Description: The Arts and Industries Building was the first building to serve as the US National Museum. Designed by architects Cluss & Schulze, this brick building with expansive galleries opened in 1881, with exhibits on art, culture, history, geology, and natural history. It was renamed the Arts and Industries Building in 1910. History of the Arts and Industries BuildingAdditional
Description: Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been researching recently, and you’ll get into some