U.S. Department of the Interior Museum

09/25/2023

September is International Color Blind Awareness Month, and if you're among the 1 in 10 men or 1 in 200 women with color vision deficiency (CVD), come check us out! We now have EnChroma glasses available to borrow during your visit. Be sure to tag us as you're experiencing our collections from a colorful new perspective.

📷 When viewed with Enchroma lenses, the grass will be greener in William Traher's 1966 painting, "The Pacific Northwest"! The view at right approximates how people with CVD see this painting; namely, without the lush green meadow.

09/23/2023

Look familiar? No matter your vantage point—aboard a space station orbiting Earth, on a trail, or in a museum—we wish you a happy National Public Lands Day! How are you celebrating?

09/20/2023

🗓️ Mark your calendar for this Saturday's fee-free day at national wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, national conservation lands, national parks, and more. See https://www.doi.gov/blog/mark-your-calendars-fee-free-days-2023 for details.

📅 Save the date! On Saturday, September 23 -- in honor of National Public Lands Day -- entrance fees will be waived at Interior-managed public lands that require fees.

We encourage everyone to get outside and take advantage of the health benefits of spending time in these natural spaces that belong to all of us.

Photo at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve by Patrick Myers / NPS

09/18/2023

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month throughout the Department of the Interior!

09/04/2023

09/03/2023

Wilderness is wild, unspoiled and untouched. It offers visitors a place to seek relaxation, adventure and solitude.

Happy Birthday to the Wilderness Act of 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed this Act into law "...for the permanent good of the whole people" and it helps the land retain its unique character and influence.

Photo at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve by Matt Meisenheimer

09/02/2023

September marks the start of International Color Blind Awareness Month. If you have color vision deficiency (CVD), you're newly able to borrow EnChroma glasses during your next museum or tour visit and can experience the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum from a colorful new perspective. We hope to see you soon!

😎 As an example, here's a side-by-side comparison of our mural, "Guardians of the Past" by Daniel Galvez. What's missing for those with CVD? All those red and green hues.

08/31/2023

While our Blue Star Museums initiative for 2023 is winding down on Labor Day, know that the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum welcomes active-duty military personnel and their families the whole year through! Plan a visit to a participant at: https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/blue-star-museums

08/28/2023

It was 60 years ago today at the March on Washington that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his enduring "I Have a Dream" speech. An excerpt from those remarks--"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope"--is inscribed on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in the nation's capital and serves as the theme of the memorial's overall design. This piece of granite in our collection is from its construction. (INTR 07028)

08/26/2023

🐾 Paws up for and a shout-out to the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum's fun-loving canine "colleagues" . . . including two cats who think they're dogs. 😉 Meet Gus, Regina, Gunner, Yonder, Snicket, Tybalt, and Gretchen!

📷 Collage depicting seven pets: five dogs (beagles, dachshunds, and a vizsla) and two cats

08/26/2023

For Women's Equality Day, we're sharing this "Jailed for Freedom" pin from our collection. The design was re-issued in 2020 to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women in the United States the right to vote. The National Woman's Party originally presented such pins to suffragists who had been arrested during vigils. (INTR 07774)

📷 A contemporary, commemorative pewter pin in the form of a jail cell door with openwork for the bars. There are "hinges" on the left and a "chain" linking to a heart-shaped padlock at middle right.

08/26/2023

🟥🟧🟨 A pop of color for your Friday! 🟩🟦🟪
Today, we launched offering EnChroma glasses for color blind guests to borrow during their U.S. Department of the Interior Museum gallery and tour experiences, and we're "over the rainbow" excited! The most frequent visitor comments were about detecting more contrast, depth, and definition in paintings and graphics. Come for a visit and see for yourself!



📷 Three images of visitors with Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) wearing EnChroma glasses to aid in seeing an expanded range of colors more clearly and vibrantly. A fourth image provide a comparison of how Thomas Moran's "Chasm of the Colorado" painting appears to people with and without CVD.

08/25/2023

🎨 Update:

150 years ago—after approximately seven weeks in the field—artist Thomas Moran and journalist J. E. Colburn part ways from the Powell Expedition at the rim of the Grand Canyon to return to the survey’s base at Kanab and embark for home. They have already stayed longer than originally planned. Since both have commitments requiring them to be back on the east coast in September, they regret having to decline Powell’s offer to descend into the canyon to see the Colorado River up close.

Fittingly, this last day at the Grand Canyon in 1873 just so happens to also be the National Park Service’s founding date in 1916 . . . happy 107th birthday to the National Park Service! 🎉

Over the course of his prolific career, Moran sketches and paints at numerous sites that become national parks, including Yellowstone, Yosemite, Petrified Forest, Zion, Grand Canyon, and Grand Teton.

08/25/2023

If you're among the 350 million people worldwide with red-green Color Vision Deficiency (also known as color blindness), come by to experience the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum from a colorful new perspective! Starting tomorrow, August 25, we'll have EnChroma-enhanced glasses available for color blind guests to borrow during their visits to the museum's exhibitions and building tours.



📷 Two views of Thomas Moran's 1872 "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" painting on display in the museum. On the right is how the painting appears to people with Color Vision Deficiency.

08/24/2023

💧 It's National Hydropower Day! Did you know that hydropower has been featured in our museum collections since the beginning? This intricate, 8-foot-tall diorama of Boulder Dam (now, Hoover Dam) was part of our museum's opening exhibits in 1938 to acknowledge the engineering achievement represented by the completion of the actual dam just two years before.

📷 Diorama (INTR 07369), constructed by Donald M. Johnson, Frank G. Urban, Lee Roland Warthen, Ned J. Burns, and Lynn A. Royal.

08/23/2023

in 2011 . . .

Do you remember the 2011 earthquake? 12 years ago today, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered 84 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. startled the region. During the quake, the Washington Monument sustained damage to its marble exterior, but remained structurally sound.

The National Park Service methodically conducted a stone-by-stone damage assessment of the entire 555 foot-tall obelisk and found approximately 665 linear feet of cracks. Repairs took just under three years and cost $15 million, half of which was paid for by businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein. The project involved scaffolding the entire structure and included crack repair, securing and patching stones, repointing joints, securing cracked interior panels with steel anchors, and the replacement of the lighting protection system. The monument reopened to the public in May, 2014.

Still the tallest building in our nation's capital, this towering tribute to George Washington is recognized around the world. In a speech written for the Washington Monument's dedication on February 21, 1885, former Speaker of the House Robert Winthrop said, "An earthquake may shake its foundations... but the character which it commemorates and illustrates is secure."

Photo courtesy of Colin Winterbottom.

08/21/2023

5️⃣ 4️⃣ 3️⃣ 2️⃣ 1️⃣ ... the countdown is on! Approximately 3,000 of our Interior Museum visitors each year have Color Vision Deficiency (also known as color blindness), making it particularly difficult to differentiate between shades of red and green. 😎 Beginning Friday, August 25th, they'll be able to experience an expanded range of colors more clearly and vibrantly by borrowing special glasses while visiting our exhibitions and public tours.

08/21/2023

WalkingTown DC--Washington, DC's long-standing annual event--returns September 16-24 with guided walking tours at nearly 40 locations throughout the nation's capital. Once again, the Interior Museum is delighted to be taking part by offering two free tours on Wednesday, September 20, and Friday, September, 22! For more information and to register, visit ⬇️

Every September, Washington, DC hosts an annual event to showcase the city's art, culture and history. The event offers various tours over nine days across the eight wards. It's an excellent opportunity for both residents and visitors to explore the city'

08/16/2023

🎨 Imagine not being able to see all the colors of this rainbow in Thomas Moran’s iconic 1873-74 painting of the Grand Canyon, “Chasm of the Colorado.” But if you’re among the 13 million Americans with Color Vision Deficiency (CVD)—also known as color blindness—this scene doesn’t look so vivid.

🌈 But . . . color us EXCITED! In our commitment to provide inclusive visitor experiences for *all* to enjoy, the Interior Museum is joining a growing number of cultural institutions and parks in offering specially-enhanced eyewear to help color blind guests see an expanded range of colors more clearly and vibrantly. Beginning August 25, people with CVD will be able to borrow these glasses while visiting our museum exhibitions or participating in our public tours of our building's signature murals. Watch this space for more details coming soon!



Image descriptions:
A detail from Thomas Moran's "Chasm of the Colorado" painting showing a rainbow emerging from a storm cloud over the Grand Canyon.
A pair of specially-adapted glasses for indoor use. The black frames have light, blueish/reddish lenses for aiding in color accessibility.

08/15/2023

🎨 Update:

On this date 150 years ago, artist Thomas Moran witnesses the storm that he will later capture in his iconic painting, “Chasm of the Colorado” (on view at our Interior Museum).

Here’s how it unfolds . . .

🏕 Moran awakens at dawn. The group consisting of expedition leader John Wesley Powell, journalist J. E. Colburn, Moran, and five others continues traveling to Big Spring in Stewart Canyon for water.

🥾 Pressing onward across the Kaibab Plateau, it takes them several more hours to reach their destination: Powell’s Plateau. It’s a mesa that provides what Powell will later call “the greatest point of view in the Grand Canyon.”

💦 They see firsthand the effects 6 million years of flowing water have had on the layers of rock. Ironically, the Colorado River is only barely visible as a sun-reflected streak far below.

⛈ Before their eyes, the scene rapidly changes.
As Colburn later recounts in “Picturesque America” (1874), “While upon the highest point of the plateau, a terrific thunderstorm burst over the cañon. The light[ning] flashed from crag to crag. A thousand streams gathered on the surrounding plains, and dashed down into the depths of the cañon in waterfalls many times the height of Niagara. The vast chasm which we saw before us, stretching away forty miles in one direction and twenty miles in another was nearly seven thousand feet deep. Into it all the domes of Yosemite, if plucked up from the level of that valley, might be cast, together with all the mass of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and still the chasm would not be filled.”

🖌 Amid this meteorological and geological drama, Moran decides that *this* is the view he wishes to make the companion to his 7' x 12' Yellowstone painting already hanging at the U.S. Capitol.
Image captions:
📷Stereoview card printed in about 1874, showing John K. Hillers' 1873 photograph, "The Cañon from Powell,s [sic] Plateau." Image from the collection of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XC.873.577.

📷 Thomas Moran's 1873 sketch in watercolor, white gouache, and graphite showing the view from Powell's Plateau, Grand Canyon. Image from the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 1917-17-26.

📷Thomas Moran's oil on canvas painting, "The Chasm of the Colorado" (1873-1874) from the collection of the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum, INTR 03000.

08/15/2023

🎨 Update:

1873, the mules are packed with provisions for a multi-day excursion. John Wesley Powell heads out from the camp at Kanab with seven others. The goal, in part, is to show Colburn and Moran the Grand Canyon from a different vantage point. This whole trip, Moran has been in search of a view of the Grand Canyon that he will render as a companion painting to his 1872 Yellowstone masterpiece. While Moran has been awed by the earlier vistas from Toroweap, he anticipates that this upcoming destination might prove even better. They will ride until after midnight.

📷: August 1873 photograph by John K. Hillers of the Powell party, from the collection of Grand Canyon National Park, GRCA 14765. Second from the left is expedition leader John Wesley Powell. The man to the right leaning in is artist Thomas Moran. New York Times correspondent Justin E. Colburn is seated just opposite.

08/14/2023

🎨 Update:

📰 1873, correspondent Justin E. Colburn writes up long account for the New York Times that will ultimately be published in the September 4th edition of the paper. In it, he remarks that the Grand Canyon “is known to fewer people than any of the great natural wonders of our country.”

🐺🕷🐍On this same day, Thomas Moran pens a letter to his wife Mary back in New Jersey and talks a lot about critters. He recounts awakening to a wolf scavenging food from their campsite, two encounters with rattlesnakes, and three sightings of tarantulas!

Later in the day, Moran will accompany John Wesley Powell on a short hike to Three Lakes Canyon, approximately 8 miles north of the expedition’s current home base at Kanab.

08/12/2023

🎨 Update:

This summer is flying by, and it’s high time we catch up with artist Thomas Moran on his journey to see the Grand Canyon with the Powell Expedition, precisely 150 years later. The last time we reported on July 6, Moran had just arrived in Salt Lake City with his travel companion, Justin Colburn, a journalist with the New York Times. A lot has happened since then! To recap:

📅 July 9, 1873 – John Wesley Powell takes Moran to visit Brigham Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

📅 July 10 – Powell, Moran, and Colburn are joined in Salt Lake by Powell’s chief clerk, John Pilling. They depart Salt Lake City by train to Lehi and then transfer to a stagecoach to reach Springville, where Powell meets with a group of Ute tribal members.

📅 Mid July – Moran and Colburn climb Mount Nebo in the Wasatch Range. Moran is the only one in the group who doesn’t suffer ill effects from the altitude. They then head to Fillmore where they join up with a wagon driver hauling freight to the rest of Powell’s expedition party gathering at Kanab. Powell and Pilling stay behind to meet with Ute tribal leaders. For five days, Moran and Colburn travel some 150 miles mostly on horseback. 🐴 Along the way they pass through an area now known as Kolob Canyons in Zion National Park. Moran sketches what he calls “Colburn’s Butte” in honor of his fellow traveler.

📅July 23 – They arrive in Toquerville, 1300 miles into their journey from Salt Lake City but still ~100 miles from the Grand Canyon. 🗞 Colburn writes another installment for the New York Times that will run on August 7, saying, “We are already in sight of the wonderful cliffs and buttes of this wonderland, and have seen enough to know that a rich experience is before us in the weeks we shall spend in it.”

📅 Late July - Still en route to Kanab, they travel along the Virgin River and view Mukuntuweap canyon, which Moran will later paint as "Valley of the Babbling Waters."

📅 August 5 – Survey photographer J. K. Hillers and Paiute guide Jim take charge of bringing Moran and Colburn on what would be about a weeklong, side excursion to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The trip includes stops at several water pockets and two days at Toroweap, where Moran makes sketches and Hillers takes photographs. Moran will later write, "On reaching the brink, the whole gorge for miles lay beneath us and it was by far the most awfully grand and impressive scene that I have ever yet seen."

08/08/2023

In honor of August 7th being National Lighthouse Day, we're sharing "The Lights of Outer Island - Apostle Islands Lakeshore," an evocative photographic print from our collection (OSAC 07393). Photographers John Rummel and Mark Weller, along with Weller's son Ian, captured this image of the Milky Way above the Outer Island Light Station at Wisconsin's Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in the early morning of June 25, 2009. With special permission from the National Park Service, they took this photograph to showcase the night sky and to honor their late friend, conservationist Martin Hanson (1927–2008), who had been instrumental in the 1970 creation of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. They donated the proceeds of this limited edition print to the Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Hanson's name. Wisconsin State Senator Bob Jauch and Congressman David Obey presented this first print to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, when he visited Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in the summer of 2009.

📷 Star-filled night sky visible above the illuminated tower of a light station.

08/07/2023

With the severe weather warnings for the DC metro area, the Interior Museum has closed early today (Monday, August 7, 2023) at 3pm, in accordance with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management notice: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/snow-dismissal-procedures/current-status/.

Stay safe, all.

Welcome to opm.gov

08/03/2023

A big happy birthday shout-out to our agency colleagues at the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement! Here's to 46 years!

Happy Birthday to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement! That’s us!!🎉🎊

President Jimmy Carter signed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act into law on August 3, 1977.

SMCRA is what we do and who we are at . (Ok, we do acronyms too.) SMCRA is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. We’ve been reclaiming abandoned mine lands and regulating coal mines for 46 years. 🥳

08/02/2023

🗓️ Mark your calendars!

On Friday, August 4th, in honor of the 3rd anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act, all entrance fees at Interior-managed public lands will be waived. Find your park and see how this law is helping Interior enrich the visitor experience, protect resources and expand access.

Photo at New River Gorge National Park and Preserve by Brittany Meadows

07/27/2023

For this , a tip of the hat to the 31 interns since 1999 who have been part of the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum team through paid internships via the National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE). We appreciate your contributions and enjoy following your careers nationwide!

For more information about the NCPE internship program, see https://preservenet.org/ncpe-internships/

07/27/2023

It's , and we are delighted to highlight our current Interior Museum intern! Piper is pursuing her Master's degree in museum studies and assisting us in collections care, research, and exhibition preparation.

FMI on internships: https://preservenet.org/ncpe-internships/

07/27/2023

With a guided audio app; tactile replicas and a tactile Braille map; plus an open-captioned, audio-described film with assistive listening, the Interior Museum is committed to providing accessible experiences for all to enjoy.

07/26/2023

in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. Inclusive design is one way our exhibitions aim to be accessible to all. An example: we created ¼-scale tactile replicas of our two Thomas Moran masterpieces--accompanied by detailed audio descriptions--so that visitors with low or no vision can experience them.

07/16/2023

Head outdoors and help the Bureau of Land Management celebrate its 77th birthday!

Happy Birthday to us! Today, we celebrate 77 years! 🎉🎂🎁

On July 16, 1946, the Bureau of Land Management was established by merging the Grazing Service and the General Land Office. Since then, the BLM has evolved and adapted to the nation's changing needs regarding public lands. Today, the BLM manages about 245 million acres of public landscapes for all Americans. 🏕️😎🌼🌲

Learn more ➡️ https://ow.ly/KAj150P91MG.

We invite you to get out and enjoy and celebrate our birthday!

📷 Pacific Crest Trail; Bob Wick

07/07/2023

🎨 Update:

150 years ago, artist Thomas Moran arrives in Salt Lake City en route to meeting up with the Powell Survey expedition to see the Grand Canyon. He writes to his wife the previous evening from Cheyenne. On the train with Moran is New York Times journalist Justin E. Colburn who will periodically file accounts of their travels.

Follow along with us this summer as we retrace Moran’s trip that will result in his famous “Chasm of the Colorado” painting in 1874. In the meantime, see the painting in person in our ongoing exhibition, "Thomas Moran & the 'Big Picture'"!

07/04/2023

🇺🇸 Happy ! While we are closed today, we are honored to be offering free admission to active duty military and their families every day as part of the program and hope to see you soon!

For more about Blue Star Museums, visit https://arts.gov/bluestarmuseums

06/30/2023

Steel drum roll, please! As we close out , we’re sharing related artifacts from our Interior Museum collection. From dolls to melon baskets and handbags to hats, all were handmade by U.S. Virgin Islanders from the 1940s to the 1970s.

📷 From top row, left to right: INTR 02245, INTR 01913, INTR 02236, INTR 02120, INTR 01856, INTR 02072, INTR 02238, INTR 01881, INTR 00336.

06/29/2023

🎨 Update:

150 years ago, artist Thomas Moran writes to explorer F. V. Hayden saying that he will not be joining him on that summer’s survey expedition after all. Moran desires to see the Grand Canyon, and it is instead John Wesley Powell’s survey expedition (not Hayden’s) that will be headed there within Moran’s window of opportunity.

Follow along with us in the coming weeks as we retrace Moran’s voyage that will result in his famous “Chasm of the Colorado” painting in 1874. In the meantime, be sure to stop in to visit to our ongoing exhibition, "Thomas Moran & the 'Big Picture'"!

06/26/2023

June is National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, and some of that heritage is in the very fabric of our walls at the U.S. Department of the Interior's headquarters building in Washington, DC. Because of Interior’s historical and ongoing role in the Caribbean via the Office of Insular Affairs, this 1939 fresco by James Michael Newell features a scene from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

06/26/2023

🦋 Our final feature is this glorious butterfly, one of four flitting about on a Makah trinket basket. It dates to circa 1900-1920 and is twined from beargrass and spruce root.

📷 INTR 00532

06/24/2023

🦋 Butterflies are skilled pollinators and also just so happen to figure prominently in the design of this Maidu burden basket from circa 1910. Both attractive and functional, this piece is made from bigleaf maple and redbud.

📷 INTR 01369

06/24/2023

🦋 Our features continue! Butterflies sometimes appear in unexpected places . . . like on this circa 1915 Washoe basket. While the overall basket is coiled in willow, the butterfly motif is rendered in bracken fern root and redbud. Beautiful!

📷 INTR 00504