National Museum Closes for WWI Work
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Download IIIF ManifestRequest permissionsDownload image PrintID: 23905 or MAH-23905
Creator: Unknown
Form/Genre: Photographic print
Date: 1918
Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 33, Folder: 26
Clerks of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance work at makeshift desks packed into areas not meant for offices, such as one of the display spaces of the United States National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History Building. The Bureau first moved into the building in October 1917. At the request of President Wilson, the Board of Regents closed the museum to the public on July 16, 1918, and made available to the government the ground and two exhibition floors (138,600 sq. ft.) for the duration of the war for wartime activities. The museum reopened to the public in April 1919.
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Yochelson: 66-67. AR 1918: 14-15.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 33, Folder: 26
Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
1918
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Washington (D.C.)
23905 or MAH-23905
Color: Black and White; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Group, candid; Medium: Photographic print