History
The museum first opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology. The building was one of the last structures designed by renowned architectural firm McKim Mead & White. In 1980, the museum was renamed The National Museum of American History to better represent a refocused mission: the collection, care, study, and interpretation of objects that reflect the experience of the American people.
The museum announced in May, 2012, that John Gray would serve as director of the museum.
Read more about this topic: National Museum Of American History
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)