S. Dillon Ripley was the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian, serving from 1964-1984. Under his leadership, the Smithsonian Institution expanded and revitalized. Ripley believed museums should be vital sites of learning and engagement, actively…

Jeanette Rankin was the first woman member of Congress. Rankin served two nonconsecutive terms in 1916 and again in 1940, giving her the unique ability to vote against US entry into war for both World War I and World War II. Rankin continued her…

As a member of the DC Board of Public Works and later as Governor of the District of Columbia, Alexander Robey "Boss" Shepherd managed a number of public works programs in the 1870s. He oversaw the project to fill in the part of the Washington City…

The Nacotchtanks are a Native American Algonquian tribe who once lived on land which is now near the National Mall. Captain John Smith noted that the village had 80 fighting men in 1608. The Nacotchtanks likely spoke the Piscataway variation of the…

On June 11, 1861, Thaddeus S.C. Lowe flew a gas balloon, the Enterprise, over the White House. Lowe wanted to demonstrate the potential of using balloons for reconnaissance missions. Lowe placed his gas generators on the Mall near the Smithsonian…

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…

Margaret Bayard Smith was a writer and a vital figure in the early social life of Washington, DC. Her letters and diaries provide some of the best descriptions of early Washington. In 1837 she recorded what the Mall looked like when she and her…

Alethia Browning Tanner was an enslaved woman who ran her own vegetable market in Lafayette Square in front of the White House during the late 1700s and early 1800s. She was highly successful, counting President Thomas Jefferson among her customers.…

African American contralto Marian Anderson sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. A peaceful crowd of seventy-five thousand people stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument to attend the free…

Alice Pike Barney successfully lobbied Congress to create a federally-funded outdoor theater on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. Barney, a painter, wanted to encourage enjoyment of the arts in Washington, DC. She provided the funding…