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The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the home of the largest collection of American art in the world. Its holdings—over 37,500 works—represent the most inclusive collection of American art of any general museum today, reflecting the nation's ethnic, geographic, cultural, and religious diversity. The nation's first federal art collection, it predates the 1846 founding of the Smithsonian Institution. The Museum is located in the historic Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C., where inventors such as Thomas Edison obtained title to their work. The building also served as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the Civil War, and in March 1865 it was the site of Lincoln's second inaugural ball. The museum's roots go deep, representing three hundred years of American artistic achievement and paralleling the nation's own cultural development. Today, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Helen Frankenthaler are among the familiar artists featured in the museum's galleries.
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Because the
city was built from scratch, Washington's
regular town plan is easy to grasp. Centered
on Capitol Hill and its governmental
monoliths, the District is divided into four
quadrants - northeast, northwest, southeast
and southwest. Dozens of broad avenues , all
named after states, run diagonally across a
standard grid of streets , meeting up at
monumental traffic circles like Dupont
Circle. North-south streets are numbered,
east-west ones are lettered. There's no J
Street, an intentional slight to early
Supreme Court Justice John Jay, or X, Y or Z
Street. I Street is often written Eye
Street. Be sure to note the relevant
two-letter code in any address (NW, NE, SW,
SE), which shows its quadrant; 1600
Pennsylvania Ave NW is a long way from 1600
Pennsylvania Ave SE.
Once in the
city, stop at the
DC Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center ,
Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania
Ave NW (Mon-Sat 8am-6pm, Sun noon-5pm; tel
202/328-4748), which can help with maps,
tours, bookings and citywide information.
Look for visitor information desks at the
airports and Union Station.
The White House Visitor Information Center
, 1450 Pennsylvania Ave NW (daily
7.30am-4pm; tel 202/208-1631), supplies free
maps and handy guides to museums and
attractions; the most useful is the free
Washington DC Visitors Guide .
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