West Wing and Range

Photograph, 1898-1911 Smithsonian Institution negative #16876

Interior view of the West Wing of the Smithsonian Institution Building. The room was arranged with marine invertebrate exhibits. Plaster casts of a giant squid and an octopus were hung from the ceiling after the 1897 Tennessee exposition. Natural history specimens were removed to the new museum during 1911 and 1912.

Photograph, circa 1914 Smithsonian Institution negative #27897

Interior view of the West Wing of the Smithsonian Institution Building. The hall of the West Wing was used for the restoration of the Star Spangled Banner after most of the natural history specimens had been removed. Seven seamstresses restored the flag, lead by Amelia Fowler.

Photograph, 1992, Richard W. Strauss Smithsonian Institution negative #92-16581

Color photograph of the interior of the Smithsonian Institution Building's West Wing. The area was converted into a dining space known as the Commons in 1971. The term "commons" and the coats of arms on the wall suggested the dining halls of historic English colleges. The coats of Horace Walpole, William Penn, William Pitt, William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, Edmund Burke, William Laud, Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Blake, Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Darwin were displayed.

Photograph, 1992, Richard W. Strauss Smithsonian Institution negative #92-16588

Color photograph of the interior of the West Range of the Smithsonian Institution Building. In 1975 the West Range area was converted into a lounge for members of the Smithsonian National Associates program to complement the adjacent space in the Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center.

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