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Month: April 2015

Swahili Coast: Exploration by French Captain Charles Guillain, 1846-1848. Part 2, Campaign Description

VoyageaYlacoYteAtlaBayo_0113The blog post, second of three, was written by Xavier Courouble, research assistant for Sailors and Daughters: Early Photography and the Indian Ocean, an online exhibition part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art’s Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean: From Oman to East Africa. Read the first post in the series here.

From 1836 to 1848, successively in command of the corvette “La Prévoyante,” “La Dordogne,” and finally the frigate “Le Ducouëdic,” Charles Guillain (1808-1875) navigated the Indian Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to the western coast of the Indian sub-continent.  During his several missions he accumulated extensive knowledge on Zanzibar, Madagascar, the Comoros, as well as the Swahili and Somali coast of Africa.  Accounts of these expeditions were all published and gave this St. Simonien a solid reputation of ethnologist and geographer.  Yet a certain degree of confusion remains of the political and commercial purposes of his ambitious campaigns of exploration, influenced by personal convictions, regional aspirations, and France’s global interest in the region.

Spring Break in Washington

Margaret, Carlee and Anna in the Dibner Library.
Margaret, Carlee and Anna in the Dibner Library.

From March  16th-20th, the Smithsonian Libraries hosted five students from the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science as volunteers for Alternative Spring Break 2015.  Anna Gault, one of the spring break interns, shares her experience below.

I am interning at the Smithsonian Libraries with five classmates from the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science. As  a graduate student studying Library and Information Science, spending Spring Break interning with the Smithsonian Libraries is a dream. My five other classmates from The University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science are in agreement.  They are working in different areas in the libraries and we love to share our experiences with one another, so it is a great learning opportunity for all!

Science Executive Committee in Panama

On March 22-29, I traveled to Panama and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) with members of the Smithsonian’s Science Executive Committee. This is the science unit directors group who meet with the interim Undersecretary for Science each month. Others on the trip were Scott Miller, the Office of the Undersecretary for Science (OUSS) staff, Cynthia Brandt Stover, Smithsonian Campaign Director and Jenny McWilliams, Science Advancement Officer. Oh yes, and Stacy Cavanaugh’s 12-year-old son.