Introduction

The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1986 until 1992, used video in historical research. Additional collections have been added since the grant project ended. Videohistory uses the video camera as a historical research tool to record moving visual information. Video works best in historical research when recording people at work in environments, explaining artifacts, demonstrating process, or in group discussion. The experimental program recorded projects that reflected the Institution's concern with the conduct of contemporary science and technology.

Smithsonian historians participated in the program to document visual aspects of their on-going historical research. Projects covered topics in the physical and biological sciences as well as in technological design and manufacture. To capture site, process, and interaction most effectively, projects were taped in offices, factories, quarries, laboratories, observatories, and museums. Resulting footage was duplicated, transcribed, and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution Archives for scholarship, education, and exhibition. The collection is open to qualified researchers.

Descriptive Entry

Pamela M. Henson, Historian for the Smithsonian Institution Archives, conducted videotaped interviews with scientists and researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and the National Zoological Park (NZP) at its Washington, D.C. park, and Conservation and Research Center (CRC) in Front Royal, Virginia, to document two of the Institution's endangered species programs.

This collection consists of thirteen interview sessions, separated into two collection divisions, totaling approximately 13:10 hours of recordings, and 225 pages of transcript. There are three generations of tape for each session: originals, dubbing masters, and reference copies. In total, this collection is comprised of 39 original videotapes (39 Beta videotapes), 18 dubbing master videotapes (18 U-Matic videotapes), and 14 reference copy videotapes (14 VHS videotapes). There is also a supplementary set of interview sessions, comprising 4 U-Matic dubbing master videotapes at 4:00 hours of recordings. There is no transcription for these supplemental sessions.

For additional information on Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, National Zoological Park and Conservation Research Center, see the records of each bureau and oral history interviews of STRI researchers, administrators, game wardens, and neighbors, and of NZP administrators, located at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Historical Note

Scientific efforts to preserve endangered species have focused on either maintenance of a controlled population that ensures genetic diversity or protection of habitat that ensures viability of a population in the wild. The Smithsonian Institution has sponsored programs using both methods in the study and exhibition of the plant and animal kingdoms.

In 1923, the Institute for Research in Tropical America established a research laboratory on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) in the Panama Canal Zone to investigate the flora and fauna of tropical America. In 1946, the laboratory was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and was renamed the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in 1966. Under Smithsonian aegis, STRI developed an extensive program of terrestrial and marine research on the tropical environment and special projects to find alternatives to tropical rainforest destruction and to study the effects of oil spills on the environment. In 1979, STRI assumed responsibility for the Barro Colorado Nature Monument, an extensive nature preserve which includes BCI and several surrounding peninsulas. STRI also built research facilities in Panama City and on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The National Zoological Park was founded in 1889 in Washington, D.C., "for the advancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the people." Under the administration of Director Theodore H. Reed, a major renovation of the park was begun in 1963. Also during the 1960s, in response to rising concerns over endangered species, the NZP established a research department to study exotic animal physiology and behavior. In 1975, a separate facility for research, and animal breeding and rearing was established at Front Royal, Virginia,allowing the NZP to become an important part of the international Species Survival Program.