Postcard of the Patent Office

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

The Patent Office Building is one of the oldest public buildings in Washington, D.C., and it now houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Some of the architects who designed the Patent Office Building are: Robert Mills (1781-1855), Ithiel Town (1784-1844), Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892), Thomas U. Walter (1804-1887) and William Parker Elliot (1807-1854). In 1958 the building was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The building was extensively restored and reopened in 1968 housing the Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art, and now share the building as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.

The postcard is numbered Z-119.

This postcard is located in Accession #11-271, which is part of Record Unit 95.

Postcard of the Patent Office Building, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The view is from a street corner, and the streets are empty, save for two horse and buggies on the bottom right. The American Flag is flying from the building. The message side is blank, but it has a printed note: "The Patent Office, as the building of the Department of the Interior is popularly termed, contains in its archives a record of achievements of the inventive genius of America, and of the industrial and scientific progress of the country."

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 84, Folder: 25

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu