Boston Public Garden (Massachusetts, USA)

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Boston Public Garden

The large Boston Public Garden (also known as Public Garden), adjacent to Boston Common, is the first public botanical garden in America. A part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks (a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted), it is bounded by Charles Street (which divides the Public Garden from Boston Common) to the east, Beacon Street (where it faces Beacon Hill) to the north, Arlington Street and Back Bay to the west, and Boylston Street to the south. Connecting the Public Garden with the rest of the Emerald Necklace is the greenway, a strip of park that runs west down the center of Commonwealth Avenue towards the Back Bay Fens and the Muddy River.

Check out “Boston Common“

The Public Garden was established in 1837, when philanthropist Horace Gray petitioned for the use of land as the first public botanical garden in the United States. In October 1859, after submitting the detailed plan for the Garden to the Committee on the Common and Public Squares, Alderman Crane received approval and construction began quickly on the property. The pond was finished that year and, in 1862, the wrought iron fence surrounding the perimeter was erected. George F. Meacham designed the 97,000 m²(24-acre) landscape while city engineer, James Slade, and the forester, John Galvin laid out the paths and flower beds. Many of fountains and statues for the garden were erected in the late 1860s.

On January 6, 1913, the garden, along with the Boston Common, were placed by the City Council under the direct management of the Public Grounds Department of the city. the Mayor’s Office, The Parks Department of the City of Boston and the non-profit Friends of the Public Garden jointly manages the Public Garden. In 1977, it was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission and, on February 27, 1987, was declared a National Historic Landmark.

The Public Garden, rectangular in shape, designed in the style of an English landscape garden, mostly flat and varying in elevation by less than five feet, contains a pond, a bridge crossing over the pond, winding and asymmetrical pathways and a large series of formal plantings that vary from season to season and are maintained by the city and others.

The garden is planted with a wide assortment of native and introduced trees. Weeping willows are found around the shore of the lagoon while European and American elms line the garden’s pathways, along with horse chestnuts, dawn redwoods, European beeches, ginkgo trees and one California redwood. Permanent flower planted in the garden include numerous varieties of roses, bulbs, and flowering shrubs. Throughout the year, the beds flanking the central pathway are replanted on a rotating schedule, with different flowers for each season from mid-spring through early autumn. The city operates 14 greenhouses at Franklin Park for the purpose of supplying plants.

Arlington Street Gate

During the warmer seasons, the 16,000 m² (4-acre) pond is the home of a great many ducks, as well as of one or more swans (the current pair are female mute swans named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearian couple). The Swan Boats, which began operating in 1877, is a popular tourist attraction where, for a small fee, tourists can sit on a boat ornamented with a white swan at the rear.

Jandy at the pond

A tour guide, sitting within the swan, pedals the boat around the pond. As the pond is no more than 3 feet deep at its deepest point, it easily freezes during the colder months. The north side of the pond has a small island, originally was a peninsula connected to the land but severed by John Galvin, the city forester, as the site became so popular with lovers.

Boston Public Garden Foot Bridge

The signature suspension bridge, over the middle of the pond, was designed by William G. Preston and opened in 1869. Before its conversion to a girder bridge in 1921, it was the world’s shortest functioning suspension bridge (the original suspension system is now merely decorative).

The author by the foot bridge

A flagpole, standing on the eastern side of the garden, close to Charles Street and just south of the main entrance there, has a circular granite bench was installed around it, with the work being done by the Friends of the Public Garden.

Equestrian Statue of George Washington

Maintained by the City of Boston, the city’s efforts are supplemented by the Friends of the Public Garden (also known as the Rose Brigade), a charitable organization that helped finance the repair of the Ether Monument in 2006. They also hire specialists to help care for the trees and bushes. Regularly, volunteers meet to prune and maintain bushes. Private sources (such as the Beacon Hill Garden Club) also provide financial support.

Throughout the Public Garden are several statues:

The 16 ft. tall, bronze Equestrian Statue of George Washington, located at the Arlington Street gate and dominating the western entrance to the park facing Commonwealth Avenue, was designed and cast by Thomas Ball and unveiled on July 3, 1869. The statue stands upon a granite pedestal of 16 ft., for a total height of 38 ft.. Constructed entirely by Massachusetts artists and artisans, the statue was funded mostly by donations from local citizens.
The William Ellery Channing Statue, at 28 Arlington Street at the southwest corner of the garden, stands across from the Arlington Street Church where Channing, the leading Unitarian minister of his day, ministered from 1803 until his death in 1842. Sculpted by Herbert Adams and given to the city by John Foster, a member of that church, the marble and granite statue went up in June 1903, the 100th anniversary of Channing’s birth.
The Charles Sumner Statue, a bronze and granite statue of the fiery abolitionist senator from Massachusetts during the Civil War era, was designed by Thomas Ball (the same sculptor behind the Public Garden’s far more famous George Washington statue) and set up in 1878.
The Tadeusz Kościuszko Statue, a bronze and granite statue of the Polish hero sculpted by artist Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, went up in 1927 to commemorate the 150th anniversary Kosciuszko’s enlistment in the Continental Army as a colonel.
The Thomas Cass Statue, a bronze and granite statue cast by Richard Edwin Brooks in 1899, depicts this Irish immigrant who rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army and commander of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and would die in Boston of wounds sustained in Virginia in 1862.
The Edward Everett Hale Statue of Bela Pratt, a bronze and granite statue of the clergyman and journalist sculpted by Bela Lyon Pratt (whose uncle was Edward Everett, namesake of the Boston suburb, and whose granduncle was Nathan Hale) at the east gate on Charles Street, was erected and presented to the city on May 22, 1913.
The Wendell Phillips Statue, a granite and stone depiction of abolitionist orator and lawyer along the south walk in the park, was sculpted by Daniel Chester French (best-known for sculpting the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.) and erected in 1915. Mayor John F. Fitzgerald appropriated funds of $20,000 for the statue.
Learning, Religion, and Industry, three bronze and granite sculptures right between the Boston Common Visitors Center and Tremont Street, were erected in 1961 to honor Boston philanthropist George Francis Parkman Jr.. The trio was sculpted by Arcangelo Cascieri and Adio diBiccari.
Triton Babies Fountain, created by Anna Coleman Ladd on the east side of the garden, is the first statue in the Garden that was made by a woman. Acquired by the garden in 1927, some people think the children are a boy and girl. However, they are, in fact, her two daughters.
Make Way for Ducklings, located between the pond and the Charles and Beacon streets entrance, are a set of bronze statues by Nancy Schön, dating from 1987 and based on the main characters from the children’s story .

Edward Everett Hale Statue

The Marquis de Lafayette Plaque, at 5 Temple Place just back from where Tremont Street meets Temple Place, honors the famed aide de camp to General Washington during the Revolution who tried to spur similar idealism in his native France. This bas-relief, designed by John Francis Paramino, went up in 1924 on the 100th anniversary of Lafayette’s 1824 visit. The plaque also commemorates the grand Lafayette Mall that used to run along that side of the Common. Opened in 1824 in honor of Lafayette’s visit to the city, it disappeared into present-day Tremont in the late 1890s to make way for the T.

Statue of William Ellery Channing

The 30 ft. tall, granite and red marble Ether Monument, located towards the corner of Arlington and Beacon streets in the northwest corner of the garden, is the oldest monument in the garden. Commemorating the first use of ether as an anesthetic, it was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward and gifted to the city on June 27, 1868, by Thomas Lee. The statue’s carved figures tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Statue of Tadeusz Kosiuszko

Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon’s granite and bronze memorial fountain to the Boston philanthropist George Robert White entitled “The Angel of the Waters,” created in 1924, is located just north of the Ether Monument. The fountain, disabled in the 1980s, was repaired and restored 2016 by the Friends of the Public Garden at a cost of US$700,000.

Statue of Thomas Cass

“Boy and Bird,” a fountain on the west side of the garden, was made by Bashka Paeff, a Russian immigrant who did the model of it while she was working as a ticket taker at the Park Street Station of the MBTA. A Japanese garden lantern, dating from 1587 (one of the oldest lanterns of its kind in existence) and installed at the edge of the pond in 1906, was gifted to Boston by Bunkio Matsuki. Made of cast iron, it was originally in the garden of the Momoya Palace at Kyoto.

Statue of Charles Sumner

The memorial to the 206 people from Massachusetts who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, designed by Victor Walker and dedicated in July 2004, is located just inside the Public Garden, at the corner of Arlington and Newbury streets. A plaque honoring United States Marine Lt. Michael P. Quinn, of Charlestown, killed in action in Vietnam on August 29, 1969, is located at the beginning of the bridge by the steps leading to the Swan Boats. It was dedicated in 1986 by the committee members of the Michael P. Quinn Scholarship Fund on Patriots Day.

Statue of Wendell Philips

Boston Public Garden: 4 Charles St., Boston 02116 Massachusetts.

Gallery at the Historical Museum of Natural History (Boston, Massachusetts)

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

RH Boston – The Gallery at the Historical Museum of Natural History

This stately Neo-Classical, red brick and-brownstone building, commanding a park-like block of Berkeley St., between Newbury and Boylston in Boston’s Back Bay, was designed by architect William Gibbons Preston in 1863. Originally the Museum of Natural History, it was known, over the years to Bostonians, as the Bonwit Teller building and later the home to the clothier Louis Boston.

The Neo-Classical, red brick and brownstone facade

Now Restoration Hardware’s (a California-based home-furnishings company) Boston flagship store, it was redesigned by AD 100 firm Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects, the designers of numerous other RH stores. To approximate the original interior, the designers consulted old photographs and architectural drawings.

In a renovation work that was, more or less, a complete gut requiring 15 months, they took out mezzanines inserted by previous tenants, removed an elevator bank that blocked the central axis through the building and painstakingly restored and recreated original millwork, plaster and steel details.

The Central Atrium

Wall, ceiling and decorative surfaces were coated in neutral gray. Most significant, to recapture views from the ground floor all the way to the gilded, coffered ceiling, they opened up the 70 ft. high, 3-storey central atrium.

The glass and steel traction elevator

Unveiled spring of 2103, the 40,000 sq. ft. RH Design Gallery is the largest outpost for this expanding retailer whose product categories includes tabletop goods (Chinese porcelain dinnerware, Belgian linens, etc.) and “objects of curiosity” (architectural fragments, faux antlers, iPod-compatible reproduction Victrolas, etc.).

When I entered glass and steel entry pavilion of this Civil War–era structure, I was enthralled by its graceful Corinthian pilasters, Romanesque arches, and monumental interior atrium. Gliding up and down the atrium is the store’s pièce de résistance – a new, custom glass and steel traction elevator modeled after the one in Los Angeles’s 1893 Bradbury Building.

The store’s four floors (including a basement level) offer a florist and a dedicated area for RH’s Baby & Child collections (featuring pint-size leather chesterfields and armchairs). In addition, there’s masculine spaces such as wine bar run by Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley (of Yountville, California).

There’s also a quartet of club rooms – a billiard lounge with a rehabbed Brunswick pool table, a cinema room where TVs play classic movies, an inviting library packed with vintage novels and design books, and a pub serving craft beers at a century-old bar surrounded by Motown and rock-and-roll memorabilia.

Sharing the floor with the club rooms is a Paris-themed “conservatory and park.” Here, outdoor furniture is displayed among artificial olive trees and a 24 ft. tall steel replica of the Eiffel Tower (a flea-market find and a fitting totem of RH’s Francophile design impulses).

Check out “Eiffel Tower“

Gallery at the Historical Museum of Natural History: 34 Berkeley St., Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Website: www.restorationhardware.com.

Park Street Church (Boston, Massachusetts)

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Park Street Church

The Park Street Church, an active, thriving missionary-centered Conservative Congregational church with 2,000 in Sunday attendance and around 1,000 members, is a historical stop on the Freedom Trail located next to the historic Granary Burying Ground.

Check out “Freedom Trail“

Its cornerstone was laid on May 1, 1809 and its construction, under the guidance of architect Peter Banner (his design is reminiscent of St. Bride’s Church in London by famous British architect Christopher Wren), chief mason Benajah Young and woodcarver Solomon Willard, was completed by the end of the year. On January 10, 1810, it had its first worship service.

The church became known as “Brimstone Corner,” in part because of the fervent missionary character of its preaching and, in part, because of the gunpowder stored in its crypt (which gave off a ferocious smell of sulfur) during the War of 1812.

The church’s beautiful white steeple, a landmark visible from several Boston neighborhoods, rises to 66 m. (217 ft.), making the church the tallest building in the United States from 1810 to 1828. The red brick façade has white accents. There is a little museum on the first floor.

The church is the site of a number of historical events:

Park Street Church became known for supporting Abolitionist causes. Here, on July 4, 1829, a young William Lloyd Garrison delivered his Address to the Colonization Society, the first major public speech against slavery.
On July 4, 1831, Samuel Francis Smith song My Country, ‘Tis of Thee, also known as America, was first sung by the church choir on the steps of the church.

Park Street Church: 1 Park St. cor. Tremont St., Boston, Massachusetts 02108. Tel: (617) 523-3383. Website: www.parkstreet.org. Open Wednesdays – Fridays, 9:30 AM -3 PM. Worship services: Sundays 8:30 AM, 11 AM and 4 PM. Admission is free.

How to Get There: The church located right across from the Park Street subway stop (Red Line) at the edge of Boston Common.

Freedom Trail (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 9 Comments ↓

Bunker Hill Monument

The iconic Freedom Trail, a unique collection of explanatory ground markers, museums, notable churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a historic naval frigate, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond, is a 2.5-mile (4-km.) long path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.

Old State House

Old North Church

Park Street Church

Check out “Park Street Church“

Overseen by the City of Boston’s Freedom Trail Commission, the Freedom Trail is supported, in part, by grants from various nonprofits and foundations, private philanthropy, and Boston National Historical Park.

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground

Granary Burying Ground

Check out “Copp’s Hill Burying Ground” and “Granary Burying Ground”

While most of the sites are free or suggest donations, the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, and the Paul Revere House charge an admission fee.

Boston Common

Author and son Jandy at Boston Massacre Site

In 1951, local journalist William Schofield suggested building a pedestrian trail to link important local landmarks and Boston mayor John Hynes decided to put Schofield’s idea into action.

Faneuil Hall

Massachusetts State House

Check out “Massachusetts State House“

The official trail sites are (generally from south-to-north):

Boston Common (139 Tremont St.) – dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the city.
Massachusetts State House – designed by noted architect Charles Bulfinch and completed in 1798, it the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Park Street Church – built in 1809, it is an active Conservative Congregational church in Downtown Boston
Granary Burying Ground – Boston’s third-oldest cemetery, founded in 1660,it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine.
King’s Chapel and Burying Ground – completed in 1754, the chapel is one of the finest designs of the noted colonial architect Peter Harrison. The Burying Ground is the oldest cemetery in the city.
Benjamin Franklin statue and former site of Boston Latin School
Old Corner Bookstore
Old South Meeting House (where the Boston Tea Party began in 1773) – 310 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108, USA. Open 9:30 AM – 5 PM. Admission: adults (US$5), children under 5 years are free.
Old State House (the original seat of colonial government & later state capitol, today housing historical exhibits) – 206 Washington St, Boston, MA 02109, USA. Open 9 AM – 5 PM. Admission: adults (US$10), children 6-18 years are free.
Site of the Boston Massacre – site of a confrontation, on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob
Faneuil Hall – a marketplace (open 11AM -7PM) and a meeting hall since 1743, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain.
Paul Revere House – the colonial home (for about 20 years) of famous legendary American patriot, famous “Midnight Rider,” silversmith, businessman and entrepreneur Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution
Old North Church – built in December 1723, itis the location from which the famous “One if by land, and two if by sea” signal is said to have been sent.
Copp’s Hill Burying Ground – established in 1659, it is the city’s second cemetery.
USS Constitution (interactive museum near the 1797 wooden frigate made famous as “Old Ironsides” in the War of 1812) – Building 22, Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. Open 9 AM – 6 PM. Admission: suggested donation of US$5-$10 for adults, US$3-$5 for children.
Bunker Hill Monument – erected between 1825 and 1843,commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was among the first major battles between British and Patriot forces in the American Revolutionary War, fought there June 17, 1775.

The Black Heritage Trail crosses the Freedom Trail between the Massachusetts State House and Park Street Church. The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is also located along the Freedom Trail.

King’s Chapel

Paul Revere House

Check out “Paul Revere House“

The National Park Service, via a visitor’s center, offer tours, provide free maps of the Freedom Trail and other historic sites, and sell books about Boston and United States history.

USS Constitution

Check out “The USS Constitution – Old Ironsides“

Boston Common Visitor’s Center: 139 Tremont St., Boston, Massachusetts 02111. Website: www.thefreedomtrail.org. Open Mondays –Fridays, 8:30 AM – 5PM, and Saturdays & Sundays,
9AM – 5PM.

The Copley Place Visitor Information Center: Copley Place Mall (center court), 100 Huntington Ave., Boston, Massachusetts 02116. Open Mondays – Saturdays, 9AM – 8PM, and Sundays, 9AM – 6PM.

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture – National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Posted on 3 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery, a historic art museum housed in the historic Old Patent Office Building (as is the Smithsonian American Art Museum), now the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Today, the National Portrait Gallery continues to narrate the multi-faceted and ever-changing story of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture and, through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, it presents poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives form our national identity.

Check out “Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture” and “Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture – Smithsonian American Art Museum”

Abraham Lincoln (Charles Wesley Jarvis, 1861)

Initially restricted to paintings, prints, drawings, and engravings, the collections, over the years, have grown from more than 2,000 items 1981 and, in 1990, the number of images in the museum’s photography collection reached 8,500 objects. As of 2011, the National Portrait Gallery was the only museum in the United States dedicated solely to portraiture.

In 2013, the museum had 65 employees and an annual budget of $9 million. February 2013, it housed 21,200 works of art, which had been seen 1,069,932 visitors in 2012. Today, the NPG collection of over 23,000 items, in all media, from daguerreotypes to digital, had grown so large that the exhibit drew its images almost entirely from the museum’s own collection.

Douglas MacArthur (Howard Chandler Christy, c. 1952)

The Hall of Presidents, a hallmark of the NPG’s permanent collection, is the largest and most complete collection in the world, except for the White House collection itself. Containing portraits of nearly all American presidents, the centerpiece of the Hall of Presidents is the famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington. How the museum obtains presidential images has changed over the years.

From 1962 to 1987, presidential portraits were usually obtained through purchase or donation but, beginning in 1998, NPG began commissioning portraits of presidents, starting with George H. W. Bush, for its “America’s Presidents” exhibition (Gilbert Stuart’s Lansdowne portrait of George Washington is the grand introductory image to this exhibition). In 2000, NPG began commissioning portraits of First Ladies as well, beginning with Hillary Clinton.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (Thomas Edgar Stephens)

Funds for these commissions are privately raised, and each portrait costs about $150,000 to $200,000. It still continues to acquire portraits (including paintings, sculpture, photographs, caricatures, video, and time-based media) of each succeeding president.

The NPG hosts the prestigious Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, a triennial, juried contemporary portrait exhibition widely regarded as the most prestigious portrait competition in the United States. It also brings commissioned works into the collection. Artists working in the fields of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and other media are allowed to enter.

William T. Sherman (George Peter Alexander Healy, 1866)

Works must be created through a face-to-face encounter with the subject. The winner of this inaugural competition was David Lenz of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was commissioned to paint a portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver (the founder of the Special Olympics), the first portrait commissioned of an individual who has not served as a President or First Lady.

On the left is a portrait of Stephen Van Rensselaer III (John Wesley Jarvis, 1825-35) while on the right is a portrait of Antonia Pantoja (Manny Vega, marble, glass and stone, 2014)

Dave Woody of Fort Collins, Colorado, the 2009 winner, was commissioned to photograph food pioneer Alice Waters, founder of the Chez Panisse Restaurant and Cafe, the Edible Schoolyard and champion of the Slow Food movement.

Samuel Francis Du Pont (Daniel Huntington, 1867-68)

During the 2013 competition, the total prize money of $42,000 was awarded to the top eight commended artists, and the winner received $25,000 and a commission to make a portrait for the museum’s permanent collection. The artist and the NPG curators jointly decided the subject of the commission. The 2013 winner was Bo Gehring of Beacon, New York, who was commissioned to direct a close-up video and sound portrait of jazz musician Esperanza Spalding which drew delight and praise from visitors.

Here is the historical timeline of the gallery:

In 1962, the National Portrait Gallery was authorized and founded Congress with the mission to acquire and display portraits of individuals who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States.
In 1965 (the bicentennial of James Smithson‘s birth), “Nucleus for a National Collection,” the first NPG exhibit, went on display in the Arts and Industries Building.
In 1966, the NPG completed the Catalog of American Portraits, the first inventory of portraiture held the Smithsonian. The catalog also documented the physical characteristics of each artwork, and its provenance (author, date, ownership, etc.). That same year, the museum moved into the Old Patent Office Building with the National Fine Arts Collection.
In 1968, Gilbert Stuart’s 2.4 5 m. (8 5 ft.) Lansdowne portrait (commissioned in April 1796 Senator William Bingham of Pennsylvania—one of the wealthiest men in America at the time) of George Washington was exhibited the National Portrait Gallery, and it remained there on indefinite loan.
In 1969, the Old Patent Office Building was renovated the architectural firm of Faulkner, Fryer and Vanderpool.
In 1971, the NPG began the National Portrait Survey, an attempt to catalog and photograph all portraits in all formats held every public and private collection and museum in the country.
On July 4, 1973, “The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770–1800,” the first exhibit at the museum dedicated solely to African Americans, was opened the NPG.
In 1974, Philanthropist Paul Mellon donated 761 portraits French-American engraver B.J.F. de Saint-Mémin to the museum.
In January 1976, Congress passed legislation allowing the NPG to collect portraits in media other than graphic arts, permitting the NPG to begin collecting photographs.
In October 1976, the NPG established a Department of Photographs.
1977, the NPG had three curatorial divisions (Painting and sculpture, prints and drawings, and photography).
In September 1978, Facing the Light: Historic American Portrait Daguerreotypes,” the gallery’s first photography exhibit, was opened.
In February 1977, the museum acquired an 1880 self-portrait Mary Cassatt, one of only two painted
In December 1977, the museum acquired a self-portrait celebrated early American artist John Singleton Copley. The roundel (a circular canvas), one of only four self-portraits, was donated to the NPG the Cafritz Foundation.
In May 1978, Time magazine donated 850 original portraits which had graced its cover between 1928 and 1978.
In May 1979, a major exhibit of these Time magazine pieces debuted.
In April 1979, the Coolidge family of Boston donated five portraits of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Adams, and James Madison Gilbert Stuart, known as the Gibbs-Coolidge set, to the NPG.
In December 1979, the Henry Cabot Lodge family in Massachusetts donated a bust of Alexander Hamilton John Trumbull (which may have been sculpted from the portrait which was later used for the $10 bill) and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Representative Fisher Ames to the museum.
In April 1980, Varina Webb Stewart and Joel A.H. Webb, Jefferson Davis‘ great-grandchildren, presented important portraits of Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina Howell Davis, to the NPG.
In 1980, the museum obtained, through purchase and loan, a number of works of graphic artist Howard Chandler Christy for exhibit. Works displayed ranged from his “Christy girl” recruiting posters to history-based works such as Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States.
On February 7, 1980, the Museum of Fine Arts and NPG agreed to jointly purchase the two famous, unfinished Gilbert Stuart portraits of George and Martha Washington owned the Boston Athenaeum, which loaned them to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1876. Under the agreement, the paintings would spend three years at the National Portrait Gallery (beginning in July 1980), and then three years in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1981, two major 19th-century photography collections were added the museum. They acquired the Frederick Hill Meserve Collection of 5,419 glass negatives produced the studio of famed Civil War photograph Mathew Brady and his assistants and, using historically accurate chemicals, paper, and techniques, prints were made of the negatives and the prints placed on rotating display. Later, they purchased, from the Meserve family, 5,400 Civil War-era glass negatives produced photographer Alexander Gardner including the famous “cracked-plate” portrait of Abraham Lincoln (taken in February 1865), the last photographic portrait of Lincoln taken before his death in April 1865.
In 1982, the museum purchased, for $1 million, a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Thomas Jefferson, to a private collector. A portion of the purchase price came from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Jefferson’s historic plantation home of Monticello. The two parties agreed have the portrait spend time at both locations.
In 1984, museum purchased an Edgar Degas portrait of his friend, Mary Cassatt, for $1.3 million.
On December 31, 1984, a thief pried open a display case and stole four handwritten documents accompanying several portraits of Civil War generals. One of the documents was written and signed President Abraham Lincoln. The remaining three were written and signed Civil War generals Ulysses S. Grant, George Meade, and George Armstrong Custer.
On February 8, 1985, all four documents were recovered when police arrested Norman James Chandler, a part-time mechanic’s assistant from Maryland, for the theft. Chandler quickly pleaded guilty. He was sentenced in April 1985 to two years in jail (with all but six months suspended) and two years of probation, and required to pay a $2,000 fine.
In 1985, the the NPG acquired their first nude work – a self-portrait painting Alice Neel painted when was 80 years old.
In 1987, noted photographer Irving Penn donated 120 platinum prints of fashion and celebrity portraits he produced over the past 50 years.
In 1990, the first daguerreotype (an early photographic process) of African American abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass (one of only four daguerreotypes of Douglass known to exist) was acquired.
In 1996, the NPG obtained, for $115,000, the earliest known daguerreotype portrait of abolitionist John Brown (created African-American photographer Augustus Washington), whose 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry helped to spark the Civil War.
In January 2000, the NPG closed for a renovation of the Old Patent Office Building. Intended to take two years and cost $42 million, the renovation took seven years and cost $283 million.
In the fall of 2000, Neil Primrose, 7th Earl of Rosebery, offered to sell The Lansdowne portrait given as a gift to British Prime Minister William Petty FitzMaurice (the 2nd Earl of Shelburne, and later became the first Marquess of Lansdowne, hence the name of the portrait). Lansdowne died in 1805, and in 1890 the painting was purchased the 5th Earl of Rosebery.
On March 13, 2001, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation donated $30 million to buy the Lansdowne portrait. The $30 million donation included $6 million to put the portrait on a national tour for three years (the NPG was closed for renovations until 2006), and $4 million to construct a new display area (named for media baron Donald W. Reynolds, who created the foundation) in the Old Patent Office Building to display it.
In 2006, the NPG hosted the first Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition (named after long time docent and volunteer Virginia Outwin Boochever),. It drew more than 4000 entries, from which 51 finalists were chosen.
After the 2008 presidential election, Obama supporter Tony Podesta and his wife, Heather, donated graphic artist Shepard Fairey‘s ubiquitous “Hope” poster of Barack Obama to the National Portrait Gallery.
In November 2010, the NPG hosted “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” a major new exhibit, from October 30, 2010, to February 13, 2011, of 105 pieces curated David C. Ward and Jonathan Katz. The exhibit focused on depictions of homosexual love through history, and was the first exhibit hosted a museum of national stature to address the topic and was also the largest and most expensive exhibit in the NPG’s history. Included in the in the exhibit was a four-minute, edited version of “A Fire in My Belly,” a short silent film artist David Wojnarowicz. Eleven seconds of the video depicted a crucifix covered in ants.
In 2012, the NPG sponsored “Poetic Likeness: Modern American Poets,” a new temporary exhibit which focused on images of great American poets.

The museum’s more notable art pieces include:

“Abraham Lincoln” (Alexander Gardner, 1865, glass plate, cracked)
“Alexander Hamilton” (bust by John Trumbull, 1789)
“Beauford Delaney” (Georgia O’Keeffe, 1940)
“Benjamin Franklin” (Joseph Duplessis, c. 1785)
“Charlie Chaplin” (Edward Steichen, 1925)
“Colin Powell” (Ron Sherr, 2012)
“Donald Trump” (photo by Michael O’Brien, 1989)
“Ethel Waters” (Beauford Delaney, 1940)
“Eunice Kennedy Shriver” (David Lenz, 2009)
“Frederick Douglass” (daguerreotype by unknown artist, 1856)
“George Washington” (unfinished by Gilbert Stuart, 1796)
“Henry Cabot Lodge” (John Singer Sargent, 1890)
“Hope” (Barack Obama)(Shepard Fairey, 2008)
“Jefferson Davis” (George Lethbridge Saunders, 1849)
“John Adams” (Gilbert Stuart, 1800–1815)
“John Brown” (daguerreotype by Augustus Washington, 1846–1847)
Lansdowne portrait (George Washington) (Gilbert Stuart, 1796)
“Martha Washington” (unfinished by Gilbert Stuart, 1796)
“Mary Cassatt” (Edgar Degas, 1880–1884)
“Osceola” (George Catlin, 1804–1838)
“Self-Portrait” (Mary Cassatt, 1880)
“Self-Portrait” (Paul Cézanne, 1880–1881)
“Self-Portrait” (John Singleton Copley, 1780–1784)
“Thomas Jefferson” (Gilbert Stuart, 1805)
“Varina Howell Davis” (John Wood Dodge, 1849)
“Barack Obama” (Kehinde Wiley, 2018)

Among the museum’s more prominent collections are:

Alexander Gardner (photography)
Howard Chandler Christy (graphic arts)
Irving Penn (photography)
Mathew Brady (photography)
Time magazine covers (graphic arts)

The Great Hall

Although most of the interior has been altered for use as a museum, parts of the Old Patent Office interior are still visible. From Robert Mills’ graceful double curved cantilevered stone staircases, one then enters the Model Hall on the building’s third floor and, turning right, leads one down the Great Hall and into more of the Patent Office’s galleries.

The painting Grant and His Generals” (Ole Peter Hansen Balling) above the graceful double curved cantilevered stone staircases

After a fire in 1877 destroyed the third floor of the building, the Great Hall, the reception area where President Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln greeted guests attending the second inaugural ball, was remodeled by Adolf Cluss and his partner, architect Paul Schulze. The resulting interior space, a dramatic riot of color, was originally called the Model Hall. It is accentuated with late-nineteenth-century architectural highlights and has a hand-laid encaustice tille floor, curving double staircase, soaring vaulted ceilings and lit by stained glass windows.

The hall celebrates great American scientists and four of them (Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Thomas Jefferson, and Eli Whitney) are represented on large medallions in the corners of the Hall. It seats 300 (seated dinner) and 366 (Reception) people, respectively.

The enclosed, 28,000-sq. ft. Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, one of the largest and most magnificent event spaces in Washington, DC., was opened to the public on November 18, 2007 and was named after Washington philanthropists and art collectors Robert and Arlene Kogod. With an elegant glass canopy, the courtyard, designed world-renowned architects at Foster + Partners in London, provides a distinctive, contemporary accent to the museums’ Greek Revival building.

Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard

The wavy glass-and-steel roof, appearing to float over the courtyard, lets in natural light but protects visitors from the elements. So that the weight of the roof does not affect the historic building, the double-glazed glass panels, set in a grid, are completely supported eight anodized aluminum-clad columns located around the perimeter of the courtyard.

Michael Jackson (Andy Warhol, 1984)

The courtyard’s interior design, created internationally acclaimed landscape designer Kathryn Gustafson of Seattle-based Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., features four water scrims (each one-quarter inch deep and allowed to traverse the entire length of the courtyard); ficus and black olive trees; a variety of shrubs and ferns as well as plantings in white marble containers on a black granite floor.

Today, the Kogod Courtyard is a popular meeting place in DC. There is plenty of seating, free wifi, and a cafe with snacks for museum visitors open from 11:30 AM until 6:30 PM. It was named one of the “new seven wonders of the architecture world” Condé Nast Traveler magazine.

National Portrait Gallery: Victor Bldg., 750 Ninth Street NW Suite 41, Washington, D.C. 20001. Tel: (202) 633-8300. Open Wednesday–Sunday, 11:30 AM – 7 PM.

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture – Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Posted on 3 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM), formerly called the Smithsonian Art Collection, National Gallery of Art (not to be confused with the current National Gallery of Art), National Collection of Fine Arts, and National Museum of American Art, is a part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum adopted its current name in October 2000. Together with the Renwick Gallery, its branch museum, SAAM holds one of the world’s largest and most inclusive collections of art (from the Colonial period to the present) made in the United States.

Most exhibitions in the museum take place in the old Patent Office Building (shared with the National Portrait Gallery), the museum’s main building which contains expanded permanent-collection galleries and public spaces. The craft-focused exhibitions are shown in the Renwick Gallery.

SAAM, describing itself as being “dedicated to collecting, understanding, and enjoying American art,” celebrates the extraordinary creativity of artists whose works reflect the American experience and global connections.

Through its national education program, the museum provides electronic resources to schools and the public, maintaining seven online research databases with more than 500,000 records, including the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture that document more than 400,000 artworks in public and private collections worldwide.

Since 1951, the museum has maintained a traveling exhibition program and, as of 2013, more than 2.5 million visitors have seen the exhibitions.

Adoration of St. Joan of Arc – a fire-etched wood relief by J. William Fosdick in 1910 to appeal to wealthy industrialists who favored richly designed interiors and uplifting art. Fosdick tapped into the fantasy of a more spiritual past and, when it was exhibited, it was praised for craftsmanship that rivaled a Medieval masterwork.

The collection, first on display in the original Smithsonian Building (now nicknamed the “Castle”), was begun in 1829 and grew as the Smithsonian buildings grew, with the collection housed in one or more Smithsonian buildings on the National Mall.

“America Receiving the Nine Muses,” by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, was painted on an imposing, gilded Steinway piano and presented to Pres. Theodore Roosevelt in 1903. Painted on the piano’s lid, it merged the Classical theme of the Muses, with America as the new standard bearer of Western culture, and is decked out in symbols of Americana, from eagles to garlands to the coats-of-arms of the first thirteen states.

By the 1920s, space had become critical and, in order to display its collection of fine art, The Smithsonian renovated the Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C.’s downtown cultural district. In 1968, in its current location, the Smithsonian American Art Museum was opened to the public.

Check out “Smithsonian Castle”

“Preamble,” a show of American ingenuity by Mike Wilkins created in 1959 to mark the Constitution’s bicentennial, is a 1,000-piece puzzle using a collection of vanity license plates, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, to phonetically spell out the preamble to the US Constitution in abbreviated script.

Now the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s main building, it is now a National Historic Landmark. An example of Greek Revival architecture, it was designed by architects Robert Mills and Thomas U. Walter.

Yielding to the Ancestors while holding the Hands of (Lonnie Holly, 1992)

The building was restored during the 1990s and, during the 2000-2006 renovation, many of the building’s exceptional architectural features were restored including the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows and skylights as long as a city block.

The Libyan Sibyl, by William Wetmore Story, (1861-68, marble), was inspired by events leading up to the Civil War. Described by Story as “my anti-slavery sermon in stone,” it depicts the Libyan Sibyl, the eldest of the legendary prophetesses of antiquity, as she foresees the terrible fate of the African people.

During the renovation, the Lunder Conservation Center, the Luce Foundation Center for American Art, the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium and the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard were also added to the building.

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, a complex work of art created by James Hampton over a period of 14 years (1950-64), is an array based on several religious visions that prompted him to prepare for Christ’s return to earth. The “third heaven” is based on scriptures citing it as the “heaven of heavens” — God’s realm.

The renovation of the building was completed on July 1, 2006 and, in 2008, the American Alliance of Museums awarded reaccreditation to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Falling Gladiator, by William Rimmer, was based on a sculpture, from ancient Greece and Rome, of a mortally wounded man. This subject echoed the suffering of the United States on the eve of the Civil War. When the artist began work in January of 1861, six states had seceded from the Union, and the attack on Fort Sumter was just three months away.

The museum has a broad variety of American art, with more than 7,000 artists represented, and covers all regions and art movements found in the United States.

Washinton Resigning his Commission (Ferdinand Pettricj, c. 1841)

SAAM contains the world’s largest collection of New Deal art; a collection of contemporary craft, American impressionist paintings, and masterpieces from the Gilded Age; photography, modern folk art, works by African American and Latino artists, images of western expansion, and realist art from the first half of the twentieth century.

Among the Sierra Nevada, California (Albert Bierstadt, 1868, oil on canvas)

Among the significant artists represented in its collection are Nam June Paik, Jenny Holzer, David Hockney, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Albert Bierstadt, Frances Farrand Dodge, Edmonia Lewis, Thomas Moran, James Gill, Edward Hopper, John William “Uncle Jack” Dey, Karen LaMonte and Winslow Homer.

An Eclogue (Kenyon Cox, 1890, oil on canvas)

The museum has two innovative public spaces, both opened in July 2000. The 20,400 sq. ft. Luce Foundation Center, on the third and fourth floors of American Art Museum, is the fourth center to bear the Luce Family name and the first visible art storage study center Washington, D.C..

Luce Foundation Center

It allows visitors and patrons to browse more than 3,300 works of various niche art, usually not part of a main exhibition or gala special, in 64 secure glass cases which quadruples the number of artworks from the permanent collection on public view.

It features paintings densely hung on screens; sculptures; crafts and objects by folk and self-taught artists arranged on shelves. Large-scale sculptures are installed on the first floor. The center has John Gellatly’s European collection of decorative arts.

The Lunder Conservation Center is the first art conservation facility to allow the public permanent behind-the-scenes views of the preservation work of museums. Through floor-to-ceiling glass walls, conservation staff is visible to the public, allowing visitors to see, firsthand, all the techniques which conservators use to examine, treat, and preserve artworks.

The center has five conservation laboratories and studios equipped to treat paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, folk art objects, contemporary crafts, decorative arts, and frames, using various specialized and esoteric tools, such as hygrothermographs, to maintain optimal temperature and humidity to preserve works of art.

The Center Staff from both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery work in the Lunder Center.

The Vine (Harriett Whitney Frishmuth, 1921-23)

Smithsonian American Art Museum: 8th & F Streets NW, Washington, D.C.. Coordinates: 38°53′52″N 77°01′24″W.

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Posted on 3 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, actually a collection of institutions housed in the historic, gloriously renovated Old Patent Office Building, served as one of the earliest United States Patent Office buildings. Here, Neo-Classicism meets 21st-century exuberance.

The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture

Covering an entire city block defined by F and G Streets and 7th and 9th Streets NW, just south of Chinatown in downtown Washington, it now houses two Smithsonian Institution museums – the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The building’s Greek Rival-stye facade

It also houses the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery of the Archives of American Art; an art conservation facility (Lunder Conservation Center); an enclosed, 28,000-sq. ft. courtyard (Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard); a 20,400 sq. ft. open storage facility (Luce Foundation Center); a new 356-seat underground auditorium (Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium) and other operations within the Old Patent Office complex. By the end of 2007, more than 786,000 people had visited the two museums and, 10 years later, during the time of my visit, 1.3 million people have visited the place.

Check out “Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art – National Portrait Gallery” and Portraiture and “Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture – Smithsonian American Art Museum”

Before it became what it is today, through the Civil War and into the post-war period, the building was once home to many early government departments. It was used as a hospital, and The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the General Land Office, and the Bureau of Pensions jointly occupied the building with the Patent Office.

National Portrait Gallery

Both Clara Barton and American poet Walt Whitman worked as nurses there during the American Civil War. From 1854 to 1857, Barton worked in the building as a clerk to the Patent Commissioner, the first woman federal employee to receive equal pay. From January 24 to June 30, 1865, Waltman, who frequented “that noblest of Washington buildings” and read to wounded men, worked in Bureau of Indian Affairs before being fired for having a copy of Leaves of Grass in his desk.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Here is the historical timeline of the building:

In 1836, construction of the building was started.
In 1851, architect Robert Mills was summarily dismissed as Congressional committees questioned his competence and his insistence on design changes that inserted unnecessary supporting columns and tie-rods. Construction continued under the direction of Thomas U. Walter, one of Mills’ harshest critics
During the Civil War, the building was turned into military barracks, hospital, and morgue. Wounded soldiers lay on cots in second-floor galleries, among glass cases holding models of inventions that had been submitted with patent applications.
In 1865, the building was completed
In March 1965, it was chosen as the venue for Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Ball.
In 1877, the building’s west wing suffered a fire, destroying some 87,000 patent models
From 1877–1885, it was restored by Adolf Cluss in the style he termed “modern Renaissance.”
In 1887, the Bureau of Pension moved to the new Pension Bureau Building.
In 1898, the General Land Office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs vacated the building.
In 1932 the United States Civil Service Commission and the Government Accounting Office occupied the building after the Patent Office vacated it.
In 1942, the Government Accounting Office vacated the structure after its new headquarters nearby was complete.
In 1952, legislation to tear down the building and sell the land so a private parking garage could be built on the centrally located site was introduced in Congress in the waning days of the 82nd United States Congress but did not pass.
On March 21, 1958, Congress unanimously passed legislation authorizing the transfer of the building to the Smithsonian for a national art museum. President Dwight Eisenhower signed the legislation a few days later. Congress appropriated $33.5 million for the renovation.
In 1962, Congress passed legislation establishing the National Portrait Gallery
In November 1963, the Civil Service Commission moved out of the structure.
Starting in 1964, the Faulkner, Kingsbury & Stenhouse firm of architects supervised the renovation of the interior as museum space.
In November 1964, preparations for the buildings renovation began
On January 12, 1965, the building was designated as a S. National Historic Landmark.
By May 1965, the Grunley, Walsh Construction Co. began demolition of non-historic interior structures.
On October 15, 1966, it was added to S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP reference No. 66000902).
By April 1968, the $6 million renovation was complete
In January 1968, the National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) and the National Portrait Gallery opened. The north wing housed the art museum and the south wing housed the portrait gallery. Office space and a cafe occupied the east wing. The center courtyard had outdoor eating space for the cafe and several large trees.
In 1970, the renovation won the American Institute of Architects National Honor Award.
In 1995, the Smithsonian revealed that the building was in serious disrepair. The roof leaked, netting had to be placed in some galleries to catch falling ceiling plaster, window frames were rotting, the floor tiles in the Great Hall were crumbling, and the exterior facade was so degraded it was shedding fist-sized pieces of rock.
In January 1997, the Smithsonian announced that the building would close in January 2000 for a two-year, $42 million renovation (the estimated cost of the renovation then grew, initially in 2000 to $110-120 million). Hartman-Cox Architects was hired to oversee the conservation and repair. To be restored were the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows, and skylights as long as a city block.
Just three years later, as the renovation was about to begin, the cost of repairs had risen to $110 million to $120 million.
Prior to the building’s closure in January 2000, a decision was reached to allot about one-third of the building’s total space to the National Portrait Gallery while simultaneously eliminating the informal north–south division between the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Smithsonian resolved the dispute practically – Art that best fit an exhibition space got it. Modern art, which often tends toward large canvases, was installed on the high-ceilinged third floor.
By March 2001, as the cost of the renovation rose to $180 million, Nan Tucker McEvoy (a California newspaper heiress and arts patron) donated $10 million for the renovation.
Later in 2001, the Henry Luce Foundation gave another $10 million.
In June 2001, reconstruction costs were estimated at $214 million.
In July 2001, the reopening was pushed back even further to July 2006.
In 2003, the government increased its contribution to $166 million and more than $40 million in private funds had been raised.
In August 2003, Congress approved a major change to the renovation design – adding a glass roof to the open courtyard in the center of the Old Patent Office Building.
In March 2004, the Smithsonian announced that architect Norman Foster of Foster and Partners would design the glass canopy.
In early November 2004, the National Capital Planning Commission(NCPC), which has statutory authority to approve all buildings and renovations in the D.C. metropolitan area, approved the preliminary design for the glass canopy. That same month, real estate development executive Robert Kogod and his wife, Arlene (heiress to Charles E. Smith Construction fortune) donated $25 million to complete the canopy. By then, costs had risen to $298 million. $60 million in private funds still needed to be raised.
In January 2005, the United States Commission of Fine Arts, an advisory commission on design, approved the canopy.
In April 2005, the Smithsonian said that the canopy would not be ready by the time the museum reopened in July 2006, and would be installed in 2007.
On June 2, 2005, the the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) reversed its preliminary approval of the canopy
On August 4, 2005, the Smithsonian brought five alternatives to the NCPC.
On September 8, 2005, the NCPC reversed itself yet again, and approved one of the revised designs. The delay cost the Smithsonian $10 million.
In October 2005, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation made a $45 million donation to the NPG to finish both the building renovation and the canopy. The Smithsonian agreed to call the two museums, the conservation center, courtyard, storage facility, and other operations within the Old Patent Office complex the “Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture” in appreciation for the gift.
On July 1, 2006, after undergoing extensive renovations, the building and the Smithsonian American Art Museum was reopened. The total cost of the building’s renovation was $283 million.
In just two months, attendance at the renovated building rose significantly to 214,495.
On October 7, 1968, the National Portrait Gallery opened to the public.
In September 2007, video security cameras were hastily installed to stop vandalism as some patrons spit on art they did not like, while others kissed or touched some paintings.

Luce Foundation Center

The massive building, designed in the Greek Revival style by architect Robert Mills and Thomas U. Walter, took 31 years to complete. Mills spanned the interior spaces with masonry vaulting without the use of wooden beams. Skylights and interior light courts filled the spaces with daylight. It has a sandstone and marble façade, and a central portico modeled after the the Parthenon of Athens, a departure in Washington where previously ambitious public buildings had been based on Roman and Renaissance precedents.

The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture: 8th and F St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Tel: 202.633.1000 (recorded information/live voice). E-mail: info@si.edu. Website: www.si.edu/visit. Coordinates: 38.89778°N 77.022936°W

Enid A. Haupt Garden (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Posted on 3 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Parterre of the Enid A. Haupt Garden

The 1.7-hectare (4.2 acre) Enid A. Haupt Garden, a public garden in the Smithsonian complex, adjacent to the Smithsonian Castle (formally the Smithsonian Institution Building) on the National Mall, replaced an existing Victorian Garden which had been built to celebrate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.

Check out “Smithsonian Castle”

Designed to be a modern representation of American Victorian gardens as they appeared in the mid to late 19th century, it was opened on May 21, 1987 as part of the redesigned Castle quadrangle and was named after Enid A. Haupt who provided the $3 million endowment which financed its construction and maintenance.

More broadly, the quadrangle redesign project and the Smithsonian Gardens were part of the vision of S. Dillon Ripley, the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian, who felt that the museum experience should extend beyond the museums’ buildings into the outdoor spaces.

The gardens landscape design features the collaborative efforts of architect Jean Paul Carlhian (principal in the Boston firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott), Lester Collins (Sasaki Associates Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts) and James R. Buckler (founding director of the Smithsonian’s Office of Horticulture).

The symmetrically patterned and carefully manicured parterre (French for “on the ground”), behind the Smithsonian Castle in the south yard, is the central feature of the garden. Measuring 44 m. (144 ft.) long by 20 m. (66 ft.) wide, it is flanked by the Moongate Garden to the west and the Fountain Garden to the east.

Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucana araucaria)

The formal parterre, an ornamental garden type originating in 16th century Renaissance Italy and typically associated with the elaborate designs of the Victorian era, predates the creation of the Enid A. Haupt Garden and was inspired by a design from the 1876 Centennial Exposition Horticultural Hall in Philadelphia. When the Enid A. Haupt Garden was created, this parterre was saved and incorporated into the new formal garden. It complements the ornate architecture of the adjacent Smithsonian Castle.

Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis)

With a changing palette of colors, shapes and textures, the layers of colorful, low-growing plants, meticulously laid out in symmetrical patterns, make up the design of the parterre that are changed every six months, typically in September and May. They fill out the series of diamonds, fleurs-de-lis, and scallops or swags. Within a circle in the northeast portion of the parterre is the Andrew Jackson Downing Urn.

Horizontal sundial

Other notable design features include saucer and tulip magnolias, brick walkways, and historical cast-iron garden furnishings from the Smithsonian Gardens‘ Garden Furniture Collection. A 12 square, horizontal sundial, sitting just outside the south door of the Smithsonian Castle, was built in 1994 by David Todd (a clock expert at the National Museum of American History) and David Shayt. Calibrated for the longitude and latitude of its location, it is subdivided into 15 minute increments and has a compass rose. Its dial sits atop a rectangular granitepedestal.

Check out “National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center“

Moongate Garden

The Moongate Garden, designed by architect Jean Paul Carlhian, was inspired by the gardens and architecture of the Temple of Heaven (Beijing, China) which was designed using a geometrical, axial layout, centered on the cardinal points of the compass. It was meant to take its visitors to a relaxing place surrounded by water where they may absorb the cool air emanating from the water.

Check out “The Temple of Heaven“

Granite and water (the dominant feature in the garden) are used abundantly in this garden. In Chinese culture, rocks (thought to symbolize the body of the earth) and water (symbolizing the spirit of earth) symbolizes the basic constituents of nature. Water gives off shimmering light effects in the sunlight and reflects the glow of the moon at night while its reflection gives the garden the appearance of being larger than it actually is.

Its overall circular pool design was meant to remind us of the windows in the National Museum of African Art (a technique that Carlhian also applied to the Fountain Garden). To align important features of the Arts and Industries Building with the Freer Gallery of Art, Carlhian utilized his so-called “pinwheel treatment,” with the path leading into the Moongate Garden entering at the southwest corner and exiting at the northeast corner.

The Moongate Garden has two 9-ft. high pink granite moon gates on either side of a pool that is paved with half-round pieces of granite, strategically placed to frame important features of the surrounding landscape. Two more gates, laid flat, provide seating in opposite corners.

Renwick Gate

The Fountain Garden, beside the entrance to the National Museum of African Art, was also designed by Jean Paul Carlhian and was modeled after the Court of the Lions at Alhambra, a 13th-century Moorish palace and fortress in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.

As with most Islamic gardens, the Fountain Garden is geometrically symmetrical and suggests a walled paradise, an important concept in early Persian and Islamic garden design. It includes a central fountain and water channels (those on top of the low walls around the central fountain were designed to represent the four rivers of paradise described in the Koran). The bubbling center jet of the central fountain symbolizes paradise/eternity itself. A chadar (“veil”) of cascading water, at the garden’s north end, streams down a tile wall.

Enid A. Haupt Garden: 1037-1057 Independence Avenue SW and L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. Tel: 202.633.2220. E-mail: gardens@si.edu. Open daily, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Admission is free. Coordinates: 38°53′17″N 77°01′34″W.

National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center (Washington D.C., USA)

Posted on 3 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center

The National Museum of American History (NMAH): Kenneth E. Behring Center, a museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution, collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. The first of the National Mall’s post-war Brutalist behemoths. It consists of three H-shaped floors with a central axis leading to exhibition space on either side.

The south facade of the museum

Opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology, it was one of the last structures designed by the renowned architectural firm McKim Mead & White, the firm that initiated the Classical Revival on the Mall with its 1910 Beaux Arts National Museum of Natural History. In 1980, the museum was renamed the National Museum of American History to represent its mission of the collection, care, study, and interpretation of objects that reflect the experience of the American people.

1 West

From September 5, 2006 to November 21, 2008, the museum was closed when it underwent an US$85 million renovation. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, led by Gary Haney, provided the architecture and interior design services for the renovation.

Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

Major changes made include a new, five-storey, skylit atriums surrounded by displays of artifacts that showcase the breadth of the museum’s collection; a new, grand staircase that links the museum’s first and second floors; a new welcome center; the addition of six landmark objects to orient visitors; new galleries such as the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Hall of Invention; and an environmentally controlled chamber to protect the original Star-Spangled Banner.

Archive Center

In 2012, the museum began a US$37 million renovation of the west wing; adding new exhibition spaces, public plazas, an education center, panoramic windows overlooking the National Mall on all three floors and new interactive features to the exhibits. On July 1, 2015, the first floor of the west wing reopened and, in 2016 and 2017 respectively, the second and third floors of the west wing were reopened.

Linda and Pete Clausen Hall of Democracy

Visitors can enter the vast NMAH building either from the on-grade National Mall entrance or from the below-grade Constitution Avenue entrance (a walled terrace bridges the differing heights), both minuscule apertures that are not fitting entrances that furnish a sense of grandeur or importance to a museum built to tell America’s story. At its National Mall entrance is Infinity, a 7.3 m. (24-ft.) tall abstract sculpture (one of the first abstract sculptures displayed at a major public building in Washington D.C.) dedicated in 1967. Designed by José de Rivera and created by Roy Gussow, the sculpture is a 4.9 m. (16-ft.) long, polished stainless steel ribbon on top of a granite tower.

Alexander Calder’s steel sculpture Gwenfritz. In the background is the National Museum of African American History and Culture

We entered the museum via the latter. Here, on the west side, is Alexander Calder‘s sculpture, Gwenfritz, a 35-ton steel abstract stabile (named after its socialite patron Gwendolyn Cafritz) installed in a fountain and dedicated to the museum on June 2, 1969. The long entrance hall, like many other areas of the building, is poorly illuminated and dispiriting. During our visit, the west side of the second floor was undergoing refurbishment through the end of 2017, and the west side of third floor until 2018.

Artifact walls line the first and second floor center core, with dimly lit 84 m. (275 ft.) of glass-fronted cases, each crammed with hundreds of random objects, big and small, are organized around themes that include arts; popular culture; business, work and economy; home and family; community; land and natural resources; peopling America; politics and reform; science; medicine; technology; and the United States’ role in the world.

A landmark object highlights the theme of each wing of the museum’s three exhibition floors. These include the John Bull locomotive, the Greensboro, Woolworth’s North Carolina lunch counter (where four legends from North Carolina A&T State University staged a sit-in in 1961 to protest segregation), a one of a kind draft wheel and, from pre-existing exhibits, the 1865 Vassar Telescope, a Red Cross ambulance and a car from Disneyland‘s Dumbo Flying Elephant ride.

John Bull Locomotive of 1831

The first floor contains a café, the main museum store, the Constitution Avenue lobby (1 Center) as well as a space for temporary exhibits. 1 East, the first floor’s East Wing, houses the General Motors Hall of Transportation which has series of two transportation-related exhibits that are roughly related – “America on the Move” (opened November 22, 2003) and its companion exhibition, “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America” (opened on May 20, 2009). One of the best parts of the museum, the John Bull locomotive is the signature artifact.

America on the Move: On the Interstate – 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix convertible and 1986 Dodge Caravan

“America on the Move,” designed by the Museum Design Associates of Cambridge, Mass.; AMAZE Design of Boston; and the Smith Group, of Washington, D.C., encompasses nearly 26,000 sq. ft. on the first floor of the museum, and includes 340 objects and 19 historic settings in chronological order.

Roadside Communities: Tourist cabin at Ring’s Rest (Muirkirk, Maryland). On the left is a 1934 Ford Deluxe Roadster

City and Suburb: Fageol Twin Coach “Old Look” Liquefied-Propane Gas-Powered Bus, 1950 (2)

It takes visitors on a fascinating journey, from the coming of the railroad to a California town in 1876 to the role of the streetcar and the automobile in creating suburbs to the global economy of Los Angeles in 1999, as they travel back in time and experience transportation, through multimedia technology and environment, as it changed America, seeing historic artifacts as they once were, a vital part of the nation’s transportation system and of the business, social, and cultural history of the country.

1926 Ford Model T Roadster on its side on a Turn Auto

A Streetcar City: Electric streetcar, 1898

The Smithsonian’s popular and voluminous collection of the many and varied forms of rare, fascinating, and important transportation is showcased in historic settings brought to life by large mural backdrops, 73 cast figures and soundscapes.

On the School Bus: 36-passenger Dodge school bus, 1936

The People’s Highway: Route 66

It includes the horse-drawn cart, early automobiles, the electric car, buses, a Chicago Transit Authority “L” car, a massive 199-ton, 92-foot-long “1401” Southern Railway locomotive and a gigantic 1930’s steam engine plus a 40-foot stretch of the famed Route 66.

On the Water: Stories from Maritime America

The brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America,” a pleasing and instructive museum experience on the left side of the entrance of General Motors Hall of Transportation, leads the visitor through 7 topical/chronological sections that span American maritime history from 1450 to the present.

Ocean Crossings

It explores the many ways in which Americans, from Colonial times to the present, have pursued commerce at sea and on America’s extensive coastal and inland waterways through impressive artifacts, flawless audiovisual aids, instructive texts, and a powerful aesthetic.

Web of Connections

The 8,500 sq. ft. exhibit seamlessly carries the visitor through topics as diverse as commercial fishing, passenger liners, the slave trade, container ships, and the contributions of the merchant marine to victory in World War II.

Tobacco ship Brilliant

On display are rigged ship models (including a large model of the tobacco ship Brilliant) representing the web of vessels that transported sugar, tobacco and slaves; a wooden snuff box carved into the shape of a potbellied man (with one eye bulging, the other missing) that connects vast trade systems to everyday consumer habits; a real-life steam engine room; a Fresnel lighthouse lens that lit waters 17 miles afar; a tucked-away safety vest invention that appears to be a twin mattress folded, diaper-like, under the wearer’s torso; and the first sliver of gold found at Sutter’s Mill that precipitated the California Gold Rush.

Lighting a Revolution

The “Lighting a Revolution” exhibition, opened at 1 East to commemorate the centennial of Thomas Edison’s light bulb, considers experiments with electricity before Edison’s, the “Invention Factory” at Menlo Park, how Edison created a market for his product, and the impact of electricity in factories, on city streets, and in the home.

The exhibition features a bulb from a public demonstration of Edison’s light in Menlo Park during Christmas week, 1879; and early electrical appliances for the home, some of which caught on, such as electric fans, and some which did not, namely the electric marshmallow toaster.

Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation

The large but sparsely furnished “Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation,” opened July 1, 2015, features “Places of Invention,” Draper Spark!Lab and “Inventive Minds.” “Places of Invention” is centered on the theme of innovation, where the museum is transforming how its audiences will experience history.

Inventive Minds

“Inventive Minds,” a small gallery, introduces visitors to the work of the Lemelson Center, particularly its efforts to document diverse American inventors. Draper Spark!Lab, a hands-on exhibit, has the Vassar Telescope as its signature artifact.

Places of Invention

The exhibition features 37 objects illustrating the inventions at the heart of each case study. Highlighted objects include a Technicolor camera used to film The Wizard of Oz; a turntable used by Grandmaster Flash; the prototype of the first computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute (on loan from SRI International); 1886 Columbia Light Roadster men’s high-wheel bicycle; an example of the Medtronic 5800 Model External Pacemaker invented by Earl Bakken; and several prototypes representing cutting-edge clean energy inventions coming out of Fort Collins.

In addition, there are five interactive stations set up on tables where visitors can participate in fun, hands-on learning experiences such as designing their own eight-bit icon (Silicon Valley section) or learning and practicing their DJ “scratching” skills (The Bronx section). However, objects such as a jukebox, a Howdy Doody puppet and a pink Patsy Cline costume do not necessarily bring the word “invention” to mind.

Vault door marking the entrance to the Gallery of Numismatics

The Gallery of Numismatics, opened July 1, 2015 at 1 West, delves into the world-class National Numismatic Collection (NNC), one of the Smithsonian’s oldest and most treasured collections (with more than 1.6 million objects), to uncover stories related to the origins, innovations, messages, artistry and allure of money.

Collecting Money and the World’s Gold

Entered via a vault door, it showcases more than 400 objects from the NNC, some of which are among the rarest in the world. The exhibition, thematically organized into five sections, allows visitors to learn about the origins of money, new monetary technologies, the political and cultural messages money conveys, numismatic art and design, and the practice of collecting money.

Origins – 168 pound stone ring from Yap Island

Featured American objects includes a storied 1933 Double Eagle, a personal check signed by Pres. James Madison in 1813, a 1934 US$100,000 note and a Depression-era $1 clam shell. International artifacts include a 168-pound stone ring used to make payments on Island of Yap, a 465 B.C.; a decadrachma coin from Syracuse, Sicily; a 14th-century Ming Note from China and a 1762 8 Real Coin from Mexico (also known as a Spanish piece of eight). The gallery will also showcase the famous Josiah K. Lilly Jr. collection of gold coins and the Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich collection of Russian coins (thought to be the finest outside of Russia).

Stories on Money

“Stories on Money,” a numismatic exhibition housed in a small room, comprehensibly traces the historical and aesthetic evolution of US banknotes and coinage through a skillfully culled collection.

Female Figures on Money

“Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000,” a 3,800 sq. ft. exhibition opened last November 20, 2012 in 1 East, is a creative blend of objects, graphics, video and an interactive, communal table that highlights how American eating and shopping habits have changed during those five decades.

Julia Child’s Home Kitchen

Julia Child‘s Home Kitchen, the opening story of the museum’s first major exhibition on food history, contains the tools, appliances, equipment, and furnishings arranged exactly as they were when Julia donated it to the museum. New and Improved!” explores the innovations behind some of the major changes in food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption since the 1950s.

Wine at the Table: Innovations at the Vineyard and the Winery

At Wine for the Table, discover how new technologies, innovators, and changing attitudes led to the tremendous growth and expansion of wine and winemaking, an important story in postwar America, in all 50 states by 2000.

The large, communal table in the center of the exhibition

At Open Table, the public is invited take a seat at a large, communal table, in the center of the exhibition, and engage in conversation about a wide range of food-related issues and topics, sharing their own thoughts and experiences about food and change in America.

American Enterprise

The 8,000 sq. ft. American Enterprise, opened last July 1, 2015 at 1 West, focuses on the role of business and innovation from the mid-1700s to the present. It chronicles the tumultuous interaction of capitalism and democracy that resulted in the continual remaking of American business—and American life.

Westinghouse Compound Engine

Visitors are immersed in the dramatic arc of labor, power, wealth, success, and failure in America. It traces the development of the United States from a small dependent agricultural nation to one of the world’s largest economies through the following 4 chronological eras: the Merchant Era (1770s – 1850s), the Corporate Era (1860s – 1930s), Consumer Era (1940s – 1970s), and the Global Era (1980s – 2010s). On display are John Deere’s plow, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, Barbara McClintock’s microscope, Stanley Cohen’s recombinant DNA research notebook, Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephones, Alfred Bloomingdale’s personal credit cards, a New York Stock Exchange booth from 1929, an early Monopoly board game and one of Michael Dell’s early computers.

The second floor of the museum, whose lobby leads out to Madison Drive and the National Mall, houses the museum’s new welcome center and a store. 2 West, the west wing of the second floor, has the George Washington statue (created in 1840 for the centennial of Washington’s birthday) as its signature artifact. The Wallace H. Coulter Unity Square, at 2 West, is the floor’s new program space dedicated to immersive activities and performances that richly illustrate America’s participatory democracy. At the center of Unity Square, is the Greensboro lunch counter, a small section of the original F.W. Woolworth’s Lunch Counter from Greensboro, N.C. 2 East, at the east wing of the second floor, has exhibitions that consider American ideals.

The Star Spangled Banner Exhibit

The original, newly conserved Star Spangled Banner Flag, in 2 East, the center of the second floor, is displayed in a dimly lit room, at the heart of the museum, with a climate-controlled environment to help preserve its color and fabric.. During the War of 1812, it was the same flag seen by Francis Scott Key come morning, after a long nighttime battle, above Fort McHenry, outside Baltimore, Maryland, signifying that the U.S. defenses had held.

Check out “Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine – Birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner“

This marked the penultimate major battle in the war, which ended a few weeks later. It inspired him to write the poem which is now the U.S. national anthem. In the days and years after the battle, the flag was flown in all kinds of weather, and parts were snipped off as souvenirs. Just across the room from the flag is an interactive display by Potion Design featuring a full-size, digital reproduction of the flag that allows patrons to learn more about it by touching different areas on the flag.

LEGO Statue of Liberty

The 9 ft. tall Statue of Liberty, at 2 West, is made of sand green LEGO bricks and weighing 125 pounds without its steel support.

George Washington Statue (Horatio Greenough, 1841)

The 12-ton marble George Washington Statue, atop a granite pedestal and base, was created in 1841 (on the occasion of the centennial of the first president’s birthday) by Horatio Greenough. Envisioned to be a symbolic representation of Washington as a great exemplar of liberty, it depicts Washington wearing a chest-baring toga.

Within These Walls Exhibit

The 4,200 sq. ft. Within These Walls Exhibit, opened last May 16 2017 in 2 West, tells the stories of five families who lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about 30 miles north of Boston, over the years and made history in their kitchens and parlors, through everyday choices and personal acts of courage and sacrifice. Through their lives, the exhibition explores some of the important ways ordinary people have been part of the great changes and events in American history.

The partially reconstructed Georgian-style, two-and-a-half-story timber-framed house, built around 1700

At the center of the gallery is the largest artifact in the museum, a partially reconstructed Georgian-style, two-and-a-half-story timber-framed house, built around 1700, that stood for 200 years at 16 Elm Street and was saved from demolition by an Ipswich citizen and then brought to the Smithsonian Institution.

The exhibition also features an 18th-century tea table; an anti-slavery almanac and the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery medallion; a Philco radio from the 1930s; and World War II-era cookbooks, posters, rationing coupons and a proximity fuse used to detonate bombs and artillery shells.

The American Presidency – A Glorious Burden

3 Center, the center of the third floor, presents The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, which explores the personal and public lives, ceremonial and executive actions of the 43 men who have held that office and had a huge impact on the course of history in the past 200 years. Composed of 11 thematic sections, the exhibition addresses such topics as inaugural celebrations, presidential roles, life at the White House, limits of presidential power, assassinations and mourning, the influence of the media, and life after the presidency.

Hat worn by Lincoln to Ford’s Theater on the night of his assasination

The role of the presidency in American culture is brought to life by more than 900 objects, including national treasures from the Smithsonian’s vast presidential collections.

The horse-drawn carriage that carried Ulysses S. Grant in his second inaugural parade in 1873

They include Abraham Lincoln‘s life mask; a Lewis and Clark Expedition compass; the horse-drawn carriage that carried Ulysses S. Grant in his second inaugural parade in 1873; a radio microphone used by Franklin D. Roosevelt to give his fireside chats during World War II; an early teddy bear (named after Theodore Roosevelt) and Bill Clinton‘s saxophone.

The First Ladies of America

The First Ladies of America, a popular permanent exhibit also at 3 center, encourages visitors to consider the contributions and changing role played by the first lady and American women over the past 200 years by exploring the unofficial but important position of First Lady and the ways that different women have shaped the role to make their own contributions to the presidential administrations and the nation.

White House China Collection

The exhibition features, as a mark of changing times, more than two dozen gowns from the Smithsonian’s almost 100-year old First Ladies Collection. It includes those worn by Frances Cleveland, Lou Hoover, Jacqueline Kennedy, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama. A section, entitled “Changing Times, Changing First Ladies,” highlights the roles played by Dolly Madison, Mary Lincoln, Edith Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson and their contributions to their husband’s administrations.

Martha Washington’s Silk Gown, 1780s

National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center: 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, National Mall, Washington, D.C. Admission is free. Open daily (except December 25), 10 AM – 5:30 PM.

National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C., USA)

Posted on 2 July, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 2 Comments ↓

National Museum of Natural History

The Neo-Classical style National Museum of Natural History, administered by the Smithsonian Institution, is a natural history museum dedicated to maintaining and preserving the world’s most extensive collection of natural history specimens and human artifacts.

It fosters significant scientific research and produces educational programs and exhibitions that present the work of its scientists to the public. Its facilities include the Museum Support Center (Suitland, Maryland), a marine science center in Fort Pierce (Florida) and field stations in Belize, Alaska and Kenya.

Petrified Wood

Pre-Cambrian Banded Iron Ore (Jasper Knob, Michigan)

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the museum:

It has the largest natural history collection in the world, with over 146 million specimens of human remains, human cultural artifacts, plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks and meteorites. They include 30 million insects, 4.5 million plants preserved in the Museum’s herbarium, 7 million fish (stored in liquid-filled jars) and 2 million cultural artifacts (400,000 of which are are photographs housed in the National Anthropological Archives). Through an off-site active loan and exchange program, the museum’s collections can be accessed. Around 3.5 million specimens are out on loan every year and the rest of the collections not on display are stored in the non-public research areas of the museum and at the Museum Support Center.
It is the third most visited museum in the world
The museum on was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed exclusively to hold the national collections and research facilities.
It is the most visited natural history museum in the world
It is the most visited museum (of any type) in North America.
With 8 million visitors in 2013, it is the most visited of all of the Smithsonian museums
The main building has an overall area of 122,632 sq. m. (1,320,000 sq. ft.) with 30,200 sq. m. (325,000 sq. ft.) of exhibition and public space.
The building, as part of the 1901 McMillan Commission plan, was the first structure constructed on the north side of the National Mall
The structure cost US$3.5 million (about US$85 million in inflation-adjusted 2012) dollars.
It houses 415 full time employees
It is also home to about 185 professional natural history scientists, the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural history in the world.
It is only one of about six museums in the United States that has a T. rex skeleton.
Research in the museum is divided into seven departments: mineral sciences, anthropology, botany, entomology, invertebrate zoology, paleobiology and vertebrate zoology.

Replica of Olmec Collosal Head (Tenochtitlan, Veracruz, Mexico, 1200-900 BCE)

Here’s the historical timeline of the museum:

In 1846, the United States National Museum, initially housed in the Smithsonian Institution Building (better known today as the Smithsonian Castle) was founded as part of the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1858, a formal exhibit hall opened.
On June 28, 1902, due to its growing collection, Congress authorized construction of the new National Museum Building (known today as the Arts and Industries Building), covering a then-enormous 9,100 sq. m. (2.25 acres) and built in just 15 months at a cost of US$310,000.
On March 1881, the National Museum Building was opened.
On January 29, 1903, in order to provide the Smithsonian Institution with more space for collections and research, a special committee (composed of members of Congress and representatives from the Smithsonian’s board of regents) published a report asking Congress to fund a much larger structure than originally planned.
On March 1903, the regents began considering sites for the new building
On April 12, 1903, they settled on a site on the north side of B Street NW between 9th and 12th Streets. The D.C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall was chosen to design the structure.
On July 1903, testing of the soil for the foundations.
On March 17, 1910, the Natural History Building (as the National Museum of Natural History was originally known) opened its doors to the public.
On June 1911, the building was fully completed.
In 1997, Kenneth E. Behring donated US$20 million to modernize the museum.
On November 2003, the museum opened the US$100 million Behring Hall of Mammals
In 2004, the museum received US$60 million for the Sant Hall of Oceans and received a US$1 million gift from Tiffany & Co. for the purchase of precious gems for the National Gem Collection.
In June 2008, the Victoria and Roger Sant family donated US$15 million to endow the new Ocean Hall at the museum.
On August 2009, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its acquisition of the Hope Diamond, the gemstone was given its own exhibit and a new setting
In March 2010, the museum opened its US$21 million human evolution hall.
On March 2012, the museum received a US$35 million gift to renovate its Dinosaur Hall.

The Rotunda with its centerpiece stuffed African bush elephant named Henry

We entered the museum from the National Mall side. At the Rotunda, we were greeted by the 8 ton, 14 ft. tall male African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) named Henry (at that time was the world’s largest land mammal on display in a museum), an iconic centerpiece installed here since 1959. It was donated to the Smithsonian by Josef J. Fénykövi. Fénykövi, a Hungarian big-game hunter who, in November 1955, tracked the elephant in the Cuando River region of southeastern Angola.

Easter Island moai (stone figure)

This museum has 3 floors, but only 2 really have exhibits. At the north lobby entrance (Constitution Ave.), there is a Tyranosaurus rex skull, an intriguing Easter Island stone figures or moai (one of two acquired in 1888, one a complete statue, the other a head), probably one of the most photographed objects in the museum.

Skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex

Near a staircase is the 19th century Tsimshian Totem Pole from the from Fort Simpson, British Columbia, at the American Northwest Coast, in 1876.

The Totem Post

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, opened on March 17, 2010 (the museum’s 100th anniversary), is “dedicated to the discovery and understanding of human origins.” Named for David H. Koch (who contributed US$15 million to the $20.7 million exhibit), it occupies 1,400 sq. m. (15,000 sq. ft.) of exhibit space at the first floor.

Walking Upright

This permanent exhibition focuses on the epic story of how the human species evolved over 6 million years, adapting and surviving during an era of dramatic climate change.

Creating a World of Symbols

It features more than 285 early-human fossils and artifacts, lifelike full-size reconstructions of several hominid species and 23 interactive experiences, including a morphing station where visitors can see what they would look like as early humans.

Specimens include 75 replica skulls and an interactive human family tree that follows six million years of evolution. The Changing the World Gallery focuses on issues surrounding climate change and humans’ impact on the world.

The What Does It Mean To Be Human Exhibit, designed by Reich + Petch, is the Hall’s core concept idea. It focuses on milestones of Human Evolution (Walking Upright, Bigger Brains, Creating a World of Symbols, etc.). It also covers the Smithsonian’s significant research on the geological and climate changes which occurred in East Africa during significant periods of Human Evolution.

Meet Homo Floresiensis

The exhibit highlights an actual fossil Neanderthal and replicas created by John Gurche, a famed Paleo artist. The exhibit also provides a complementary web site (which provides diaries and podcasts directly from related fields of research) and a Companion Book, What Does It Mean To Be Human (written by curator Richard Potts and Christopher Sloan).

Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals

The multi-award-winning Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals, a permanent first floor exhibition designed by Reich + Petch, represents the oldest exhibition in the National Museum of Natural History. It has the largest collection of vertebrate specimens in the world (nearly twice the size of the next largest mammal collections), including historically important collections from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its collection, initiated by C. Hart Merriam, was expanded in the 1890s-1930s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (later the Department of the Interior).

It tells the story of mammal evolution across 225 million years, with more than 274 meticulously preserved specimens on permanent display, classified by continent and habitat. They include a koala, hippopotamus, gorilla, the tiny Spix’s disk-winged bat, the massive walrus, the familiar Eastern gray squirrel, the rare okapi, a white rhinoceros (collected by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909) and a short-beaked echidna (one of only five species of monotremes, or egg-laying mammals). There’s also a bronze recreation of Morganucadon oehleri, the earliest-known mammal, which lived 210 million years ago.

Designed with families in mind, its mammal specimens are presented as works of modern art within strikingly minimal environmentals. Here, we discovered mammal’s evolutionary adaptions to hugely diverse contexts, and ultimately discovered that they too are mammals.

Wide Open Prairie

The hall includes four discovery zones with hands-on activities that help visitors explore an array of mammal adaptations and habitats around the world. An 8-minute film at the Evolution Theater surveys the mammal family tree and the vast changes its members have been through in the past 225 million years.

Sant Ocean Hall

The 23,000 sq. ft. Sant Ocean Hall, the largest renovation of the museum since it opened in 1910, was named for the Roger Sant family, who donated US$15 million to endow the new hall and other related programs. Opened on September 27, 2008, this hall includes 674 marine specimens and models drawn from the over 80 million specimens in the museum’s total collection, the largest in the world.

Basilosaurus cetoides

This one-of-a-kind interpretive, permanent exhibition, at the first floor, demonstrates how the ocean is intrinsically connected to other global systems and the daily lives of people around the world.

North Atlantic Right Whale

The collection includes: a real, life-size, coelenterate-long North Atlantic Right Whale named Phoenix (who scientists have been tracking since her birth in 1987), a 1,500-gallon aquarium, one female giant squid displayed in the center of the hall and a male displayed off to the side, an adult coelenterate, a Basilosaurus cetoides and 3 skeletons of ancient whale relatives (one of which had legs).

At the Ocean Explorer Theater, we watched a short film inviting visitors to explore the multitude of life that thrives two miles below the surface on board Alvin, a deep-ocean submersible. We also watched an innovative video presentation of global ocean data projected on a 6-ft. diameter sphere.

Global ocean data projected on a 6-ft. diameter sphere.

Other exhibits include bubblegum coral (the largest-known deep sea coral, named for its bright pink color and gumball-like branch tips), a massive fossilized jaw of C. megalodon (a gigantic shark that prowled the ocean between 2.6 and 23 million years ago), carpet anemone, a snapping shrimp, a long-spined sea urchin plus 21 other species in the living Indo-Pacific coral reef.

African Voices

The African Voices exhibit and associated website “examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa‘s peoples and cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, and the natural environment.”

Mud Masons of Mali

This permanent first floor exhibit includes historical and contemporary objects from the museum’s collection and commissioned sculptures, textiles, and pottery. Video interactives and sound stations provide selections from contemporary interviews, literature, proverbs, prayers, folk tales, songs and oral epics.

Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Materials

The 20,000 sq. ft. Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals, at the second floor, is one of the most significant collections of its kind in the world.

Rubies and Sapphires

This permanent exhibition currently houses over 15,000 individual gems in the collection, as well as 350,000 minerals, 300,000 samples of rock and ore specimens and approximately 35,000 meteorites (which is considered to be one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind in the world).

Anthromorphic Stone

It showcases the most famous pieces of gems and minerals in the collection include the Hope Diamond (donated in 1958 by Harry Winston), the Star of Asia Sapphire (one of the largest sapphires in the world) and the Gachalá Emerald, one of the world’s largest, at 858 carats (172 g.)

Hope Diamond

It also encompasses re-created mines and galleries that present important research in mineral chemistry and physics; plate tectonics, seismology and the study of volcanoes; and planetary science.

Shattered Worlds

The specimens are augmented by two dozen interactive computer presentations and videos, large panels of stunning artwork, and a real-time display of global earthquake data.

Calcite (Elinwood Mine, Smith County, Tennessee)

Some its most important donors, besides Janet Annenberg Hooker, are Washington A. Roebling (the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge) who gave 16,000 specimens to the collection; Frederick A. Canfield, who donated 9,000 specimens to the collection; and Dr. Isaac Lea, who donated the basis of the museum’s collection of 1312 gems and minerals.

Macleay’s Spectre (Extatosoma tiaratum, Australia) at O. Orkin Insect Zoo

The O. Orkin Insect Zoo, a permanent second floor exhibition sponsored by Orkin (a pest control company), offers visitors a variety of exhibits about insects, plenty of hands-on activities and entomologists and features live insects as well as daily tarantula feedings.

Brazilian red and white tarantula

Different habitats have been created to show the type of insects that live in different environments and how they have adapted to a freshwater pond, house, mangrove swamp, desert and rain forest.

Osteology: Bone Hall – Man and the Manlike Apes

The Osteology: Bone Hall, the oldest exhibition in the National Museum of Natural History, displays almost 300 vertebrate skeletons grouped by their evolutionary relationships.

Perciform Fishes

This permanent second floor exhibition highlights the diversity and unity of every major group of vertebrates, supporting ideas of evolution and common ancestry.

The diversity and unity of every major group of vertebrates is highlighted, supporting ideas of evolution and common ancestry.

Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt

The Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt Exhibit, at the second floor, West Wing, showcases more mummies than have been on display at any time in the museum’s history. The exhibition combines rare artifacts and cutting-edge research tools to illuminate how Smithsonian scientists have pieced together the lives of ancient Egyptians through their burial practices and rituals in preparation for their eternal life.

The Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution, an exhibit at the second floor (off the Rotunda, above the Mammals Hall) designed by Reich + Retch, innovatively combines a traditional exhibition with experiential learning provided by the live Butterfly Pavilion. It allows “visitors a rare, up-close look at living butterfly and plant specimens, observing the many ways in which butterflies and other animals have evolved, adapted, and diversified together with their plant partners over tens of millions of years.”

Learning About Elephants, a learning station (added in the mid-2000s) on the second floor balcony, overlooking the “Fényköv Elephant” in the Rotunda, teaches the public about these endangered land mammals and their habitat, an important way to build support for their conservation.

The 30-year-old, 2,300 sq. m. (25,000 sq. ft.) Dinosaur and Fossil Hall was closed (since spring of 2014) during our visit as it was then undergoing a US$45 million (US$35 million of which was donated by billionaire David H. Koch on May 2012) upgrade (the largest, most extensive exhibition renovation in the museum’s history) and was anticipated to reopen in 2019. “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World,” a temporary exhibit, was opened last November 25, 2014 and will end upon the completion of the museum’s newly renovated dinosaur and fossil hall.

Check out “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World“

It consists of 46 “complete and important specimens” of fossilized skeletons and cast models of dinosaurs, including casts of a Tyrannosaurus rex facing a Triceratops. The Triceratops exhibit, showing the first accurate dinosaur skeleton in virtual motion, was achieved through the use of scanning and digital technology. Its centerpiece is the 11 m. (35-ft.) long, 85% complete skeleton of “Wankel” or “Devil” rex, the first T. rex fossil skeleton owned by the museum (which until now has only had the cast of a skull). It was found in 1988 on United States Army Corps of Engineers-owned land in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana, was obtained (via a 50-year lease) by the Smithsonian on June 2013 and arrived, packed up in 16 crates, at the National Museum of Natural History on April 15, 2014.

“The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost Work” – a temporary exhibit

The museum also has an IMAX Theater for feature-length films, and the Discovery Room, a family- and student-friendly hands-on activity room on the first floor. In the lower level, there is a bird exhibit, Urban Bird Habitat Garden, with all the migratory and native birds to Washington D.C.

Rai (status stone, Yap, quarried 1904 on Palau)

National Museum of Natural History: 10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW, National Mall, Washington, D.C. 20560, United States. Open daily (except December 25), 10 AM – 5:30 PM. Admission is free.

This travel blog, a diary of the author’s local and international travels, aims to provide the reader with news and information on people, places and events that would interest the avid traveler and tourist. But, it also aims to be much more, providing insights on the wonders of this beautiful country, as well as the world, beyond the strict confines of the city. Have a BLAST seeing old churches, exotic temples, educational museums as well as palm-fringed islands; white sand beaches; thundering waterfalls; placid lakes; fiery sunsets; turquoise seas; cathedral-like caves; swirling rivers; majestic mountains; stupendous, amphitheater-like rice terraces; awesome volcanoes and the like. Get to know the movers and shakers in the tourism industry; find out where to titillate the palate; rejuvenate your body; feed your adrenalin, unwind and relax; satisfy your craving for history and culture; and find out what's being celebrated and where.

BENJAMIN “BENJIE” LAYUG, an architect by profession (he finished his B. S. Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1982), is also a copy editor for two publishing houses; travel writer; blogger; architectural historian; author; concert. movie and musical reviewer (for www.pep.ph); and a motivational speaker.

As a free-lance travel writer, he has, in the past, contributed articles to Travel Update, Philippine Daily Inquirer, COLORS, TODAY, 7107 Islands Magazine, Business Day and Bluprint. He currently writes for Artplus Magazine and the Business Mirror.

He is also the author of the following travel books:

A Philippine Odyssey (New Day Publishers, 2005)
Pathfinder’s Travel Guide: Boracay (Great Books Trading, 2006)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Churches (New Day Publishers, 2007)
A Tourist to Notable Philippine Historical Landmarks, Monuments and Shrines (New Day Publishers, 2010)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Museums (New Day Publishers, 2012)

Some of his books now appear in the local library shelves of the National Library of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Sto. Tomas, U.P. Diliman, Centro Escolar University, San Sebastian College, Miriam College, Silliman University, to name a few, as well as internationally at the National Library of Australia and the University of California Berkeley Library.

Now a senior citizen, he is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, active travel blogger in the country today. He also has a lifestyle blog called F.Y.I.:Firing Your Imagination (www.firingyourimagination.blogspot.com). Benjie has traveled to two-thirds (53) of the country’s 81 provinces and over 20 countries in 4 continents.

B.L.A.S.T. – Live Life to the Fullest ……… Don't Stay Put

Monthly Archives: July 2017

Boston Public Garden (Massachusetts, USA)

Gallery at the Historical Museum of Natural History (Boston, Massachusetts)

Park Street Church (Boston, Massachusetts)

Freedom Trail (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture – National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture – Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

Enid A. Haupt Garden (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center (Washington D.C., USA)

National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C., USA)

July 2017
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July 2017
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