Recently, we said farewell to a trusted and respected member of our staff. Jeffrey E. Thompson, a project director at SITES for some 20 years, will be missed by many, including those who shared these thoughtful rembrances of our friend Jeff:
"What I will remember most about Jeff were his precise, artful and almost loving movements in preparing his loose-leaf green tea, filling his stylish, white ceramic teapot, soaking the tea and then cleaning his utensils, several times a day in our small kitchen at SITES. It was like being an accidental witness to a calming and deliberate tea ceremony in which his movements reflected his personality." --Ed
"I valued him greatly as I know many others did both in and outside of SITES." --Pawan
"Jeff was such an even person, always calm, cool, and collected. He lent dignity, professionalism, and wit to every conversation and every project he touched." --Heather
"...I may share in the sadness of farewell to a noble, intelligent, and witty colleague. I am struggling with the fact that Jeff is gone. As you so rightly observe, his absence will mark many." --Elizabeth
"After attending what I thought to be a wonderful home going service for Jeff, I realized Monday morning would come, and he and I would no longer meet in the kitchen to discuss why we seemed to be the only two who fill the ice trays, ice bucket or paper towels. Nor would I hear about why it was better to drink loose tea rather than tea out of a bag, and I realized I never got a chance to thank Jeff for sharing his wit, sense of humor (as dry as it may have been) and knowledge on every subject." --Stephanie
Jeff received a Master's degree in Art History from Williams College and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary. His many academic honors included the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship, Yale University Fellowship, and NYU's prestigious Frick Symposium Lecture. He taught Art History at Princeton, Duke, Yale, and the University of Minnesota. Here are some of the exhibitions Jeff worked on in his 20 years at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service:
381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story (AARP version)
A Different Light: L’Ėcole Lyonnaise 19th-Century French Painting from the Musėe des Beaux Arts, Lyon
A Popular Renaissance: Hand-Colored Woodcuts in the Age of Dürer
After the Revolution
Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: The Apollo Theater
Americanos: Latino Life in the United States
Art of our Time: The Olga Hirshhorn Collection
Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South
Diana Walker: Photojournalist
Dreams and Traditions: 300 Years of British and Irish Painting from the Ulster Museum, Belfast
Exhibit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon: Vietnamese America Since 1975
From Istanbul to Cairo: Views of the Middle East from the Victoria and Albert Museum
Mexico: A Landscape Revisited
Moscow: Treasures and Traditions
On Miniature Wings: Model Aircraft of the National Air and Space Museum
Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photographs from the National Archives
Renaissance Bronzes
Robert Rauschenberg, Artist-Citizen: Posters for a Better World
Singgalot (The Ties That Bind): Filipinos in America, from Colonial Subjects to Citizens
Southern Africa, 1936-1949: Photographs by Constance Stuart Larrabee
The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden
The Artistry of African Currency
The Jazz Age in Paris (ALA version)
The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family
The Way We Worked: Photographs from the National Archives
Through My Father’s Eyes
Visionary Anatomies
Voyages and Visions
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