Records

Object Details

Creator:: Smithsonian Institution. Office of the Secretary. Special Assistant to the Secretary (Richard Hubbard Howland)

Creator:: Smithsonian Institution. Office of the Secretary. Special Assistant to the Secretary (Richard Hubbard Howland)

Historical Note: Special Assistants to the Secretary have discharged many duties over the years. Richard H. Howland first came to the Smithsonian Institution in 1960 as Head Curator and Chairman of Civil History, National Museum of American History. In 1964 Howland became a special assistant to newly arrived Secretary S. Dillon Ripley, who asked him to restore the Smithsonian Institution Building to its original nineteenth-century ambience.

Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 618, Smithsonian Institution, Office of the Secretary, Special Assistant to the Secretary (Richard Hubbard Howland), Records

Descriptive Entry: These records deal in some degree with Howland's work as Head Curator but mostly describe his assignment as a Special Assistant. Records include wide correspondence with furniture dealers, professional organizations, learned societies, historical preservation groups, and prospective donors. There is also some material documenting Howland's work on the Smithsonian Associates' program of travel tours, as well as files of information on the Archaeological Institute of America and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.