Things New and Strange

"Things New and Strange is a powerful statement written by a humble south Georgian who has a passion for life-long learning. I think he inspires all of us on that quest to continue to learn and to continue to explore our own homes and communities."

—Ann E. McCleary, author of Food, Family, and Community: A Collection of Georgia Memories

"Wayne Clough's distinguished career is one of pathbreaking accomplishment, from his boyhood home of Douglas, Georgia, earning a PhD from the University of California, and teaching at Stanford to becoming president of Georgia Tech and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In Things New and Strange he takes another journey, a marvelously engaging intellectual and emotional one, through the collections of the Smithsonian's national museums. His lens is his southern rural home town and region, with ties to family, community, and nature that have helped shape his character and interests. Driven by a refreshing, almost 'kid in a candy shop' curiosity, Clough discovers, examines, and evokes items in the Smithsonian collections relating to South Georgia to find his own life, his own memories and horizons mindfully and heartwarmingly enriched. More so, as one of our country's educational leaders, Clough demonstrates in the most exemplary way how any American, or for that matter any citizen of the world, can use these increasingly digitized collections for self-discovery and find in them their own deep, personal connections to natural history, world events, and the American experience. Things New and Strange is beautifully written and inspiring to read."

—Richard Kurin, Distinguished Scholar & Ambassador at Large, Smithsonian Institution, and author of The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects

"Secretary Clough draws on his vast experiences and the extraordinary and incomparable resources of the Smithsonian Institution to write this volume that skillfully celebrates the rich cultural and natural treasures of his home state."

—Frankie Snow, learning services coordinator in the Division of Natural Sciences, Physical Education, and Mathematics at South Georgia State College and winner of the Crabtree Award from the Society of American Archaeology

"This book illustrates the value of what we as a society accumulate in museums, libraries, and archives and how those materials can be used to illuminate issues that are quite different from the original intent of collecting the materials. The sprawling collections of the Smithsonian Institution are used to illuminate former Smithsonian secretary Wayne Clough's personal journey through the history and prehistory of South Georgia."

—Scott Miller, Under Secretary for Collections and Interdisciplinary Support at the Smithsonian Institute

"Dr. Clough, native son, combs the collections of the Smithsonian to honor his birthplace. Here he creates a geographical genealogy of sorts, exploring sense of place from a unique, science-based, cross-discipline angle. Although Clough is writing about my region, so much of what he unearths I did not know. This is an intelligent, thoroughly heartening book."

—Janisse Ray, author of Drifting through Darien

"G. Wayne Clough demonstrates in the most exemplary way how any American, or for that matter any citizen of the world, can use the Smithsonian Institution's increasingly digitized collections for self-discovery and find in them their own deep, personal connections to natural history, world events, and the American experience. Things New and Strange is beautifully written and inspiring to read."

—Smithsonian Magazine