National Museum Closes for WWI Work

ID: 23905 or MAH-23905

Creator: Unknown

Form/Genre: Photographic print

Date: 1918

Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 33, Folder: 26

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Summary

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.

Subject

  • National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)
  • United States Bureau of War Risk Insurance
  • United States National Museum
  • Natural History Building

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

Yochelson: 66-67. AR 1918: 14-15.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 33, Folder: 26

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1918

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

  • Women
  • Museum buildings
  • WW I
  • World War, 1914-1918
  • Wartime Activities
  • Federal Government

Place

Washington (D.C.)

Form/Genre

  • Photographic print
  • Group, candid

ID Number

23905 or MAH-23905

Physical description

Color: Black and White; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Group, candid; Medium: Photographic print

Full Record

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