Director's Corner

A Message from the Director

Birthdays like the United States Quincentennial and the Smithsonian's 150th are a time of reflection and renewal. Two years ago the Columbian Quincentennial gave the Nation a chance to reassess its past. Unlike previous celebrations that emphasized New World discovery, European expansion into new lands, harnessing of new resources, and development of powerful new technologies, the 1996 Quincentennial offered the vision of a new social compact between American society and its Native peoples. For the first time the national anniversary carried with it a strain of reflection that tempered Columbian era Progress with recognition of the trials and hardships experienced by America's First Citizens. New opportunites were also recognized.

The founding of the National Museum of the American Indian, passage of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Art (NAGPRA), and increased awareness of Native American culture and history had a profound effect on redefining past and present. These programs not only call for a new relationship with America's Native peoples, they also serve as models for other sectors of American society that have not participated fully in the benefits of the larger society. As the Nation's icon and font of learning, the Smithsonian has a major role in redefining America. An increasingly important part of that mission concerns arctic peoples and residents, particularly in the state of Alaska.

Renewal and New Directions

Established in 1846 by the bequest of Englishman James Smithson to found in Washington an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," the Smithsonian is today one of the oldest and most revered agencies in the U.S. Government. Celebrating its 150th birthday on the 8th of August, 1996, the Smithsonian continues to evolve and reach out to the American public and the world with a vast array of research and educational programs. Unlike other government agencies, the Smithsonian has a passion for interpreting culture and knowledge as a legacy of the past, and its collections and archives from the expanding frontiers of America have taken on new life and meaning in the face of rapid social change, here and abroad.

The increasing importance of the Smithsonian as a national icon and sometimes cultural and historical battlefield has become evident in recent years. Among the questions raised are the proper public role of a national institution dedicated to research and education. Controversy over the Enola Gay exhibit, over interpretation of art of the Western Frontier, and over repatriation of Indian remains and artifacts have sparked debate about the proper role of the Smithsonian as both archive and presenter of the Nation's history to our society and to the rest of the world. How are we to achieve these goals in a time of rapid social change when all sectors of society wish to claim "ownership" of part of our national legacy?

Guidelines for the Future

These questions have been considered recently by a special Commission chartered to anticipate the Smithsonian's proper role as we move beyond this anniversary into the next century. As one of the oldest research museums in the country the Smithsonian has assembled unique resources for research and education, and we need to consider how best to formulate and advance institutional goals that serve broad sectors of our society as well as regional and ethnic interests. Especially, we need to determine how the Institution can best ensure access to its large and irreplaceable collections and archives.

Among the Commission's leading recommendations are:

Emphasize education both on the Mall and across the country through electronic means, traveling exhibitions, and public programs;

Build collaborative partnerships with other museums, research centers, and educational institutions throughout the nation;

Develop approaches to collections, research, education, and exhibitions that will be inclusive of the diversity of the American people.

Practical Steps and New Perspectives

It was to create the foundation for such programs that the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center was established. The Center is the only US Government agency dedicated exclusively to the heritage, history, and preservation of northern cultures and peoples.

During the past two years the Arctic Studies Center has continued to expand its research and educational programs despite restrictions imposed by budget reduction. Major accomplishments include opening a regional office at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art; completion of two years of research and collaboration on the "Living Yamal" program in the Western Siberian arctic; development of community archeology and exhibit programs with Native peoples in Labrador and Alaska; circulation of the "Crossroads" exhibit to cities and rural museums in Alaska and Russia; and the organization of several new exhibit projects.

Among the Center's plans are increasing collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Both the Natural History and American Indian museums share a similar goal: to find ways to bring these large, irreplaceable collections and archives to a wider public. Our collections, heritage, and scholarship have for too long remained inaccessible to the majority of the public, in storerooms or on view only in Washington DC.

The Center's Alaska program may also serve as an experimental model for developing a new relationship between the Smithsonian and other regions of the nation so that our national treasures, and especially those originating from the American countryside, can be brought into closer contact with those who have special interest in them.

Creation of a decentralized research and educational program can be greatly facilitated today with the aid of electronic media and digital communication systems like the Internet and its increasingly popular World Wide Web. The foundation programs of research, education and popular communication begun by the Arctic Studies Center can serve as a model for establishing a new relationship between the Smithsonian and the American people.

William Fitzhugh
Director
Arctic Studies Center

Comments? Please contact us.