During the Civil War, the U.S. Army grazed cattle on the grounds of the unfinished Washington Monument, earning the structure the nickname "Beef Depot Monument." In addition to being the seat of the federal government, Washington was on the front…

In 1607, English colonists established the Jamestown settlement in Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Captain John Smith and a small party of colonists explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay, its rivers, and the surrounding lands. The map…

The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam took place in November, 1969. Thousands of people came to Washington to protest the Vietnam War, meeting throughout the city but especially on the National Mall. This video shows protesters gathered near the…

William Temple Hornaday was a hunter, taxidermist, zoo director, and a founder of the American conservation movement. He served as Chief Taxidermist of the United States National Museum from 1882, Curator of the Department of Living Animals, and the…

A bear, an eagle, badgers, and buffaloes comprised the original exhibition of the Department of Living Animals on the south side of the Smithsonian Institution Building. Opened to the public in 1887, the Department's live exhibits gave Smithsonian…

This article from the magazine The Literary Digest, a popular weekly publication, tells the story of the August 1925 Ku Klux Klan march along Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall. Held August 8, 1925, an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Klansmen…

This image of slaves chained together marching from the House of J.W. Neal & Co.in Washington, DC, was published in a broadside (or poster). The broadside was printed during an abolitionist campaign in 1835-36 designed to pressure Congress to end…

The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) were established on July 30, 1942 as a women's reserve corp for the United States Navy. WAVES were restricted to work within the United States. Many worked in Washington in buildings on the…

The District of Columbia Emancipation Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862. Introduced during the thirty-seventh Congress in 1861, the Act granted the immediate emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia,…

Soon after the US entered World War II in the early 1940s, the government increased tremendously. The Department of Defense expanded rapidly, but there was not enough space for all of the new employees. To accommodate these new workers, the…