Janet Annenberg Hooker; Gave Gems to Smithsonian Institution

Janet Annenberg Hooker, 93, philanthropist who gave money and rare jewels to the Smithsonian Institution. A daughter of Moses Annenberg, who founded Triangle Publications, Hooker contributed an estimated $9 million in cash and gems to the museum. Her namesake gallery, the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, which opened this fall, has a walk-through mine, interactive exhibits and high-resolution videos of earthquakes and volcanoes. Among the gems she donated were the Hooker Starburst Diamonds, a set of rare yellow diamonds, including a 245-carat necklace with 50 rectangular diamonds, a 61-carat diamond ring, and earrings. She also helped to pay for renovations and the redesign of rooms in the White House and the State Department headquarters, and was a donor to the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the New York Philharmonic. On Saturday in New York.