Main Building

Photograph, 1884-1886 Smithsonian Institution negative #NH-4494

Interior view of the Smithsonian Institution Building dated between 1884 and 1886. A museum existed in the Lower Main Hall before the mollusk cases were placed in the center of the hall. Marbleizing was still visible on the walls. In 1882 the Lower Main Hall galleries were changed from exhibition space to curators' space.

Photograph, 1914 Smithsonian Institution negative #28527

View of the east end of the Great Hall of the Castle. The library stacks designed by Hornblower & Marshall were filled with books for display at the 1914 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Renovations appeared to be current with visible plaster and paint. The 1914 rennovation included the installation of new lighting and the removal of galleries.

Photograph, 1992, Richard W. Strauss Smithsonian Institution negative #92-16586

Color photograph of the Great Hall of the Smithsonian Institution Building. In 1984 Robert McCormick Adams was appointed Smithsonian Secretary. He approved the opening of the Great Hall in 1987 as the Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center with maps and guides of the Smithsonian Institution. The east and west ends of the hall were converted to movie theaters that showed general information presentations.

Photograph, 1992, Richard W. Strauss Smithsonian Institution negative #92-16571

Color photograph of the Upper Main Hall of the Smithsonian Institution. The octagonal rotunda was the reception area for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which was created in 1970 under the administration of the eighth Smithsonian Secretary, S. Dillon Ripley. The decoration reflects the Aestetic movement in the United States, made popular by the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876.

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