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Main Interior Building

The Main Interior Building, officially known as the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, located in Washington, D.C., is the headquarters of the United States Department of the Interior.

Location

18th and C Sts. NW, Washington, D.C., U.S.

38°53′38″N 77°2′33″W / 38.89389°N 77.04250°W / 38.89389; -77.04250

5 acres (2.0 ha)

1936

Waddy Butler Wood, et al.

86002898[1]

November 10, 1986

Located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, it is bounded by 19th Street NW on the west, 18th Street NW on the east, E Street NW on the north, C Street NW on the south, and Virginia Avenue on the southwest. Although the building takes up the entire block, the address is "1849 C Street, NW" to commemorate the founding of the Department of Interior in 1849. To the east is DAR Constitution Hall, the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, as well as the World Resources Institute and the American Red Cross National Headquarters. To the west is the Office of Personnel Management headquarters. To the north is Rawlins Park, which includes at its eastern end a statue of Major General John A. Rawlins, and Triangle Park is to the south.


The building includes offices of the Secretary of the Interior and major bureaus with their employees. It includes the Interior Museum and Interior Library.

(BIA)[5]

Bureau of Indian Affairs

(BIE)[6]

Bureau of Indian Education

Indigenous Peoples Arts and Crafts Shop[edit]

Ickes wanted to promote Native American art, as the Bureau of Indian Affairs was included in the cabinet department. The building was designed to include a shop in which arts and crafts by living Native American artists would be sold. Today, the Indigenous Peoples Craft Shop on the first floor continues to include work by Native American artists. Three murals in the shop were completed by PWA artists. Breaking Camp at Wartime and Buffalo Hunt by Allan Houser depict the Apache. Deer Stalking by Gerald Nailor depicts Navajohunters creating sandpainting.[3]

An Incident in Contemporary American Life, , tempera on canvas, commissioned 1940, installed 1942. This depicts Marian Anderson's 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow an integrated concert to be held at Constitution Hall. Secretary Ickes offered the use of the Lincoln Memorial for her concert.

Mitchell Jamieson

The Negro's Contribution in the Social and Cultural Development of America, , oil on canvas, commissioned 1939, installed 1948. This series of four murals depicts African-American influence on America in the areas of Education, the Arts, Religion, and Science.

Millard Sheets

Indian and Soldier, , oil on canvas, commissioned 1937, installed 1939. This represents the Bureau of Indian Affairs and "symbolizes the transition of the Indian from warrior to farmer and the immense loss of Indian culture involved." The thickening clouds and disappearing buffalo signify the end of traditional life. The empty space evokes the vastness of the West.

Maynard Dixon

, John Steuart Curry, oil on canvas, commissioned 1937, installed 1939. This mural depicts an Oklahoma land run. It "captures the seconds after the great gunshot that launched the Oklahoma land rush. It is pure emotion in motion."

Rush for the Oklahoma Land of 1894

Construction of a Dam, , oil on canvas, commissioned 1937, installed 1939. This mural, which the Interior Museum states is the building's most reproduced, "glorifies not just public works projects, but work itself," showing the "drama, dignity, and strength of labor." [1]

William Gropper

: Mural Project 1941–1942 was installed in March 2010 after lying dormant for almost 70 years. Then-Secretary Ickes commissioned Adams to produce large-format photographs to convey not only the beauty and grandeur of the natural scene, but to show Interior managed resources, conservation, sound direction and stewardship of those resources. The project was halted in 1942 due to the US entrance into World War II. At that time, Adams had made more than 200 images during a trek that began in Yosemite National Park. He photographed more than just nature, portraying Boulder Dam, at the time the world's largest. A special part of Adams’ assignment was to show Natives American life and culture. Ansel Adams: The Mural Project 1941–1942 features 26 giclee canvas murals of some of the most iconic sites of the American West, including Grand Teton, Grand Canyon and Glacier National Parks.

Ansel Adams

Other murals in the building are by Maynard Dixon, Gifford Beal, and William Gropper.[3] Among them:

First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, joined by some of the department's longest-serving employees on stage, thanked all employees for their service at a ceremony at Sidney R. Yates Auditorium at Main Interior.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, joined by some of the department's longest-serving employees on stage, thanked all employees for their service at a ceremony at Sidney R. Yates Auditorium at Main Interior.

Interior Museum

Interior Museum

Interior Library

of the Main Interior Building

Native American murals in South Penthouse

by DCist

Revisiting the Department of the Interior

Ansel Adams Murals