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Impressions of Washington: A German Visitor to the Smithsonian in 1874
The Smithsonian Institution Castle as it appeared c.1870. (Photo source: Brady-Handy Photograph Collection at Library of Congress.) It's always interesting to read what visitors and residents of...
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Happy Birthday, National Zoo!
Prior to the creation of the National Zoo along Rock Creek, the Smithsonian kept a large collection of animals in pens and cages on the National Mall. Washingtonians flocked to see the motley...
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Impressions of Washington: “An overgrown, tattered village”
The boundaries in this 1850 drawing of the city fit almost perfectly with Sunderland’s description. (Photo source: Wikipedia)Not surprisingly, our nation’s capital has undergone some pretty radical...
View ArticleCooling Off in the Tidal Basin
The National Building Museum’s new indoor beach may be making headlines, but it’s not D.C.’s first seashore. For a period of time between 1918 and 1925, Washingtonians dipped into the Tidal Basin to...
View ArticleThe Short-Lived Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station on the National Mall
It may be hard to picture now, but the National Mall was once home to a lot of commercial and industrial development. Perhaps the most notable -- if also maligned -- site was a railroad station...
View ArticleTractorcade 1979
In February 1979, thousands of farmers from across the country — and their tractors — barreled into Washington to protest in favor of agriculture policy reform. They snarled traffic for several weeks,...
View ArticleSheep Shearing on the National Mall
Washington in the 1910s was apparently the place for sheep. Over the decade, at least two herds were brought into the capital to graze in the shadow of the nation’s most treasured monuments.
View ArticleRemembering the First Smithsonian Folklife Festival
In January of 1967, after just a few months on the job as the Smithsonian's Director of Museum Serivices, Jim Morris had an idea. What if the Smithsonian were to put on an outdoor festival in...
View ArticleThe Silent Majority Storm The National Mall
The Vietnam era was marked by student anti-war protests and the counterculture movement. But in 1970 the "silent majority" organized the era's largest pro-war demonstration, simultaneously protesting...
View ArticleImpressions of Washington: A German Visitor to the Smithsonian in 1874
It's always interesting to read what visitors and residents of Washington have had to say about our fair city over the years.In 1873, the Kölnische Zeitung (Cologne Daily News) asked German...
View ArticleHappy Birthday, National Zoo!
On this day in 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation establishing a zoological park along Rock Creek in Northwest Washington “for the advancement of science and the instruction and...
View ArticleImpressions of Washington: “An overgrown, tattered village”
Not surprisingly, our nation’s capital has undergone some pretty radical changes since its beginning. 160 years ago, the landscape of the National Mall and surrounding streets looked vastly different...
View ArticleCooling Off in the Tidal Basin
The National Building Museum’s new indoor beach may be making headlines, but it’s not D.C.’s first seashore. For a period of time between 1918 and 1925, Washingtonians dipped into the Tidal Basin to...
View ArticleThe Short-Lived Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station on the National Mall
It may be hard to picture now, but the National Mall was once home to a lot of commercial and industrial development. Perhaps the most notable -- if also maligned -- site was a railroad station...
View ArticleTractorcade 1979
In February 1979, thousands of farmers from across the country — and their tractors — barreled into Washington to protest in favor of agriculture policy reform. They snarled traffic for several weeks,...
View ArticleSheep Shearing on the National Mall
Washington in the 1910s was apparently the place for sheep. Over the decade, at least two herds were brought into the capital to graze in the shadow of the nation’s most treasured monuments.
View ArticleRemembering the First Smithsonian Folklife Festival
In January of 1967, after just a few months on the job as the Smithsonian's Director of Museum Serivices, Jim Morris had an idea. What if the Smithsonian were to put on an outdoor festival in...
View ArticleThe Silent Majority Storm The National Mall
The Vietnam era was marked by student anti-war protests and the counterculture movement. But in 1970 the "silent majority" organized the era's largest pro-war demonstration, simultaneously protesting...
View ArticleImpressions of Washington: A German Visitor to the Smithsonian in 1874
It's always interesting to read what visitors and residents of Washington have had to say about our fair city over the years.In 1873, the Kölnische Zeitung (Cologne Daily News) asked German...
View ArticleHappy Birthday, National Zoo!
On this day in 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation establishing a zoological park along Rock Creek in Northwest Washington “for the advancement of science and the instruction and...
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