Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="221" caption="At the turn of the century, visitors are entering and leaving the United States National Museum Building, now Arts and Industries Building, via the North Entrance, c. 1900, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 95 Box 32 Folder 8, Negative Number:
Description: Born in 1829 to free black parents along the border between Maryland and the District of Columbia, Solomon Galleon Brown would become, at age 23, the first black employee of the Smithsonian. Starting out as a laborer in the Exchange Office, he ultimately became the personal assistant of Spencer Baird, the second secretary of the Smithsonian. By the time of his 1904 retirement,