Smithsonian Secretary’s Scholars

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For all the treasures contained in the Smithsonian’s vast and diverse collections, our greatest assets are our curators, conservators, researchers and scientists. Without them, our collections are mere objects, our stories are untold and our imperative — the increase and diffusion of knowledge — remains a promise waiting to be fulfilled.

The strength of the Smithsonian is its people. Recognizing this, newly installed Secretary David J. Skorton has launched, as his first priority, the Smithsonian Secretary’s Scholars. This initiative will grow the ranks of today’s leaders who will redefine the humanities, arts and sciences.

With your gift to the Smithsonian Campaign, we will identify, attract and nurture the next generation of scholars who will amplify the Smithsonian’s global impact well into the future.

Tiarna Doherty, Chief of Conservation at the Lunder Conservation Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum, works on Study for the Apotheosis, c. 1859, by Constantin Brumidi. PHOTO CONOR DOHERTY

Our Scholars Bring Untold Stories to Light

Rhea Combs is reinterpreting America’s story by collecting snapshots of everyday life and reels of home movies. She sifts through our country’s photographic memory to find common threads and untold stories.

Combs is the curator for film and photography at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and director of the Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts. The images she has uncovered tell tales of struggle and triumph and change how we think about who is included in our shared American narrative.

Without scholars like Combs, we cannot expand our cultural lexicon to include each American with an important story to tell.

Our Historians Celebrate

the American Experience

Harry Rubenstein is following the grand experiment of a government “of, by, and for the people” through the stories and objects of ordinary and extraordinary Americans striving to create a more perfect union.

As the distinguished chair and curator of the division of political history at the National Museum of American History, Rubenstein has curated groundbreaking exhibitions, such as Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life, that deepen our knowledge of our nation’s past. Now, he is developing American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith to inspire the next generation of civic leaders.

Without historians like Rubenstein, we cannot transmit the values of America’s past to the leaders of the future.

Our Curators Illuminate Diverse Cultures

Massumeh Farhad explores the diversity of the arts and cultures of the Islamic world. A specialist in 16th- and 17th-century Persian painting, she develops thought-provoking and culturally significant exhibitions that reveal the richness and complexity of the Near East.

Farhad is the chief curator and curator of Islamic art at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s museums of Asian art. Her visually arresting exhibitions, including Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin and Unearthing Arabia: The Archeological Adventures of Wendell Phillips, present a nuanced view of Islamic culture on a national stage.

Without curators like Farhad, we cannot appreciate the impact of changing world cultures in an increasingly connected globe.

Make a Gift to Support the Next Generation

Now is the time to invest in the Smithsonian and advance our role in society. We are home to America’s explorers and storytellers—the ultimate students of the world, who in turn are the ultimate teachers. As our collections continue to grow, we seek your help to ensure our creative workforce keeps pace.

Smithsonian Secretary’s Scholars will fund 40 new positions across our many museums and research centers. With our global reach, revered brand and decades of scholarship, the Smithsonian provides the ideal platform to launch tomorrow’s brightest curators, conservators, researchers and scientists

You can be the catalyst for tomorrow’s great discoveries.

Smithsonian Secretary’s Scholars • 40 new curators, conservators,

researchers and scientists • All disciplines • Five-year terms

The Impact • Infuse new energy into the creative

work of the Smithsonian • Accelerate the pace of discovery

in every field • Build a pipeline of intellectual leaders

for the future

The Opportunity • $25 million will fund the entirety

of the Smithsonian Secretary’s Scholars • $2.5 million will fund four scholars

for five-year terms • $625,000 will fund one scholar

for a five-year term • Name the positions you support

Dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge, the Smithsonian is free and open to the public 364 days a year. Our financial foundation is provided by Congress, the American people and generous donors who are willing to invest in ideas.

Through the $1.5 billion Smithsonian Campaign, we are sparking discovery, telling America’s story, inspiring lifelong learning and reaching people everywhere.

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