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Even while rushing through the Smithsonian Sprint, the team had time to see the pandas at the Zoo. Photo courtesy of @jorgevalens

This Monday seven D.C. interns from the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire tackled a challenging task: visiting 17 Smithsonian museums located in Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia in one day. With their Twitter and foursquare accounts at the ready, they set out to document the experience online and find a must-see item at each museum to guide future tourists in their well-traveled footsteps. They saw it all: the space suits at Air and Space, the pandas at the National Zoo, the elephant at the Natural History Museum – they even rode the carousel outside the Smithsonian Castle. Along the way there were triumphs (“The Peacock room at the @Freersackler is amazing! 11 museums left! #sisprint“) and tragedies (“Oh no!!! Foursquare is down! How can we prove we went to each museum?! #SIsprint“) but in the end, the interns met their goal (“We did it! Sitting inside the @AmericanArt / @Npg, we’ve now visited all 17 dc @Smithsonian museums in one day. #sisprint“). Check out their tweets, pictures, a map and more on their intern blog. We asked Scripps’ multimedia fellow and Smithsonian sprinter Danielle Alberti a few questions about the experience.

1) Why did you guys decide to do this?

Basically we saw that a lot of people were saying that they’re going to the Smithsonian and don’t understand that it’s just really huge. We wanted to get that idea of how big it really is, and we figured why don’t we try to do it all ourselves in one day. We thought about trying to get to the New York museums, but it just seemed too hard.

2) What was your favorite museum?

My personal favorite was Natural History. I don’t think you can beat walking in and seeing the elephant, it’s just amazing. The group’s favorite was Udvar-Hazy. When I was setting this up, their PR guy said it’s the best Smithsonian that nobody ever visits, and we certainly agree.

3) What were your favorite artifacts?

Let me take a quick poll. Probably the Blackbird [a reconnaissance plane] at Udvar-Hazy, the Peacock Room at Freer and Julia Child’s kitchen at American History.

4) What was the biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge was probably transportation. Getting to Anacostia and over to Dulles [where the Udvar-Hazy Center is located] and back over to the zoo took hours. We got to Anacostia at ten and didn’t get to our third stop, the zoo, until one. It took us three hours to see two museums.

5) What was the most fun part of the day?

One of the interns says that the carousel was the most fun part, and the security guard at the Portrait Gallery told us we were crazy so that was kind of satisfying.

6) Would you recommend the Smithsonian sprint to others?

Absolutely not. It’s 17 museums, and we walked into each one and said, 15 minutes then we meet back here. And 15 minutes just isn’t enough. Several of these museums are really huge, they have a lot to see, and what we did is not an adequate way to experience them. But I would say that if you have the time, you should definitely see as much as you can.

7) What one thing would your recommend most highly to visitors?

Udvar-Hazy. It’s really overwhelming to walk in and see this massive hangar completely full of planes and the space shuttle there. Even if you’re not an aviation geek, that building alone will make you breathless. If you can only do one thing, I’d say you should do that.

One of the two original pieces of Nakhla sent to the Smithsonian, virtually untouched since 1911. Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum.

On the morning of June 28, 1911, somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning, a fireball was observed northwest of Alexandria, Egypt. Few would realize what it was. But soon after, W.F. Hume, minister of the Geological Survey of Egypt, began taking eyewitness statements, and two months later published his report, “The First Meteorite Record in Egypt.”

One of those statements, from a farmer who claimed to have seen a fragment fall on a dog, gave rise to the popular myth that Nakhla, as the meteorite would be named, was “the dog killing meteorite,” an unsubstantiated claim, but the dramatic account is irresistible: “The fearful column which appeared in the sky at Denshal was substantial. The terrific noise it emitted was an explosion which made it erupt several fragments of volcanic materials. These curious fragments, falling to earth, buried themselves into the sand to the depth of about one metre. One of them fell on a dog. . .leaving it like ashes in a moment.”

Approximately 40 stones were recovered southeast of Alexandria, near the town of Abu Hummus. Of the stones recovered, Hume immediately sent two of them to the Smithsonian Institution, weighing 117g and 52g (or 4.3 4.13 ounces and .117 1.83 ounces). They arrived in August of 1911 and have been a part of the Natural History Museum’s collections ever since. Today, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Nakhla’s landing.

“At the time that Nakhla fell, we didn’t know that any of these were from Mars,” says Cari M. Corrigan, a geologist in the Division of Meteorites at the Natural History Museum. “All we knew was that they were different from the rest of the meteorites that we had, in general.”

Looking at the crystalline composition of the stones, it was clear that they had come from some sort of planetary body that had seen geologic processes, like volcanoes, and that the ‘parent body’ they came from had to be big enough for that kind of igneous activity to have taken place, Corrigan says.

Asteroids were ruled out, because they weren’t big or complex enough, so scientists started looking at other planets. “They didn’t say Mars, but Mars-like, or the moon, or something that size,” says Linda Welzenbach, collection manager of the National Meteorite Collection. Mars was a theory, but there was debate about whether or not you could actually get rocks, similar to what was found, off of Mars without them completely melting.

“There was very little science done on this rock until the late 1960s, early 1970s,” says Welzenbach, and identifying it was the result of a coalescence of information. A direct link was established in 1976 when the Viking spacecraft analyzed the Martian atmosphere. In 1983, scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center did a study where they measured some gases trapped in another Martian meteorite and compared that to the Viking landed atmospheric data. Their relationship to Nakhla was evident and in 1983, Nakhla was officially recognized as a piece of Mars.

The other Nakhla meteorite sent to the Smithsonian by Hume.

“Part of the reason it is significant to us is because it’s from Mars and it’s one of the first meteorites from Mars that we had,” Corrigan says. The first meteorite from Mars was Chassigny, which fell in 1815, followed by Shergotty, which fell in 1865. After Nakhla, there were no other Martian rocks until 1962 when Zagami fell in Nigeria, Welzenbach says.

“Studying these rocks has helped us understand the geologic history of Mars,” says Corrigan, “the interior and the geochemistry as whole, [and] how the planet evolved.”

Of the two original stones sent to the museum in 1911, the smaller one was eventually cut and used for scientific study, while the other has remained pretty much untouched since it fell. In 1962, E.P. Henderson, curator of the museum’s Division of Mineralogy and Petrology, as it was called at the time, wrote to the Geological Survey requesting some more material. They received 480g in 1962, a big piece—almost 17 ounces—and which is on display in the museum. Two smaller pieces arrived in 1977. The museum’s total holdings of Nakhla amounts to 650g, about 23 ounces.

Visitors can touch a piece of the 1.3 billion-year-old meteorite— young in comparison to most of the meteorites from the asteroid belt which are 4.5 billion years old—at the National Museum of Natural History.

Portrait of James Smithson, courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives

On this day, 182 years ago, James Smithson passed away in Genoa, Italy after a long illness at the age of 64. His will, which contained a puzzling provision, set in motion a series of circuitous events that would eventually lead to the creation of the Smithsonian Institution.

Smithson’s considerable wealth was left to his nephew Henry James Hungerford. But the will indicated that if Hungerford should die leaving no heirs—legitimate or illegitimate— the money was to go to the people of the United States of America to create something he called the Smithsonian Institution for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge” among men. The will was so extraordinary that it was published by the Times of London. While Smithson’s reasons and exact intentions are still unknown, the journey “from Smithson to Smithsonian” is intriguing.

“Nobody thought it would ever some to pass because his nephew was young and healthy and by all accounts quite good at spending money,” says Pamela Henson, director of the Smithsonian’s Institutional History Division. “It was very unlikely that this money would ever come to the United States.”

Born in France in 1765, James Lewis Macie was the illegitimate son of Hugh Smithson, who would later become the first Duke of Northumberland, and Elizabeth Keate Hungerford Macie. Upon the death of his mother, a widow of royal blood, Smithson inherited a considerable amount of money and adopted his father’s surname. A wealthy man, Smithson studied at Oxford and devoted his life to science, increasing his wealth through wise investments.

But in 1835, Smithson’s nephew died while living in Pisa, Italy without heirs. The executor of the estate contacted the American Chargé d’Affaires in London to set in motion the transfer of funds and eventually President Andrew Jackson was notified of the bequest. Unsure of whether or not he had the authority to accept the gift, President Jackson sent the issue over to Congress where a spirited debate ensued.

“This is pre-Civil War, 1830s, and states rights versus federalism is a hugely hot issue,” Henson says. “Southerners vehemently oppose this because they believe it’s a violation of states’ rights to create such a nation entity but John Quincy Adams, [the former president, now back in the House of Representatives] really takes this on as his case and pushes it through and he eventually triumphs.” Congress authorized the U.S. to accept the bequest on July 1, 1836.

If agreeing to accept the money was complicated, deciding what to do with it was almost impossible. Smithson, who had never set foot in the United States while living, apparently never discussed the provision in his will or his plans for the Institution with anyone. So, for ten years, Congress debated what “increase and diffusion of knowledge” meant and what such an establishment would look like. Several ideas were suggested, including: a scientific institute, a teacher’s training institute, a school of natural history, a university for the classics, a national observatory, a national library and a national museum. Eventually, a political compromise was reached, which provided for many of the different ideas suggested, and the Smithsonian Institution was founded, signed into law by President James K. Polk on August 10, 1846, and funded.

Not much is known about the life of James Smithson, whose papers, diaries and correspondence were lost in a massive 1865 fire in the Castle building. But a recent biography by Heather Ewing, who traveled throughout Europe looking in various archives for Smithson’s correspondence with others, does shed some additional light onto his life and scientific thinking. The mystery of why he decided to gift the equivalent of $508,318.46 to the United States and what his true intentions were may never be solved. “But it’s sort of fascinating what, by chance, that sentence at the end of his will turned out to be,” Henson says.

James Smithson’s remains, brought to the U.S. by Smithsonian Regent Alexander Graham Bell 75 years after his death, are interred in a tomb in the Castle Building. Learn more about his life and the founding of the Institution online.

Monday June 27 – Questions Answered

People are all different. But have you ever wondered why? Today, scientific understanding of human variation is challenging “racial” differences, even questioning the very concept of race. A new exhibit, “Race: Are We So Different?”, recently opened at the Natural History Museum. Find it on the northeast side of the 2nd floor of the museum. Today, volunteers will be in the exhibit engaging visitors, answering questions and encouraging thoughtful conversation about the science, history and culture behind the question of why people are different, as well as helping visitors explore the exhibit. Volunteers will be available throughout the day until closing, so feel free to swing by anytime.

Tuesday June 28 Trivia Hollywood Style

Get your game face on and make your Tuesday night memorable with a trip to the Kogod Courtyard located in the building that houses both the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum at 8th and F Streets. Starting at 6:30, play the Portrait Gallery’s trivia game, with questions drawn from the Gallery’s new multi-media collection and focusing on the history of Hollywood. The event is free, but the questions are hard, so kids might not enjoy it. Snacks and beverages are available for purchase from the Courtyard Cafe.

Wednesday June 29 Book Signing and Author Discussion

Take a trip beyond the Mall this Wednesday with a visit to the Anacostia Community Museum, located at 1901 Fort Place, SE.  Meet in the Program Room at 10:30 to hear from Dianne Dale, author of The Village That Shaped Us, as she tells the story of Washington, D.C.’s historic black community, Hillsdale, which was settled in 1867 by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Located within sight of the U.S. Capitol, the small neighborhood became a cornerstone of the city. Through illustrations, pictures and letters, Dale presents the story of this remarkable community. Join the author afterwards for a book signing. The event is free.

Thursday June 30 Delve Into Nature

Enjoy the outdoors this Thursday by visiting the Natural History Museum’s Butterfly Habitat Garden. Meet at the garden entrance on the east side of the museum on Madison Drive and 9th Street at 2, for a free tour. Look for the garden’s lead horticulturalist, usually dressed in green, to discuss some of the plants that attract, feed and nurture butterflies. Afterwards, see how many different butterflies you can find as you do some exploration on your own. Here’s a helpful hint: butterflies are most attracted to pink, purple and lavender, so wear one of these colors if you really want to attract the beautiful insects. This event is held every Thursday, weather permitting.

The 2011 Smithsonian Folklife Festival begins today! Check back with Around the Mall for daily events listings and interviews with festival presenters.

Friday July 1 Break Out of Your Routine

Escape the heat this Friday with a trip to the American Indian Museum. Go the Lelawi Theater on the 4th level of the museum to view the free film. Who Are We? is a unique 13-minute experience that transports viewers to the Arctic, the Northwest Coast and the plateaus of Bolivia. Watch as the film reveals the diversity of modern Native life. The orientation film is shown daily between 10:15 and 4:45.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibits go to the GoSmithsonian Visitors Guide.

Image courtesy of NMAA, SI

Vernon Reid is usually pushing the envelope. The British-born and Brooklyn-raised guitarist is the founder and primary songwriter of the hard rock band Living Colour. But Living Colour isn’t your typical hard rock band—its members are all African American, a rarity in the genre, and their music is heavily influenced by funk and jazz. The band hit it big with its debut album Vivid in 1988, and their Grammy-winning hit single, “Cult of Personality,” from that record. Reid’s versatile style of play and speedy chops propelled him to number 66  on Rolling Stone‘s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Living Colour has never been afraid to tackle social issues when it came to songwriting, and Reid co-founded the Black Rock Coalition in 1985, an organization designed to encourage the creative freedom of African American artists. This Saturday evening, June 18, at 6:30, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art presents “Artificial Afrika,” Reid’s current multimedia project that examines the modern mythology of African culture. Computer-generated graphics and images that dilute Africa into the simplest, stereotypical terms, such as famine victims and child soldiers will serve as counterpoint to more modern images of Africa on the video display while Reid provides a soundtrack of live guitar and electronic sounds. Nicole Shivers, the museum’s education specialist, is excited at the prospect of bringing in a work that she says tries to “dispel all the misperceptions of Africa, that it’s not this dark continent.”

I was able to speak with Vernon Reid about his inspiration for the project, his thoughts on the state of African American rock today, and the current status of Living Colour below:

It seems like there may have been a specific catalyst that started you down the road on this project—a visit to Africa, perhaps?

I think that there were several catalysts that inspired it. One thing was the images of Africa when I was coming up. Everything from cannibalism to “Yum Yum Eat ‘Em Up.” Then there are images that are representative objects of black people. Sort of “darky art.” That was another thing. And then there’s a certain way that I was supposed to feel about these things. They were supposed to be shut away. I was supposed to feel ashamed about them. And the sheer absurdity of the representations started to grab a hold of me. It was as if I went to the other side of what that is. I have been to Africa twice . . . . and I was struck by how there was supposed to be an epiphany, the sense of coming home, and that didn’t exactly happen. But what did happen was my fascination deepened . . . . And that’s where it all kind of congealed into the impulse to start making the work . . . . using my Macintosh and some public domain footage and eventually doing my own textures. It’s been described to me as paintings that move, as opposed to linear animation.

Vernon Reid performing in 2008. Image courtesy of Flickr user ildiva

What do you think is the most surprising thing you learned about yourself during this project?

My goodness, that’s a great question! I’ve learned that there is no ultimate answer. That the culture is always going to change, that things that seemed very solid can shift completely . . . . I think for all of us there’s a way we’re supposed to feel about Africa. We’re supposed to be concerned, and it’s a serious situation. And one of the things I’ve had to stay with is that looking at Africa aesthetically is still worthwhile. Even with everything else that’s been happening, aesthetics and beauty, the collisions are still worthwhile to pursue for their own merit because they are still a part of the whole. I don’t think I actually used the footage, but there’s some footage I saw from the BBC about child soldiers. And there’s a bunch of child soldiers literally dancing with their AK-47s. Like they adopted a ritual dance in a march with their AK-47s. And the dance was beautiful. And that’s the thing that struck me. That this is something of aesthetic merit, but it’s also horrible. And the two things coexist. That’s something that I struggled with.

You’re known for pushing the envelope when it comes to guitar style—how do you stay ahead of the curve?

I just try to follow my own impulses toward things that interest me. I’ve been known to use a lot of effects and guitar processing. And my interest in that is kind of multi-faceted. And of course hearing Jimi Hendrix and the things he did with guitar just opened my head completely up to what’s possible. And at the same time, there’s something to be said for the sound of the instrument unadorned. And the kind of effects that can happen with that–extended techniques. It’s kind of a balance between those two things. There are amazing things going on. I always keep an eye towards not just what’s for the moment, but what’s really truly innovative.

You co-founded the Black Rock Coalition back in 1985 to encourage African American rock artists. How do you feel about the current state of African Americans in rock?

You know, I’m not totally satisfied, but I will say that TV on the Radio is a band that I dreamed about back then. Literally, TV on the Radio is the reason why the coalition started. This is what it’s all about. It’s fantastic to me. Could there be more? Should there be more? Yes, but I couldn’t be prouder of that . . . . I think it’s wonderful, and there needs to be much more. And I am very happy with the creativity.

Speaking of music, what’s Living Colour’s current status?

Yeah, we’re literally in a transition, a management transition. We had done a bunch of work with the Experience Hendrix project. We’re gearing up to work on our next record. We are still functioning–or dysfunctioning! (chuckling)

Artificial Afrika will take place in the McAvoy Auditorium of the National Portrait Gallery at 6:30, Saturday, June 25, 2011.