book title] revisits the ephemeral splendor of this remarkable outdoor installation and celebrates the Smithsonian American Art Museum's recent acquisition of the complete documentation exhibition for Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-1976, an archive of more than 350 individual items, including fifty original preparatory works by Christo, a sixty-eight-foot-long scale model, more than 240 documentary photographs by Wolfgang Volz and Gianfranco Gorgoni, and fence materials from the original installation."--Inside cover.

Remembering the Running Fence

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Things New and Strange chronicles a research quest undertaken by G. Wayne Clough, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution born in the South. Soon after retiring from the Smithsonian, Clough decided to see what the Smithsonian collections could tell him about South Georgia, where he had spent most of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s. The investigations that followed, which began as something of a quixotic scavenger hunt, expanded as Clough discovered that the collections had many more objects and documents from South Georgia than he had imagined. These objects illustrate important aspects of southern culture and history and also inspire reflections about how South Georgia has changed over time. Clough’s discoveries—animal, plant, fossil, and rock specimens, along with cultural artifacts and works of art—not only serve as a springboard for reflections about the region and its history, they also bring Clough’s own memories of his boyhood in Douglas, Georgia, back to life. Clough interweaves memories of his own experiences, such as hair-raising escapes from poisonous snakes and selling boiled peanuts for a nickel a bag at the annual auction of the tobacco crop, with anecdotes from family lore, which launches an exploration of his forebears and their place in South Georgia history. In following his engaging and personal narrative, we learn how nonspecialists can use museum archives and how family, community, and natural history are intertwined.

G. Wayne Clough

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