Nineteen museums and galleries, as well as the National Zoological Park, comprise the Smithsonian museums. Eleven are on the National Mall, the park that runs between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol. Other museums are located elsewhere in Washington, D.C., with two more in New York City and one in Chantilly, Virginia. The Smithsonian has close ties with 168 other museums in 39 states, Panama, and Puerto Rico. These museums are known as Smithsonian Affiliated museums. Collections of artifacts are given to these museums in the form of long-term loans. The Smithsonian also has a large number of traveling exhibitions, operated through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).
Museums
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution | Museums
Nineteen Nineteen museums 19. 19 museums
who was adam eckfeldt?
user
John Adam Eckfeldt was a worker and official of the United States Mint.
assistant
when did he start designing coins?
user
1793
assistant
which coins did he work on in the mint?
user
1792 half disme
assistant
what was his contribution as a chief coiner?
user
He put aside interesting foreign coins sent to the mint as bullion. These pieces became the Mint's Cabinet, or coin collection.
assistant
where is this collection housed?
user
Smithsonian Institution
assistant
when was it founded?
user
August 10, 1846
assistant
how many of these museums are there?
user
The Smithsonian museums are the most widely visible part of the United States' Smithsonian Institution and consist of 20 museums and galleries as well as the National Zoological Park. 17 of these collections are located in Washington D.C., with 11 of those located on the National Mall. The remaining ones are in New York City and Chantilly, Virginia. The Arts and Industries Building, is only open for special events, and its newest museum building, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in 2016. The birth of the Smithsonian Institution can be traced to the acceptance of James Smithson's legacy, willed to the United States in 1826.
List of Smithsonian museums | Introduction
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), also known simply as The Smithsonian, is a trust instrumentality of the United States composed as a group of museums and research centers. It was founded on August 10, 1846, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the "United States National Museum", but that name ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Termed "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the Institution's 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia.
Smithsonian Institution | Introduction
The United States National Museum was founded in 1846 as part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum was initially housed in the Smithsonian Institution Building, which is better known today as the Smithsonian Castle. A formal exhibit hall opened in 1858. The growing collection led to the construction of a new building, the National Museum Building (known today as the Arts and Industries Building). Covering a then-enormous , it was built in just 15 months at a cost of $310,000. It opened in March 1881. Congress authorized construction of a new building on June 28, 1902. On January 29, 1903, a special committee composed of members of Congress and representatives from the Smithsonian's board of regents published a report asking Congress to fund a much larger structure than originally planned.
National Museum of Natural History | 1846–1911
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation that was created with the funds from British scientist James Smithson in 1846. The institution is composed of 19 museums and one zoo in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian's locations had a combined total of 30 million visits in 2013. The most visited museum is the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Other Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries on the mall are the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Sackler and Freer galleries, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Arts and Industries Building, the S.
Arts and culture of Washington, D.C. | Smithsonian Institution
Smithson died in 1829, and in 1836, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the gift, which it accepted. In 1838, Smithson's legacy, which totaled more than $500,000, was delivered to the United States Mint and entered the Treasury. After eight years, in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was established. The Smithsonian Institution Building (also known as "The Castle") was completed in 1855 to house an art gallery, a library, a chemical laboratory, lecture halls, museum galleries, and offices. During this time the Smithsonian was a learning institution concerned mainly with enhancing science and less interested in being a museum. Under the second secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird, the Smithsonian turned into a full-fledged museum, mostly through the acquisition of 60 boxcars worth of displays from the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
List of Smithsonian museums | Introduction
Nineteen museums and galleries, as well as the National Zoological Park, comprise the Smithsonian museums. Eleven are on the National Mall, the park that runs between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol. Other museums are located elsewhere in Washington, D.C., with two more in New York City and one in Chantilly, Virginia. The Smithsonian has close ties with 168 other museums in 39 states, Panama, and Puerto Rico. These museums are known as Smithsonian Affiliated museums. Collections of artifacts are given to these museums in the form of long-term loans. The Smithsonian also has a large number of traveling exhibitions, operated through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).
Smithsonian Institution | Museums
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has had many names over the years—Smithsonian Art Collection, National Gallery of Art (not to be confused with the current National Gallery of Art), National Collection of Fine Arts, and National Museum of American Art. The museum adopted its current name in October 2000. The collection, which was begun in 1829, was first on display in the original Smithsonian Building, now nicknamed the "Castle". The collection grew as the Smithsonian buildings grew, and the collection was housed in one or more Smithsonian buildings on the National Mall. By the 1920s, space had become critical: "Collections to the value of several millions of dollars are in storage or temporarily on exhibition and are crowding out important exhibits and producing a congested condition in the Natural History, Industrial Arts, and Smithsonian Buildings".
Smithsonian American Art Museum | History
The income from the exhibition of these artifacts allowed for the construction of the National Museum, which is now known as the Arts and Industries Building. This structure was opened in 1881 to provide the Smithsonian with its first proper facility for public display of the growing collections.
List of Smithsonian museums | Introduction
Several years later, large donations of artifact collections led to the formation of new museums for subjects such as African art, American Indian culture and postal history and a new library branch was subsequently formed for each of these as well.
Smithsonian Libraries | History
Smithsonian collections include 156 million artworks, artifacts, and specimens. The National Museum of Natural History houses 145 million of these specimens and artifacts, which are mostly animals preserved in Formaldehyde. The Collections Search Center has 9.9 million digital records available online. The Smithsonian Institution Libraries hold 2 million library volumes. Smithsonian Archives hold of archival material. The Smithsonian Institution has many categories of displays that can be visited at the museums. In 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft donated her inauguration gown to the museum to begin the First Ladies' Gown display, one of the Smithsonian's most popular exhibits. The museum displays treasures such as the Star-Spangled Banner, the stove pipe hat that was worn by President Abraham Lincoln, the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard Of Oz", and the original Teddy Bear that was named after President Theodore Roosevelt.
Smithsonian Institution | Collections
Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithson's bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of each classification of a field of knowledge for research and for display was the purpose. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students. By the last quarter of the 19th century, the scientific research in the universities was shifting toward biological research on a cellular level, and cutting edge research moved from museums to university laboratories.
Museum | Purpose
There are natural history museums in all 50 of the United States and the District of Columbia. The oldest such museum, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1812.
List of natural history museums in the United States | Introduction
The word "University" was dropped from the institutional name in 2008. The collections include approximately 250,000 objects in all media, ranging in date from antiquity to the present and originating in Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.
Harvard Art Museums | Introduction
Established in 1976 with a donation from Bern Dibner, the Dibner Library is housed in the National Museum of American History. The Cullman Library of Natural History holds some 10,000 volumes published before 1840 in the fields of anthropology and natural sciences. The Cullman Library is also located at the National Museum of Natural History.
Smithsonian Libraries | Special collections
The museum has put on hundreds of exhibitions since its founding. Many exhibitions are groundbreaking and promote new scholarship within the field of American art. What follows is a brief list of selected, and more recent, examples:
Smithsonian American Art Museum | Selected exhibitions
Construction began on the Smithsonian Institution Building ("the Castle") in 1849. Designed by architect James Renwick Jr., its interiors were completed by general contractor Gilbert Cameron. The building opened in 1855. The Smithsonian's first expansion came with construction of the Arts and Industries Building in 1881. Congress had promised to build a new structure for the museum if the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition generated enough income. It did, and the building was designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, based on original plans developed by Major General Montgomery C. Meigs of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It opened in 1881.
Smithsonian Institution | Museums and buildings
11 of the 20 Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries are at the National Mall in Washington D.C., the open-area national park in Washington, D.C. running between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol, with the Washington Monument providing a division slightly west of the center. Six other Smithsonian museums including the National Zoo are located elsewhere in Washington. Two more Smithsonian museums are located in New York City and one is located in Chantilly, Virginia. The Smithsonian also holds close ties with over 200 museums in all 50 states, as well as Panama and Puerto Rico. These museums are known as Smithsonian Affiliates.
List of Smithsonian museums | Museums
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation chartered by Congress in 1846 that maintains most of the nation's official museums and galleries in Washington, D.C. The U.S. government partially funds the Smithsonian, and its collections are open to the public free of charge. The Smithsonian's locations had a combined total of 30 million visits in 2013. The most visited museum is the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Other Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries on the mall are: the National Air and Space Museum; the National Museum of African Art; the National Museum of American History; the National Museum of the American Indian; the Sackler and Freer galleries, which both focus on Asian art and culture; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Arts and Industries Building; the S.
Washington, D.C. | Museums
The Smithsonian gives an approximate number for artifacts and specimens of 146 million. More specifically, the collections include 30 million insects, 4.5 million plants preserved in the Museum's herbarium, and 7 million fish stored in liquid-filled jars. The museum has over 570,000 catalogued reptiles from around the world. The National Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles has more than tripled from 190,000 specimen records 1970 to over 580,000 specimen records in 2020. Of the 2 million cultural artifacts, 400,000 are photographs housed in the National Anthropological Archives. Through off-site active loan and exchange programs, the museum's collections can be accessed. As a result, 3.5 million specimens are out on loan every year.
National Museum of Natural History | Research and collections
In 2008, 58 of these traveling exhibitions went to 510 venues across the country. The Smithsonian Institution announced in January 2015 that it is in talks to build its first permanent overseas exhibition space within London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Smithsonian Institution | Museums
In its early years, the Library expanded its collection mostly through such gifts as the John C. Jay conchological library, the Carson Brevoort library on fishes and general zoology, the ornithological library of Daniel Giraud Elliot, the Harry Edwards entomological library, the Hugh Jewett collection of voyages and travel and the Jules Marcou geology collection. In 1903 the American Ethnological Society deposited its library in the museum and in 1905 the New York Academy of Sciences followed suit by transferring its collection of 10,000 volumes. Today, the Library's collections contain over 550,000 volumes of monographs, serials, pamphlets, reprints, microforms, and original illustrations, as well as film, photographic, archives and manuscripts, fine art, memorabilia and rare book collections.
American Museum of Natural History | History
The museum provides electronic resources to schools and the public through its national education program. It maintains seven online research databases with more than 500,000 records, including the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture that document more than 400,000 artworks in public and private collections worldwide. Since 1951, the museum has maintained a traveling exhibition program; as of 2013, more than 2.5 million visitors have seen the exhibitions.
Smithsonian American Art Museum | Introduction
A list of museums in the United States by state. According to a government statement, there are more than 35,000 museums in the US.
List of museums in the United States | Introduction
There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, and children's museums. Amongst the world's largest and visited museums are the Louvre in Paris, the National Museum of China in Beijing, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the British Museum and National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and Vatican Museums in Vatican City. According to the International Council of Museums, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries.
Museum | Introduction
Today the museum no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library. The museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over 13 million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library. The Round Reading Room, which was designed by the architect Sydney Smirke, opened in 1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the museum's vast library.
British Museum | The British Museum today
The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair. The museum maintains a temporary exhibition program of traveling shows as well as in-house produced topical exhibitions. The professional staff maintains collections of over 24 million specimens and objects that provide the basis for the museum’s scientific-research programs. These collections include the full range of existing biodiversity, gems, meteorites, fossils, and rich anthropological collections and cultural artifacts from around the globe. The museum's library, which contains over 275,000 books, journals, and photo archives focused on biological systematics, evolutionary biology, geology, archaeology, ethnology and material culture, supports the museum’s academic-research faculty and exhibit development.
Field Museum of Natural History | Introduction
The original library was founded by an Act of Congress on August 10, 1846, when the Smithsonian Institution was named a trust instrumentality of the United States. The Act created a Board of Regents for the Institution, and called for a building to house a museum with geological and mineralogical cabinets, a chemical laboratory, a gallery of art, lecture rooms, and a library. The Smithsonian Libraries system as it exists today was not established until 1968, when Secretary S. Dillon Ripley realized that the existing library organization was greatly in need of an overhaul. He created a new position, Director of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and hired Russell Shank to fill the role.
Smithsonian Libraries | History
The specimens of the Museum date from 1800s to the present, and are arranged into distinct collections: Zoological, Botanical, Pharmaceutical, Microscope Slide and Craniofacial Skeletal collections. These include skeletons, fluid-preserved material, taxidermy, dried items, fossils, microscope and a herbarium of plant material.
Museum of Life Sciences | Introduction
According to the "Ask Art" website, referenced on 1/25/02, and The Smithsonian art archive, museums that today include Arthur Hill Gilbert in their collections include:
Arthur Hill Gilbert | Museum collections
The foundations for the present collections were first assembled in the former Museum of the American Indian in New York City, which was established in 1916, and which became part of the Smithsonian in 1989.
National Museum of the American Indian | Introduction
Housed in the Patent Office Building, these were the precursor to the Smithsonian Institution collection. The cabinet was managed by a group of scientists in 1840 and others to secure control of the Smithson bequest and create a National Museum in Washington.
National Institute for the Promotion of Science | Introduction
The National Zoological Park opened in 1889 to accommodate the Smithsonian's Department of Living Animals. The park was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Smithsonian Institution | Museums and buildings
In 1957, a proposal was made by the federal government to demolish the Old Patent Office Building. After a public outcry and an agreement to save the historic structure, Congress authorized the Smithsonian Institution to use the structure as a museum in March 1958. Shortly thereafter, the Smithsonian Art Commission asked the Chancellor of the Smithsonian to appoint a committee to organize a national portrait museum and to plan for the establishment of this museum in the Old Patent Office Building. This committee was created in 1960.
National Portrait Gallery (United States) | Founding of the museum
On September 21, 2004, for the inauguration of the Museum, Senator Inouye addressed an audience of around 20,000 American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, which was the largest gathering in Washington D.C. of indigenous people to its time. The creation of the museum brought together the collections of the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City, founded in 1922, and the Smithsonian Institution. The Heye collection became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990, and represents approximately 85% of the holdings of the NMAI. The Heye Collection was formerly displayed at Audubon Terrace in Uptown Manhattan, but had long been seeking a new building.
National Museum of the American Indian | History
Partly due to Adams's efforts, Congress voted to establish the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. A nonpolitical board of regents was established to lead the institution, which included a museum, art gallery, library, and laboratory.
John Quincy Adams | Smithsonian Institution
Though the Smithsonian's first secretary, Joseph Henry, wanted the institution to be a center for scientific research, it also became the depository for various Washington and U.S. government collections. The United States Exploring Expedition by the U.S. Navy circumnavigated the globe between 1838 and 1842. The voyage amassed thousands of animal specimens, an herbarium of 50,000 plant specimens, and diverse shells and minerals, tropical birds, jars of seawater, and ethnographic artifacts from the South Pacific Ocean. These specimens and artifacts became part of the Smithsonian collections, as did those collected by several military and civilian surveys of the American West, including the Mexican Boundary Survey and Pacific Railroad Surveys, which assembled many Native American artifacts and natural history specimens.
Smithsonian Institution | Development
President Abraham Lincoln held his inaugural ball in the gallery currently called the Lincoln Gallery. In 2006, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi designed the conservators' denim work aprons. In 2008, the American Art Museum hosted an alternate reality game, called "Ghosts of a Chance", which was created by City Mystery. The game allowed patrons "a new way of engaging with the collection" in the Luce Foundation Center. The game ran for six weeks and attracted more than 6,000 participants.
Smithsonian American Art Museum | In popular culture
The rest of the collections not on display are stored in the non-public research areas of the museum and at the Museum Support Center, located in Suitland, MD. Other facilities include a marine science center in Ft. Pierce, Florida and field stations in Belize, Alaska, and Kenya. Research in the museum is divided into seven departments: anthropology, botany, entomology, invertebrate zoology, mineral sciences, paleobiology, vertebrate zoology. One collection of nearly a million specimens of birds, reptiles, and mammals kept at the museum has been maintained by the Biological Survey unit of the U.S. Geological Survey. This division had started in 1885 as an economic ornithology unit of the Agriculture Department.
National Museum of Natural History | Research and collections
The Smithsonian Institution listed the number of items in the museum collection in 2012 as either more than 18,000 pieces or more than 25,000 pieces. CBS News reported in May 2015 that the collection size had grown to 33,000 objects, although this had risen to more than 40,000 objects by May 2019. About 3,500 items are on display to the public. Items obtained by the museum initially were received, conserved, and stored at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland. Dozens of permanent curatorial staff and temporary contractors accessed the items, repaired them, and conserved them in a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment.
National Museum of African American History and Culture | Notable items in the collection
The first children's museum in the world was the Brooklyn Children's Museum, founded in 1899. The next five in order of their founding were: By 1975, there were approximately 38 children's museums in the United States. An additional 80 institutions opened between 1976 and 1990, and more than 130 opened between 1990 and 2007. As of 2007, ACM estimated that there were approximately 80 children's museums in the planning phase. The children's museum concept has spread worldwide from the United States. Le Musée des Enfants in Brussels was started in 1978, inspired by Boston Children's Museum. The Boston museum also inspired the Museo Pambata in Manila, which opened in 1994.
Children's museum | History
Congress mandated a Smithsonian Institution art museum for the National Mall, and a design by Eliel Saarinen was unveiled in 1939, but plans were shelved during World War II. A 1966 act of the U.S. Congress established the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as part of the Smithsonian Institution with a focus on modern art, in contrast to the existing National Art Gallery. The museum was primarily federally funded, although New York financier Joseph Hirshhorn later contributed $1 million toward building construction, which began in 1969. The Hirshhorn opened in 1974.
Great Society | Cultural centers
Gilliam's work is part of the permanent collections of 56 museums including:
Sam Gilliam | Selected museum collections
This is a list of museums. A museum is an institution that cares for (conserves) a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. According to "Museums of the World", there are about 55,000 museums in 202 countries. The International Council of Museums comprises 30,000 members in 137 countries.
List of museums | Introduction
Since 2012, this number jumped by one to 38.
International Museum Day | History
American Art has seven online research databases, which has more than 500,000 records of artworks in public and private collections worldwide, including the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture. Numerous researchers and millions of virtual visitors per year use these databases. Also, American Art and Heritage Preservation work together in a joint project, Save Outdoor Sculpture, "dedicated to the documentation and preservation of outdoor sculpture". The museum produces a peer-reviewed periodical, "American Art" (started in 1987), for new scholarship. Since 1993, American Art has been had an online presence. It has one of the earliest museum websites when, in 1995, it launched its own website.
Smithsonian American Art Museum | Outreach
The museum project creators have proposed a number of components to be considered for a final institution. Among these are a permanent exhibition (tentatively called "The Story of the American People"), a Center for the Advanced Study of the American People drawing upon a group of over 145 scholars who have offered their support to the project, a National Genealogical Center, an Education and Resource Center and an archival library of American Migration and Immigration. In addition, the permanent collection is intended to be presented in a narrative manner, told in four chapters: Chapter I, The First Peoples Come, 20,000 before present (est.)-1607 Chapter II, The Nation Takes Form, 1607-1820 Chapter III, The Great In-Gathering, 1820-1924 Chapter IV, And Still They Come, 1924–present
National Museum of the American People | Museum contents and exhibitions
The world-famous Smithsonian Institution is located in the District. The Smithsonian today is a collection of museums that includes the Anacostia Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of Natural History, National Portrait Gallery, National Postal Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, and the National Zoo. There are many art museums in D.C., in addition to those that are part of the Smithsonian, including the National Gallery of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Phillips Collection.
Culture of Washington, D.C. | Museums and monuments
The program was received by museums across the country. The end of the fiscal year 1997 recognized 21 organizations as Affiliates. As of 2017, there are over 200 Affiliates.
Smithsonian Affiliations | Growth of the program
The following is a list of Smithsonian research centers, with their affiliated museum in parentheses: Also of note is the Smithsonian Museum Support Center (MSC), located in Silver Hill, Maryland (Suitland), which is the principal off-site conservation and collections facility for multiple Smithsonian museums, primarily the National Museum of Natural History. The MSC was dedicated in May 1983. The MSC covers of land, with over of space, making it one of the largest set of structures in the Smithsonian. It has over of cabinets, and more than 31 million objects.
Smithsonian Institution | Research centers and programs
Collections of artifacts are given to these museums in the form of long-term loans from the Smithsonian. These long-term loans are not the only Smithsonian exhibits outside the Smithsonian museums. The Smithsonian also has a large number of traveling exhibitions. Each year more than 50 exhibitions travel to hundreds of cities and towns all across the United States.
List of Smithsonian museums | Museums
Civic and university buildings did exist to house collections used for conducting research, however these served more as storage spaces than museums by today’s understanding. All kept artifacts were displayed to the public as catalogs of research findings and served mostly as an archive of scientific knowledge. These spaces housed as many artifacts as fit and offered little description or interpretation for visitors. Kept organisms were typically arranged in their taxonomic systems and displayed with similar organisms. Museums did not think of the possibility of diverse audiences, instead adopting the view of an expert as the standard.
Natural history museum | History
Museums: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Beverly Hills, CA Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio Albany Museum of Art, Georgia University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ), Tucson, AZ Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Wharton School of Business, Philadelphia, PA Jewish Museum, New York, NY Bryant University, Smithfield, RI
Michael B. Gallagher | Public collections
There are several museums named War of 1812 museum:
War of 1812 museum | Introduction
Finally, on August 10, 1846, President James K. Polk signed the legislation that established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust instrumentality of the United States, to be administered by a Board of Regents and a secretary of the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian Institution | Founding
They were essentially the same group who were to succeed in persuading the government to found the National Gallery in 1824, and whose gifts to it provided most of the early collection. There was a total group of 125 Governors, Directors and Subscribers, paying sums between 100 guineas (56 of them, 35 at 50g., 11 at 10g.) down to one guinea annually. In 1805 the initial subscribers consisted of "One duke, five marquesses, fourteen earls, two viscounts, nine lords, two bishops, four ladies, seven baronets, twenty-two members of parliament, five clergymen and above fifty private gentlemen, bankers and merchants". The Institution had been discussed with the Royal Academy before it was established, and relations were friendly, at least initially, though later there were to be tensions.
British Institution | Founding
They were thought to have been made by "Megalosaurus" and possibly "Cetiosaurus". There are replicas of some of these footprints, set across the front lawn of the museum. The Hope Entomological Collections, numbering over 5 million specimens are held by the museum. The Hope Department was founded by Frederick William Hope and the first appointed curator of the collections was John Obadiah Westwood. Many important insect and arachnid specimens from various collectors and collections make up the museums holdings including (but not limited to) those of Octavius Pickard-Cambridge, George Henry Verrall, Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean, Pierre André Latreille, Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Jacques Marie Frangile Bigot, and Pierre Justin Marie Macquart among others.
Oxford University Museum of Natural History | The museum today
Opened since 2013, this exhibit is the museum's interactive and educational area. Using microscopes and touch screens, the area hosts various interactive activities and puzzles visitors can experience and contains a "collection zone" that houses over 6000 different specimens and artifacts visitors are able personally handle. The area also hosts various events such as allowing visitors to meet and discuss with Smithsonian scientists and hosting school groups.
National Museum of Natural History | Q?rius
EyeLevel, the first blog at the Smithsonian Institution, was started in 2005 and, as of 2013, the blog "has approximately 12,000 readers each month".
Smithsonian American Art Museum | Outreach
World's largest stamp gallery, full-size Freight-liner semi-truck cab cutaway, vintage mail planes, stagecoach, 1931 Ford Model A postal truck, replica of a railway car; and videos.
Conservation and restoration at the Smithsonian Institution | Type of Objects
The museum identified 3,000 items in its collections which would form 11 initial exhibits. More than 130 video and audio installations would be installed as part of these exhibits. In January 2016, the museum announced the receipt of a $10 million gift from David Rubenstein, CEO of The Carlyle Group and a Smithsonian regent, as well as a $1 million donation from Wells Fargo. As of January 30, 2016, the museum still needed to raise $40 million toward its $270 million construction goal.
National Museum of African American History and Culture | Opening
The gallery and its collections are owned by the U.S. government but are not a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The National Building Museum, which occupies the former Pension Building near Judiciary Square, was chartered by Congress and hosts exhibits on architecture, urban planning, and design. There are many private art museums in the District of Columbia, which house major collections and exhibits open to the public such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts and The Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle, the first museum of modern art in the United States. Other private museums in Washington include the Newseum, the O Street Museum Foundation, the International Spy Museum, the National Geographic Society Museum, the Marian Koshland Science Museum and the Museum of the Bible.
Washington, D.C. | Museums
The museum collection consists of about half a million drawings from the Middle Ages to 1900, a prominent 17th-century collection of Rembrandt and other Dutch painters, and a collection of porcelain items, paintings, sculptures, and modern art as well. The museum also has an art library, open to the public and academics.
Nationalmuseum | Collections
The regents began considering sites for the new building in March, and by April 12 settled on a site on the north side of B Street NW between 9th and 12th Streets. The D.C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall was chosen to design the structure. Testing of the soil for the foundations was set for July 1903, with construction expected to take three years. The Natural History Building (as the National Museum of Natural History was originally known) opened its doors to the public on March 17, 1910, in order to provide the Smithsonian Institution with more space for collections and research.
National Museum of Natural History | 1846–1911
It was founded in 1999 by Michael Douma at IDEA, and was one of the first virtual museums of its kind. The site launched with two exhibits on Calendars and Daylight Saving Time, as a complement to www.time.gov. This was the anchor that started the museum. Subsequent exhibits were multidisciplinary, looking at the nexus between science and art. The largest sources of funding have been from contracts and grants from NIST, the U.S. Dept of Ed., and the National Science Foundation. The first version of WebExhibits in 1999 included a directory of cultural and scientific offerings at other sites. At the time, the major search engines were doing a poor job of directing web users to exhibits at Library of Congress, PBS, Discovery Channel and other sites.
WebExhibits | History
Staten Island Museum (officially the Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences) is Staten Island’s oldest cultural institution, and the only remaining general interest museum in New York City. Founded in 1881 by fourteen of New York City’s first “environmental activists”, the Staten Island Museum houses artifacts and specimens from ancient to contemporary periods. This “mini-Smithsonian” is rich with arts, natural sciences and local history. The museum’s holdings are formally organized into three main collections: Natural Sciences, Fine Art, and History Archives & Library. The natural science collections encompass over 500,000 botanical, biological, anthropological and mineral specimens including bird nests and eggs, mounted animals, fossils, shells, and a significant collection of insects, including important type specimens.
Staten Island Museum | Introduction
The Museum of Arts and Sciences is the name for several museums:
Museum of Arts and Sciences | Introduction
The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985) and four research centers: the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis (founded in 1958), the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art (founded in 2002), the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (founded in 1928). The three museums that constitute the Harvard Art Museums were initially integrated into a single institution under the name Harvard University Art Museums in 1983.
Harvard Art Museums | Introduction
Five separate stores currently house the collection of specimens.
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology | History of the Museum
The museum currently features approximately 1000 Objects, as well as rich media supporting material for those works, by visual artists from around the world. A unique feature of the site is that inspirations, sources and studies for works of art are provided for most objects.
Open Museum | Collection
Founded by Thomas Dent Mutter in 1858 for medical research, the museum's contents include medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, and antique medical equipment. Anatomical specimens include the conjoined liver of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker; and a section of the brain of Charles J. Guiteau, who assassinated President Garfield. Medical instruments include a wooden stethoscope and Marie Curie's quartz-piezo electrometer
College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Museum
The museum contained nearly 136,000 original manuscripts and letters, including the cease-fire order signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower on May 7, 1945, poems of Paul Éluard, and a love-letter by Théodore Géricault.
Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits | Collections
The museum was founded by two antique collectors; Dallas Pratt (August 21, 1914 – May 20, 1994), an American psychiatrist from New York and heir to a substantial Standard Oil fortune; and John Judkyn (1913 – July 27, 1963), a British designer and antiques dealer. The museum was opened to the public for the first time on July 1, 1961, and remains the only museum devoted to American decorative arts outside the boundaries of the United States. The museum's mission today stays true to the ambitions of its founders; to increase knowledge of American cultural history in order to strengthen the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
American Museum and Gardens | Museum
As of 2019, the MOAH collection has over 6,000 accessioned artifacts.
Museum of American Heritage | History
Heye created the Museum of the American Indian in 1916 in New York City and was its director until 1956. His collection of Native American materials was gathered over a period of 45 years. This collection became the basis of the National Museum of the American Indian. The largest in the world, it contains over one million objects from Native Americans. It was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1989, and about a third of the original collection has been repatriated. Artifacts were once stored in the Bronx along the Interstate 95 corridor, until the land and building was sold, then cleared to make way for private housing.
George Gustav Heye | Museum of the American Indian
Museums of modern art listed alphabetically by country.
Museums of modern art | Introduction
The public exhibit museum was founded in 1956, and today has more than 100,000 visitors annually. The museum is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. It employs 11 full-time staff and between 40-50 paid student docents, and has an annual budget of more than $900,000.
University of Michigan Museum of Natural History | Introduction
Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art, with more than 7,000 artists represented, that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States. SAAM contains the world's largest collection of New Deal art; a collection of contemporary craft, American impressionist paintings, and masterpieces from the Gilded Age; photography, modern folk art, works by African American and Latino artists, images of western expansion, and realist art from the first half of the twentieth century. Among the significant artists represented in its collection are Nam June Paik, Jenny Holzer, David Hockney, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Albert Bierstadt, Edmonia Lewis, Thomas Moran, James Gill, Edward Hopper, John William "Uncle Jack" Dey, Karen LaMonte and Winslow Homer.
Smithsonian American Art Museum | Collections
This list of museums is defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Museums that exist only in cyberspace ("i.e.", virtual museums) are not included. For individual topics, see list of science museums, list of natural history museums, list of transport museums, and articles on art galleries, print rooms, national museums and art museums in general. According to the "Museums of the World", there are about 55,000 museums in 202 countries.
List of museums by country | Introduction
The permanent collection of the Heye Center is called Infinity of Nations, and is designed to show the scope of the Smithsonian's collection. Organized by geographic regions (including Central and South America), the exhibit displays over 700 items and crosses the line from ethnology to art. Multimedia interactions include audio and video, and feature commentary by historians on specific objects. The rotunda on the second floor is frequently used as a performance space, and features murals reflecting the history of the building, done by Reginald Marsh. Other galleries include the Photography Gallery, Special Exhibit Galleries, Contemporary Galleries, the Haudenosaunee Discovery Room, the Resource Center Reference Library, a small theater (which screens daily films), and the museum store.
George Gustav Heye Center | Galleries
In 2009, the museum became affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
National Civil War Museum | Introduction
He expanded his collection to warehouses, an apartment in New York City, and an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, with extensive area for sculpture. A 1962 sculpture show at New York's Guggenheim Museum awakened an international art community to the breadth of Hirshhorn's holdings. Word of his collection of modern and contemporary paintings also circulated, and institutions in Italy, Israel, Canada, California, and New York City vied for the collection. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley successfully campaigned for a new museum on the National Mall.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Founding
The Princeton University Art Museum was established in 1882 to give students direct, intimate, and sustained access to original works of art that complement and enrich instruction and research at the university. This continues to be a primary function, along with serving as a community resource and a destination for national and international visitors. Numbering over 92,000 objects, the collections range from ancient to contemporary art and concentrate geographically on the Mediterranean regions, Western Europe, China, the United States, and Latin America. There is a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, including ceramics, marbles, bronzes, and Roman mosaics from faculty excavations in Antioch.
Princeton University | Art Museum
In-depth collection of modern masters and works by emerging artists; cutting-edge films; sculptures by Rodin, Matisse, and Moore.
Conservation and restoration at the Smithsonian Institution | Type of objects
It comprises no less than seven different museums, to which has been added the present year, besides the constant daily accumulation of articles, one half of the celebrated Peale's Philadelphia Museum, swelling the already immense collection to upwards of half a million articles, the greatest amount of objects of interest to be found together at any one place in America; and an entirely new hall of wax statuary... and the immense collection of birds, beasts, fish, insects and reptiles;... paintings, engravings and statuary; ... Egyptian mummies, ... family of Peruvian mummies; the duck-billed platypus;... the curious half-fish, half-human Fejee Mermaid;...
Boston Museum (theatre) | History
Dillon Ripley Center; and the Smithsonian Institution Building (also known as "The Castle"), which serves as the institution's headquarters. The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are housed in the Old Patent Office Building, near Washington's Chinatown. The Renwick Gallery is officially part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum but is in a separate building near the White House. Other Smithsonian museums and galleries include: the Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast Washington; the National Postal Museum near Union Station; and the National Zoo in Woodley Park. The National Gallery of Art is on the National Mall near the Capitol and features works of American and European art.
Washington, D.C. | Museums
Half the volumes are written and catalogued in Asian languages. Originating from the collection of four thousand monographs, periodical issues, offprints, and sales catalogues that Charles Lang Freer donated to the Smithsonian Institution as part of his gift to the nation, the F|S Library maintains the highest standards for collecting materials an active program of purchases, gifts, and exchanges. In July 1987 the library moved to its new home in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Today it supports activities of both museums, such as collection development, exhibition planning, publications, and other scholarly and educational projects. Its published and unpublished resources—in the fields of Asian art and archaeology, conservation, painting, sculpture, architecture, drawings, prints, manuscripts, books, and photography—are available to museum staff, outside researchers, and the visiting public.
Freer Gallery of Art | F|S Archives and Library
All directors, with the exception of Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl held a professorship of archaeology at the university. The Egyptian Museum (German: "Ägyptisches Museum") was founded in 2001. The collection dates back to the 19th century and was formerly part of the Akademisches Kunstmuseum. Large parts of the collection were destroyed in World War II. Today the collection comprises about 3,000 objects. The Arithmeum was opened in 1999. With over 1,200 objects it has the world's largest collection of historical mechanical calculating machines. The museum is affiliated with the Research Institute for Discrete Mathematics. The Teaching Collection of Archaeology and Anthropology (German: "Archäologisch-ethnographische Lehr- und Studiensammlung") was opened in 2008.
University of Bonn | University museums
The New York State Museum was founded in 1836 as the New York State Geological and Natural History Survey, formed in 1836 by Governor William Marcy to document the mineral wealth of the state. In 1870, it was reorganized as the New York State Museum of Natural History under the trusteeship of the regents of the State University. The museum was located in the State Education Building from 1912 until 1976, when it was moved to the Cultural Education Center upon the Empire State Plaza's completion. The current location opened on July 4, 1976, and 15,000 people took part in the ceremony which included a performance by Don Mclean.
New York State Museum | History
The new Library was designed by the firm Roche-Dinkeloo in 1992. The space is and includes five different 'conservation zones', ranging from the 50-person reading room and public offices, to temperature and humidity controlled rooms.
American Museum of Natural History | History
Lippard.
Washington State University | Museums and collections
Museum can be characterized as historical, scientific, art institutions, heritage institutions, aquaria and arboreta, and zoological and botanical gardens. Lorcan Dempsey may have introduced the term into popular use in library and information science, although others, such as Joan Schwarz, used it earlier. It also appeared in a 1972 report to the Council on Library Resources.
Memory institution | Introduction
The National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C. was founded by Warren M. Robbins in 1964 as a private and relatively small collection. In 1979 the collection, by then about 8,000 objects, was taken over by the Smithsonian Institution and is now housed in a central if underground location on the National Mall.
African art in Western collections | National Museum of African Art
NMIHACM has access to a well stocked library maintained at National Museum Institute which is equipped with a fully automated digital library consisting of 68,014 slides, apart from the hard copy collections. Many journals subscribed by the library is also accessible to NMIHACM.
National Museum Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology | Library
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Norfolk Museum, Virginia Albrecht Museum, St. Joseph’s University, Missouri The Museum in Ein Hod, Israel Butler Art Institute, Youngstown, Ohio Wichita Art Museum, Kansas National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, Connecticut New Britain Museum, Connecticut Boca Raton Museum, Florida Everson Art Museum, Syracuse, New York Ball State University Art Museum, Muncie, Indiana Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas, Texas
Joseph Wolins | Permanent collections
Already at its founding, the Field Museum had a large anthropological collection. A large number of the early natural history specimens were purchased from Ward’s Natural History Establishment in Rochester, New York. An extensive acquisition program, including large expeditions conducted by the museum’s curatorial staff resulted in substantial collection growth. During the first 50 years of the museum’s existence, over 440 Field Museum expeditions acquired specimens from all parts of the world. In addition, material was added through purchase, such as H. N. Patterson's herbarium in 1900, and the Strecker butterfly collection in 1908. Extensive specimen material and artifacts were given to the museum by collectors and donors, such as the Boone collection of over 3,500 East Asian artifacts, consisting of books, prints and various objects.
Field Museum of Natural History | Scientific collections
As well as the archaeological sites, the museum has around 200,000 smaller items from 5 AD to the 15th century, over 5,000 of which are currently exhibited. These include:
Chersonesus | Museum contents
The Smithsonian Institution has 23 statues and memorials registered at The Grotto:
The Grotto | Sculptures
During the World's Columbian Exposition, all acquired specimens and objects were on display; the purpose of the World’s Fair was exhibition of these materials. For example, just after opening of the Columbian Museum of Chicago, the mollusk collection occupied one entire exhibit hall, displaying 3,000 species of mollusks on about . By 1910, 20,000 shell specimens were on display, with an additional 15,000 ‘in storage’. In today’s museum, only a small fraction of the specimens and artifacts are publicly displayed. The vast majority of specimens and artifacts are used by a wide range of people in the museum and around the world.
Field Museum of Natural History | Collection use
The Smithsonian Institution began publishing consolidated compilations of quarto-sized papers in 1848, under the name "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge". In 1862 octavo-sized papers called "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections" were added, followed by the monographic "Bulletin of the United States National Museum" in 1875, and the compiled "Proceedings of the United States National Museum" in 1878. "Annual Reports" of Smithsonian Institution administrative and scholarly achievements, and accessions to the collections, began issuing in 1881, with accession and donor information being split off in 1993 as the "Annals of the Smithsonian Institution". The "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" ceased publication in 1916, followed by the cessation of the "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections" in 1968, and the "Bulletin of the United States National Museum" in 1971.
Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series | History
Between 1981 and 2003, the National Museum of Natural History had 11 permanent and acting directors. There were six directors alone between 1990 and 2002. Turnover was high as the museum's directors were disenchanted by low levels of funding and the Smithsonian's inability to clearly define the museum's mission. Robert W. Fri was named the museum's director in 1996. One of the largest donations in Smithsonian history was made during Fri's tenure. Kenneth E. Behring donated $20 million in 1997 to modernize the museum. Fri resigned in 2001 after disagreeing with Smithsonian leadership over the reorganization of the museum's scientific research programs.
National Museum of Natural History | 1981–2003