What's New
Upcoming Exhibition
 We've missed you! We're eager to reopen and look forward to sharing details here and on the museum’s website and social media platforms (@InteriorMuseum), just as soon as plans are finalized for resuming safe public access and operations.
And with your impending homecoming to the Interior Museum, there's promise of new things for you to explore…plus a homecoming of our own surrounding two storied paintings! Prior to COVID-19, work was already well underway on our gallery expansion and an exciting exhibition to debut for National Public Lands Day (September 26, 2020). With Thomas Moran & the "Big Picture," our panoramic masterpieces—The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) and The Chasm of the Colorado (1873–1874)—are returning to the Interior Museum for the first time in more than two decades. In capturing the natural beauty of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, Thomas Moran's monumental canvases shaped many people’s impressions of the American West and forever framed the discourse surrounding public lands.
We can't wait to welcome you back to the Interior Museum to appreciate these iconic landscapes and to learn more about how they are intertwined with the history of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Follow along with #BigPictureMorans
Behind-the-Scenes
Extensive preparations for exhibiting Thomas Moran’s paintings at the Interior Museum have included re-framing them. With the frames removed, our staff took the opportunity to have art conservators photograph the full canvases under ultraviolet light. Black light photography is a useful tool in the museum world for providing a baseline about an artifact’s condition and any previous restoration efforts. In oil paintings, for example, hairline cracks in the paint and any modern materials used for retouching or repairs will fluoresce under black light. Completing this examination of the Moran paintings has added to our overall knowledge about their provenance and has provided a concrete baseline which will help inform our ongoing stewardship and preservation of these historic works of art. The process also reaffirmed our impression that the paintings are in great shape…especially for being nearly 150 years old!
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New Accession
COVID-19 has impacted the people and places of Interior in myriad ways. The Interior Museum continues to collect artifacts that will help contextualize for future generations the Departmental response.
Cloth face coverings were not widely available in the early days of the pandemic in the U.S., but a talented group of highly trained, volunteer seamstresses from the Period Costume and Textiles department of Washington's Fort Vancouver National Historic Site rose to the challenge. By mid-March 2020, these volunteers had sewn more than 1,800 masks—all using their own supplies, on their own time, and from their own homes. They assembled kits (each containing a face covering, a separate filter, and care instructions) for distribution to frontline health care professionals, area patients, and essential workers in the greater Vancouver community. We're pleased to have newly added to our Interior Museum collection three of these face coverings. Made from quilting grade cotton fabrics sporting National Park Service-inspired motifs, these masks speak to the selfless determination and commitment of park volunteers in a time of need.
Pictured: INTR 07771 - INTR 07773
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Get Social!
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Join us on Twitter (@InteriorMuseum) on September 16, 2020, for the tenth annual Ask A Curator Day! This social media-based event encourages direct engagement with curators at museums around the globe. In addition to fielding your questions that day, we'll be sharing some fun Interior Museum curatorial trivia. Ever wanted to know what our largest artifact is? Our oldest? Newest? Most famous? Connect with us, and track the happenings using the hashtag #AskACurator. |
Collections Spotlight
 Departmental Flag and South Pole Triangulation Station Marker, 1963
U.S. Department of the Interior Museum, INTR 07349, INTR 07350
We have objects in our collection that have literally come from the ends of the Earth! This U.S. Department of the Interior flag was flown at Antarctica's South Pole Research Station during 1962–1963, and the brass circular disk matches the one placed that field season to designate the exact position of the South Pole. Since 1946, hundreds of scientists with the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have participated in expeditions to the fifth-largest continent in support of mapping and scientific work, running the gamut from glaciology and hydrology to geophysics.
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