Upcoming Events / Exhibitions

September 19, 2008 - January 9, 2009

Interior Museum Opens Photography Exhibition,
World Heritage Sites in the USA: A 30th Anniversary Celebration

A generation ago, the United States took a leadership role in the creation of the World Heritage Convention and has taken a major role in shaping its progress during the ensuing three decades. The United States was the prime architect of the World Heritage Convention, an international treaty for the preservation of sites of global significance and the U.S. was the first nation to ratify it. The impetus behind this effort was a desire to promote American conservation ideals in a way that would benefit the most important places around the world.

In September 1978, while meeting in Washington, D.C., the World Heritage Committee inaugurated the World Heritage List by inscribing the very first sites. In addition to hosting the meeting as Chair of the World Heritage Committee, the United States was honored by having both Yellowstone National Park and Mesa Verde National Park included among the first 12 World Heritage Sites. At that time, there were only 39 nations participating in the World Heritage Convention.

Today, with 185 signatory countries, the World Heritage Convention is the most nearly universal treaty for cultural preservation and nature conservation in human history. Its purpose is to enhance worldwide understanding and appreciation and international cooperation for heritage conservation, and to recognize and preserve exceptional natural and cultural properties around the world that have “outstanding universal value” to humanity.

As of August 2008, the World Heritage List includes 878 sites in 145 countries. Of these, 679 are cultural sites and 174 are natural areas, with 25 mixed sites that demonstrate both natural and cultural values. The United States has 20 World Heritage Sites, eight of which were designated for their cultural significance and 12 for their natural values. There are more natural sites listed in the United States than in any other country except Australia. However, the United States has not nominated any new sites to the World Heritage List since 1994.

The completion of a new U.S. World Heritage Tentative List, or list of candidate sites for the World Heritage List in early 2008, marks a major step in reinvigorating the participation of the United States in the World Heritage Program. The United States has served as an elected member of the World Heritage Committee since 2005, our fourth term since the Convention was adopted.

These twenty World Heritage Sites portray a broad spectrum of the natural and cultural heritage of the United States, from the breathtaking vistas at Grand Canyon, Glacier, Yosemite and the Everglades to the stunning archeological remains at Mesa Verde, Cahokia Mounds and Chaco Culture to the cultural inheritance represented by Monticello, Independence Hall and Taos Pueblo, and beyond. more

July 18, 2008 - November 15, 2008

Interior Museum Opens Photography Exhibition,
AMERICAN PLACE: The Historic American Buildings Survey at Seventy-Five Years

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) was established in 1933 to document America’s architectural heritage through measured drawings, historical reports, and photographs. The idea of “securing records of structures of historic interest” was first endorsed by the American Institute of Architects in 1918. The Great Depression provided the impetus for HABS which was initiated during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” administration. Preceding the 1935 Historic Sites Act by well over a year, HABS implemented the first comprehensive examination of historic architecture on a national scale and to uniform standards.

Just prior to the establishment of HABS, Executive Order 6133 transferred historic battlefields and other associated sites from the War Department to the National Park Service (NPS). At the same time, NPS Director Horace Albright broadened the focus on preserving naturalistic western landscapes to include cultural sites. Chief landscape architect Thomas C. Vint oversaw HABS and the development of historical parks such as Colonial Parkway in Virginia, Salem Maritime in Massachusetts, and Hopewell Village in Pennsylvania. HABS documentation and archives of period specific architectural details aided in the restoration and interpretation of these and many other historic properties.

The significance of HABS then as today resides in the scope of the collection and its public accessibility, as well as national standards for recording historic architecture. The collection represents “a complete resume of the builder’s art,” ranging “from the smallest utilitarian structures to the largest and most monumental.” It captures the vast array of regionally and ethically derived building forms, ranging from Native American pueblos and Spanish missions in the southwest to Cape Cod and Saltbox houses in the northeast, and from vernacular sod or log constructed settlers’ cabins to high-style Georgian, Greek Revival, and neo-classical mansions. more

March 7, 2008 – Indefinite

The Interior Museum’s Platinum Anniversary: 70 Years of Interpreting History and Progress

On March 8, 2008 the Interior Museum will celebrate its 70th anniversary. The museum was the brainchild of Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, who believed that the Department of the Interior had an identity problem due in large part to its name. Ickes’s goal for the museum was to educate and present the story of the Department and help the American taxpayer understand the important work of his department. The museum opened on March 8, 1938 with eleven dioramas, twelve large wall maps, one hundred models and numerous paintings, transparencies, charts, and specimens in 95 exhibits. Since the inception of the museum, the bureaus have lent and donated objects to the museum for exhibitions and the collections to enhance the vital connections between the people, places, and events that are relevant to the department’s past, present, and future.

September 14, 2007 - Indefinite

The Bats and the Bees: Pollination Systems in America

Pollination occurs when pollen is moved within a flower or carried from flower to flower by birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles or other animals, or by the wind. This transfer of pollen in and between flowers of the same species leads to fertilization, successful seed and fruit production for plants. The current declines in the health and population of pollinators pose a significant threat to the integrity of biodiversity, to global food webs, and to human health. To combat this threat, the Interior Museum, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and all members of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign are working to educate public, private and governmental organizations about the importance of understanding pollinator systems around the globe.

April 20, 2007 - Indefinite

Rachel Carson Centennial Birthday Celebration

Rachel Louise Carson
(1907-1964) was a world-renowned marine biologist, author and environmentalist.
[FWS Photo]

The Interior Museum celebrates the centennial of the birthday of Rachel Carson with an exhibit highlighting her history and legacy. Carson's work as an educator, scientist, and writer revolutionized America's interest in environmental issues. She worked for the Department of the Interior from 1936-1952 where she created some of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's first public information brochures in a series called “Conservation in Action.” Perhaps best known for her seminal work Silent Spring (1962), which documented the pesticide DDT's menace to the environment and its destructive effects birds of prey, Carson also had a passion for connecting children with nature. “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder," she wrote, "he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.” The Interior Museum urges all parents, caregivers, and educators to use Carson's centennial anniversary is an opportunity to reach children growing up in a digital age and rekindle their sense of wonder in nature. The exhibition opens to the public on April 20, 2007.