Description: S. Dillon Ripley, the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian, wanted the Smithsonian to have a contemporary art museum. He worked tirelessly to persuade Joseph H. Hirshhorn (1899-1981) to donate his collections to the Smithsonian. On November 7, 1966, the collections of Hirshhorn officially came under the auspices of the Smithsonian. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Description: Because World War I was sure to go down in history, the curator of the History Division, Theodore T. Belote, began collecting artifacts documenting the war even before it was over. As the war wound down and soldiers started returning home, Belote and his superiors at the US National Museum worked with the War Department and contacts in the Army and the Navy to document the