Roses on The Mall

 The National Mall in Washington, D.C. is home to one of the greatest collections of Museums in the World.  The list is long and you could easily spend a week there and never come close to doing justice to all there is to see.

The Smithsonian Museum of American History

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

The National Gallery of Art

    - The East Building

    - The West Building

The National Sculpture Garden

The National Archives

The National Botanical Gardens

The Gardens at the National Conservatory

The Bartholdi Fountain and Gardens

The National Museum of the American Indian

The Smithsonian Museum of Air & Space

The Hirschhorn Museum of Modern Art

The Hirschhorn Sculpture Gardens

The National Museum of African Art

The National Museum of Asian Art

The Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden

The Enid A. Haupt Garden

The Moon Gate Garden

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The National Museum of African American Culture & History
and The Smithsonian Museum of Science & Industry (closed to the public)

In my time living here (since 1994) two of these museums have gone from longtime dreams to glorious reality.  The National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African Amerian Culture & History.  So it would come as no surprise that there are other constituencies clamoring for a seat at this August table.  The journey from idea to constituency to design to approval to construction to grand opening is a long and daunting one.  No single individual gets to play KING and build something because it suits their fancy.  

The two with the longest standing support are The National Museum of the American Latino and The Smithsonian Museum of Women's History.  But finding the space is not easy.  For at least one of these the answer has been given by the Smithsonian Institutions itself.  The old Smithsonian Museum of Science and Industry, which hasn't been a formal museum space in years and only houses a modest set of galleries on the ground floor concourse when it does, has consented to being rehabilitated into the future home of the National Museum of the American Latino.  This is such an exciting rebirth for this iconic structure.

While I was down on The Mall on November 2nd, I also stopped by the Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden and an adjacent alcove garden with a lovely little fountain and Autumnal flowers of its own to delight.