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 Freer Gallery of Art’s collections were donated to the Smithsonian in 1906 and its building opened in 1923. It was the first Smithsonian museum specializing in fine arts. The building was designed by Charles A. Platt in the Italian Renaissance style. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery was established in 1982 to complement the Freer, and it opened in 1987. Together, the Freer