A few of my favorite things: Pam Henson

Smithsonian staff and volunteers work countless hours in the halls of our museums and research centers, in the field, at the Zoo, in our gardens and facilities. We are privileged to spend time with some of the nation’s most cherished treasures as we go about our duties. Sometimes, these unique experiences find a special place in our own personal stories. On hiatus since 2020, the “A Few of my Favorite Things” Torch series is back. Amy Kehs introduces Pamela Henson and a few of her favorite Smithsonian things.

Pamela Henson began her Smithsonian career in October 1973, and after 50 years of service to the Institution, she will be retiring tomorrow, Jan. 15. It is an honor to feature her in our reboot of “A Few of my Favorite Things.”

Pamela was a graduate student at George Washington University when SI editor Gilbert Wright told her that the Smithsonian was looking for temporary help with a visitor study at the National Museum of Natural History. The study, by the Office of Museum Programs in the Arts and Industries Building, looked at visitor behavior during their visit to the museum. What path did they take? What exhibits did they spend the most time looking at? How long did they stay? “It was a wonderful foundation to my career,” says Pam. “I learned a lot, not only about the people visiting the Smithsonian but also about the exhibits themselves and how they were used to engage the public.”

Pamela Henson in 1983, interviewing Horton H. Hobbs III at the National Museum of Natural History. (courtesy Smithsonian Institution Archives)

As she was finishing up that project, a job became available in a new office that had just been started by Secretary Dillon Ripley. Leonard Carmichael, who had served as the seventh Smithsonian secretary from 1953 to 1964, had just died and Ripley thought that not recording oral history interviews with Carmichael prior to his death had been a missed opportunity. In fact, Ripley thought, the Institution as a whole, needed a historian. So, two positions were created: Pam was first hired as the historian’s assistant, moving up to Institutional historian the following year. The position has moved around on the organizational chart but the purpose of the job has remained the same: to document and preserve the history of the Smithsonian Institution. Since Pam is only our second historian, she has largely been able to mold the position over the last 50 years. She does research, publication, exhibits, websites, advises fellows, and records oral history interviews. She answers numerous queries from the Smithsonian Board, leadership, staff, and the public.

The three favorite things about the Smithsonian that Pam has chosen nicely showcase touchpoints in her long career.

Arts and Industries Building

Pam’s first favorite thing is the Arts and Industries Building. Her first office was in A&I and she called it her work home from 1973 until it closed for renovations in 2006. The Arts and Industries Building, originally named the U.S. National Museum building, was the first building built to be the national museum of the United States. Prior to the opening of the A&I Building in 1881, the museum collections had been housed in the Castle next door. The building was a lifelong dream of the Smithsonian’s second Secretary, Spencer F. Baird.

An exhibition of ceramics in the Arts and Industries Building in the 1880s. (courtesy Smithsonian Institution Archives)

“The building was designed with four ground-level entrances—there are no grand staircases. Visitors are invited to just walk in from all sides,” says Pam. The design of these entrances was not a coincidence. It was very unusual for a museum at that time to be open to everyone. The architects, Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, very much wanted that to be evident from the design that all were welcome and the ground-level entrances were one way they did that. At the time it was built, the first National Museum was very modern. Inside was a big open space that was very flexible. Large, moveable mahogany cases could be placed in different configurations making a “modular” system.

The Smithsonian Carousel on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Photo: Casey McAdams, Smithsonian

“I loved working in the A&I Building. I loved seeing its 19^th-century architecture every day and I loved the sound of the carousel on the Mall outside. When I worked there, many of my co-workers complained about the constant carousel music, but I loved it,” shares Pam. “One of the songs it played, ‘If I’d known you were coming, I’d have baked a cake,’ reminded me of my grandmother.”

Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence

Votes for Women. B.M. Boye 1913 Lithograph Sheet.The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University

Pam’s second favorite thing is the exhibition “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence,” which was on display at the National Portrait Gallery from March 29, 2019 until January 5, 2020. Pam admits that picking a favorite exhibit, or even a favorite museum is tough, but the Portrait Gallery has always had a special place in her heart because it uses portraits to tell the stories of people, similar to the way she captures the Smithsonian’s history through the stories of its staff. This exhibition focused on the women’s suffrage movement, a subject that has always interested Pam. Using portraits, the exhibit examined the more than 80-year movement to establish women’s right to vote. One group highlighted in the exhibition is the Silent Sentinels, a radical group established by members of the National Women’s Party.

One of the Silent Sentinels was Mary Agnes Chase. In addition to being part of the suffrage movement, Chase was also a botanist and honorary fellow at the Smithsonian. Pam’s first project in her retirement is to write a book about Mary Agnes Chase.

Mary Agnes Chase, Honorary Curator of the United States National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institution and Botanist at the United States Department of Agriculture, collecting plants in Brazil in 1929. Chase specialized in the study of grasses and conducted extensive field work in South America.

As Pam perfected her craft in her new position as historian in the 1970s and 1980s, one of her mentors was Louise Daniel Hutchinson at the Anacostia Community Museum. Louise was an expert oral historian. One day, she gave Pam a book she and her colleague, Gail Lowe, had compiled of poetry by the Smithsonian’s first African American employee, Solomon Brown. Louise told Pam that it was up to her to change the narrative of how history was being preserved and that all employees needed to have a voice in the history Pam documented. That conversation and mentorship changed the course of Pam’s career and how she did her job. She began looking into the history of all the Smithsonian employees, not just its leadership.

Barry Hampton

Doris M. Cochran and Barry Hampton working with collections, by Unknown, 1954, (Smithsonian Archives-History Div, 96-949)

Pam’s third favorite thing is a document created by Barry Hampton. Barry Hampton came to the Smithsonian in 1912 as a mail clerk. In 1926, he moved to the Division of Reptiles and Bachtrachians (amphibians such as frogs and salamanders) to assist curator, Doris Cochran. Despite doing the work of a museum aide, he was classified as a laborer, as was typical for African American employees of that era. Doris Cochran, his supervisor, was often in the field doing research, which meant that Hampton was the one taking care of the collection and answering inquiries. By the late 1940s, Hampton was determined to change his job’s classification from laborer to museum aide to reflect the important work he was doing. Cochran tried on his behalf and argued that Hampton deserved the reclassification it based on the quality of his work and a comparison with job titles of similar employees. Pam came across the memos that Cochran had written to her supervisors. They were evidence that Cochran held Hampton in very high esteem and made her case as to why she thought he deserved to be promoted. She noted that if Hampton was not promoted, he intended to file an appeal, another breadcrumb for Pam in Barry Hampton’s story. Pam found the “Appeal from Classification Allocation” document that Hampton filed in 1949. His job title was finally changed to “scientific aide.” When he retired from the museum in 1954, about 200 people came to his retirement party.

Page 1 of Barry Hampton’s appeal document from the Smithsonian Archives.

Finding Barry Hampton’s appeal during her research, learning about his story and the contributions he made to the Smithsonian, led Pam to wonder, what did other African American employees contribute to the Smithsonian that has been lost because the value of their work was not respected at the time? Can diving deeper and looking for clues shed some light on their legacies and help her to make them part of the Smithsonian’s narrative? Finding those stories and documentation to bring to light the full contributions of minority employees has remained one of her priorities.

Fifty years is a long time to be employed at one place, except as Pam says, “Not necessarily at the Smithsonian!” Her first oral history project in 1973 was with Secretary Charles Greenly Abbot just before his death. Abbot was the Institution’s fifth Secretary (1928 – 1944), but he served 78 years at the Smithsonian. When asked why she thinks people have such long careers here. Pam said she thinks it’s the variety, depth, and breadth of subjects and resources. For her, every day’s work can involve something new and different, which she has always enjoyed.

Pamela Henson, 2007

But now, Pam says, it’s time for a new historian to bring new ideas and a new perspective to the job.

After 50 years as the Smithsonian Institution’s historian, Pam’s legacy is her passion for making sure everyone is included in that history. Her research and revelations on the contributions of women, African Americans and others has given them lasting legacies and places in the history of the Smithsonian. Thank you, Pam Henson, for your service to the Smithsonian.

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