Foreword / by Robert D. Sullivan
Prologue / by Wilton S. Dillon
Part One. Curtain time, stages, characters
My Smithsonian beginning
Man and beast : two inquiries, 1969 and 1986
The cultural drama : identity and ferment
Our simply sensational salon : the South Tower
Savants and muses in the Castle
Part Two. Enrichments
Our French connection
Variations on Indian and Chinese themes
Space age on the ground
Play and inventiveness
New generations at the Smithsonian
Part Three. Interactions
Encountering the White House, Congress, and Judiciary
Owls and falcons
Imagining a museum of humankind
Elizabeth Taylor and Mr. Smithson's ghost
Linking Yves Klein and Marcel Mauss
Part Four. Commemorations
Celebrating Copernicus
Whither "STEM" and the liberal arts
Einstein redux
Pax Americana : 1976
Edinburgh 1984 : the enduring Scottish Enlightenment
Acknowledgments and epilogue
Appendices: [A] A harvest of Smithsonian contributions to knowledge
[B] Major symposia and participants.