Description: Natural history specimens and ethnographic artifacts were among the earliest collections of the US National Museum. In 1910, the National Museum of Natural History building opened to showcase these collections. Wings were added in the 1960s, and a collections storage facility in Maryland opened in 1983 to help house the National Museum of Natural History’s 126 million objects.
Description: The Cooper Union Museum, now known as the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, became a part of the Smithsonian on October 9, 1967. The museum is dedicated to studying and spreading public understanding of historic and contemporary design. The postcards in this gallery show works of art from Cooper-Hewitt’s collections and objects associated with Cooper-Hewitt.