This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX. I'm Lizzy Peabody.

Have you ever had that dream where you're out living your life and you look down and you realize

you're not wearing any clothes and then you see that everyone is looking at you your

coworkers some government people maybe even some British royalty you know that

dream if you're lucky it's just a, but I want to tell you about the time

it happened for real, for one notable Smithsonian staff member.

It all started earlier this season when we reported an episode called the Milk Maid

Spy.

In that episode we visited the Division of Birds at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History,

where museum specialist Christina Gebbhart showed us a particular green woodpecker.

I believe the one you're looking for is in my hand.

This woodpecker was shot in 1944 by the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian, S Dillon Ripley,

when he was working for the American spy network called the OSS.

But on the woodpecker's tag, we read something curious.

Shot at cocktail party.

Towell fell off. I have no idea what that means. Yes.

Curious, indeed. To get to the bottom of it, we needed to talk to someone who knew Ripley.

Well, he's a passionate bird collector. So we called Pam Henson.

And you have to understand the passionate bird collectors will do anything to get a specimen.

Pam's job is to document the history of the Smithsonian.

As part of her work at the Smithsonian Archives, she conducts oral history interviews.

And back in 1981, that meant sitting down with then Secretary S Dylan Ripley.

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