Daguerre Memorial
This memorial commemorates photography pioneer, Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype. The Photographer's Association of America presented the memorial to the people of the United States in a ceremony at the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/56">Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building</a> on April 15, 1890, where it was installed in an alcove. In 1897, it was moved outside to the Smithsonian Grounds so visitors could see the whole piece. The statue was removed from the Mall in 1969 to make way for the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/50">Hirshhorn Museum</a>. Today, it stands on the grounds of the National Portrait Gallery.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=J.+Scott+Hartley">J. Scott Hartley</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.<a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2007000100/"> View original</a>.
1890 (dedicated)
1897 (moved outdoors)
1969 (removed)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1890-1919">1890-1919</a>
Dr. Samuel Gross Statue
This statue of Dr. Samuel D. Gross was unveiled in May 1897 outside the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/37">National Army Medical Museum and Library</a> on the National Mall. Gross, who died in 1884, was a celebrated surgeon and professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was immortalized in an 1875 painting by Thomas Eakin titled<em> The Gross Clinic</em>. The statue was commissioned by Congress and the Physicians and Surgeons of America and created by Alexander Stirling Calder. In 1970, when the Medical Museum and Library moved off the Mall, the statue was relocated to the campus of Jefferson Medical College.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Alexander+Stirling+Calder">Alexander Stirling Calder</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2007000102/">View original</a>.
5/5/1897 (dedicated)
1970 (removed)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1890-1919">1890-1919</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1950-1979">1950-1979</a>
World War I Temporary Buildings
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 beyond the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/55">National Museum of Natural History</a> on the left and the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/52">Smithsonian Castle</a> on the right. The smokestacks of the power plant were set apart so they did not obstruct the view of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/36">Washington Monument</a> from the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/59">Capitol</a>. This complex was slowly dismantled, with the power plant and central buildings removed by 1936.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/hec2008007426/">View original</a>.
1918 (constructed)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1890-1919">1890-1919</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>
Tripoli Monument
The Tripoli Monument was commissioned by members of the US Navy's Mediterranean fleet in memory of 6 officers who died during the Barbary Wars of the early 1800s. Built in Italy in 1806, the monument came to the US on board the USS <em>Constitution and </em>was placed in the Washington Navy Yard. The monument was damanged during the burning of the Navy Yard in 1814. In 1831, it was restored and moved to the center of the Capitol reflecting pool in 1831, where is remained until 1860 when it was relocated to Annapolis, Maryland.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=David+Porter">David Porter</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Micali+of+Leghorn">Micali of Leghorn</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003662984/">View original</a>.
1806 (constructed)
1860 (moved)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1800-1829">1800-1829</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
Babcock Lakes
The Babcock Lakes, located west of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/36">Washington Monument</a>, served as spawning pools for the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/316">US Fish Commission</a>. Mandated to remedy decreases in the availability of commercial fish in America, the Commission used Babcock Lakes to breed Eurasian Carp, introduced in the US because they were hardy, harmless, vegetable feeders, and were already adapted to artificial propagation. By 1896, the Fish Commission had distributed 2.4 million carp to restock fish supplies in North and South America. The lakes were subsequently covered by <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/326">land dredged from the Potomac River</a> during the westward expansion of the National Mall.
National Archives at College Park. <a href="http://research.archives.gov/description/513092">View original</a>.
1878 (established as fisheries)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
Fish Commission Building
The site of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/269">National Air and Space Museum</a> was once home to the headquarters of the United States Fish and Fisheries Commission, also known as the US Fish Commission. President Ulysses Grant signed the US Fish Commission into existence in 1871 to address issues of <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/313">declining commercial fish populations</a> in America. Stephen F. Baird, first curator of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/52">Smithsonian Institution</a>, also served as the first Commissioner of Fisheries. The Commission was housed in the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/307">old Armory Building</a>, which was also used as storage by the Smithsonian until the building was demolished in the 1960s.
Smithsonian Institution Archives. <a href="http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_9203">View original</a>.
1871 (established)
1964 (building demolished)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1950-1979">1950-1979</a>
Armory Square Hospital
Built in 1862 as a model hospital to treat <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/354">wounded Union soldiers</a>, the Armory Square Hospital had twelve pavilions, overflow tents, and 1,000 hospital beds. It included officers' quarters as well as a chapel. President Lincoln frequently visited the patients here, shaking hands, and offering words of comfort. He suggested building flower beds between the wards using plants from government gardens. After the war, the hospital closed. The armory building was used for storage and then as the home of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/316">Fish Commission</a>. It was demolished in 1964. The <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/269">National Air and Space Museum</a> stands on the former hospital site.
U.S. National Library of Medicine. <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/armory.html">View original</a>.
1862 (built)
1964 (demolished)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1950-1979">1950-1979</a>
Old Brick Capitol
First known as the Old Brick Capitol, this building served as a a temporary meeting place for Congress after <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/157">the burning of the US Capitol during the War of 1812</a>. At the outbreak of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/351">Civil War</a>, the building became a prison. Confederate soldiers and spies, insubordinate Union officers, and several conspirators in the assassination of President Lincoln were imprisoned here. In 1929, the building was demolished, and the current U.S. Supreme Court building was constructed on the site.
District of Columbia Public Library. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcplcommons/4226571178/">View original</a>.
1814 (built)
1929 (demolished)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1800-1829">1800-1829</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
Murder Bay
In the years preceding the Civil War, the area bordered by Pennsylvania Ave., 15th, and the "open sewer" of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/41">Washington Canal</a> was a slum characterized by rampant prostitution, muggings, and robberies. The population of this area increased during the Civil War as soldiers took advantage of Murder Bay's cheap alcohol and <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/6">brothels</a>. This area eventually came to be known as <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/297">"Hooker's Division"</a> or just "Division," and became a destination for former slaves. Reform movements in the late 1800s generally failed, but in 1928, the city leveled Murder Bay and began building Federal Triangle in its place.
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. <a href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3851e.awh00008">View original</a>.
1928 (destroyed)
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1830-1859">1830-1859</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>
Department of Living Animals, Smithsonian Institution
A bear, an eagle, badgers, and <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/260">buffaloes</a> comprised the original exhibition of the Department of Living Animals on the south side of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/52">Smithsonian Institution Building</a>. Opened to the public in 1887, the Department's live exhibits gave <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/482">Smithsonian taxidermists</a> an opportunity to observe the habits and positions of various animals and to use this knowledge in mounting collections and exhibitions. Under the direction of <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/234">William Hornaday</a>, the Department of Living Animals was the forerunner of the National Zoological Park, established by an Act of Congress in 1889 for "the advancement of science, the instruction and recreation of the people."
Smithsonian Institution Archives. <a href="http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_9561">View original</a>.
1887
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>