November

Wesley Chenault has been appointed Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives and Programs of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

In this inaugural role, Chenault will oversee outreach, communications, education and exhibitions. He will support Smithsonian Libraries and Archives colleagues in developing new initiatives and programs and develop and implement strategic initiatives within the unit, pan- institutionally across the Smithsonian as well as cultivate strategic collaborations with community partners locally, nationally and globally. Chenault will collaborate with advancement leadership to build programs related to fundraising, donor relations and the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Advisory Board, as well as event concept and management for advancement activities. His work will raise the research profile of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, increasing knowledge sharing among Smithsonian partners, peer research institutions and international communities beyond.

“I am thrilled to welcome Wesley Chenault to the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives,” said Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty, director, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. “His creative leadership and wide-ranging experience will shape engagement and outreach for both longstanding partners and new and diverse audiences, ensuring a robust future and legacy for our newly-merged organization.”

Chenault holds over 20 years of experience in research settings, with a focus on rare and distinctive collections in museum, public and academic libraries. Most recently, he served as Director of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University, where he oversaw collections, programs and research services. His prior positions include work with the Herndon Home, the Atlanta History Center, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History and Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.

“It is my honor to join the world’s largest museum library and archives system at this historic time, building upon the incredible and important work being done,” said Wesley Chenault. “I look forward to working collaboratively with the Advisory Board, the Smithsonian internally and our many communities and partners to broaden the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ scope and add to its success locally, nationally and globally.”

Chenault has broad experience in education, developing syllabi and advising on curriculum development, serving on dissertation committees and leading initiatives in research settings. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students in universities, he has developed internship programs, administered research and travel grant programs and served in roles such as reviewer, consultant and grant staff for humanities agencies including the Georgia Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. In 2020, he was a participant in “Teaching from Digital Archives at Home and Around the World,” a summer teachers’ institute sponsored by Hemispheres, an international outreach consortium at the University of Texas at Austin.

Chenault is a published scholar, with articles authored and co-authored in edited volumes, such as Educational Programs: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections and Queer South Rising: Voices of Contested Place, and academic peer-reviewed journals and encyclopedias, among them New Georgia Encyclopedia and the Journal of Southern History. With Stacy Braukman, Chenault is co-author of Gay and Lesbian Atlanta, a pictorial history.

Chenault has exhibited widely as an individual and in collaborations. For the latter, he was a founding member of idea collective John Q, whose interests in public scholarship, interventions and memory have been featured in educational programming and exhibitions across the nation, from the GLBT Historical Society Museum & Archives in San Francisco to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta. Outside of the collective, Chenault’s curatorial work spans his career from exhibitions at the Atlanta History Center to Cornell University, where he was a co-curator for the exhibition, Social Fabric: Land, Labor, and the World the Textile Industry Created, which opened Nov. 4, 2022.

Chenault holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Auburn University, a master’s degree in women’s studies from Georgia State University and a doctorate in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. A member of several library and museum organizations, he has certifications from the Archives Leadership Institute from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians from Harvard University.

About the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an international system of 21 library research centers and an institutional archives. It maintains a collection of nearly 3 million volumes and 44,000 cubic feet of archival materials. The Libraries and Archives serves as an educational resource for the Smithsonian Institution, the global research community and the public. Locations are in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New York City and the Republic of Panama.

Exhibition Uncovers the Art, Science and History of Hand-Press Bookmaking

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives presents a new exhibition, “Nature of the Book,” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Nov. 11. “Nature of the Book” will be on display through March 17, 2024.

What makes a book? Throughout history, books were handwritten, printed, bound and decorated using a wide variety of materials from the natural world. From leather coverings and paper derived from plants to mineral pigments and innovative recipes for inks, the early book was a combination of natural materials in the hands of skilled artisans. Influenced by the scarcity and abundance of commodities, global trade and economics, thrift and fashion, books could vary greatly in terms of materials, construction and purpose.

“Our research process involved teasing out the rich complexity of the history and materials used in hand bookbinding,” said Vanessa Haight Smith, head of preservation services at Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and co-curator of “Nature of the Book.” “The exhibition gives us the opportunity to discuss that the use of natural materials and techniques haven’t followed a linear path; rather, they are intertwined and layered crossroads of global products and ideas.”

“Nature of the Book” explores books of the hand-press era (from the use of moveable type in Europe in about 1450 to the rise of mechanization in the 19th century) through the myriad natural materials—animal, vegetable and mineral—that went into their making. From essential ingredients like flax, leather, copper and lead, to the unexpected, like wasps and seaweed, the exhibition shows what the use of these materials can tell people about the book, touching on questions of use, process, global trade and economy.

“Nature of the Book” delves into the material components of books from the expected, such as parchment, paper and leather, to the unexpected including semi-precious gems, arsenic and cochineal insects,” said Katie Wagner, senior book conservator at Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and co-curator of “Nature of the Book.” “This exhibition appeals to newcomers to the topic as well as to bibliophiles.”

On display will be Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1729–1747), Francisco Hernández’s Nova plantarum (Rome, 1651) bound in tawed pigskin leather, Hokusai’s Hokusai Manga (Japan, Late Edo period, 1780–1868), John Addington Symonds’ Wine, Women, and Song (London, 1884) in an exquisite jeweled binding and a gold illuminated partial Qurʾan (Qajar-period Iran, c. 1800s).

Bookbinding to etching, papermaking to hand-coloring, typesetting to marbling and watermarking to gold tooling, “Nature of the Book” invites visitors into a fascinating exploration of the craft, innovation and ingenuity of hand-press bookmaking of centuries past. It tells a story of local resources and resourcefulness as well as global influence—from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa—that was essential to the Western book that is commonplace today.

Support

“Nature of the Book” is made possible through the support of The Gladys Krieble Delmas
Foundation and the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Advisory Board.

Programs

Public programs accompanying the exhibition will engage diverse audiences from K–12 to
adult, including workshops, lectures and hands-on sessions. The public can subscribe to receive
program notifications.

About the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an international system of 21 library branches and
an institutional archives. It maintains a collection of nearly 3 million volumes and 44,000 cubic feet of
archival materials. The Libraries and Archives serves as an educational resource for the Smithsonian
Institution, the global research community and the public. Locations are in Washington, D.C.,
Maryland, Virginia, New York City and the Republic of Panama.