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 1995, the Smithsonian Butterfly Garden supports a variety of plant species which are important to the life cycle of butterflies in the Eastern United States. The 11,000 square foot area was originally built with funds provided by the…

Sketched in 1904 and later published in Women's Home Companion, this drawing demonstrates grand neoclassical plans to expand the Department of Agriculture. The Department had long since outgrown the original 1868 construction, one of the oldest on…

By 1870, after two years on the National Mall, the Department of Agriculture combined the functions of an office building, a research center, library, and museum. In this stereoscopic view of the mall, visitors chat in from of large iron and glass…

During the 1800s, the massive red brick Department of Agriculture, designed by Adolf Cluss, housed laboratories, agricultural specimens, seeds, plants, animals, geological artifacts, an extensive library, and a museum. Visitors came to see exhibits…

Pennsylvania farmer and dairyman, Isaac Newton served as the first United States Commissioner of Agriculture. Under Newton, the agency focused on research and education, disseminating information to farmers throughout the nation. Newton advocated for…

When President Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture in 1862, the agency consisted of only four scientists and agriculturists. By 1867, their numbers grew to 70 employees, indicating the rapid growth of the scope and influence of what is now…

This landscape painting of Washington, DC, looks out from the area that is Union Station today onto the early US Capitol building. George Washington built two row houses to the right of the Capitol. Although this is a highly romanticized view of the…

In March 1935 a dust storm hit Washington, DC, caused by soil erosion in the midwest in what came to be called the Dust Bowl. Washington had already experienced at least one dust storm, in May the previous year, but this storm had special timing. It…

On the afternoon of August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Mineral, Virginia which was felt as far away as New York state. In Washington, DC the Washington Monument swayed from the force of the earthquake. Visitors were evacuated by…