The National Mall is a landscaped park near the downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution, art galleries, cultural institutions, and various memorials, sculptures, and statues. It is administered by the National Park Service (NPS) of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit of the National Park System. The park receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.
The Albert Einstein Memorial is a monumental bronze statue by sculptor Robert Berks, depicting Albert Einstein seated with manuscript papers in hand. It is located in central Washington, D.C., United States, in a grove of trees at the southwest corner of the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences at 2101 Constitution Avenue N.W., near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Two replicas exist at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and its western section was greatly lengthened and widened between 1925 and 1933. It received its current name on February 26, 1931, though it was almost named Jefferson Avenue in honor of Thomas Jefferson.
The history of Washington, D.C., is tied to its role as the capital of the United States. The site of the District of Columbia along the Potomac River was first selected by President George Washington. The city came under attack during the War of 1812 in an episode known as the Burning of Washington. Upon the government's return to the capital, it had to manage the reconstruction of numerous public buildings, including the White House and the United States Capitol. The McMillan Plan of 1901 helped restore and beautify the downtown core area, including establishing the National Mall, along with numerous monuments and museums.
Mountains and Clouds is a sculpture by Alexander Calder located in the Hart Senate Office Building.
The Thomas Jefferson Building, also known as the Main Library, is the oldest of the Library of Congress buildings in Washington, D.C. Built between 1890 and 1897, it was initially known as the Library of Congress Building. In 1980, the building was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third U.S. president. In 1815, Jefferson's donation of his own book collection formed a core foundation for the library's collection.
The Kreeger Museum is a modern and contemporary non-profit art museum located in Washington D.C. It is located on Foxhall Road, one of the wealthy residential neighbourhoods of the US capital, in the former home of Carmen and David Lloyd Kreeger, pillars of the Washington D.C. arts and cultural community, and it contains the art collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings and sculpture they acquired from 1952 to 1988.
Edward Bright Bruce was the administrator of the New Deal art projects of the United States Department of the Treasury: the Public Works of Art Project (1933–1934), the Section of Painting and Sculpture (1934–1943), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (1935–1938). Ned Bruce was a successful lawyer and entrepreneur before giving up his business career altogether at the age of 43 to become an artist. However, like most artists during the Depression, he found it impossible to make a living making art, and he grudgingly returned to business as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. In 1932 he joined the Treasury Department, where his expertise in monetary policy and art guided federal efforts to employ workers in the visual arts during the Great Depression in the United States.
The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury.
Always Becoming is an artwork created in 2007 by Nora Naranjo-Morse, a Native American potter and poet. The artwork groups five sculptures made with natural materials, which allows them to gradually change over time. The National Museum of the American Indian selected and commissioned the artwork to be exhibited at one of its entrances in 2006.
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck was an American painter now best known for her work as a muralist. She submitted entries to 16 competitions for the Section of Painting and Sculpture, winning and completing two commissions. Although her body of work included a significant number of both commissioned frescoes as well as easel paintings, few are known to have survived.
The Federal Trade Commission Building, known historically as the Apex Building, is a federal building which serves as the headquarters of the Federal Trade Commission. Completed in 1938, the building was designated by Congress as a contributing structure to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site in 1966, and it was subsequently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Progress of Railroading is group of public artworks by American artist Louis Saint-Gaudens. This series of six sculptures were cut by Andrew E. Bernasconi, a high-grade Italian stone workman, between 1909 and 1911. These statues are located at Union Station in Washington, D.C., United States. The sculptures represent deities and Ancient Greek thinkers related to rail transport in the United States.
Acacia Griffins are public artworks by American sculptor Edmond Amateis, located at the Acacia Building at 51 Louisiana Avenue N.W., in Washington, D.C., United States.
The Daguerre Memorial is a bronze and granite sculpture by Jonathan Scott Hartley in Washington, D.C. It was erected in memory of Louis Daguerre.
Kiepenkerl was originally a sandstone statue of a travelling merchant created by August Schmiemann in Münster, Germany in 1896. Destroyed in World War II, it was re-created in cast metal by Albert Mazzotti Jr in 1953. The statue now stands in a small square in the Old Quarter of Münster. In 1987 American sculptor Jeff Koons created a replica of the design in polished cast stainless steel.
Michael Lantz was an American sculptor and medalist.
She Who Must Be Obeyed is a minimalist sculpture 33 feet (10 m) wide and 16 feet (4.9 m) deep made by Tony Smith in 1975. It is located at the Frances Perkins Building, in downtown Washington, D.C. The piece consists of nine geometric rhomboid units, bolted and welded together and painted blue.
Murder Bay was a disreputable slum in Washington, D.C., roughly bounded by Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and 13th and 15th Streets NW. The area was a center of crime through the early 20th century, with an extensive criminal underclass and prostitution occurring in several brothels and hotels in the area. The area was completely rebuilt during the construction of the Federal Triangle project in the late 1920s and 1930s.
