Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Old Patent Office Building occupies two city blocks with heavy Greek Revival columns and massive granite walls. In eighteen sixty-two, this building served as a makeshift hospital for Union soldiers wounded in the Civil War. Clara Barton and Walt Whitman walked these halls to deliver supplies and comfort to the men. The structure later became the home for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, housing thousands of paintings and sculptures that define the history of the United States.