Today in Smithsonian History: May 2, 1923

An aerial view of the Freer Gallery, ca. 1923. The Department of Agriculture can be seen to the right of the Freer. (Photographer unknown, via Smithsonian Institution Archives)

May 2, 1923 The Freer Gallery of Art opens for preview for invited guests. More than 3,000 invitations are issued for opening week and there are almost 33,000 visitors to the gallery between May 9, when it opens to the public, and June 30.

Since his death in 1919, Charles Lang Freer’s legacy of approximately 7,500 works of Asian art has grown through purchase and gift to 22,369 objects. The collection includes art from China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Central Asia. The Freer and Sackler Galleries together house the largest Asian art research library in the United States.

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