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Washington, D.C., circa 1924. "U.S. Patent Office Building, Ninth and F Streets N.W." Now the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. 8x10 glass negative by Harris & Ewing. View full size.
The Patent Office became a military hospital during the Civil War. Walt Whitman visited wounded soldiers there, bringing them small gifts, writing letters for them, and sitting with them in their suffering. Right after the war, Whitman briefly held a government job in the building until he was fired for his scandalizing poetry.
Lincoln's second Inaugural Ball was held in the Patent Office's Model Room in March 1865, a month before the war (and the Lincoln administration) ended. I have found that open gallery one of the capital's spookier spaces.
The Patent Office building not only houses the National Portrait Gallery, it also houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). Like all the Smithsonian museums, both have free entry.
I have a half dozen patents and don't understand any of them.
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