Where Do We Come from? Where are We Going? the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, has Reopened After a Major Renovation and Expansion of Its Collections. Its Chief Curator, Eleanor Jones Harvey, Presents a Selection of Its New Acquisitions, All Designed to Further One of the Museum's Purposes: To Explore the Origins of American Culture--and to Suggest Where It is Heading (New MUSEUM ACQUISITIONS‪)‬

On 1 July the Smithsonian American Art Museum opened its doors to the public again, after a six-year, $283 million renovation of its National Historic Landmark building. This top-to-bottom renovation to refurbish a 19th-century Greek Revival jewel in the United States' capitol while adding 21st-century innovative centres, such as the Luce Foundation Center for American Art and the Lunder Conservation Center, provides new ways for visitors to experience American art. It also created an opportunity for the museum's director and curators to redefine what this experience is, and to seek out the finest masterworks that capture the aspirations, character and imagination of the American people over three centuries. The museum's building was originally the Patent Office. Begun in 1836 and completed in 1868, it was constructed to house a 'temple of invention'--a place where Americans sent their ideas for new inventions, were awarded patents and had their models and papers placed on display: From Samuel F.B. Morse's telegraph to Thomas Edison's stock ticker, proof of American ingenuity was on public display for all to see.