![A golden-cheeked warbler.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20170124221756im_/https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/styles/interior_place_photo/public/interior-place/photos/golden-cheeked-warbler-fws-image.jpg?itok=9D2t7c-A)
The golden-cheeked warbler has been considered endangered since 1990. Scientific research and conservation work on Ft. Hood has improved its lot. USFWS photo.
November is Manatee Awareness Month; but no matter what time of year it is, manatees deserve to be celebrated. These amazing creatures fulfill a unique niche by serving as indicator species for ecosystems across the United States. Because of their reliance on the health of their habitat, manatees often act as a signal of their environment’s well-being. NOAA photo by Michael Buchanan.
Spring is coming early in 3/4 of national parks, according to a new study. Awesome? Not so much. As flowers bloom earlier every year, it’s disrupting the link between the wildflowers and the arrival of birds, bees, and butterflies that feed on and pollinate the flowers. In Shenandoah, an earlier spring is giving invasive plants a head start, and they’re displacing native wildflowers, leading to costly management issues.
Before the 1960s almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) person was illegal. New York City laws against homosexual activities were particularly harsh. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGBT civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.
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Soon after the Department of the Interior was established in 1849, Thomas Ewing, a former Senator from Ohio and father-in-law of General William T. Sherman, was selected to be the first Secretary of the Interior. After accepting his new position, Ewing chose his son, Thomas Ewing, Jr. to take charge of government publications received by the Department, in addition to his existing services as private secretary to President Zachary Taylor. Ewing, Jr. was given a small hall room at the head of a flight of stairs in what was then known as the Corcoran Building, located at the corner of 15th and F Streets, opposite the Treasury Building. It was here in 1850 that the Library of the Department of the Interior was brought into existence. The necessary reference books for the rapidly growing Department were placed under his supervision and soon the Library became an important adjunct to the Secretary’s Office. In 1859, the Department of the Interior was charged by Congress with the task of distributing all government publications. An act was also passed transferring from the State Department to the Interior Department the responsibility for copyrighting books, maps, charts, etc. All of this new business was placed in the hands of the section of the Secretary’s Office containing the Library. Throughout the 1860’s the Interior Library was busy not only with the inherent duties of a library, but also with the additional duties of publication distribution and copyrights for the entire Federal government. |
Finally, in 1871, the responsibility for copyright business was transferred from the overburdened Interior Library to the Library of Congress. Eight years later, the Library was removed from the Documents Division of the Interior Department, freeing the Library from its responsibility to distribute government documents. It was also in 1879 that the Library was given a new home on the second floor of the Patent Office Building (now the National Portrait Gallery). The number of volumes housed in the new Library was increased to 12,000 and the Interior Department decided to hire the Library’s first professional librarian, Annie B. Irish. Despite the fact that there was an established Departmental Library, bureaus and agencies of the Department felt their own need to create library collections that catered to their own missions. Soon a number of Interior-affiliated libraries appeared on the scene that housed collections for offices such as the Bureau of Mines, Bureau of Indian Affairs, General Land Office, and others. During the 1880’s there was a movement to consolidate these libraries into the main Interior Library. However, these bureaus refused to give up their own collections. By the 1890’s, the tide had turned and a new movement had started, seeking the closure of the Interior Library in favor of retaining the bureau libraries. Finally, in 1907 this movement succeeded. Interior’s circulating Library was abolished and its collection was distributed to the Library of Congress and the Washington D.C. Public Library system. |
By the early 1930's, the Department of the Interior was outgrowing its existing office space in what is now the General Services Administration Building. A new Interior Building was proposed to be built across E Street from the old Interior Building. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes saw the new building as an opportunity to finally re-establish a Department of the Interior Library, something that he had always sought the chance to do. Ickes made sure that plans for the new building, completed in 1937, included dedicated space for a new Interior Library. |
In April 1937 Ickes issued Secretarial Order No. 1173 which stated, “The consolidated library located at the southwest corner, first floor, Interior building, is now ready for occupancy and all books now housed in rooms should be turned over to the library, except reference books actually needed in connection with current work.” The books that were to be donated were supposed to become the base collection of the new consolidated Departmental Library. However, most of the bureaus and offices within the Department were reluctant to give up their own collections. Most of the books collected came from the Office of Education, which at the time was an office under the Department of the Interior. In fact, the collection was so education intensive, that the library itself became known to most Interior staff and library patrons as the Library of the Office of Education, not exactly what Ickes had envisioned. The Office of Education was part of the Department of the Interior until 1939 when it became part of the Federal Security Agency. It would later join the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare before becoming its own cabinet agency, the Department of Education, in 1979. Although it was no longer part of the Interior Department, the Office of Education maintained the library in Interior Building until December 1948. |
Finally, in December 1948, the Library of the Office of Education was moved out of the Interior Building. Interior officials again saw the need to create a consolidated library that truly housed a collection that covered all subject matters administered by the Department of the Interior. On June 24, 1949 Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug signed Secretarial Order No. 2525 which states,
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