This excerpt from a video about daily life in Washington, DC, shows people engaged in sports activities on and around the Mall. A section of West Potomac Park, near the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, has been used as a polo ground since the…

In the 1930s and 1940s, the National Park Service operated a bicycle rental service near the Tidal Basin Boat House. Starting in 1942, bicycles were rationed items, making it difficult to buy one. Washington residents and war office workers could…

On June 11, 1927, President Calvin Coolidge awarded American aviator Charles Lindbergh the Distinguished Flying Cross in a ceremony held on the north side of the Washington Monument Grounds. Lindbergh, who was 25 years old, had completed the first…

One of the highest floods to hit Washington, DC, occurred on March 20, 1936. Flood waters crested at the Key Bridge at 18.5 feet. Around the Mall, much of East and West Potomac Parks were underwater, and some cherry trees were killed. Advance warning…

The Aircraft Building was constructed in 1917 for the use of the US Signal Service during World War I. After the war ended, the building was transferred to the Smithsonian. It opened to the public in October 1920 as an exhibit space housing aircraft.…

President Calvin Coolidge's inauguration was the first to be broadcast live over the radio. The microphones are visible in this photograph as a row of circles at the level of the President's head. Approximately 23 million Americans listened to the…

During World War I, the federal government built a number of temporary office buildings in Washington to hold all the new workers. The group shown in this photograph stretched across the Mall from north to south just east of 7th Street, visible…

Plans for a March on Washington, organized by civil rights activist and labor leader A. Philip Randolph, gained momentum in 1941. African Americans were frustrated by racial discrimination in the defense industry, one of largest industries at the…

On June 25, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which prohibited racial and other discrimination in the defense industry. The Executive Order was a partial response by the White House to a planned march by African American…

As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt championed equal opportunity for all races and for women, often communicating the opinions of civil rights leaders to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration. Roosevelt resigned from Daughters of…