The Smithsonian Institution was based on a gift of James Smithson, a British scientist, who left his entire estate to the United States of America in 1827.  His gift of over 100,000 gold sovereigns, or $500,000, (just under $9.5 million in today’s dollars) required the government to establish the Smithsonian Institution, to “increase and diffusion of knowledge."

An act of Congress in 1846 expanded the growth of collection into the world’s largest museum complex (16 museums) with over 140 million objects and the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

The Smithsonian museums include:

• Anacostia Community Museum
• Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
• Arts and Industries Building
• Freer Gallery of Art
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of African Art
• National Museum of American History
• National Museum of the American Indian
• National Museum of Natural History
• National Portrait Gallery
• National Postal Museum
• S. Dillon Ripley Center
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Smithsonian Institution Building
• Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo)
• The National Gallery of Art (affiliated)

Happy Birthday Smithsonian!!

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Three-time Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist Herbert Block (”Herblock”), cartooned about politics starting with his first cartoon that appeared in the Chicago Daily News, back in 1929.  The topics he covered early in his career included the aggressive pre-WW-II stance of the USSR and the growing concern of the rise of Nazi Germany.

In 1946, immediately after serving in WW-II, he joined the staff of the Washington Post where he worked until his death in 2001, at the age of 91.

In 1950, he coined the word “McCarthyism” in one of his cartoons against Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt. 

At an exhibit of 40 original drawings by Herblock along with his first Pulitzer Prize from 1942 are on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit, Herblock’s Presidents: “Puncturing Pomposity”  cover seven decades of presidential cartoons, from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton. An additional 120 cartoons are available from an on-site interactive kiosk.

It proves that the same issues – inflation, the economy, war,  

Herblock’s Presidents: Puncturing Pomposity 
National Portrait Gallery
Eighth and F Streets, NW,
Washington, DC 20001 (map it)

Hours – Daily 11:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., through November 30, 2008

Admission – Free

Nearest Metro subway station – Metro Gallery Place-Chinatown – Red, Yellow and Green lines, or use the DC Circulator.

Parking – Metered street and paid garage parking is available in the area.

Images: from personal collection – ©2008, Jon Rochetti

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Post from: The DC Traveler