Negative number: 23905 Clerks of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance working in the Natural History Building, 1918. The Bureau first moved into the building in October 1917. At the request of President Woodrow Wilson, the Board of Regents closed the museum to the public on 16 July 1918, making the ground and two exhibition floors (138,600 square feet) available to war time activities. The museum reopened to the public in April 1919.

Negative number: 18052-E The National Gallery of Art, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, staff view the Ranger Exhibit in the Natural History Building, 10 December 1929. Standing behind the wooden bench is William Henry Holmes, Director, and Louise A. Rosenbusch, Recorder. Helen H. Hogan, clerk, is seated and Glenn L. Martin, Gallery attendent, sits at the desk on the far right.

Negative number: 11055-C Dr. Herbert Friedmann working in the bird specimen collection storage area, ca. 1930. Friedmann was Curator of Birds, Department of Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, from 1929 to 1961.

Negative number: 33835-C View of the Paleontology Hall (or Dinosaur Hall) in the National Museum of Natural History, ca. 1932. At the time of this picture the exhibit of fossil animals was called the "Hall of Extinct Monsters." A mural of "Diana of the Tides" can be seen in the rear.

Negative number: 33835-B View of the Paleontology Hall (or Dinosaur Hall) in the National Museum of Natural History, ca. 1932. At the time of this picture the exhibit was called the "Hall of Extinct Monsters."

Negative number: 98-4305 Taxidermist/modeller John Widener working on the cast model of the giant whale featured in the Life in the Sea exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History, ca. 1950's.

Negative number: 94-4422 National Collection of Fine Arts, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, exhibition hall in the National Museum of Natural History in October of 1964.

Negative number: 78-18434-6a J.J Fenykovi, a European big-game hunter, donated a 2-ton elephant hide to the National Museum of Natural History in 1953. William Brown, Smithsonian chief taxidermist, and Norman Deaton mounted the exhibit after a tanner scraped and soaked the hide to make it thin and pliable. Brown observed the habits of elephants to create a scientifically accurate model of an elephant moving at a fast walk, trunk lifted and ears fanned out. The elephant was unveiled in the rotunda of Natural History in March 1959. This picture is from 1978.

Negative number: 83-3821 Aerial view of the new Museum Support Center, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland, designed to house museum collections and research laboratories, 1983. Photo by Jeff Tinsley.

Negative number: 95-255 Mary Rice, Curator of Worms, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, in front of the Smithsonian Marine Station's "floating lab" at Link Port, on the Indian River in Fort Pierce, Flordia, c. 1984.

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