[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 5, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 TRIBUTE TO SUSAN HAMILTON FOR 25 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE SMITHSONIAN 
                              INSTITUTION

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
outstanding individual, Ms. Susan Hamilton. Ms. Hamilton has served as 
a senior administrator and sometime unit director for several 
Smithsonian Institution organizations and who is currently the 
associate director of the Archives of American Art.
  In the later 1960's, Ms. Hamilton was hired to direct the nascent 
Smithsonian Associates program. She established the innovative 
character now widely imitated in the museum community.
  In the 1970's, she was director of the summer Folklife Festival on 
the Mall, and in fact may have been the founder of that idea also. Here 
again she was pivotal in defining the character of the program, 
enabling it to become the classic it now is.
  She developed and coordinated the activities for the Smithsonian's 
celebration of the Nation's Bicentennial. In the process she was 
instrumental in winning millions of dollars in Federal appropriation. 
But a better measure of their effectiveness was in the universal 
acclaim they brought, the fact that the primary exhibit, ``1876'', 
still occupies most of the Arts and Industries Building; and she was 
the primae mover of the most believed and longest running exhibition in 
the Great Hall of the Castle: ``The Federal City: Plans and 
Realities.''
  Ms. Hamilton has served as Deputy to Dr. Charles Blitzer in the 
Castle, when his scope included oversight of several of the 
installations on the Mall, including the Museums of Natural History, 
and History and Technology. At that time she was the highest ranking 
woman at the Smithsonian Institutes administrative structure. She was a 
model for dramatically increasing numbers of professional women over 
the better part of a decade in the not-for-profit sector of the 
Institution, and could well take pride in the fact that now the 
Smithsonian is thoroughly integrated by race and especially by gender 
at all levels.
  Her most recent move to Archives of American Art took place about 
1983. She has been associate director since then, and acting director 
for much of the time. Through a secession of several appointments of 
different directors, some of whom did not serve long enough to really 
settle in the job she has provided continuity and stability.
  Again, Mr. President let me commend Ms. Susan Hamilton for her 25 
years of service and outstanding contributions to the Smithsonian 
Institute.

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