What your job is. Thank you, my job is assistant director for a culture at the Smithsonian National museum of the American Indian. I lead the scholars, historians, curators at the museum who are in charge of producing the exhibitions, the books, a lot of the Educational Programs and symposiums, and work with a collection of about 824,000 objects. But i have a real interest in photography, we also have over 500,000 photographs in the National Museums of american Archive Center. So i have been working very hard, i in the year ive been at the museum. Ive a 30 year career at the smithsonian, but i only joined this museum last year. And these photographs of the archives. The. It has become more and more familiar with it over time, so when i was asked to think about the opportunity to consider what photographs we have online for the public to see and for students to study online, it was a great opportunity, because i was able to review and get really deep into all of the collections of photo
What architecture can reveal about how the mentally ill were cared for over time. We decided to do this exhibition for many reasons, one of which i think its a real important moment to be talking about the role of the federal government in providing Public Health and providing healthcare for the mentally ill. And what that role has been over time. I think this is an interesting time to talk about that. Also, right now, at st. Elizabeths in d. C. , its really a time where theyre looking to develop the land. Its now split into two halves, the federal government owns half of it and it will become the department of Homeland Security, which is something thats happening right now and also development is really starting on the east campus, which is owned by the city of washington, d. C. , its a really interesting time to Start Talking about that since theyre really moving forward and starting that development process. This is the great hall as we call it in the old u. S. Pension building. The
My job is assistant director for history and culture at the Smithsonians National museum of the American Indian. I lead the scholars, the historians and curators at the museum who are in charge of producing the exhibitions, and the books and a lot of the Educational Programs and symposiums and work with a collection of about 824,000 objects, but i have a real interest in photography, and we have also 500,000 photographs in the National Museums Archive Center and ive been working very hard in the year that ive been at this museum. I have a 30year career at the smithsonian and i just joined the museum in the last year and these photographs are of much interest to me at the Archive Center. So you wrote an article about the collection. Tell us why you wrote this article . A virtual tour of history . Thanks, richard. We have a great magazine. American indian magazine that is a members magazine for our museum and have become more and more familiar with it offer time so when i was asked for t
It is still open today. In this hourlong program, curator sarah levit shows us what architecture can reveal about how the mentally ill were cared for over time. We decided to do this exhibition for many reasons, one of which i think its a real important moment to be talking about the role of the federal government in providing Public Health and providing healthcare for the mentally ill. And what that role has been over time. I think this is an interesting time to talk about that. Also, right now, at st. Elizabeths in d. C. , its really a time where theyre looking to develop the land. Its now split into two halves, the federal government owns half of it and it will become the department of Homeland Security, which is something thats happening right now and also development is really starting on the east campus, which is owned by the city of washington, d. C. , its a really interesting time to Start Talking about that since theyre really moving forward and starting that development proce
Reached out and began speaking with the u. S. Public Health Service in january because we get began thinking about how we document the story, so it has been a slow process for us and we ramped up since we have come home, to think about collecting. Steve at what point did you pandemic would stretch into the summer and into the fall and potentially the winter . We definitelyns, have thought about the difficulties that are inherent in making a vaccine and so we this pandemicre would last if her amount of time, that we would need to remain at home for some months while a vaccine was being created. What is dont know happening, as you know, and so we are still taking things week by week in the museum. What do your job duties and how has it changed over the last few months . I oversee historians of medicine and science, and we have been planning an exhibit on the history of medicine for the museum. We started that four years ago, so when the pandemic was beginning, we were very deep into the