2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 5 



The new Museum of History and Technology will house all the 

 national collections that record and illustrate the political, cultural, 

 industrial, scientific, and military development of the United States. 

 For the most part the materials to be exhibited in this new museum are 

 those now on display or stored in the Arts and Industries Building. 

 Some collections now temporarily housed in the Natural History 

 Building will also find a place in the new building. 



The new museum as we plan it will be both a museum of United 

 States history and a museum of science, engineering, and industry. 

 This combination is especially appropriate for a nation in which the 

 industrial revolution achieved a most luxuriant flowering— matching 

 the earlier American Eevolution that gave our country its freedom 

 and its unique institutions. 



The Museum of History and Technology will be the Nation's his- 

 tory book of objects. In it the main elements of our national progress 

 will be represented and related. To replace the clutter of cases and 

 machines that crowd the old Arts and Industries Building, we plan 

 a series of modern halls highlighting the principal periods of our 

 history from colonial days to the present. Each main hall will illus- 

 trate the dominant character of a particular period (the exploration 

 of the West, for example) against a background of the times. This 

 story of our national development will be told with original docu- 

 ments, machines, costumes, inventions, home furnishings, weapons, 

 the personal effects of famous Americans, and many other classes of 

 authentic objects. 



Comiected with these main halls will be others in which the exhibits 

 will amplify the themes of the main halls with subjects that might 

 include Agriculture and Trade in the Colonies, Transportation to 

 the Frontier, and others. Many halls will illustrate the development 

 of particular devices or subjects, such as automobiles, mining, medi- 

 cine, costumes, manufactures, engineering, and science. Here will be 

 demonstrated the painstaking study, work, management, and trials 

 that have been the lifeblood of our Nation's progress. Likewise will 

 be shown the Smithsonian's world-famous collections of stamps and 

 coins, guns, watercraf t models, and all the others that have made the 

 Institution a mecca for scholars, collectors, and hobbyists, the country 

 over. 



The site chosen for the new building is the Mall area of Washington 

 bounded on the north by Constitution Avenue, on the east by 12th 

 Street, on the south by Madison Drive, and on the west by 14th Street. 

 Naturally much difficult and prolonged work lies ahead before such 

 a monumental task can be consummated, but it is our earnest hope 

 that the final planning of this new building may be done in 1956 and 

 that construction may begin in 1957. 



