Robert Mills, an architect from South Carolina, won the competition to design the Washington Monument in 1836. Although construction began under his supervision, work stopped in 1854, a year before he died, and the monument was not completed for…

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.…

Paul Jennings was an enslaved man owned by James Madison who lived in the White House during the Madison presidency. He was 15 years old in 1814 when the British invaded Washington, DC, and burned down the presidential residence. Almost fifty years…

President James Garfield was shot twice in the back by an assassin, Charles Guiteau, only five months after taking the oath of office. The attack took place at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station on Sixth Street. Garfield survived the attack…

Diane Carlson Evans is a Vietnam veteran who was the driving force behind the creation of the Vietnam Women's Memorial. Motivated to include the voices of approximately 265,000 military women of the Vietnam era whose experiences were overlooked or…

James Hoban was an Irish-born architect who won a competition in 1792 to design the home of the President. He moved from South Carolina to Washington, DC, to oversee the construction of his design. A neo-classicist, Hoban's design influenced the…

Glassford was Superintendent of Police of Washington, DC, in 1932 when World War I veterans, who would come to be known as the Bonus Marchers, descended on the city. They sought immediate payment of service certificates which were not due to be paid…

Andrew Ellicott was a surveyor employed by President George Washington to survey the boundary lines of the federal Territory of Columbia, which became the District of Columbia. His survey team included his younger brother Joseph and Benjamin…

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…