These records are the official minutes of the Board. They are compiled at the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, who is also secretary to the Board, after
approval by the Regents' Executive Committee and by the Regents themselves. The minutes are edited, not a verbatim account of proceedings. For reasons unknown, there are no
manuscript minutes for the period from 1857 through 1890; and researchers must rely on printed minutes published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution instead.
Minutes are transferred regularly from the Secretary's Office to the Archives. Minutes less than 15 years old are closed to researchers. Indexes exist for the period from
1907 to 1946 and can be useful.
Historical Note:
The Smithsonian Institution was created by authority of an Act of Congress approved August 10, 1846. The Act entrusted direction of the Smithsonian to a body called
the Establishment, composed of the President; the Vice President; the Chief Justice of the United States; the secretaries of State, War, Navy, Interior, and Agriculture; the
Attorney General; and the Postmaster General. In fact, however, the Establishment last met in 1877, and control of the Smithsonian has always been exercised by its Board of
Regents. The membership of the Regents consists of the Vice President and the Chief Justice of the United States; three members each of the Senate and House of Representatives;
two citizens of the District of Columbia; and seven citizens of the several states, no two from the same state. (Prior to 1970 the category of Citizen Regents not residents
of Washington consisted of four members). By custom the Chief Justice is Chancellor. The office was at first held by the Vice President. However, when Millard Fillmore succeeded
to the presidency on the death of Zachary Taylor in 1851, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney was chosen in his stead. The office has always been filled by the Chief Justice
since that time.
The Regents of the Smithsonian have included distinguished Americans from many walks of life. Ex officio members (Vice President) have been: Spiro T. Agnew, Chester A.
Arthur, Allen W. Barkley, John C. Breckenridge, George Bush, Schuyler Colfax, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Curtis, George M. Dallas, Charles G. Dawes, Charles W. Fairbanks, Millard
Fillmore, Gerald R. Ford, John N. Garner, Hannibal Hamlin, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret A. Hobart, Hubert H. Humphrey, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, William R. King, Thomas
R. Marshall, Walter F. Mondale, Levi P. Morton, Richard M. Nixon, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, James S. Sherman, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, Henry A.
Wallace, William A. Wheeler, Henry Wilson.
Ex officio members (Chief Justice) have been: Roger B. Taney, Salmon P. Chase, Nathan Clifford, Morrison R. Waite, Samuel F. Miller, Melville W. Fuller, Edward D. White,
William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan F. Stone, Fred M. Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren E. Burger.
Regents on the part of the Senate have been: Clinton P. Anderson, Newton Booth, Sidney Breese, Lewis Cass, Robert Milledge Charlton, Bennet Champ Clark, Francis M. Cockrell,
Shelby Moore Cullom, Garrett Davis, Jefferson Davis, George Franklin Edmunds, George Evans, Edwin J. Garn, Walter F. George, Barry Goldwater, George Gray, Hannibal Hamlin,
Nathaniel Peter Hill, George Frisbie Hoar, Henry French Hollis, Henry M. Jackson, William Lindsay, Henry Cabot Lodge, Medill McCormick, James Murray Mason, Samuel Bell Maxey,
Robert B. Morgan, Frank E. Moss, Claiborne Pell, George Wharton Pepper, David A. Reed, Leverett Saltonstall, Hugh Scott, Alexander H. Smith, Robert A. Taft, Lyman Trumbull,
Wallace H. White, Jr., Robert Enoch Withers.
Regents on the part of the House of Representatives have included: Edward P. Boland, Frank T. Bow, William Campbell Breckenridge, Overton Brooks, Benjamin Butterworth,
Clarence Cannon, Lucius Cartrell, Hiester Clymer, William Colcock, William P. Cole, Jr., Maurice Connolly, Silvio O. Conte, Edward E. Cox, Edward H. Crump, John Dalzell, Nathaniel
Deering, Hugh A. Dinsmore, William English, John Farnsworth, Scott Ferris, Graham Fitch, James Garfield, Charles L. Gifford, T. Alan Goldsborough, Frank L. Greene, Gerry Hazleton,
Benjamin Hill, Henry Hilliard, Ebenezer Hoar, William Hough, William M. Howard, Albert Johnson, Leroy Johnson, Joseph Johnston, Michael Kirwan, James T. Lloyd, Robert Luce,
Robert McClelland, Samuel K. McConnell, Jr., George H. Mahon, George McCrary, Edward McPherson, James R. Mann, George Perkins Marsh, Norman Y. Mineta, A. J. Monteague, R.
Walton Moore, Walter H. Newton, Robert Dale Owen, James Patterson, William Phelps, Luke Poland, John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, B. Carroll Reece, Ernest W. Roberts, Otho Robards
Singleton, Frank Thompson, Jr., John M. Vorys, Hiram Warner, Joseph Wheeler.
Citizen Regents have been: David C. Acheson, Louis Agassiz, James B. Angell, Anne L. Armstrong, William Backhouse Astor, J. Paul Austin, Alexander Dallas Bache, George
Edmund Badger, George Bancroft, Alexander Graham Bell, James Gabriel Berrett, John McPherson Berrien, Robert W. Bingham, Sayles Jenks Bowen, William G. Bowen, Robert S. Brookings,
John Nicholas Brown, William A. M. Burden, Vannevar Bush, Charles F. Choate, Jr., Rufus Choate, Arthur H. Compton, Henry David Cooke, Henry Coppee, Samuel Sullivan Cox, Edward
H. Crump, James Dwight Dana, Harvey N. Davis, William Lewis Dayton, Everette Lee Degolyer, Richard Delafield, Frederic A. Delano, Charles Devens, Matthew Gault Emery, Cornelius
Conway Felton, Robert V. Fleming, Murray Gell-Mann, Robert F. Goheen, Asa Gray, George Gray, Crawford Hallock Greenwalt, Nancy Hanks, Caryl Parker Haskins, Gideon Hawley,
John B. Henderson, John B. Henderson, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Gardner Greene Hubbard, Charles Evans Hughes, Carlisle H. Humelsine, Jerome C. Hunsaker, William Preston
Johnston, Irwin B. Laughlin, Walter Lenox, Augustus P. Loring, John Maclean, William Beans Magruder, John Walker Maury, Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, John C. Merriam, R. Walton
Moore, Roland S. Morris, Dwight W. Morrow, Richard Olney, Peter Parker, Noah Porter, William Campbell Preston, Owen Josephus Roberts, Richard Rush, William Winston Seaton,
Alexander Roby Shepherd, William Tecumseh Sherman, Otho Robards Singleton, Joseph Gilbert Totten, John Thomas Towers, Frederic C. Walcott, Richard Wallach, Thomas J. Watson,
Jr., James E. Webb, James Clarke Welling, Andrew Dickson White, Henry White, Theodore Dwight Woolsey.
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Annual Reports and Proposed Budgets, FY 1988-FY 1992
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Report and Budget Request, FY 2000-FY 2001 (Includes Correspondence and Memoranda)
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Program Write-up - Research Initiatives, 1994-1996
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Awards, FY 2001 (Includes Report and Budget Request, FY 2000-FY 2001, Correspondence, and Memoranda)
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
National Museum of Natural History. Biodiversity Program Search this
Extent:
17 cu. ft. (17 record storage boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Brochures
Clippings
Manuscripts
Newsletters
Pamphlets
Black-and-white photographs
Black-and-white transparencies
Floppy disks
Audiotapes
Color transparencies
Date:
1980-1999
Descriptive Entry:
This accession consists of records that document the administrative activities of the Smithsonian Institution's Biodiversity Program (BDP) as maintained by Marsha E.
Sitnik, Scientific Program Administrator. Some of the projects and programs represented in the files include the BIOLAT (Biological Diversity in Tropical Latin America) program;
the BDFF (Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments) project; the Neotropical Lowland Research Program; and the ICB (Institute for Conservation Biology). The files also document
collaborative projects with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Materials include conference and workshop programs; grant and research proposals; mission statements;
memoranda regarding research, exhibitions, and outreach functions; lists of specimens; reports on environmental programs; personnel records; meeting minutes; budget reports;
brochures and pamphlets; photographs; maps; curricula vitae; and other administrative material. Records predating 1990 were compiled and maintained by the Program for administrative
and reference use. Some materials are in electronic format.
Annual Report and Proposed Budget, FY 1994-FY 1995 (Includes Correspondence and Research Initiatives)
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Annual Report and Proposed Budget, FY 1995-FY 1996
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Archives - Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records Sent to SI Archives, 1986
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Report and Budget Request, FY 2001-FY 2002 (Includes Correspondence and Memoranda)
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records
Annual Report and Proposed Budget, FY 1993-FY 1994
Container:
Box 1 of 1
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years, until Jan-01-2020; Transferring office; 6/23/2008 memorandum, Yowell to Vari; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-145, National Museum of Natural History. Office of the Director, Neotropical Lowland Research Program Records