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Virtual Author Talk: Tom Crouch

The Incredible History Behind the World’s Largest Museum

In an online author talk, Smithsonian Curator Emeritus Tom Crouch discusses his book, "Smithson’s Gamble." Register to receive the link to join and submit questions.

Tom D. Crouch, a Smithsonian veteran of almost 45 years, paints a robust picture of an American establishment and its lasting legacies in his book Smithson’s Gamble. Follow the fascinating growth and development of the world's largest museum and research complex during its first 60 years. Told in rich detail, Smithson's Gamble reveals how, as it defined a role rooted in curiosity and exploration, the Smithsonian helped to shape the nation's developing identity.

The Smithsonian evolved from a small, narrowly focused organization into an institution leading the way in fields from astrophysics to zoology. Smithsonian researchers, and the hundreds of citizen scientists who they recruited, created a collection that documented the natural and human history of a continent. The American conservation movement and a national weather service are rooted at the Smithsonian. Smithson's Gamble is filled with fascinating characters, twists and turns, and moments of triumph and tragedy, complete with political machinations, a bit of backstabbing, accusations of murder, and the occasional scandal.

Tom Crouch joined the Smithsonian in 1974 and has served both the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History in a variety of curatorial and administrative posts. Dr. Crouch has won several major writing awards, including a 1989 Christopher Award, a literary prize recognizing "significant artistic achievement in support of the highest values of the human spirit," for The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. His book, Wings: A History of Aviation From Kites to the Space Age, won the AIAA Gardner-Lasser Literature Prize for 2005. In the fall of 2000, President Clinton appointed Dr. Crouch to the Chairmanship of the First Flight Centennial Federal Advisory Board, an organization created to advise the Centennial of Flight Commission on activities planned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of powered flight.

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