On Wednesday, legendary Taiko drummer Kenny Endo performs a mix of traditional Japanese music and original jazz with Japanese flute player and drummer Kaoru Watanabe.

Tuesday, February 26: Let’s Move! with Smithsonian Gardens

Here’s a fun way to get active now that the weather’s taking a sunny turn: a scavenger hunt around the Mall. Smithsonian Gardens, which maintains the Mall’s lovely flora, provides free “Hunt Guides” at Smithsonian’s various museums (also available for download here). The guide has maps, challenges and a checklist that take you around the different gardens while giving mini-lessons about gardening and fitness. Get outside and make Michelle Obama proud! Free. 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., brochures available until October. Smithsonian Gardens.

Wednesday, February 27: Rhythms of Japanese Drums and Flutes

Ba-da-da-da-dum! Japanese drums! Two of the world’s best Japanese drummers, Kaoru Watanabe of renowned drumming ensemble Kodo and taiko superstar Kenny Endo, rock the museum tonight with a medley of traditional beats, kabuki classics and original jazz-influenced compositions. Both drummers were born in America and grew up with jazz and spent a decade abroad  honing their traditional Japanese drumming and flute chops. Having difficulty imagining what jazz sounds like on a flute accompanied by a giant drum? Check it out. Free tickets required. 7:30 p.m. Freer Gallery.

Thursday, February 28:  The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch is in the house this evening to talk about The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, an abridged version of his famous historical trilogy under the same header that chronicles the Civil Rights era from 1954 to 1968 with a focus on Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch, a MacArthur Fellow who has written for a variety of prominent publications and published nine books, will sign books following his discussion. Free, registration requested. 7 p.m. American History Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Paphiopedilium appletonianum. Guillaume Paumier via Wikimedia Commons

From decorative arts to religious stories to regional recipes, orchids figure prominently in the cultures of Latin America. The Aztecs were said to value vanilla–made from the seed pods of a vining orchid–so highly that it was used to pay taxes. Early instruments were held together by glue made from the flowers. And some tortilla recipes called for Stanhopea blooms.

Representing their origins in Latin America, hundreds of orchids will be on display as part of the Natural History Museum’s “Orchids of Latin America” exhibit, opening January 26.

Complete with a Mexican plaza and a winding path through beds of the exotic flowers, the exhibit will feature nearly 600 flowers with a twice-weekly rotation to keep the blooms fresh. The show offers a warm escape from the bitter winter and a chance to see the flowers that were said to aid Montezuma in his encounters with his wives or that are still a featured part of religious ceremonies.

Cymbidium hybrid. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Oncidum cebolleta. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Cattleya labiata. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Psychopsis papilio. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Laelia anceps. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Masdevallia Macchu Picchu. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Odontoglossum pulchellum. User Orchi via Wikimedia Commons

Miltoniopsis hybrids. Photo by James Osen, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Orchids of Latin America is on view at the National Museum of Natural History through April 21, 2013.

Last week’s holiday gift guide had a little something for everyone: science lover, wordsmiths, artsy types and history buffs. But this week, we’re bringing you the unabridged list of history picks, each of which were recommended by researchers, curators and staff at the Institution so they’ve got the smarty stamp of approval.

So stop sneezing over perfume samples and sorting through silk ties, this list of more than 30 titles, from hip-hop history for newcomers to the Civil War canon, is all you’ll need this holiday season.

Biography

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer delivers a dramatic account of one of the most famed but misunderstood women of all time. The New York Times called it “a cinematic portrait of a historical figure far more complex and compelling than any fictional creation, and a wide, panning, panoramic picture of her world.” (Recommended by Laurel Fritzsch, project assistant at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)

The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian by Heather Ewing. Learn more about this British chemist and the Institution’s founder, who left his fortunes to a country he’d never even set foot in, all in the name of science and knowledge. (Recommended by Robyn Einhorn, project assistant for armed forces history at the American History Museum)

Young Romantics: The Tangled Lives of English Poetry’s Greatest Generation by Daisy Hay. In addition to the celebrated figures of Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and John Keats, Hay’s book also weaves in mistresses, journalists and in-laws for a riveting tale of personal drama. (Recommended by Laurel Fritzsch, project assistant at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)

Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin. “Olmsted did so many different things in life, that it’s like reading a history of the country to read about him,” says the Institution’s Amy Karazsia. Not just the landscape architect behind everything from Central Park to Stanford University, Olmsted was also an outspoken abolitionist, whose social values informed his design. (Recommended by Amy Karazsia, director of giving at the American History Museum)

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature by Philip Nel. Not as famous as their mentee Maurice Sendak, Johnson and Krauss lived just as colorful a life creating children’s classic, including Harold and the Purple Crayon, that endure even today. (Recommended by Peggy Kidwell, curator of medicine and science at the American History Museum)

American History

Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America by Giles Milton. A look at some of the first settlers, including a Native American who had been taken captive, traveled to England and then returned to America as Lord and Governor before disappearing. Milton unravels the mystery of what happened to those early settlers. (Recommended by Carol Slatick, museum specialist at the American History Museum)

The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilization, 1600-1675 by Bernard Bailyn. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has written profusely on early American history here turns his eye to the people already on North America’s shores when the British arrived and their interactions with the colonists. (Recommended by Rayna Green, curator of home and community life at the American History Museum)

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood. For those who think they have the complete picture of the founding fathers, allow Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon S. Wood to fill in the details and explain what made each unique. (Recommended by Lee Woodman, senior advisor for the office of the director at the American History Museum)

Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 by Gordon S. Wood. And for those who like their Pulitzer Prize winners to take a broader look, Wood’s Empire of Liberty examines the larger context in which those greats from his Revolutionary Characters worked. (Recommended by Timothy Winkle, curator of home and community life at the American History Museum)

Six Frigates: The epic history of the founding of the US Navy, by Ian W. Toll. Our Smithsonian recommender wrote that this book is a, “real page-turner about the politics surrounding the creation of a navy, the shipbuilding process, the Navy culture of the time, characteristics of each ship and the characters who served on them,” from the War of 1812,  the Mediterranean naval actions and more. (Recommended by Brett Mcnish, supervisory horticulturalist at Smithsonian Gardens)

The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814 by Anthony Pitch. The story of how Dolly Madison rescued George Washington’s portrait from the White House when it was engulfed in flames during the British attack is by now common classroom stuff. But Pitch breathes new life into the now quaint tale, delivering a gripping account of the actions as they unfolded. (Recommended by Cathy Keen, archives curator at the American History Museum)

What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War by Chandra Manning. We remember the Civil War through the words of famous men, but Manning returns the struggle’s voice to those who fought, including both black and white soldiers as she pulls from journals, letters and regimental newspapers. (Recommended by Barbara Clark Smith, curator of political history at the American History Museum)

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner. Though we learn more about the man every year, Abraham Lincoln’s true relationship to the issue of slavery remains buried somewhere between pragmatism and indignation. This account from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Foner brings out the nuance of the full conversation, not shying away from the difficult and sometimes contradictory parts. (Recommended by Arthur Molella, director of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. The best-selling book just released in June details the attempted assassination of President Garfield in 1881. Full of intrigue, the book found fans in the Smithsonian partly because the apparatus Alexander Graham Bell used to find the bullet which wounded the President is actually in the collections. (Recommended by Roger Sherman, curator of medicine and science for the American History Museum)

Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation by Deborah Davis. Though enslaved African Americans built the White House, none had ever dined there until Booker T. Washington was invited to by President Roosevelt. The incredibly controversial dinner engulfed the country in outrage but Davis places it within a larger story, uniting the biographies of two very different men. (Recommended by Joann Stevens, program director of Jazz Appreciation Month at the American History Museum)

Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy by Bruce Watson. Racism consumed the entire nation, but the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chose Mississippi as one of the worst offenders. A modest army of hundreds of students and activists went to the state to man voter registration drives and fill the schools with teachers. Though the summer produced change, it also witnessed the murder of three young men whose deaths would not be solved until years later. (Recommended by Christopher Wilson, program director of African American culture at the American History Museum)

The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. This four-volume monolith by the Pulitzer Prize winning Robert Caro runs more than 3,000 pages and yet it captured the adoration of nearly every reviewer for its painstakingly thorough and engaging biography of a complicated man and era. (Recommended by Rayna Green, curator of home and community life at the American History Museum)

Social History

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson. As Alex Dencker says, this is, “not a typical Civil War book.” McPherson deftly handles the Civil War while also creating a portrait of what made America unique, from its infrastructure, to its agriculture to its populations, to set the stage in a new way. (Recommended by Alex Dencker, horticulturalist at Smithsonian Gardens)

City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist. July 1919 proved particularly eventful in Chicago, with a race riot, the Goodyear blimp disaster and a dramatic police hunt for a missing girl. Krist looks beyond the buzz of headlines to capture a city in transformation. (Recommended by Bonnie Campbell Lilienfeld, supervisor curator of home and community life at the American History Museum)

Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez. A revised and updated edition of a comprehensive work from columnist Juan Gonzalez provides a contemporary look at the long history of a diverse group whose national profile continues to rise. (Recommended by Magdalena Mieri, program director in Latino history and culture at the American History Museum)

The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich. Valeska Hilbig, from the American History Museum, loved the way this book, “as compelling as any novel,” also provided “an accurate, intimate history of new women journalists invading the male journalistic world of the 1970s” to reveal how women’s struggle for recognition in the workplace may just be beginning. (Recommended by Valeska Hilbig, public affairs specialist at the American History Museum)

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. If you happen to, like Bill Bryson, live in a 19th century English rectory, you might assume your home is full of history. But Bryson shows us, in addition to touring his own home, that these private and often ignored spaces hold the story of human advancement. (Recommended by Laurel Fritzsch, project assistant at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)

Science History

Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History by Mary Kilbourne Matossian. Could food poisoning have been at the heart of some of Europe’s strangest moments in history? That’s what Matossian argues in her look at how everything from food preparation to climate may have shaped a region’s history. (Recommended by Carol Slatick, museum specialist at the American History Museum)

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor. An easy read that looks at the often dark and very long history of biological warfare, using everything from Greek mythology to evidence from archeological dig sties. (Recommended by Carol Slatick, museum specialist at the American History Museum)

The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States by Mark Fiege. In a sweeping history, Fiege persuasively argues that no moment in time can be separated from its environment, brining together natural and social history. (Recommended by Jeffrey Stine, supervisory curator of medicine and science at the American History Museum)

Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick. Our insider, Brett McNish, described the text and its connection to the institution saying it was, “a brilliant read about the U.S. Exploring Expedition (a.k.a. Wilkes Expedition) and what would become the basis of the Smithsonian’s collection,” noting that, “Smithsonian Gardens has descendants of some of the plants Wilkes brought back in our Orchid Collection and garden areas.” (Recommended by Brett McNish, supervisory horticulturalist of grounds management)

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson. 1854 London was both a thriving young metropolis and the perfect breeding ground for a deadly cholera outbreak. Johnson tells the story not just of the outbreak, but how the outbreak influenced that era’s fledgling cities and scientific worldview. (Recommended by Judy Chelnick, curator of medicine and science at the American History Museum)

The Arcanum The Extraordinary True Story By Janet Gleeson. The search for an elixir has long obsessed man, but in the early 18th century, Europeans were hard at work on another mystery: how exactly the East made its famed and envied porcelain. Gleeson tells the diverting tale of that fevered search with flourish. (Recommended by Robyn Einhorn, project assistant for armed forces history at the American History Museum)

The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America’s Unburied Dead by Ann Fabian. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, the story of skull collecting in a misguided effort to confirm racist stereotypes of the 1800s is a dark, even ghoulish tale. Fabian takes one noted naturalist, Samuel George Morton, who collected hundreds of skulls over his lifetime as she unpacks a society’s cranial obsession. (Recommended by Barbara Clark Smith, curator of political history at the American History Museum)

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. For years, poisons had been the preferred weapon of the country’s underworld. All that changed, however, in 1918 when Charles Norris was named New York City’s chief medical examiner  and made it his mission to apply science to his work. (Recommended by Laurel Fritzsch, project assistant at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)

Music History

Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ by Mark Katz. Told from the point of the view of the very people at the center of the genre’s creation, Katz’s history of hip-hop relies on the figure of the DJ to tell its story and reveal the true innovation of the craft that began in the Bronx. (Recommended by Laurel Fritzsch, project assistant at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)

Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era by Thomas Guzmán Sánchez. According to the Institution’s Marvette Perez, the text “captures the essence of hip-hop culture in California, not only from a great student of hip hop and popular culture, but one who was part of the movement back in the day, a great account.” Looking at the break dance movement that predated hip-hop’s origins, Sánchez details what made California’s scene so unique. (Recommended by Marvette Perez, curator of culture and the arts at the American History Museum)

Read more articles about the holidays with our Smithsonian Holiday Guide here

Striking reds take center stage in fall in the form of the Lycoris radiate or Hurricane Lilly. Photo by Eric Long, Courtesy the Smithsonian Gardens

During the height of summer, crossing the Mall can sometimes feel like crossing the Serengeti as a hunted animal, searching for any shaded place of refuge. But fall means more than a reprieve from humid heat at the Smithsonian; it means beautiful autumnal blooms bursting with color in the gardens. Stroll through the lush landscapes on your own or take advantage of a guided tour to learn more about the floral finds of fall.

Nature in all its forms, including the Aristolochia gigantean, abounds in the gardens. Photo by Eric Long, Courtesy the Smithsonian Gardens

Eye-catching color befitting a plant known as Joseph’s Coat, Amaranthus tricolor. Courtesy Smithsonian Gardens

Demure can never be overdone with the Heirloom Rose. Cultivar Unknown. Courtesy the Smithsonian Gardens

Start seeing purple, these plants, Callicarpa dichotoma, are appropriately known as beauty berries. Courtesy the Smithsonian Gardens

Tours are offered throughout the week until the end of September. Check the schedule here. 

Photographer Eric Long captures a rainbow over the Air and Space Museum.

The roses in the Katherine Dulin Folger garden.

My morning starts early, usually 6 a.m., and hopefully with a cup of coffee in hand to get me started, I walk to work. I saw the rainbow, one that I hadn’t seen in my 29 years as a Smithsonian Institution staff photographer, and I could only think of one thing—my camera. I hurried inside, grabbed what I could and dashed back out to the National Mall, knowing that the sun was rising and perfectly illuminating the north and east sides of the Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Institution “Castle” building. Photography is about capturing the moment, whether it be a space shuttle flying over DC, or a beautiful sunrise followed with a rainbow. As I took the shots, I continued walking towards the Castle because my experience has told me that another part of photography is working with the light that makes the moment possible. I caught the couple presumably on their way to work, the sunlight pleasantly warming their moment. At the Castle, the roses in the Katherine Dulin Folger garden are majestic this time of year. The heavy early morning rain had left water droplets on the pedals. The Castle doors of the east entrance are not normally closed at this time of day, a bit of luck for a passing photographer. I knew the sun striking the solid wood  with the iron decoration would make for a handsome backdrop for the roses. On my walk back to work at the Air and Space Museum, I could see the sun striking the tall stems of the flowers, more photographic opportunity—a pleasant end to a morning shoot.

Eric F. Long is a staff photographer at the National Air and Space Museum. His recent work can be viewed in the new book A Guide to Smithsonian Gardens by Carole Ottesen.

Every Tuesday, take a guided tour through the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden.

Tuesday, May 1 Mary Livingston Ripley Garden Tour

Happy May Day! May 1st kicks off Smithsonian Gardens’ Mary Livingston Ripley Garden Tour, which runs every Tuesday through October. The garden’s namesake, Mrs. S. Dillon Ripley, wife of the Smithsonian Institution’s eighth Secretary, dreamed up a “fragrant garden” on the eastern border of the Arts and Industries Building, which was originally designated to become a parking lot. In 1978, she made the dream a reality with the help of the Women’s Committee of the Smithsonian Associates. Join horticulturist Janet Draper for a guided stroll through the garden. Free. 2:00 p.m. Meet at the fountain in the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden.

Wednesday, May 2 X-Ray Astronomy and the Multicolored Universe

Space telescope Chandra’s X-ray camera can see some of the most dynamic events in space—erupting black holes, exploding stars, and colliding galaxies. In this lecture, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, explains how X-ray telescopes like Chandra probe cosmic dramas. $40 for general admission, $30 for members. 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center.

Thursday, May 3 Meet the Artist: Roni Horn

The New York Times once remarked, “Sometimes it seems as if Roni Horn’s art were considered the greatest thing since sliced bread, at least in certain regions of the art world.” Horn’s work, which spans sculpture, photography, painting and drawing, has certainly attracted attention for its provocative statements on gender, androgyny and identity. In this latest of the Hirshhorn’s “Meet the Artist” series, Horn will discuss her recent projects and inspirations. Free. 7:00 p.m. Hirshhorn Museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Shake off winter with a scavenger hunt in the Smithsonian Gardens.

Tuesday, April 3 Spring Break at the National Portrait Gallery

Need to occupy a bored child on spring break? Take the family to the National Portrait Gallery for storytelling and arts and crafts in a special program through April 6. Drop in for a Portrait Story or pick up a Portrait Discovery Kit to learn about famous Americans using the museum’s selection of self-guided games and activities. Free. 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Education Center, National Portrait Gallery.

Wednesday, April 4 Let’s Move! with Smithsonian Gardens

Winter couch potatoes, it’s time to shake off the doldrums and get moving into spring! As part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens” campaign, Smithsonian Gardens has set up a scavenger hunt that lets kids and adults exercise body and mind at the same time. Explore nine Smithsonian gardens through clues and trivia. Don’t forget to bring a pedometer to count your steps. Free. Pick up a brochure at most museum information desks. Smithsonian Gardens.

Thursday, April 5 Baseball and the Presidency

Which president was a professional baseball player? Baseball enthusiast and historian Mel Marmer has the answer and more in this discussion of how our nation’s leaders have enjoyed our national pastime throughout history. What better way to celebrate the start of baseball season? Free. 12:00 p.m. American Art Museum.

Smithsonian’s newest museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, will break ground with much fanfare. As announced yesterday, the February 22 groundbreaking ceremony on the National Mall will be emceed by actress and singer Phylicia Rashad, will feature former First Lady Laura Bush and will include remarks by President Barack Obama. The event will also feature musical performances by opera singer Denyce Graves, baritone Thomas Hampson, jazz pianist Jason Moran, the U.S. Navy Band and others.

The museum will be located 0n the National Mall on Constitution Avenue between 14th and 15th streets, between the American History Museum and the Washington Monument. Scheduled to open in 2015, the museum will be the only national museum devoted exclusively to African American life, art, history and culture. Plans first began in 2003, when Congress passed the National Museum of African American History and Culture Act. Since July 2005, when Lonnie Bunch was named the director, the museum has began collecting artifacts and producing exhibitions displayed in the American History Museum and elsewhere.

In April 2009, an official jury selected the design for the building, choosing David Adjaye’s bronze, multi-tiered structure. “The form of the building suggests a very upward mobility,” Adjaye said in a recent interview with Smithsonian. “For me, the story is one that’s extremely uplifting, as a kind of world story. It’s not a story of a people that were taken down, but actually a people that overcame.”

Of course, the National Mall is home to many Smithsonian Museums—and has hosted a number of groundbreaking ceremonies throughout the Institution’s history. We assembled a selection of shovel-at-the-ready images from the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

The groundbreaking for the Natural History Museum on June 15, 1904. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

The Natural History Museum was originally constructed as the U.S. National Museum Building. Architects Joseph Coerten Hornblower and James Rush Marshall, Secretary Samuel P. Langley and Smithsonian employees looked on as the first shovel of dirt was lifted in 1904.

Solomon Brown, Smithsonian employee and poet, was present at the Natural History Museum groundbreaking in 1904. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Solomon Brown worked at the Smithsonian for more than fifty years, from 1852 to 1906, and was likely the Institution’s first African-American employee, hired as a cabinetmaker soon after its founding in 1846. On the 100th anniversary of the groundbreaking, in June of 2004, a tree was planted in his name on the grounds of the National Museum of Natural History.

The 1916 groundbreaking for the Freer Gallery of Art. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Geologist George P. Merrill and others gathered in 1916 to watch sod lifted for the Freer Gallery of Art, which was completed in 1923 to house railroad manufacturer Charles Lang Freer’s extensive collection of classical Asian art.

The 1972 groundbreaking for the Air and Space Museum. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

In 1972, the Smithsonian secretary Dillon S. Ripley and Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger turn over the first shovelfuls of dirt for the Air and Space Museum. They were joined by Representative Kenneth Gray and Senators Jennings Randolph and J. William Fulbright. Before the building was constructed, the museum was known as the National Air Museum, and its artifacts were housed in a number of Smithsonian buildings.

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, Vice President George Bush, and Secretary S. Dillon Ripley break ground on the Quadrangle Complex on June 21, 1983. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

The Quadrangle complex was built behind the castle to house the National Museum of African Art, the Sackler Gallery of Asian Art, the S. Dillon Ripley Center and the Enid A. Haupt Garden. Then-vice president George Bush was on hand to supervise the groundbreaking in 1983.

Museum staff, director John Kinard and Smithsonian secretary Robert McCormick Adams break ground on the Anacostia Community Museum in 1985. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

The Anacostia Community Museum was originally known as the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, designed to reflect the history and traditions of families, organizations, individuals and communities, as well as serve the Anacostia Community. A groundbreaking ceremony in 1985 included the museum’s founding director John Kinard and then-Smithsonian secretary Robert McCormick Adams.

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? Ask Smithsonian.

Our inquisitive readers are rising to the challenge we gave them last month. The questions are pouring in and we’re ready for more. Do you have any questions for our curators? Submit your questions here.

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? — Marjorie Mathews, Silver Spring, Maryland

That’s the most popular question we get, but we don’t really satisfy people by giving them a number. There are a number of answers, but the best one is that we honestly don’t know. It’s a little bit like Liz Taylor’s jewels being sold in December—all kinds of people guessed at what they would sell for, but everybody I know was way off. Only when those pieces were opened up to bidding at a public auction could you find out what their values were. When they were sold, then at least for that day and that night you could say, well, they were worth that much. The Hope Diamond is kind of the same way, but more so. There’s simply nothing else like it. So how do you put a value on the history, on the fact it’s been here on display for over 50 years and a few hundred million people have seen it, and on that fact it’s a rare blue diamond on top of everything else? You don’t. – Jeffrey E. Post, mineralogist, National Museum of Natural History

What’s the worst impact of ocean acidification so far?- Nancy Schaefer, Virginia Beach, Virginia

The impacts of ocean acidification are really just starting to be felt, but two big reports that came out in 2011 show that it could have very serious effects on coral reefs. These studies did not measure the warming effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but rather its effect of making the ocean more acidic when it dissolves in the ocean. Places where large amounts of carbon dioxide seep into the water from the sea floor provide a natural experiment and show us how ocean waters might look, say, 50 or 100 years from now. Both studies showed branching, lacy, delicate coral forms are likely to disappear, and with them that kind of three-dimensional complexity so many species depend on. Also, other species that build a stony skeleton or shell, such as oysters or mussels, are likely to be affected. This happens because acidification makes carbonate ions, which these species need for their skeletons, less abundant.

Nancy Knowlton, marine biologist
National Museum of Natural History

Art and artifacts from ancient South Pacific and Pacific Northwest tribes have similarities in form and function. Is it possible that early Hawaiians caught part of the Kuroshio Current of the North Pacific Gyre to end up along the northwest coast of America from northern California to Alaska? — April Amy Croan, Maple Valley, Washington

Those similarities have given rise to various theories, including trans-Pacific navigation, independent drifts of floating artifacts, inadvertent crossings by ships that have lost their rudders or rigging, or whales harpooned in one area that died or were captured in a distant place. Some connections are well-known, like feather garment fragments found in an archaeological site in Southeast Alaska that appear to have been brought there by whaling ships that had stopped in the Hawaiian Islands, a regular route for 19th-century whalers. Before the period of European contact, the greatest similarities are with the southwest Pacific, not Hawaii. The Kushiro current would have facilitated Asian coastal contacts with northwestern North America, but would not have helped Hawaiians. The problem of identification is one of context, form and dating. Most of the reported similarities are either out of their original context (which can’t be reconstructed), or their form is not specific enough to relate to another area’s style, or the date of creation cannot be established. To date there is no acceptable proof for South Pacific-Northwest Coast historical connections that predates the European whaling era, except for links that follow the coastal region of the North Pacific into Alaska.

William Fitzhugh, archeologist
Natural History Museum

Kogod Courtyard is a 28,000-square-foot space with seating, free Wi-Fi and a Courtyard Café. Courtesy of Timothy Hursley

If you are taking classes at one of the area universities and need to study, but you are looking for a change of scenery, the Smithsonian Institution offers some quiet, study nooks.

Kogod Courtyard: In the Donald W. Reynolds Center, which houses the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Kogod Courtyard is a 28,000-square-foot space with seating, free Wi-Fi and a Courtyard Café. Designed by Foster + Partners, a world famous architectural firm, the courtyard is covered by a wavy, 900-pound, glass and steel canopy. I suggest staking out a study spot here if you are sick of your stuffy library, dorm room or office, because with loads of natural light, ficus, black olive trees and water scrims by landscape architects Kathryn Gustafson and Rodrigo Abela, it at least gives you the sense that you are outdoors.

Lerner Room: Maybe natural light is something I crave working in a cubicle, but another bright space is the Lerner Room, on the third floor of the Hirshhorn Museum. The room, on the north side of the ring-shaped museum, has a panoramic expanse of floor-to-ceiling windows that offers visitors a great view of the National Mall. A curved couch positioned in front of the window makes it a perfect place to curl up with a book, and there are also large tables, which make it a great work space. Enormous Sol LeWitt drawings, one in color and the other in black and white, on the room’s other two walls also give it a cheery atmosphere.

Mitsitam Cafe: The native foods from the Western Hemisphere’s Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso America and Great Plains cooked up at the National Museum of the American Indian’s highly-rated Mitsitam Cafe certainly draw crowds. But if you don’t mind the clamor of diners, or you actually work better with some background noise, then the cafe, with lots of seating and Wi-Fi, can be a nice place to study. Bonus: the traditional frybread makes for a sweet snack.

Enid A. Haupt Garden: Sick of the quad, but in need of some fresh air? Visit a Smithsonian garden. There are several along the stretch between the Hirshhorn and the Freer Gallery on the south side of the National Mall. My favorite is the immaculately-kept, four-acre Enid A. Haupt Garden just behind the Smithsonian Castle—and just above an underground complex that includes the National Museum of African Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the S. Dillon Ripley Center. Bring a blanket to spread under a large shade tree, and your laptop. There is free Wi-Fi. On a hot day, you can always retreat to the Castle Café.

Luce Foundation Center: This space on the third and fourth floors of the Smithsonian American Art Museum is a library of a different sort. The museum keeps more than 3,300 pieces of art from its permanent collection in large glass cases, and coins and jewelry in layers of drawers. If you take up post at one of the tables in the center, perhaps you want to time it with an Art + Coffee event that includes a brief talk or tour of the center with coffee and tea. Occasionally and usually on Wednesdays through Sundays, at 1:30 p.m., the center hosts a tour and talk, with complimentary coffee or tea, followed by an acoustic concert by a local musician.

Update 9/23/2011: This post now includes additional information about the Kogod Courtyard.

It is said that April showers bring May flowers. So what do May flowers bring? Pollen, which attracts bees (and attacks the sinuses), and nectar which feeds the butterflies, emblematic of the welcome change in seasons. We know it’s spring when we start to see butterflies again, but how do butterflies know when it’s time to come out? Well, two ways—temperature and length of day, which increases as the weather gets warmer, says Dr. Robert Robbins, research entomologist and Lepidoptera curator at the National Museum of Natural History.

According to Robbins, the first butterflies of the season came out in Washington in the middle of March, during the few warm days we had that month. These early butterflies overwintered as adults, hidden underneath bark and in nooks in the woods. (Other butterflies may spend winter as an egg, a caterpillar, a pupa or fly south to avoid the cold). In the Washington, D.C. area, the most common species of butterflies you’ll see now are: Commas, butterflies that are a mixture of neutral colors like tan and brown with the exception of a big silver comma mark on their wings; Mourning Cloaks, black butterflies with yellow around the edges, so named because hundreds of years ago they looked like they were wearing cloaks for mourning and Spring Azures, very pretty light blue-colored butterflies. These butterflies aren’t likely to be around much longer, but not to worry, there  are still plenty more to see.

Now, while the National Mall isn’t a very good habitat for butterflies, the ATM team scoured the museums to bring you the top five places to see butterflies around the Smithsonian Institution.

One of the many butterflies at the Natural History Museum. Photo courtesy of Flickr user "Cowboy" Ben Alman

1. Take a stroll among live butterflies and exotic plants at the Butterfly Pavilion at the National Museum of Natural History and learn how butterflies and plants have changed and evolved alongside one another over the years. With more than 40 butterflies on display, you can get up close and personal with butterflies from around the world. Ticket purchase is required before arrival.

2. Continue east of the Natural History Museum to find the Butterfly Habitat Garden, where nectar plants (which nourish the butterflies) and host plants (on which they lay eggs) come together to attract butterflies and encourage them to breed there, says Jonathan Kavalier, supervisory Horticulturist at Smithsonian Gardens. “The habitat garden is designed to encourage native butterflies,” says Kavalier. “There are about 50 butterflies that are common in the D.C. area and I would say that we have certainly a couple dozen represented in the garden.” The garden is busiest around the summer months but there’s already been some activity there, so get a jump on the crowds and enjoy the pesticide-free oasis for some of the prettiest harbingers of spring.

3. While finding butterflies outside comes at no surprise, they can also be found in some unexpected places, like the museums. With the end of the space shuttle program in sight, it’s important to remember the scientific experiments conducted aboard the shuttles and at the International Space Station. For example, did you know that a butterfly habitat was flown aboard space shuttle Columbia on the STS-93 mission in July 1999 for a butterfly metamorphosis experiment? Learn more and see a duplicate of the habitat at the Space Science exhibition station at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

4. Adult butterflies usually have a short lifespan. “If you bring a butterfly into the lab, where it won’t get eaten by a bird [or some other predator] and you feed it some kind of nectar or sugar solution, most butterflies will live approximately a month,” says Robbins, “maybe a drop longer, sometimes a bit shorter.” Some species are even endangered. See one, the Schaus Swallowtail Butterfly, on a 1996 single stamp (back when they were 32 cents) in the Postal Museum’s virtual exhibit collections. Granted Federal Endangered Status since 1984, this may one of the few places to see one up close.  It is also one of many butterfly stamps searchable in the museum’s Arago database.

5. The newly-restored Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art boasts a number of stunning attractions, among them a “lidded jar with design of butterflies.” See it now in its renovated surroundings. If you’re still on the hunt for more butterflies, stroll around the rest of the galleries and look closely at the paintings, you may find some additional butterfly renderings there.

While you are out and about, enjoying the weather, be on the lookout for other local springtime beauties like: the black and white stripped Zebra Swallowtail, which can be found eating pawpaw plants along the Potomac and Pautuxent Rivers, the yellow and black stripped Tiger Swallowtail, which feeds on the tulip trees which grow so abundantly around Washington and the Monarch butterflies, which should be returning back from Mexico.

Friday, May 6

Family-friendly celebration of plants, gardens and gardening. Add to a garden mural, build a puppet, make a miniature Japanese garden and take home seeds for your garden. Saturday will include live music and a stilt walker. Location: Enid A. Haupt Garden, south of the Castle. In the event of rain, activities will move to the Ripley Center. Free. Friday, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM. Saturday, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM. http://gardens.si.edu/gardenfest/

Saturday, May 7 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Make a family storybook or create fortune cookies in clay, play a game with chopsticks or participate in video interviews. Watch the film “The Killing of a Chinese Cookie,” which answers the question “Who really invented the fortune cookie?” at 1:00 PM, followed by a Q&A with director Derek Shimoda. Cedric Yeh, curator, will give a personal look at the exhibition, Sweet and Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in America. Free. 11:00 AM to 4 PM. American History Museum, sponsored by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.

Sunday, May 8 Celebrate Mother’s Day with the Mendelssohn Piano Trio

A musical performance sure to tickle the fancy of any mother. Pianist Ya-Ting Chang, violinist Peter Sirotin, and cellist Fiona Thompson will perform works by J. Haydn and C. Saint-Saëns, as well as the celebrated Dumky trio by A. Dvořák. Free. 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. American Art Museum.

Spring time at the Smithsonian. Learn from the gardeners themselves. Photo by Eric Long

April showers bring May flowers. Or maybe, just mosquitoes. But the horticulture folks who bring you the Smithsonian gardens want you front and center tomorrow and Saturday (May 6 and 7). Bring your wellies and gloves to this year’s Garden Fest for tips and techniques to make your flowers and veggies grow like they were planted by an expert.

Established in 1972, the Smithsonian Gardens’ crew and staff like to think themselves as the “outdoor museum” of the Institution. The gorgeous landscaping and gardens are the equivalent of horticultural exhibitions, designed to compliment the museums that they border. For example, Natural History museum’s nearby butterfly garden tells the story of host plants and habitats like wetlands and meadows and woodland edges where the insects thrive. Garden Fest, started in 2006, is a two-day, free event that allows visitors to talk with Smithsonian horticulturists about the work they do and the places and spaces that they create.

“The Smithsonian Gardens themselves are an asset, not only to the visitors of the Smithsonian, but also to the residents of DC as a place of respite from the urban environment,” says Smithsonian horticulturist Shelley Gaskins. “Garden Fest seeks to educate the public about gardens, gardening and all things related.”

Visitors will learn about the benefits of adding certain insects into their gardens at Beneficial Insects in the Garden and how to increase biodiversity by growing heirloom vegetable plants at What is Old is New Again: Heirloom Tomato Pot-a-Plant.

Smithsonian Gardens chose “Celebrating the American Garden Experience” as the theme of this year’s Garden Fest.  Many of the activities at the festival have been developed from American gardening traditions and highlight uniquely American flowers and plants.

Some of the activities include creating sunflower seed packets, coloring garden gnome plant stakes, and learning about the roles that trees have played in American history.

This year’s Garden Fest also starts on National Public Gardens Day. “Garden Fest celebrates National Public Garden Day by inviting local public gardens to join in our celebration,” said Gaskins. The information and activities available at Garden Fest help support the goals of National Public Gardens Day such as conservation, education and environmental stewardship.

Garden Fest will take place on Friday, May 6 from 11 AM to 1 PM and Saturday, May 7 from 11 AM to 3 PM in the Enip A. Haupt Garden, which is located between the Smithsonian Castle and Independence Ave. In the event of rain, all activities will move to the S. Dillon Ripley Center.

Family-friendly and hands-on. Forensic anthropology is not just for scientists! Meet at Natural History in the exhibition, “Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake,” and learn to use human bones to solve mysteries. In no time at all, be an expert at identifying people from the past and drawing conclusions about how they live their lives. Free. Natural History Museum. 1:00 PM-5:00 PM.

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly by James Hampton. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Tuesday, May 3 Outsider Art

Smithsonian magazine contributor David Taylor talks about how outsider art inspires his writing. The author describes his first encounter with the intensely religious and visionary work, “Throne of Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly” by James Hampton, on view in the Folk Art section of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Taylor ‘s contributions to Smithsonian magazine include articles on the WPA Project and ginseng Free. American Art Museum. 6:00 PM-7:00 PM.

Wednesday, May 4 Born to be Wild 3D

Featuring the conservation efforts of primatologist Birute Galdikas with orangutans in Borneo, along with that of Dame Daphne Sheldrick‘s work with elephants in Kenya. Both women live near the animals, rescuing them and returning them to live in the wild. The film is shown at 2:25, 4:25 and 6:25 daily, in the Johnson IMAX Theater at the Natural History museum. Tickets are $9 adults, $8 seniors and $7.50 children ages 2 to 12. Toll free phone 866-868-7774 or online.

Thursday, May 5 Zing! Went the Strings

Enjoy string quintets by Haydn and Dvořák and a quartet by Mozart, performed by stars of the Marlboro Music Festival: violinists Benjamin Beilman and Veronika Eberle, violists Beth Guterman and Yura Lee, and cellist Judith Serkin. Free, but tickets required. 7:30 PM. Freer Gallery of Art.

Friday, May  6 Smithsonian Garden Fest

This two-day Family-friendly celebration of plants, gardens and gardening explore this year’s theme of “Celebrating the American Garden Experience.” Add to a garden mural, build a puppet, make a miniature Japanese garden and take home seeds. Saturday will includes live music performances and a stilt walker. Location: Enid A. Haupt Garden, south of the Castle. In the event of rain, activities will move to the Ripley Center. Free. Friday, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM. Sunday, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM.

All Smithsonian Institution museums and the National Zoo are Open. Photo by Eric Long

All Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are open.

Don’t miss out on all the events and happenings, all scheduled as planned. Tarantula feedings at the Natural History Museum. A special tour of the Kinsey Collections at American History. An Earth Day celebration at the American Art Museum.

And here’s a list of all the exhibitions that are on view.  For the first time, the Freer Gallery’s renowned Peacock Room has been restored to its appearance in 1908, when the museum’s founder Charles Lang Freer used it to organize and display more than 250 ceramics from all over Asia. The new exhibition, The Peacock Room Comes to America, debuts today.

Other don’t-miss exhibitions and landmark Smithsonian artifacts like the Hope Diamond, Julia Child’s kitchen, the Ruby Slippers, The Wright Flyer, The First Ladies exhibition can be found at the following Smithsonian museum locations:

• The Smithsonian Castle
• The Carousel on the National Mall
• The Ripley Center and International Gallery
• The National Museum of American History
• The National Museum of Natural History
• The National Air and Space Museum
• The Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia
• The Smithsonian American Art Museum
• The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• The National Portrait Gallery
• The Freer and Sackler Galleries
• The Hirshhorn Museum
• The African Art Museum
• The National Museum of the American Indian
• The National Postal Museum
• The National Zoo
• The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City
• The George Gusav Heye Center in New York City

This weekend marks a special time for Smithsonian visitors and the Institution’s spokesperson Linda St. Thomas expressed her delight that the museums were all open for business this weekend:  “People have planned for months, or a year or more, for their spring visits to Washington, which always includes visits to the museums and the Zoo. If it were up to us, we would never shut down. That’s why we are only closed one day a year—Christmas Day.”

Of course spring time is also is presenting Smithsonian photographer Eric Long with some of the most exquisite visual opportunities, enjoy this gallery before gearing up to head out.