The Smithsonian Institution Libraries sealed the 40thanniversary celebratory year by hosting a black-tie “Paint the Town REaD!” Ruby Gala at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture on October 30, 2008.  The event took place in the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, situated between the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. It was attended by 250 SIL staff, guests and friends.  Secretary G.

Botanica Magnifica is a five-volume, double elephant folio that holds 250 detailed shots of rare flowers. Most of the vibrantly-colored photographs were taken in the Smithsonian Department of Botany Research Greenhouses, located in Suitland, Md. Singer donated this unique copy of Botanica Magnifica to the Cullman Library in May of 2008.

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries hosted a two-day symposium titled “The Era of Experiments and the Age of Wonder: Scientific Expansion in the 17th-19th Centuries” March 4 and 5 in the National Museum of American History. This celebration marked the reopening of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, one of the Libraries’ two facilities for rare books and manuscripts, the Dibner Library lectures and the Resident Scholar program.

To celebrate the Smithsonian Libraries exhibition Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration, SIL hosted “Book Illustration and Visual Culture,” a lecture and reception on June 24, 2009 in the National Museum of American History. Helena Wright, curator for graphic arts in the Museum of American History and guest curator of the exhibition, was the speaker for the event.