Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce The Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce is a research center that specializes in Floridian marine ecosystems and lifeforms. The research is focused mostly on the Indian River Lagoon and also on the offshore waters of Florida's central and east coast. The first director of the station was Mary Rice, who was also instrumental in its founding. The station is a part of the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D.C. Its purpose is to be a field station which will draw scientists and students from
The Smithsonian Institution (novel) The Smithsonian Institution (novel) Gore Vidal's 1998 novel The Smithsonian Institution is a fictional account of the adventures of "T." as he helps a group of scientists in the basement of the Smithsonian create the neutron bomb, and encounters historical figures such as President Abraham Lincoln, Charles Lindbergh, Eleanor Roosevelt and Mrs. Grover Cleveland. Vidal supposedly claimed that this was the inspiration for the 2006 film "Night at the Museum". The film was in fact based on the 1993 children's book "The Night at the Museum". The original version of that children's book had the night watchmen seeing dinosaurs come