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The article discusses the author's claim that Washington, D.C. is not prepared to handle a major hurricane as of 2017, and it mentions the impact that a hurricane could have on the American federal government and national security. The damage caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida is addressed, along with the possibility that a large hurricane could cripple the government agencies that are designed to protect the U.S. The Potomac River and the dangers associated with flooding and heavy rainfall are assessed. Flood-proofing procedures are also mentioned.

An interview is presented with the 20th-century gay rights activist Franklin Kameny, discussing his work during the early 1960s in founding the militant gay rights activist movement in the U.S. Topics discussed include his organization of a 1965 demonstration in Washington D.C., the founding of the Mattachine Society, and the extent to which the Washington demonstrations influence gay rights in the 21st century.

The article focuses on Dolley Madison, wife of U.S. President James Madison, and her role in the War of 1812 with Great Britain. Madison's role as an informal political adviser to her husband is considered. An overview is presented of the U.S. conduct of the war, with emphasis placed on the extreme difficulty of financing it due to reluctance within the Congress and U.S. states to appropriate funds for the armed forces. Dolley Madison's involvement in saving government documents and art objects from the White House when Washington D.C. was occupied by British forces in August, 1814 and many of its public buildings burned is described. INSET: WITNESS TO HISTORY..

The article discusses the impact, if any, that will the country has its first black president. There was a sense of history being made on the day of U.S. President Barack Obama's inauguration, the article states. Other topics include Obama's iconic image that could be seen everywhere in Washington, D.C.

The article focuses on the creation of the United States Capitol building and its designer William Thornton. It offers a history of the designing process and describes significance behind its location and design. The article talks about how the government of President George Washington solicited for designs for the Capitol in 1792 and how the location of the nation's capital in the Middle States was intended to unite the North, South and West States. Thomas Jefferson's role in the matter is discussed, including that he came up with the name Capitol Hill.

The report focuses on the official business of tracking time, done at the Time Service Building in Washington, D.C., and presided over by the Directorate of Time. The official measuring of time started with the U.S. Naval Observatory's Time Ball, which dropped every day precisely at noon. Time is now measured by The Master Clock, located inside the building. A history of time measurement is included, as well as an explanation of atomic time. The issue of the leap second is explained.

Profiles James Hoban, an Irishman who designed and built the White House in Washington, D.C. twice after the British burned it down in 1814. Biographical information on Hoban; His early years in the United States; Details on the design and construction of the White House; Hoban's inspiration in his architectural designs. INSET: TIME TRAVELER.

Traces the history of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Information on how it was founded; Problems brought by the fire incident that destroyed the library in 1851; Items in the collection of the library; Resources of the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Profiles Henry and Clover Adams, John and Clara Hay, and Clarence King, who made up an elite circle of friends known as the `Five of Hearts' in Washington, D.C. during the 1880s. Literary achievements; Political philosophies and roles; Dynamics of the friendships; Personal lives; Successes and tragedies; Influence on the times.

Discusses the history of the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House and famous guests who have slept there. King George VI, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and other leaders who used the bedroom; Rumors that the bedroom is haunted by Abraham Lincoln; Jane Fonda, Ted Danson, Richard Dreyfus, and other celebrities that have slept in the bedroom.

Discusses the dedication of the African-American Civil War Memorial, in Washington D.C. in September, 1996. Details of plans for the memorial; Information on co-ordinator of the effort, District of Columbia Council member, Frank Smith; Involvement of African Americans in the United States civil war; Information on legislation which abolished slavery; Challenges faced by African Americans during the civil war.

Presents an integrated teaching package about the White House and the presidents that have lived there. Explanation of how the unit works; The architecture of the White House; Communications in the White House; Children in the White House. INSET: White House book list..

Describes the roundabout way that Wilbur and Orville Wright's 1903 `Flyer' came to be installed in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, 45 years after the Wright brothers made their first powered flight. Crusade of Smithsonian secretary Charles D. Walcott to salvage the reputation of his predecessor Samuel Pierpont Langley; Walcott's refusal to take the 1903 Flyer for exhibition; The Wrights' defense of their patents; Challenge from Glenn Hammond Curtiss; Details.

Presents an historic look at the White House, the stately two-centuries-old presidential mansion in Washington, D.C. Selection of a site for the capital; Choice of Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design it; White House designer James Hoban; Construction details; Residents of the house; Description of interior; Reconstruction and interior changes.

Recounts the history of the White House and examines its place in the American psyche. Impact on incoming presidents; Center of political power; Phases of construction under various presidents; North Portico; South Portico; East Room; Family quarters; West Wing and the Oval Office; Fire during the War of 1812; First lady Dolley Madison and other influential first ladies; James Madison, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt; More.

Focuses on African Americans who employed as househeld helps in the White House. History of African Americans as domestic workers; Importance of qualities of discretion and loyalty; Responsiveness to the instructions of the president and the first lady.

Focuses on the invitations received by African Americans in various White House affairs. President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation to Booker T. Washington; Social and political implications of a black social presence in the White House; Sojourner Truth's visit with President Abraham Lincoln.

Focuses on the presence of African American slaves in 19th century White House. Historical connection between African Americans and the White House; Difficulty in maintaining the White House; Improvements made by President Thomas Jefferson to the White House; Composition of President Jefferson's staff.

Presents an overview of Black entertainers who performed at the White House. Includes Sissieretta Jones; The Fisk Jubilee Singers; Thomas Greene Bethune; Joseph Douglass.

Focuses on the role of African Americans in building the White House and the Capitol. Relationship between African Americans and the capital; Problems with the location of the capital; Aspects of the lives of the black men who built the White House.

Discusses various aspects of weddings that have taken place at the United States White House. Luci Baines Johnson and Patrick Nugent; Tony Rodham and Nicole Boxer; Alice Roosevelt and Nicholas Longworth; Nellie Grant and Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris; Eleanor Wilson and William Gibbs McAdoo; Tricia Nixon and Edward Finch Cox; Lynda Bird Johnson and Charles Robb; President Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom.

This article presents the complete and true history of Washington in the District of Columbia. The story of the founding and establishment of the National Capital of U.S. is one of the most fascinating and important in the history of the country. By legislative enactment, it is the first instance in history that a nation has located, laid out, and founded a city for the permanent seat of its government.

Presents news about history as of November 2000. Decision o the Museum of Indian Art in Berlin, Germany to return a Nepalese carving to Katmandu in Nepal; Amount donated by entrepreneur Kenneth E. Behring to revamp the National Museum of American History and the front entrance of the Brooklyn Art Museum; Number of women across Asia who have launched a civil action suit against Japan alleging they were kept as comfort women during World War II.

The article discusses the author's claim about the whiteness of Washington, D.C., and it mentions the use of white marble and paint in the construction of various historical monuments, museums, and memorials in the city, as well as information about the history of America's White House presidential residence and European neoclassicism architecture and art. The symbolic nature of Washington, D.C.'s whiteness is examined, along with gentrification and black people in the city.

The article presents discussion regarding the lobbying sector of U.S. politics based in Washington D.C. in the 2000s. Details are given highlighting statistics charting the large number of religious advocacy organizations working within the District when compared to previous decades. Brief comments are included profiling the common activities and characteristics of such groups.

In the article, the author discusses the efforts by students in U.S. universities as of mid-2016 to call for the removal of public figures who were linked to racism or heinous activities against humanity on campuses. Also cited are the move by Georgetown University to study its possible participation in the dark history of racism in the U.S., and its renaming of a building named after Thomas Mulledy, who sold the university's slaves in 1838 to pay off the school's debt.

Presents a look at the history of the Piscataway and Anacostan tribes which lived in what is now the Washington, D.C. area. Loss of land to the English settlers; Number of Native Americans living in North America in 1492; Increasing numbers as of 2004; Details of the American Indian Movement.

Focuses on the black, cast-metal bell in the National Museum of American History's 'On Time' exhibition in Washington, D.C. The bell which summoned workers to the Davis and Furber textile machine factory in North Andover, Massachusetts; Why the bell was needed; Women employees at mills as the first generation of an industrial working class in the U.S.; Factory-town culture; Working conditions at the mills.

Explains how the generous bequest of Englishman James Smithson to the United States eventually led to the formation of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. Background of Smithson; How British sovereigns provided by Smithson were reminted and used to fund the institution; United States President James K. Polk's signing of the Smithsonian Institution bill into law in 1846.

Traces the history of the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House. Gaining the status of National Shrine; Purpose of the room during Abraham Lincoln's presidency; Suggestions to keep the room in its former state.

Presents the author's reflections on the 1953 campaign for student government at Georgetown University in Washington DC. President Dwight Eisenhower's endorsement of candidate Frank Van Steenberg at a school banquet when he saw a campaign card slipped under his plate by campaign manager Francis Murphy; Secret Service's interrogation of Van Steenberg and Murphy.

Recalls that on October 21 and 22 between 50,000 and 150,000 protesters invaded Washington, D.C. to protest the war in Vietnam. Protests in other cities; Joan Baez arrested in Oakland, California; Boston Red Sox succumbed to the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh game of the World Series; Dr. Robert Ravich's Interpersonal Behavior Game-Test the season's splashiest innovation in psychology.

Talks about plans of moving the U.S. Congress from Washington D.C. in 1790. Congressional debate on the seat of the government; Political conditions in the state; Attempt of Congressman James Sloan to move the government back to the City of Brotherly Love.

Focuses on the lives of African Americans slaves who helped build the White House. Efforts to speed up the progress of the White House construction; Problems with labor shortages; Hiring of Negro slaves.

Reports on the celebration of anniversaries of the Smithsonian Institution, Tennessee, Utah among others.

The article discusses weddings of children of Presidents of the United States, both those conducted when the President held office or afterwards. The July 31, 2010 wedding of Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky is cited as an example of the particular stresses created between the bride and groom's desire for privacy and the intense public interest in the event. A history of weddings held in the White House, starting with Maria Monroe's wedding in 1820 is given, with particular attention paid to the wedding of Alice Roosevelt, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, in 1906. Weddings of children of Presidents who sought private ceremonies, including that of Jenna Bush, daughter of George W. Bush, are also discussed.

The article focuses on the donation of Phyllis Diller's joke cabinet to the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History. Diller, a stand-up comic, wrote most of her jokes herself and filed them by topic in a large card catalog cabinet. A brief overview of Diller's career is provided. The nature of Diller's jokes is discussed. Diller also donated a dress and a cigarette case from her 1967 tour of Vietnam with Bob Hope. Comments on the joke cabinet are provided by Dwight Blocker Bowers of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

The article focuses on biographies about James Smithson, the founder of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Smithson willed his wealth to the United States in order to create the Smithsonian Institute after his death. Heather Ewing's book, "The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian," describes Smithson as an ambitious scientist with an interest in the progressive nature of the United States in the nineteenth century. "The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America's Greatest Museum: The Smithsonian," by Nina Burleigh, reveals the relationship between Adams and Smithson, which helped insure the creation of the Smithsonian Institute.

Reviews the photography exhibition 'The Eyes of History 2003' at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. through July 28, 2003.

What the computer has been to our time, what the printing press was to an earlier age, still photography was to the 19th century--a technological innovation of startling power. The history of photography and the history of the Smithsonian do not quite coincide, but they come close. Researchers used the camera to advance the Institution's mission, documenting everything from the variety of species to the variety of the U.S. landscape. Though the primary purpose of the first color photograph of the solar spectrum, taken in 1908, was scientific, the result resembles nothing so much as a brilliant abstract painting from mid-century In fact, there's artistry in the most utilitarian of the photographic holdings we've compiled over the past century and a half.

There are perhaps ten exceptional collections of musical instruments in Europe and the United States, and the Smithsonian's is among the very best of them. It comprises some 5,000 objects under the care of the Division of Cultural History in the American History Museum (not because the instruments are all American in character, but because the museum was originally a museum of history and technology)and a like number of instruments housed, because of their ethnographic character, in the National Museum of Natural History. The part of the collection we have the space to exhibit publicly at any one time can only hint at what's behind the scene.Some of the items in the Smithsonian's collection are astonishingly beautiful (stringed instruments by the Italian master Antonio Stradivari); some are barely functional (an impossibly heavy banjo made from a World War I Get-man artillery shell, with bullet casings for tuning pegs); and many are wayward and fanciful (a peanut-shaped harmonica with a Jimmy Carter smile). The greatest treasures of the collection are neither out of sight nor only for silent display. These are the stringed instruments by Stradivari 1644-1737), who could put the geometry of a barely discernible curve in wood to heavenly purpose. We're now renovating a gallery in the American History Museum in which all these rare and beautiful objects (and other prized examples of the luthier's art) will be on display in 2003.

Reports on an increase in tourism in historic sites among the U.S. public in 2002. Mission of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Result of the September 11 terrorist attacks; Number of visitors to the Smithsonian Institution museums.

Discusses the history of the sale of the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane flown by Charles Lindbergh. The need for Lindbergh to consult the investors who paid for the plane; The book 'Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis,' by Van Der Linden and Dominick A. Pisano, curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Focuses on the dinner meeting between black leader Booker T. Washington and President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House in Washington D.C. Purpose of the meeting; Plans of Roosevelt on patronage jobs; Solicitation of advice on choosing candidates; Impact of the meeting on white Americans.

Describes the benefits of the Smithsonian Institute's ability to run long-range research programs that monitor the state of the natural world. Long-term monitoring of specific uninhabited natural sites to measure ecosystem changes; The monitoring of coral reefs by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI); The monitoring programs of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC); The natural flux of gases; The monitoring of watersheds.

Shares the history of the Smithsonian Institution during the Civil War in the United States. Suggested but never used as a war infirmary; Difficulties of Secretary John Henry because of friendship with Jefferson Davis; Henry instrumental in introducing President Abraham Lincoln to balloonist Thaddeus S.C. Lowe; Fire in 1865 collapsing second floor.

Looks at the history of volunteer contributions at the Smithsonian Institution as part of a year-long celebration of its 150th anniverary; Beginnings of volunteerism in 1846, when the museum was founded; James Conaway's book `The Smithsonian: 150 Years of Adventure, Discovery, and Wonder'; How volunteerism began; Proponents of this ideal, the first Secretary Joseph Henry and his assistant Spencer F. Baird; Establisment of philanthropy by James Smithson.

Celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution by recounting the events that lead to its creation. Bequest of the fortune of James Smithson to the United States as a trustee to found an `Establishment for the diffusion of knowledge'; Reaction of President Andrew Jackson and Congress in 1835; The peculiar nature of the Smithsonian; Maintaining the integrity of the institution.