DAVID B. TIMMINS AmEmbassy - Bucharest APO AE 09213-1315 May 12, 1993 L. Michael Heyman Secretary Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560 Sir: Business Week magazine carried in its May 8 edition an article reporting on how the Smithsonian has been working with American businesses to raise funds and improve its outreach. This new display of managerial vigor encourages me to write for a second time with a couple of suggestions which have been running around in my mind for several years, but to which your Public Affairs Director responded only with one of the we're-doing-fine-thank-you, no-new-intiatives needed letters which I myself have had the experience of writing for nearly a dozen ambassadors as well as a couple of previous Secretaries of State. I must concede your Public Affairs gal is talented at the trade, but I hope you, as Secretary of the Smithsonian, will give more serious consideration to the following notions offered in the spirit of the new initiatives reported in Business Week . Having lived abroad for most of my adult life, I have been impressed by the efforts -- particularly in Paris and London -- to undertake a cooperative effort between their national museums and their city metro systems. At Louvre metro stop, there has been installed a colorful series of windows displaying (copies) of some of the treasures of the Louvre to alert tourists that they are passing the Louvre as well as to remind residents of the city that the nations treasures are at hand for weekend visits with their children. London has similar displays on its Underground to remind riders of the presence of the museum. And Moscow has perhaps the most elaborate museum/metro displays of all. The Washington metro is both grey-concrete-dismal and, effectively, unused for either commercial or public monument publicity. While I was gratified by the courtesy of your Public Affairs Chief's response saying that a couple of "backlit poster-like signs had been installed at appropriate metro stops", I am writing again to press a point which I think she missed in her reading of my initial suggestion. I have been a metro user in D.C. since its inception -- most recently from July to December of last year -- and I have never once noticed the posters she mentioned. How many others have? You need a much bolder and more noticeable program: something which will in addition to bringing attention to important Smithsonian exhibits and upcoming events, really help beautify the dismal D.C. metro system. I have just returned from London and as a result of the renovations now underway would now add London to my short list of world metro systems which take seriously museum outreach through metro beautification. Among other new exhibits, London now has platform-long posters on both sides of the Bloomsbury station showing dozens and dozens of historic scenes and characters from English history to draw attention to the British Museum. As I reminded your Public Affairs person, the Moscow system, constructed in the '30s is noted for its Art Nouveau/Art Deco grandeur. The Paris system, with the exception of a half dozen wrought iron art-nouveau entries which have survived various renovation projects, was little better than New York's until the extensive work carried out in the sixties to install impressive visual art in cases along the walls at several main stops, particularly at Louvre and Franklyn D. Roosevelt, which immediately gave the Paris metro new life. And the London Underground is now coming alive as a result of extensive renovation -- and particularly station beautification through art. For its part, the Washington metro is notable primarily for its vaulted architecture and clean lines. But like all unrelieved cement structures suffers from blandness and a sense of incompletion. The questions remains: Why doesn't Smithsonian approach Metro, offering to install a half dozen armored glass cases at appropriate stops (Smithsonian, Capitol South, Gallery, Federal Triangle?, L'Enfant Plaza?, Arlington Cemetary, Pentagon), in which exhibits of original art or artifacts, or copies, appropriate to those stops could be mounted (perhaps on a rotating basis)? Perhaps funding could be provided by some of the Smithsonian's new business friends (as reported in BusinessWeek ) in return for a modest credit in one corner of the window. Nothing as forward as a display of a full-sized Bronco or Explorer should be necessary (loc. cit .). At Smithsonian, I can envision a case devoted to Native American artifacts -- a Plains Indian fringed buckskin suit, war bonnet, decorated arrow case, calumet, with a painted portion of a tepee as background. In a second case, perhaps examples of African folk art. And in a third, jade, silks, carved ivory, porcelain, celadon ware, and painted scrolls from the orient. And, finally, in a fourth (covering each side of the passenger waiting platform), Greek and Roman artifacts -- thus representing all sources of the American lifestyle, which seems to be the dominent culture in the contemporary world. You might also consider placing miniatures of some of the Mellon's great plastic art and copies (or colored photographs) of some of the favorite paintings in the Smithsonian stop exhibit, as has been done at Louvre in Paris. (And as London has just started to do). This would relieve the tedium of the Washington Metro system, providing enjoyment to the thousands who ride the system daily, giving a crowning touch to what now leaves the impression of its being an unfinished project, and broadening Smithsonian outreach. At Capitol South exhibits of some of the great documents of state could be placed on display, as well as reproductions of some of the displays showing the construction of the Capitol and Supreme Court. At Union Station, there might be exhibits regarding the construction of the national transportation system, not only the railroads, but the preceding "National Highway" used by pioneer wagons to Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and the West. At Pentagon, there could be displays of armaments through the ages, including some of the paintings (or copies) of the war art of WW II, Korea, and Vietnam. At Gallery, colored photographs of the portraits of some of the great men -- and women -- of all origins who've contributed to the greatness of American art, music, letters, religion, architecture, and politics. Some of these displays could be permanent. Some could rotate from time to time. Perhaps opportunity could even be found to mount a mechanical display or two to engage the interest of younger metro riders -- and, from time to time, advance examples from upcoming special exhibits. I'm sure your specialists would have no difficulty taking advantage of access to such additional free and highly public display space. I think all it would take is an approach to Metro management, bolstered perhaps by a call or two from some of your supporters on the Hill or in the White House. I'm an American, proud of our national capitol, and eager to see our Washington metro system at least as attractive as those of London, Paris, and Moscow. Please indulge me by letting me know the results these ideas get when discussed in a full staff meeting, rather than just riding with your Public Affairs Director's "we're doing fine" attitude. Sincerely, David Brighton Timmins P.S. Re your Public Relations Director's comment that you're already soliciting voluntary donations: even the Brits are giving up on the voluntary approach. While in London I read in the Times that the U.K. will be installing toll booths on their formerly free Motorways because costs are running ahead of revenues. Virtually every great museum in the world now requires paid admission -- including Russia, the homeland of Socialism. With the White House looking for every way possible to reduce the federal deficit in the home of Capitalism, I really think the Smithsonian should take steps to hit up the rich European and Asian tourists visiting our shores. It'd make me, at least, feel somewhat less bitter next time I have to shell out $5 or $6 to see the Prado in Madrid or the Louvre in Paris. Even with Americans walking in free it would be a small task to monitor all entrants either through a pro-forma check for a US drivers license, student ID, or other form of identity, by a museum volunteer. With a little thought, we could even come up with a package deal, like the Famous Homes of Britain program, or the Chateaux de la Loire package in France, admitting foreign tourists to all national museums in Washington plus national parks and playgrounds such as Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone for perhaps US$25 a head. PPS. We had a friend from New York City visiting us for the weekend and took her to the National Portrait Gallery to see some of the marvelous art you have which many tourists fail to see because they only know about the Mellon, Renwick, and Corcoran -- and, maybe, the Phillips. After seeing the Beirstadt's and Moran's and the St. Gauden's Grief on the second floor, I tried to take her see the portaits of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young among the portraits of well-known Americans. Thought I remembered where they were from previous visits to the museum during previous residence in the District, but couldn't locate them. The young woman at the Information Desk found them in her Directory and sent us back to the appropriate gallery, saying they were listed as "on display" as recently as last February. But they weren't there. When we returned to the Information desk, she said they must have been retired from view. I realize there are lots of famous Americans and limited all space for display. But there are surely lots of people on permanent display who've made far less contribution to American history or influenced American society and mores less than Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. Harold Bloom, Professor of Humanities at Yale, a year ago published a well-reviewed book published by Simon and Schuster in which Joseph Smith is characterized as "an authentic religious genius [who] surpassed all Americans, before or since, in the possession and expression of what could be called . . religion-making [insight] and charisma. Even the force of Brigham Young's genius for leadership and the heroic intensity of the early Mormon people could not have assured the survival of the new religion [without the power of Smith's imagination]." Brigham Young, Joseph Smith's successor, was instrumental in the settling of (what ended up being) nine western states, founding over a hundred colonies stretching from Alberta in Canada to Sonora in Mexico and all the way from San Bernardino, California in the west, to Winter Quarters (near what is now Omaha) in the east. In case you have not read Bloom's book or its reviews in one or another of the the major journals, I enclose a xerox of some of Bloom's most telling paragraphs. May I suggest that the portraits of both Smith and Young be restored at an early date to their place among notable Americans. I know that my New York guest was most disappointed in not to be able to see them on display.