Arts and science in usa

Every year millions of Americans and foreigners visit the Nation's Capital, and many of them pass fascinating hours there viewing such historic treasures as the Wright brothers' first airplane, Alexander Graham Bell's prototype telephone, and a wealth of American and foreign art at various museums scattered around the city.

Few of these visitors realize that they are guests of the Smithsonian Institution, one of the world's most far-reaching societies of scholars and scientists, with interests in such diverse fields as astrophysics and music, painting and ethnology, drama and zoology.A vast complex of museums and galleries, laboratories and halls of learning, research centers and editorial offices, the Smithsonian Institution, though center in Washington, also maintains a variety of facilities throughout the Nation and the world. But to the general public the Smithsonian is best known for its exhibition halls in the Nation's Capital. These include, among others, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of History and Technology.

Supported in part by public funding and in part by private donations, the Smithsonian was established in 1846, thanks to a bequest of $508000 from a British scientist, James Smithson, for "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men".

In becoming one of the world's foremost institutes of research and enlightenment, and establishing its public displays, the Smithsonian has more than carried out its benefactor's charge.THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART: HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION

On March 17, 1941, the National Gallery of Art was dedicated to the nation. Located in the heart of the nation's capital, the building was designed by architect John Russell Pope to implement a dream long held by its donor, the financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. In many ways the building was the result of the plans and ideals of those two men, yet it was also influenced by the ideas of its time, by its location on the Mall, and by a tradition of grand art museum buildings.

The architectural concept of the public art museum originated in Europe, where, in the first half of the nineteenth century, grand buildings in a classical style were built to house national art collections in spacious and beautiful surroundings. After the Civil War many wealthy Americans, including Andrew Mellon, visited Europe and brought back with them a vision inspired by those museums.By the 1920s Washington had several distinguished art museums. However, Andrew Mellon realized soon after coming to Washington that none of those museums was of the type exemplified by the national collections of Europe or the grand art museums such as existed in New York, Boston, and Chicago. He began to plan for such an institution in the nation's capital quietly and without public notice. Mellon had started to collect paintings early in life, and as he planned for a National Gallery of Art, he brought together a superb collection of art to serve as the nucleus of a great national collection.

Andrew Mellon selected John Russell Pope to design the building of the National Gallery of Art. The proposal came as early as 1935, and the architect set out to create a building that would be monumental yet practical, classical in appearance yet thoroughly modern in structure and as comfortable as possible for visitors and staff alike.

Andrew Mellon and John Russell Pope both died in August 1937 within twenty-four hours of each other. The overall plan and exterior design for the National Gallery had been finalized by them, but the layout and decoration of the interior spaces was left to Pope's successors.

Construction of the National Gallery of Art was completed before the end of 1940. The new museum was opened on March 17, 1941. On behalf of the people of the United States of America, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building and the collection which Andrew W. Mellon promised to the nation in 1937.Andrew Mellon had believed that the gallery he established should bear not his name but the nation's, and that its collections should grow through gifts of art from private citizens. Thus the museum was named the National Gallery of Art, and it holds, in addition to Mellon's paintings and sculpture, great collections of many other generous donators. Private gifts of art of the highest quality, installed in the elegant classical building designed by John Russell Pope, have made the National Gallery of Art the grand national museum which Andrew Mellon envisioned.

The building is one of the largest marble structures in the world, measuring 785 feet in length and containing more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space.

John Russel Pope

By 1929, when he accepted Andrew Mellon's invitation to work on the Federal Triangle project, John Russell Pope was one of America's most famous architects. He had graduated from Columbia College (later Columbia University) in New York in 1894 and had received fellowships for study at the American Academy in Rome and for travel in Italy and Greece, where he was able to examine the remains of antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. He then studied architecture in Paris for two years, graduating in 1900.

Pope developed a successful architectural practice in the United States, designing elegant residences, university campuses, churches, mausoleums, and other monuments. His work in Washington included many outstanding projects among which is the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives and the Jefferson Memorial.

Pope also became well known as a museum architect. He had designed the Baltimore Museum of Art and new galleries or additions for the British Museum and the Tate Gallery in London, as well as the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.Pope was an eclectic designer, able to work in a range of historic styles as the occasion required. Yet like many architects of his generation, he was convinced that the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome was the best possible expression of the American national ideal of democracy and humanism, and his monumental designs were nearly always classical.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress.

The Board of Trustees consists of four public servants and five private citizens. Under the policies set by the Board, the Gallery acquires and maintains a collection of paintings, sculpture, and the graphic arts, representative of the best in the artistic heritage of America and Europe. Supported in its daily operations by federal funds, the Gallery is entirely dependent on the generosity of private citizens for the works of art in its collections.

The paintings and sculpture given by the founder, Andrew W. Mellon, including works by the greatest masters from the 13th through the 19th centuries, have formed a nucleus of high quality around which the collections have grown. Mr. Mellon's hope that the newly created National Gallery would attract gifts from other collectors was soon realized in the form of major donations from Samuel and Rush Kress, Chester Dale, Edgar William and many others, as well as individual donations from hundreds of additional donors.

As the Gallery expands its interests into 20 century art, the Collectors Committee, an advisory group of private citizens, has provided funds for the acquisition of paintings and sculpture of our time.

The collections of the National Gallery of Art are so rich that it is absolutely impossible to enlist all the painters and sculptors, among whom are Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, Picasso, Dali, Moore.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Like the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American History is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is devoted to the exhibition, care and study of artifacts that reflect the experience of the American people. These artifacts are collections of objects with which Americans developed and sustained their civilization.

Among the objects on view in the National Museum of American History are national treasures such as the original Star Spangled Banner; scientific instruments, inventions (like Morse's telegraph and early Edison's light bulbs), implements of everyday life (from spinning wheels to steam locomotives); stamps and coins; musical instruments; and selected gowns of American First Ladies. Together they illustrate America's cultural, scientific, technological and political history.The Museum also offers a variety of scholarly and public programs which interpret American history.

One of the most famous artifacts is, by no means, the Star Spangled Banner. A special exposition tells the visitors the story of the banner. In 1813 the War Department engaged Mrs. Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore to make a garrison flag for Fort McHenry. The flag bore fifteen stars and stripes symbolic of all the states of the union.

Fort McHenry was at that time a military installation guarding the approach to Baltimore by sea. On the night of September 13, 1814, the British bombarded the fort. Nothing seemed to have survived in the attack but, as the dawn of the 14th broke, everybody saw the American flag flying over the fort. It meant that the fort's commander, Major George Armistead, and his troops had withstood the attack.

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer of Georgetown, saw that beautiful sight. Inspired, he wrote a poem under the title "The Defense of Fort McHenry". Set to the tune of a well-known song, Key's verse soon became a popular patriotic song. In 1931, an Act of Congress declared "The Star Spangled Banner" as the national anthem of the USA.

The flag stayed in the Armistead family through the 1800s. In 1818, the Congress set the flag's final design: thirteen stripes would represent the original States, and the number of stars would grow as other States joined the union.

In 1907, the Star Spangled Banner came to the museum. This flag is still available to visitors — and will continue to serve as an important reminder of American national heritage.

THE GREAT MIGRATION

The National Museum of American History has staged a special exhibition devoted to the Great Migration.

After 1900 about 70 per cent of the Nation's Negro citizens moved to urban areas, almost half of them to cities outside the South. Though that mass movement set the scene for modern life in most American cities today, it remains one of the twentieth-century America's least studied and most poorly understood historical events.