@smithsonian

This year we’re celebrating 50 years of our #RenwickGallery! It was the first place built as an art museum in the country, and now it's home to @americanart’s collection of contemporary craft and decorative art. The building was originally designed to house the art collection of William Wilson Corcoran, who believed that showing American works would “encourage American genius” and demonstrate that U.S. art could rival that of Europe. In 1859, it was designed by James Renwick Jr., the architect behind the Smithsonian Castle in Washington and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Renwick was inspired by the Louvre’s newest addition and modeled the gallery in a style that was then the height of French fashion. The building became increasingly dilapidated after Corcoran's collection was relocated to a larger space. While Congress proposed that it be razed, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy successfully led a campaign in 1962 to save the Renwick. She wrote, “It may look like a Victorian horror, but it is really quite a lovely and precious example of the period of architecture which is fast disappearing.” The building then became part of the Smithsonian, and on Jan. 28, 1972, it opened as the Renwick Gallery, named in honor of its architect. 📸: Renwick Gallery in the 1930s (from @smithsonianarchives) and today