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.…

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 Smithsonian Arts and Industries…

This statue of Dr. Samuel D. Gross was unveiled in May 1897 outside the National Army Medical Museum and Library on the National Mall. Gross, who died in 1884, was a celebrated surgeon and professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He…

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…

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 Constitution and…

In May of 1810 President James Madison broke ground for the Washington Canal amidst city officials and citizens crowded at New Jersey Avenue SE. The Canal was part of the original city plan from 1791, but work stalled until 1809 when Congress…

The Babcock Lakes, located west of the Washington Monument, served as spawning pools for the US Fish Commission. Mandated to remedy decreases in the availability of commercial fish in America, the Commission used Babcock Lakes to breed Eurasian Carp,…

The site of the National Air and Space Museum 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…

Built in 1862 as a model hospital to treat wounded Union soldiers, 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…

First known as the Old Brick Capitol, this building served as a a temporary meeting place for Congress after the burning of the US Capitol during the War of 1812. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the building became a prison. Confederate soldiers…