CURRICULUM VITA
PAMELA M. HENSON
Work Experience:
1993presentDirector, Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution
Archives. Directs institutional history program, including research,
writing, documentary editing and interviewing of Smithsonian staff
to document the history of the Smithsonian and American science.
2005-2010Historian in Residence, Department of History, American University
2006Adjunct Professor, Museum Studies Department, The George
Washington University
19932000Consultant in Research, American Studies Program, George
Washington University. Responsible for advising graduate research.
19741993Historian, Smithsonian Institution Archives. Responsible
for research, writing, and interviewing of Smithsonian staff
to document institutional history and history of American
science and for the archival program for science bureaus and
audiovisual collections.
198788Visiting Instructor, Department of History, University of
Maryland. Taught graduate oral history seminar.
Education:
1990Ph.D., Committee on History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Maryland. Dissertation: "Evolution and
Taxonomy: J. H. Comstock's Research School in Evolutionary
Entomology at Cornell University, 18741930." Research
areas: history and philosophy of biology. Dr. L. Darden,
advisor.
1976Master of Arts in American Studies, George Washington
University. Thesis: "Development of Handicraft
Cooperatives in Appalachia." Research areas: American
material culture 1875 to 1970, especially the depression,
institutionalization of handicrafts, cooperatives, and children's play.
1971Bachelor of Arts in American Studies, George Washington
University. Major areas: American studies and anthropology.
1
Papers and Publications:
2010"One Hundreds Years of the Smithsonian in Panama," paper presented
to staff symposium, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama,
April.
2009"From Analog to Digital: The Smithsonian Institution Archives Digital Preservation Initiative,"Oral History Association Newsletter, XLIII, No. 3
(Winter 2009), pp. 1, 4, 6.
"Creating New Narratives: Oral History and Photographs in Writing the
History of Recent Science," with Ron Doel, paper presented at the Oral
History Association meeting, Louisville, Kentucky, October.
2008"Nineteenth Century Smithsonian Anthropologists: Creating a Discipline
and a Profession," AnthroNotes, 29 (1), pp. 12-18.
"Legal and Ethical Issues in Oral History for the Federal Historian,"The Federalist, 18 (Summer 2008), pp. 7-8.
"Ecology and Environmental Science in Panama: Intersections and
Collisions in the 1960s and 1970s," paper presented at the 3 History of
Science Societies Joint Meeting, Keble College, Oxford University, July.
2007"Le mouvement d’étude de nature(Nature Study) aux Etats-Unis.
Citoyens et Science vers la fin du 19ème siècle. Le rôle d’Anna
BotsfordComstock," in Florian Charvolin, Andre Micoud and Lynn
Nyhart, eds., Des Sciences Citoyennes? La Question de L’amateur dans
les Sciences Naturalistes. Ed. de l’Aube, La Tour d’Aigues, pp. 19-39.
2006With Ronald E. Doel, "Reading Photographs: Photographs as Evidence in
Writingthe History of Modern Science," in Ronald E. Doel and Thomas
Söderqvist, eds., Writing Recent Science: New Directions in the History of
Science. London: Routledge, pp. 201-235.
"Oral History in the Present Tense: Prospects in Oral History: Archival
Issues,"paper presented at the American Historical Association meeting,
Philadelphia, January.
2005"A Temple of National Identity: The United States National Museum,"
paper presented at the Association for Museum History conference,
Washington, D.C., October.
"Types, Pests, and Endangered Species: A History of the United States
National Entomological Collection," paper presented at the biennial
meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and
Social Studies of Biology, Guelph, Canada, July.
"The Nature Study Movement in the United States:Citizens and
Science in the Late Nineteenth Century," paper presented at Citizen
Science Conference, Univ. of St. Etienne, St. Etienne, France, January.
2004"A National Science and A National Museum." In Museums and Other
Institutions of NaturalHistory: Past, Present, and Future, A.E. Leviton
and M. L. Aldrich, eds. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences,
pp. 34-57.
2003"Explorations and Expeditions." In At First Sight: Photography and the
Smithsonian, edited by Merry A. Foresta. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press.
"Images of American Science," with Ronald E. Doel. History of Science
Society annual meeting, Cambridge, November.
"‘What Holds the Earth Together’: Agnes Chase and American
Agrostology."Journal of the History of Biology, 36 (3), pp. 437-460.
"A National Science and A National Museum: The Smithsonian
Institution and the Emergence of American Science."American
Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division/California
Academy of Sciences100th anniversary, June.
2002"Invading Arcadia: Women Scientists in the Field in Latin America, 1900-
1950."The Americas, 58:4, pp. 577-600.
2001"James Smithson," in American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press.
"An International Research Group: Agnes Chase and Latin American
Botany," paper presented at the International Society for the History,
Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology meeting at Qunnipiac,
Connecticut, July.
2000"A Invasão da Arcádia: as cientistas no Campo na América Latina, 1900-
1950,"Cadernos Pagu: Gênero, Ciências, História 15 (2000): 165-197.
"Spencer Baird’ Dream: A U.S. National Museum," essay in Cultures
and Institutions of Natural History, edited by M. T. Ghiselin and A. E.
Leviton, San Francisco: California Academy of Science, pp. 101-126.
"The Smithsonian Goes to War: The Increase and Diffusion of
Scientific Knowledge in the Pacific," essay in Science and the Pacific
War: Science and Survival in the Pacific, 1939-1945, edited by Roy M.
MacLeod, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 27-50.
"Anna Botsford Comstock and the Nature Study Movement," paper
presented at a conference on Gender, Science and Technology, St. Louis
University, October.
1999"‘Objects of Curious Research’: The History of Science and Technology at the Smithsonian,"Isis, 90 (1999): S249-S269.
"Invading Arcadia: Women Scientists in the Field in Latin America, 1900-
1950" at a session on "Field Science and Conservation in Latin America"
at the meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy,
and Social Studies of Biology, Oaxaca, Mexico, July.
"Baird’s Dream: A History of the Arts and Industries Building" in the
Smithsonian Institution Archives Research in Progress Lecture Series in
May.
"Anna Botsford Comstock,""John Henry Comstock,""Harrison Gray Dyar,""Mary Jane Rathbun," and "Robert Edwards Carter Stearns" in American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press.
1998"The Smithsonian Institution,"A Historical Guide to the U.S.
Government, edited by George T. Kurian. New York: Oxford
University Press, pp. 531-35.
"Invading Arcadia: Women Scientists in the Field in Latin America, 1900-
1950" at a session on "Field Science and Conservation in Latin America:
Historical Perspectives" at the annual meeting of the Latin American
Studies Association in Chicago in September.
"Baird’s Dream: A History of the Arts and Industries Building" in the
Smithsonian Institution Archives Research in Progress Lecture Series in
September.
With Ron Doel, "Photographs as Evidence: Images and the
Historiography of Recent Science" at the Second International Conference
on Problems in the Historiography of Recent Science, Technology and
Medicine in Copenhagen in July.
"From Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institution," George
Washington University Elder hostel Program, July.
"The Embattled Secretary" in a Smithsonian Institution Archives Research
in Progress Lecture Series panel on "Samuel P. Langley: The Enigmatic
Secretary" in March.
1997"Paul Bartsch,""William Temple Hornaday,""Frederick Charles
Lincoln," and "Edward A. Preble," in Biographical Dictionary
of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists,
edited by Kier B. Sterling, Richard P. Harmond, George A. Cevasco, and
Lorne F. Hammond. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Review of Entomology, Ecology and Agriculture: The Making of
Scientific Careers in North America, 1885-1985 by Paolo
Palladino (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996),
Journal of the History of Biology 30:3 (Fall 1997): 485-86.
"Invading Arcadia: Women Scientists in the Field in Latin America, 1900-
1950," paper presented at the annual meeting of the History of Science
Society, November, San Diego.
"Oral History of Medicine," session chair at annual meeting of the Oral
History Association, September, New Orleans.
Introduction to Oral History Workshop, National Museum of the
American Indian, September, New York.
"Women’s Work in Politics and Oral History," talk at National Women=s
Democratic Club, September, Washington, D.C.
"‘Through Books to Nature’: Anna Botsford Comstock and the Nature
Study Movement," in volume on Natural Eloquence: Women Reinscribe
Science, edited by Barbara T. Gates and Ann B. Shteir, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997, pp. 116-143.
"From Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institution," George
Washington University Elderhostel Program, July.
"James Lewis Macie aka James Smithson and the Founding of the
Smithsonian Institution," National Zoological Park History Lecture Series,
July.
Review of Brethren of the Net: American Entomology, 1840-1880, by
W. Conner Sorensen, in Journal of American History 84:1 (June 1997):
238-39.
"Oral History in an Electronic World," Navy History Symposium,
Washington Navy Yard, June.
"The Arts and Industries Building, 1880-1996," lecture to Smithsonian
Institution Docents, April.
1996"To Tree or Not to Tree: John Henry Comstock’s Evolutionary
Phylogeny," lecture delivered to the British Museum (Natural History)
staff colloquium, London, October.
"‘Most Fully Recorded in the Works of Their Hands’: The Origins of a
National Collection of American Art and History," keynote address to
conference on 19th Arts and Humanities Collections, Victoria & Albert
Museum, London, October.
"A Memorial to the United States Congress for Speedy Action on the
Bequest of James Smithson," lecture delivered at symposium on 19th
Century Institutions for Useful Public Knowledge at Westminster
University, London, October.
"‘A Long Catalogue of Munificent Donations’: Material Culture in the History of the Smithsonian Institution," lecture delivered at the Forum on Material Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October.
"On-Line: Multimedia Access to Oral History Collections via Electronic
Media and the Internet," workshop taught at annual meeting of the Oral
History Association, Philadelphia, October.
"A Smithsonian Family Album: Oral History, Memory, and a Sense of
Work Place," panel discussion at annual meeting of the Oral History
Association, Philadelphia, October.
"From Smithson to Smithsonian: Defining Moments in the History of the
Smithsonian Institution," panel discussion for The Smithsonian
Associates, October.
"Spencer Fullerton Baird’s Vision for a National Museum," lecture to
National Museum of Natural History docents, Washington, D.C., October
"Looking Back at 23 Years at the Smithsonian," talk presented to the
Women in Museums Network, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September.
"150 Years of Entomology at the Smithsonian," poster at the
International Entomological Congress, with M. Epstein, Florence,
Italy, August.
"Art for Science’s Sake," Zoogoer (September-October 1996): 21-26.
"Expeditions: 150 Years of Smithsonian Research in Latin America,"
exhibition catalogue, with J. Walsh, M. Dittmore and W. E. Cox,
InterAmerican Development Bank, October.
"150 Years of Scientific Illustration at the Smithsonian Institution," paper
presented at annual meeting of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators
and at National Museum of Natural History Friday lecture series, July.
"The Comstocks of Cornell: A Marriage of Interests," essay in volume on
Creative Couples in Science, edited by Pnina AbirAm, Helena Pycior and
Nancy Slack, Rutgers University Press, 1996, pp. 112125.
"The Smithsonian Institution," in symposium on "Institutions of Memory,"
at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, March,
Chicago.
"Inventorying Our Continent: The Smithsonian Collects Our Natural
World," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, February, Baltimore.
"Spencer Baird's Vision for a National Museum," lecture presented in the
Smithsonian Institution History Lecture Series sponsored by the 150th
Community Committee, January.
"Spencer Baird had a different vision for research at the Smithsonian,"
Smithsonian Research Reports, No. 183, Winter, pp. 56.
"Mary Agnes Chase," foreword for revised edited of First Book of
Grasses, by Mary Agnes Chase, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996,
pp. xiiixviii
1995"Electronic Access to Oral History Collections," workshop taught at
annual meeting of the Oral History Association, October, Minneapolis.
Forrest C. Pogue Award Lecture at fall meeting of Oral History in the
MidAtlantic Region, "Institution of Memory/Institution of Identity: The
Smithsonian Faces the Year 2000," October, Wilmington, Delaware.
"Recording Quality in Oral History," workshop organized at annual
meeting of the Society of American Archivists, September,
Washington, D.C.
"To Tree or Not to Tree? John Henry Comstock's Evolutionary
Phylogeny," paper presented at the International Society for the History,
Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Leuven, Belgium, July.
"Making It Happen: Using Volunteers for Special Projects," lecture
delivered at the joint meeting of Oral History in the MidAtlantic Region
and MidAtlantic Regional Archives Conference, Baltimore, Maryland,
April.
"Consumer and Advisor: The Historian in an Institutional Archives:
Notes from Paradise," lecture at the annual meeting of the Society for
History in the Federal Government, College Park, Maryland, March.
"Have Notepad, Will Travel: Lucile Quarry Mann and the National
Zoological Park," lecture delivered at National Zoological Park,
Washington, D. C., March.
"Spencer Baird and the United States National Collections," lecture
delivered at Smithsonian staff conference, "What About Increase: A
Science and Humanities Dialogue," National Zoological Park,
Washington, D. C., March.
1994"Scientist or Advocate? Smithsonian Scientists and the Conservation of
the Tropical Rainforest in Panama," paper presented at the annual meeting
of the History of Science Society, New Orleans, October, and at History of
Science and Technology Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, December.
"Comment on 'Canadian Responses to Darwinism' by Suzanne Zeller,"
conference on Responses to Darwinism, Dunedin, New Zealand, May.
"Advanced Problems in Oral History," discussion leader for workshop at
spring meeting of Oral History in the MidAtlantic Region, Arlington,
Virginia, April.
"The Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge Among Men and Women: The History of Women at the Smithsonian," Smithsonian Institution
Women's History Month Noontime Lecture Series, March.
1993"Alternatives to Tropical Destruction: The Role of Scientists at the
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Conservation of the
Panamanian Tropical Rainforest," paper presented at the History of
Science Society annual meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November.
"Sources for the History of Oceanography at the Smithsonian Archives
and National Archives," History of Oceanography Newsletter 5 (Sept.
1993): 25.
"A Marriage of Interests: The Comstocks of Cornell," paper presented at
symposium on "Creative Couples in Science" at the XIX International
Congress of History of Science, Zaragosa, Spain, August.
"Smithsonian Resources in the History of Oceanography," lecture
presented at the V International Congress on the History of
Oceanography, San Diego, July.
"Smithsonian Institution Archives Processing Procedures Manual," with
William E. Cox. Printed by Office of Smithsonian Institution Archives.
"The History of History at the Smithsonian," paper presented during
symposium on the same topic organized for the Smithsonian History
Roundtable, July.
"Comstock's Research School at Cornell University, 18741930," Osiris,
volume 8, 158177.
"Against All Odds: Pioneering Women at the Smithsonian," National
Museum of Natural History Friday Noontime lecture series, March.
"The Smithsonian Goes to War: The Increase and Diffusion of Scientific
Knowledge in the Pacific during World War II," paper presented at the
Research in Progress lecture series, Smithsonian Archives, January.
1992"The Smithsonian Goes to War: The Increase and Diffusion of Scientific
Knowledge in the Pacific during World War II," paper presented at annual
meeting of History of Science Society, Washington, D. C.,December.
"Evolution and Taxonomy: John Henry Comstock's Darwinian Method for
Taxonomy," paper presented at annual meeting of the Entomological
Society of America, Baltimore,December.
"Beginning an Oral History Project," workshop conducted at the fall
meeting of Oral History in the MidAtlantic Region, Washington, D. C.,
November.
"From Best to Worst and Back Again: A Forum on Interviewing
Experiences," session chair at annual meeting of the Oral History
Association, Cleveland, October.
"Digging for Dyar: The Man Behind the Myth," with Marc E. Epstein,
American Entomologist 38 (Fall 1992): 148169.
"Order and Chaos in the Work of Charles Darwin and Stephen Jay
Gould," lecture presented to faculty of Charles E. Smith Jewish Day
School, Rockville, Maryland, September.
"Digging for Dyar: The Man behind the Myth," lecture with Marc E.
Epstein at Smithsonian Archives Research in Progress lecture in January;
Washington Entomological Society banquet in June; the Lepidopterists'
Society annual meeting in East Lansing, Michigan, in June; and National
Museum of Natural History Friday lecture series in October.
"Videohistory: Focusing on the American Past,” with Terri A.
Schorzman, reprinted in the Oral History Association Newsletter 25 (Winter 1992): 35 and 26 (Spring 1992): 8.
"Gender and Marriage in Science: Anna Botsford and John Henry
Comstock," presented at the National Museum of American History
Tuesday colloquium in February.
1991"Beyond Paper: Documenting Museum Collections with Video," lecture
presented at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists,
Philadelphia, September.
"Videohistory: Focusing on the American Past,” with Terri A.
Schorzman, Journal of American History 78 (September 1991): 61827.
"‘Teach Them to Love Nature’: Anna Botsford Comstock and the Nature
Study Movement," lecture in the Cornell University Summer School
Centennial Symposia series, Ithaca, New York, July.
"The Smithsonian Goes to War: The Increase and Diffusion of Scientific
Knowledge in the Pacific during World War II," paper presented in a
symposium on "Science Mobilized in World War II," at the 17th Pacific
Science Congress, Honolulu, Hawaii, May.
1990"John Henry Comstock's Research School in Evolutionary Entomology at
Cornell University, 18741930," paper presented at the annual meeting of
the History of Science Society, Seattle, Washington, October.
"Evolution and Taxonomy: John Henry Comstock's Research School in
Evolutionary Entomology at Cornell University, 18741930," Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Maryland, May.
"Introduction to Oral History Processing," session chair at meeting of Oral
History in the MidAtlantic Region, Beltsville, Maryland, May.
"Visual Documentation and Historical Research," paper presented at the
joint meeting of the Organization of American Historians and Society for
History in the Federal Government, Washington, D. C., March.
1989Workshop on oral history, centennial meeting of the American Society of
Zoologists, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December.
"Memories of the Field: Merging Oral History Audiotapes with Archival
Films," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Oral History
Association, Galveston, Texas, October.
"Mary L. Jobe Akeley." In Dictionary of American Biography, ed. John
A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: American Council of