Washington, D.C.’s Unknown Art Collections

When you think of the U.S. State Department, what comes to mind? Diplomats delivering messages to foreign governments to stave off war or resolve disputes? Public servants and contractors? Or a glorified passport office? Yet another way to think about the State Department building in Washington, D.C.’s northwest district is as a museum. Its collection includes over 5,000 objects—paintings, portraits, a bust of Benjamin Franklin, a Chippendale chair, a silver water pitcher and significant historic desks and tables. Some of it is recent, but much of it dates back to the early years of the Republic.

The Treasury Department probably doesn’t inspire warm feelings. It houses the Internal Revenue Service and regulates the sale of alcohol, firearms and tobacco, so there’s something for everyone to resent. But unbeknownst to most, it also has an extensive art collection that includes portraits of Abraham Lincoln and his Treasury Secretary, views of the Treasury Building and sixty-one paintings and prints created by artists commissioned under the Depression-era Works Progress Administration between 1933 and 1943. In all, there are between 5,000 and 7,000 objects in this collection.

Both agencies employ curators to care for these collections and stage the objects in ways that help visitors appreciate their significance. Yet also unbeknownst to many is the fact that the public can tour the rooms in which these cultural objects are displayed, free of charge. No background checks, no Real IDs. At the Treasury Department, however, tours are guided and offered only on Saturday mornings at 9:00, 9:45, 10:30 and 11:15.

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There is certainly no shortage of museums in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution is an agglomeration of seventeen museums, galleries and a zoo, much of it located on the Mall. They’re all free, and the only question for visitors is which to visit on any given day—the American Art Museum? The African Art Museum? The Hirshhorn? Or perhaps the Freer Gallery of Art? But what’s particularly striking about the fine and decorative objects housed in federal departments and agencies is the element of surprise. Most visitors expect art to be confined to museums. However, many federal collections amount to de facto exhibitions that are ongoing and evolving.

What’s in the United States’ art collections

At the Treasury Department, the collection tells the history of the department itself. The same goes for the Senate Office Building, with its portraits of Senate leaders, sculpted busts of numerous vice presidents and historic furniture; the House of Representatives, with portraits of speakers, sculptures from every state and assorted artifacts; the Supreme Court, with oil portraits, busts and photographs; the Federal Reserve, with paintings focused on currency and portraits of Fed chairmen; and the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, which manages a vast array of sculptures, portraits and photographs of Congress.

Before 9/11, visitors to the Capitol building were allowed to wander more freely. Today, they begin at the Visitors Center and join guided tours. Still, “most people are overwhelmed by the majesty of the place,” Dr. Michele Cohen, curator of the Capitol’s collection, told Observer. The Rotunda—a large circular space at the building’s center—“is kind of a pilgrimage site for many people,” as they take in the murals depicting key moments in U.S. history and, at the top of the dome, Constantino Brumidi’s 1865 painting The Apotheosis of George Washington.

Other collections can be found at Blair House (paintings and antique household furnishings), in the holdings of the five branches of the U.S. military (combat art) and the White House (fine and decorative arts spanning furniture, portraits and historic objects). The White House collection actually totals 40,000 items, though most of it—china, flatware, glassware—is reserved for official use by dignitaries and guests. NASA’s art collection includes over 3,000 pieces, including sketches and paintings; some are on display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, but others are in NASA headquarters.

Much of the General Services Administration’s art collection—24,000 paintings, prints and sculptures commissioned since the 1850s—is installed in federal buildings across the country. The GSA’s collecting strategy is less about institutional history than a record of American art over the past 150 years. The Department of the Interior has the largest collection of cultural artifacts of all, spread across its bureaus, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs (over 5.5 million items), the National Parks Service (120 million items), the Fish and Wildlife Service (5.5 million items) and the U.S. Geological Survey (over 40,000 items). If you’re only interested in art, the DOI has more than 101,000 pieces of fine art representing hundreds of years of history.

Each federal collection of art and artifacts reflects the character of its institution. At the House of Representatives, you’ll find a baseball card for Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell, a former MLB pitcher who served three terms as a Congressman from North Carolina. Another highlight is an 1857 desk from the House’s chambers at a time when members had no offices or staff and stored everything in a single lift-top desk. The contrast with today’s expansive offices is telling.

The Senate’s collection is similarly varied, ranging from a Thomas Sully portrait of Thomas Jefferson and a Gilbert Stuart of George Washington to items bordering on kitsch, like impeachment trial tickets and Senate doodles. There’s also china and silverware used at Barack Obama’s presidential luncheon. With around 10,000 items, some are displayed in lobbies and meeting rooms, while others are in storage. Together, they form a kind of institutional memory, even when the items aren’t strictly Senate-related.

But not every collection is narrative in purpose. The State Department’s diplomatic reception rooms on the eighth floor—home to a Paul Revere silver punch bowl, a desk used by Thomas Jefferson, Affleck and Chippendale chairs, tea sets and paintings by John Singleton Copley, Jean Baptiste Greuze, Fitz Hugh Lane, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart and others—recreate the aesthetic of America from 1740 to 1830. At Blair House, the presidential guest house across from the White House, the furnishings and art skew toward the mid- to late-19th Century and early 20th Century. (Though not a museum, Blair House still functions as a guest house for dignitaries and officials.)

How federal agencies build art collections

Interestingly, federal collections tend not to be insured or valued because they rarely travel, and if they do, it’s to another government agency. One exception is the State Department, whose collection has been appraised at $100 million.

Maintaining all of this costs money, and the sources vary. The Senate and House fund their own collections, while agencies rely on private donations. The State Department raises funds for the diplomatic reception rooms through its Office of Fine Arts (it also has an Art in Embassies office that curates around sixty exhibitions each year and builds art collections for the country’s diplomatic spaces). At Blair House, the federal government pays for building upkeep, while the Blair House Restoration Fund covers conservation. The nonprofit Supreme Court Historical Society raises about $35,000 annually for acquisitions and portrait commissions. The Treasury Historical Association helps preserve the Treasury Building and expand the collection. The Federal Reserve’s Fine Arts Trust Fund accepts donations of both money and artworks. The United States Capitol Historical Society supports the work of the Capitol’s curator and architect. And the White House Historical Association, founded by Jacqueline Kennedy in the early 1960s, raises millions each year through sales of ornaments, guidebooks and poster reproductions.

It’s not terribly different from how major cultural institutions handle acquisitions and preservation, just writ smaller. What really distinguishes collecting and curating for a federal agency from curating for a museum is that works not in storage are displayed in active buildings: staff, visitors and guests use the rugs, sit in the chairs, write at the desks, sleep in the four-poster beds and sometimes break or otherwise ruin things—by spilling coffee or leaning back too far. Most objects aren’t behind ropes or under glass. At Blair House, the largest share of the annual budget goes to conservation, which there means repairing and returning items to use. History has work to do.

At the White House—which houses what might be the most scrutinized collection of all—that work includes projecting a polished national image. The walls feature portraits of presidents and first ladies, and paintings by Albert Bierstadt, George Caleb Bingham, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Jasper Cropsey, Childe Hassam, Martin Johnson Heade, Winslow Homer, John Marin, Willard Metcalf, Thomas Moran, Maurice Prendergast, Norman Rockwell, Severin Roesen, John Singer Sargent and Henry Ossawa Tanner.