Spencer Baird served as the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution and became the second Secretary of the Smithsonian. He worked at the Institution from 1850 until his death in 1887. Baird expanded and strengthened the Smithsonian's…

Formed in 1833, the Washington National Monument Society took charge of creating a memorial to George Washington on the National Mall. They raised money through public donations and awarded the design contract to architect Robert Mills. In 1854,…

Mary Ann Hall purchased a home in 1840 on land where the National Museum of the American Indian is today. Her three-story home became the site of a high end brothel for the District. Archaeologists excavated fragments of champagne bottles, oyster…

Horatio Greenough is best known in Washington, DC, for his controversial sculptures titled "George Washington" and "The Rescue," which stood for a time inside the US Capitol building. Both were commissioned from Greenough by Congress, making him one…

Robert Mills, an architect from South Carolina, won the competition to design the Washington Monument in 1836. Although construction began under his supervision, work stopped in 1854, a year before he died, and the monument was not completed for…

Paul Jennings was an enslaved man owned by James Madison who lived in the White House during the Madison presidency. He was 15 years old in 1814 when the British invaded Washington, DC, and burned down the presidential residence. Almost fifty years…

In 1850, President Millard Fillmore commissioned landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing to landscape the Mall. His design divided the Mall into four smaller parks, each with a unique appearance, connected by curving walks. Downing was an…

James Renwick Jr. won the 1846 competition to design the first Smithsonian Institution building. His design drew heavily from architectural styles of 12th-century Europe that gave the building a castle-like appearance. Although Renwick took pains to…

In the late 1800s, Adolf Cluss designed four buildings on the National Mall, only one of which still stands today. In 1870, he designed the Center Market. He also designed conservatories for the Department of Agriculture and the Army Medical Museum…

In 1793, President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the Capitol, a building which saw more than 200 years of construction, redesigning, expansion, and renovation. By 1800, the building offered enough space for Congress, the Supreme Court,…