The NAS Building
The Window Panels
Six large bronze panels fill the space between the first- and second-floor windows.The panels depict the progress of science from Greek to modern times by portraying a succession of the great founders, each accompanied by a symbol of his field of work.
From the west end of the building the figures are: Galton, Gibbs, Von Helmholtz, Darwin, Lyell, Faraday; Von Humboldt, Dalton, Lamarck, Watt, Franklin, Huygens; Galileo, da Vinci, Hipparchus, Euclid, Democritus, Thales; Hippocrates, Aristotle, Archimedes, Copernicus, Vesalius, Harvey; Descartes, Newton, Linneaus, Lavoisier, Laplace, Cuvier, Gauss; Carnot, Bernard, Joule, Pasteur, Mendel, Maxwell. They are arranged roughly chronologically, alternating from side to side of the main entrance out to the ends of the building. The cornerstone, at the southwest corner of the building, is identified by the initials of the Academy and the National Research Council. It harbors a box of mementos, including photographs of the act of incorporation of the Academy; a history of the Academy's first 50 years; Woodrow Wilson's executive order perpetuating the NRC; a miscellany of NAS and NRC publications; and a copy of Scribner's magazine for November 1922, with an article by George Ellery Hale entitled "A National Focus of Science and Research."
... A Temple of Science Recognition of Need The Architect The Setting and the Grounds Description of the Building The Façade The Window Panels The Doors The Main Foyer and the Great Hall The Library and the Members' Room The Lecture Room and the Board Room The Wings The Auditorium The Albert Einstein Memorial
Photo by Carol M. Highsmith