U.S. Department of the Interior Museum

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, opening the door to land ownership across the American frontier.

The Act granted up to 160 acres of public land to anyone willing to live on and improve it for five years. Millions answered the call, building farms, towns, and communities that would shape the nation.

By 1934, more than 1.6 million claims had been processed, totaling over 270 million acres, nearly 10% of all U.S. land.

This monumental effort was led by the U.S. General Land Office, which merged with the U.S. Grazing Service nearly 80 years ago to form the Bureau of Land Management!

📸 A family poses for a picture in Loup Valley, Nebraska, on their journey to a homestead in 1886; Courtesy of the National Archives

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Office of Law Enforcement is responsible for upholding federal laws to safeguard plants and wildlife. Key collaborations are with conservation groups and local, State, Federal, Tribal, and international law enforcement officers. Their work includes combating wildlife trafficking, recovering endangered species, conserving migratory birds, preventing the spread of invasive species, preserving habitats, and securing fisheries. For our final National Police Week post, here are examples of items seized by special agents for violating wildlife trafficking regulations.

📷 Boots made with sea turtle leather (INTR 07275), a caiman handbag (INTR 07268) and a display of butterfly specimens (INTR 07287)

Our National Police Week salute continues with this 1960s protective helmet. While intended for motorcyclists, it was ultimately used by some of the original equestrian riders in Virginia’s Manassas National Battlefield Park Mounted Patrol Unit. Today, it’s the only National Park Service entity in the eastern United States that uses horses for law enforcement. The equine program not only patrols the park’s extensive 5,000 acres but also supports educational and interpretive programs. (INTR 07942)

We’re sharing more of the museum’s law enforcement artifacts in honor of National Police Week: From 1931 through 2017, the Hoover Dam Police Department protected the dam ecosystem that straddles the Arizona-Nevada border. Today, National Park Service law enforcement rangers provide area security, and a separate Bureau of Reclamation Security Response Force stationed at Hoover Dam itself ensures the uninterrupted delivery of water and hydropower.
📷 Eight badges from the former Bureau of Reclamation Hoover Dam Police Department, INTR 07932 – INTR 07939.

Our National Police Week focus on our law enforcement-related objects continues! This 2017 depiction of “Ranger Ryan” is believed to be the first instance of a National Park Service law enforcement ranger in a Junior Ranger activity guide. It was produced for the Kahuku Unit of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. (INTR 07931)

For National Police Week, we're sharing objects from our collection related to law enforcement history at the U.S. Department of the Interior. This stirrup is from the U.S. Park Police Horse Mounted Patrol. Long considered “ambassadors for safety,” the Mounted Patrol was formally established in 1934, making it one of the oldest equestrian units in the country. Learn more: https://www.doi.gov/blog/ambassadors-safety-meet-us-park-police-horse-mounted-patrol

(INTR 07944)

Ninety years ago today was the dedication ceremony for our present-day U.S. Department of the Interior headquarters building (Federal Works Project No. 4)! President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke at the event, calling the building "symbolical of the Nation's vast resources." With the same trowel that George Washington used to lay the U.S. Capitol's cornerstone in 1793, Roosevelt sealed in our cornerstone a time capsule containing mementos and documents related to the Department's history.

📷 The ceremony began at 11 a.m. on April 16, 1936, with music from the United States Marine Band seated on the terrace. Many dignitaries were in attendance, including the architect Waddy Butler Wood, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, the chair of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission Frederic A. Delano, and a delegation of 15 Hopi tribal members. (INTR 07449)

📷 President Roosevelt addressing the crowd. (INTR 07443)

📷 President Roosevelt with aide Gus Gennerich and architect Waddy Wood (with white hair and mustache) to lay the cornerstone. (INTR 07445)

📷 32nd Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes assisting with the cornerstone-laying. In his remarks he said, "This new building represents . . . to us a symbol of a new day." (INTR 07446)

📷 The printed program from the event. (INTR 07439)

While our look has changed throughout the decades, we continue to preserve and share the Department of the Interior’s history. On this 88th anniversary of the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum we thank you for being part of our journey! 🎉



📷Images by row from the top left: creating a scale model for planning the museum in the 1930s; 1940s displays; museum administrator Theodore Drummond in 1951; 1980s; 1990s; 2007; 2009, 2017; 2020

🎉 It's the U.S. Department of the Interior's 177th birthday today, and here's the language that marked our official founding in 1849! To learn more about the passage of the legislation, check out this pamphlet published by the Department in 1976:https://pubs.usgs.gov/unnumbered/70094977/report.pdf

📷 Page of text from the "Statutes at Large" from the 30th Congress, 1849

Wishing our colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) a 147th birthday for the ages!

Happy 147th birthday to us! 🎉

We know, we know...we don’t look a day over 146 — but hey, that’s super young in geologic time!

Mapping, measuring, and discovering since 1879. 🌎

📷: Two scientists jumping for joy sampling vegetation cover and monitoring biomass recovery in grasslands on the Colorado Plateau, Utah.