Background
Helena Weiss was born in 1909 and raised in Shipman, Illinois.
museum administrator secretary
Helena Weiss was born in 1909 and raised in Shipman, Illinois.
Weiss graduated from Butter Business College in Butler, Pennsylvania and Wheeler Business College in Birmingham, Alabama.
She was one of the first women managers at the Smithsonian Institution and was involved in the acquisition of the Hope Diamond and the Wright Flyer. When she died in 2004, she left the church $515,000. Weiss" first job, in 1930, was as a stenographer for the Veterans Administration.
The following year she became the Junior Clerk-Stenographer for the Office of Correspondence and Records at the United States National Museum.
In 1935 she moved to the geology department where she worked as secretary to Ray South. Bassler. She moved back to the Office of Correspondence and Records in 1948 as an administrative assistant.
On occasion she stood in for Smithsonian secretary Alexander Wetmore"s administrative assistant. In 1956 she replaced Herbert South. Bryant as head of the department, serving as registrar.
As registrar, she maintained the museums central filing system, handled public inquiries, oversaw the mail system, and other standard registrar tasks.
Weiss processed more than 250,000 letters a year from the public. Acquisitions
Weiss was involved in the acquisition of the Wright Flyer, the Hope Diamond, and other major Smithsonian pieces. She retired from that position in 1971.
In 1956 she helped acquire one of the first x-ray tubes used by Wilhelm Röntgen.