USNM Curators Annual Report - National Gallery of Art, 1917-18

If you were thinking about creating a new art museum, how would you start planning? What space would you need, and what kind of collections would you want to build? Those were questions being asked at the Smithsonian's National Gallery of Art in 1917-18. The museum, which would become the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, was still in development. Their goal, as described in this set of Curator's Reports, was to display "the evolution of art in much detail and in a manner never undertaken by any museum." See how the National Gallery of Art undertook that challenge, and join other volunteers in transcribing this fascinating report!