With its nineteen museums and galleries, nine research facilities, and the National Zoo, The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex. Much of it is the work of S. Dillon Ripley (1913-2001), who headed the institution from 1964 to 1985, overseeing the addition of eight new museums, seven research centers, and launching Smithsonian magazine. As Stone reports in this comprehensive biography, Ripley was more than a curator and a world-famous ornithologist. Posted to Ceylon in the mid-1940s, he served as an OSS spy. Stone, a former Time correspondent and bureau chief, served with Ripley on the board of the World Wildlife Fund; he adds his personal recollections to hours of interviews with Ripley and draws on both the Smithsonian archives and Ripley family documents.
The event was moderated by Barbara Meade.
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