Event

Speaker Series: Wayne Clough

Hear Former Secretary of The Smithsonian Institution, Wayne Clough, talk about his book, "Things New and Strange: A Southerners Journey through the Smithsonian Collections" at the south's oldest cultural institution. The book uncovers the tapestry of treasures held by the Smithsonian collections that originate from the South and highlight the region's history.

Tickets for this event are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers.

About the book:
Things New and Strange chronicles a research quest undertaken by G. Wayne Clough, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution born in the South. Soon after retiring from the Smithsonian, Clough decided to see what the Smithsonian collections could tell him about South Georgia, where he had spent most of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s. The investigations that followed, which began as something of a quixotic scavenger hunt, expanded as Clough discovered that the collections had many more objects and documents from South Georgia than he had imagined. These objects illustrate important aspects of southern culture and history and also inspire reflections about how South Georgia has changed over time.

About the Author:
G. WAYNE CLOUGH is secretary emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution. Clough, who currently lives in Atlanta, directed the Smithsonian from 2008-2014, and was president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1994-2008. He is the author of Seeing the Universe from Here: Field Notes from My Smithsonian Travels