Celebrating Smithsonian Women in Women's History Month

By Pamela Henson

Smithsonian Institution Archives has a wide array of photographs of women since our early years, but some stand out more than others. I am particularly fond of this image of a group of women celebrating a retirement. Like the flowers Nellie Smith is holding, they are arranged like a bouquet of flowers themselves! But this is a group of very important women at SI in 1930 – they ran a lot of major offices. Louise Pearson moved with Alexander Wetmore to the Secretary’s Office when he became Secretary in 1944 and kept the Institution running. Miss Nellie Smith was replaced by Helena M. Weiss, who was later SI Registrar. When Weiss retired she was replaced by seven separate unit heads. Their titles don’t capture their responsibilities. Moodey was an “Aid” in Geology, but actually curated the gem collection for many years.  As “clerks” to the Institution’s top administrators, this select group of friends kept the Institution humming.

Luncheon for Nellie Smith, 31 July 1930, at the Ye Old Inn. Photograph Probably taken by Narcissus H. Smith, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7177, Box 13, Folder 16, neg. #SIA- 94-4431.
 Image:  https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=SIA-94-4431  

This image is from a luncheon given by these friends in honor of the retirement of Miss Nellie H. Smith at Ye Old Inn on Thursday, July 31, 1930. She was appointed in March 1890 and spent 40 years at the Smithsonian. Top L to R: Louise A. Rosenbusch, Principal Clerk, Office of Dr. William H. Holmes, Director, National Gallery of Art, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Louise Pearson, Secretary to Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Assistant Secretary, SI (later the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1944-1952); and Narcissus Smith, Clerk to the Editor, Dr. M. Benjamin, United States National Museum (USNM). Bottom L to R: Helen A. Olmsted, Principal Clerk, Office of Mr. W. de C. Ravenel, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary, USNM; Nellie Smith, Clerk, Division of Correspondence and Documents, USNM; and Margaret W. Moodey, Aid, Geology in charge of Gem Collection, working for many years with G.P. Merrill, Head Curator, Department of Geology.

Pamela Henson, Ph.D., Historian, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives