Before and After May 1, 2006

Last week Kriston posted his impressions of the newly renovated Old Patent Office building which will house SAAM and the National Portrait Gallery come July 1. We showed a vintage photograph of the building interior when it was used as a government office building in the 1950s.

Here’s a full frame shot of that image next to a contemporary photograph of that same space today. It’s now called the Lincoln Gallery because Abraham Lincoln held his second Inaugural Ball in this space in March 1865.

• Abraham Lincoln, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum