place

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

1974 establishments in Washington, D.C.Art museums and galleries in Washington, D.C.Art museums established in 1974Brutalist architecture in Washington, D.C.Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Members of the Cultural Alliance of Greater WashingtonModern art museums in the United StatesMuseums of American artNational MallOutdoor sculptures in Washington, D.C.Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United StatesSkidmore, Owings & Merrill buildingsSmithsonian Institution museumsUse mdy dates from January 2023
Hirshhorn Museum DC 2007
Hirshhorn Museum DC 2007

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was conceived as the United States' museum of contemporary and modern art and currently focuses its collection-building and exhibition-planning mainly on the post–World War II period, with particular emphasis on art made during the last 50 years.The Hirshhorn is situated halfway between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol, anchoring the southernmost end of the so-called L'Enfant axis (perpendicular to the Mall's green carpet). The National Archives/National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden across the Mall, and the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art building several blocks to the north, also mark this pivotal axis, a key element of both the 1791 city plan by Pierre L'Enfant and the 1901 MacMillan Plan.The building itself is an attraction, an open cylinder elevated on four massive "legs," with a large fountain occupying the central courtyard.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum Tunnel, Washington

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.8882 ° E -77.023 °
placeShow on map

Address

Hirshhorn Museum Tunnel
20565 Washington
District of Columbia, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Hirshhorn Museum DC 2007
Hirshhorn Museum DC 2007
Share experience

Nearby Places

The Yellow House (Washington, D.C.)
The Yellow House (Washington, D.C.)

The Yellow House was the slave jail of the Williams brothers (Thomas Williams and William H. Williams), located at 7th Street and Maryland Avenue in Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. In 1838, William H. Williams directed people wishing to buy or sell slaves to his jail "on 7th street the first house south of the market bridge on the west side". The Williams' slave-trading business was apparently "large and well-known to traders in Richmond and New Orleans." The three-story building was made of brick covered in yellow-painted plaster and served as a navigation landmark for visitors to the city: "In an era before the memorials to Washington or Jefferson (much less the yet-unknown Lincoln) had been erected, D.C. travelers oriented themselves based on the Yellow House, which stood as a prominent landmark within the nation's capital." In 1843 a column in The Liberator referenced it: "If ever you have been to Washington you have probably noticed a large yellow house which stands about a mile from the avenue near the Potomac—That is the slave prison. It is owned by a celebrated slave trader, who has made a large fortune by following his hellish traffic. Slaves are not sold openly at public auction in this district so frequent as formerly. The traffic is carried on in secret. Thus public opinion begins to be felt even in the slave regions." There are at least two contemporary descriptions of the jail. One is from an account of attempting to rescue a man who had been kidnapped into slavery in 1848: Your old friend, Mr. ---- and myself started for the slave pen. The evening was not precisely cloudy, but the moon shone dimly through a smoky atmosphere. You know the building. It stands removed some distance from either road. As we approached, I could not but reflect that within its gloomy walls were yet retained all the horrid barbarity of the darker ages: yea, worse than this...Soon after we entered the yard, we met two men who appeared to be on patrole duty.— One of them turned round, and walked back to us, inquired if we wished to see Mr. Williams. We told him we did. He said Mr. Williams was not in, but his agent was. We told him we would then see the agent. As we came near the door, he told us to keep round to the left of him, as a large dog was chained in front of the door. Ascending the steps, he led us through a dark passage to a somewhat spacious room, having the appearance of an office. In front of a fire two men were sitting smoking cigars. He introduced us to one of them as the agent. To him we made known our errand. They both rose to their feet, and the agent said 'The negur has gone. We took him immediately on board ship at Alexandria, and he has sailed for New Orleans.' We told him the circumstances of his right to freedom. He assured us that it was not so—that 'the negur' told him he has not paid a cent. The building was deserted and derelict in 1853 when a news writer from Syracuse reported "I noticed that Williamson's [sic] slave pen had been dismantled, proparatory either to a removal or reconstruction of the building, it is situated in a lonely, though pleasant spot. An air of sorrow pervades it as though the groans, the sighs, and blood of its victims were still rising from its cells, and weighing down the atmosphere with their burden of grief." The Yellow House was located across from where the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden stands today. The private prison was in use as a waystation of the interstate slave trade from 1836 to 1850. During his one term in the U.S. Congress, Abraham Lincoln recorded that he could see the building from the U.S. Capitol. A few years earlier, Solomon Northrup, a victim of kidnapping into slavery, could see the Capitol from his cell in the Williams' dungeon.