The 150th Anniversary of the Smithsonian

The tour you are about to take of the Smithsonian is set in the late Nineteenth Century. At that time there were only two buildings, the Castle and the present Arts and Industries building, known at the time as the National Museum. We will be using the 1886 Visitor's Guide to walk through the exhibitions, using descriptions as they appeared in this Guide. The tour will be enriched by supplementing the descriptions of the exhibitions with more detailed information from the 1886 Handbook of the National Museum. These additional sections will be apparent using an icon of the Handbook's cover:

Castle	National Museum

Top