With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

World Heritage Site Photography Exhibit On Display at Interior Department

Washington, D.C., is awash with museums. Some are easy to find and worth visiting, some are near-impossible to find and occasionally worth visiting. The Interior Department's museum is in the latter category.

Located just inside the Interior Department, which is bordered by "E" and "C" streets and 19th and 18th streets, the museum is tucked into a few small first-floor rooms. As Yogi Berra might say, you'd never know it was there unless you knew it was there. In truth, I find the "museum" much too small to do real justice to exhibits. I saw one on memorabilia left at the Vietnam War Memorial, and while interesting it merely piqued my interest and left me wanting more.

With its incredible holdings -- after all, the Interior Department oversees not just the National Park Service but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, just to name the most prominent agencies -- it'd be nice if a larger facility were available to showcase Interior's artworks and memorabilia.

That said, if you're in Washington you might enjoy a quick visit to the museum. The Interior Department has quite a bit of collections to display, with almost 6,000 objects of art, photography, minerals, ethnographic, archaeological, and natural history specimens.
Read entire article at National Parks traveler Online