Dec
23

Today in Smithsonian History: December 23, 1981

Looking from the Independence Avenue side of the Quad construction. The floor will eventually be the roof of a 10,000 square foot, two-story high exhibit gallery. Photo shows Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Building and Arts and Industries Building in background and was taken with wide-angle lens that has made an interesting distortion. Photo by Jeff Tinsley, as featured in the Torch, May 1985.

Looking from the Independence Avenue side of the Quad construction. The floor will eventually be the roof of a 10,000 square foot, two-story high exhibit gallery. Photo shows Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Building and Arts and Industries Building in background and was taken with wide-angle lens that has made an interesting distortion. (Photo by Jeff Tinsley, as featured in the Torch, May 1985)

December 23, 1981 A $960,000 Congressional appropriation is set aside for the planning of the Quadrangle project, a new museum complex that will serve as a center for African, Near Eastern and Asian cultures. This is the first federal appropriation for the project, whose planning has been underway since 1978 with support from unrestricted trust funds.

A northeast-facing, aerial view of the Quadrangle and central Smithsonian Institution campus on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with the Freer Gallery of Art in the central foreground and the Smithsonian Institution Building ("The Castle") in the central background. (Photo by Eric Long)

A northeast-facing, aerial view of the Quadrangle and central Smithsonian Institution campus on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with the Freer Gallery of Art in the central foreground and the Smithsonian Institution Building (“The Castle”) in the central background. (Photo by Eric Long)

Courtesy Smithsonian Institution Archives

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Posted: 23 December 2019
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