BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Old Naval Observatory

DC -- Old Naval Observatory:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 18.224.63.87 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] ONO_111014_002.JPG	[2] ONO_111014_006.JPG	[3] ONO_111014_009.JPG
[4] ONO_111014_011.JPG	[5] ONO_111014_014.JPG	[6] ONO_111014_018.JPG
[7] ONO_111014_023.JPG	[8] ONO_111014_026.JPG	[9] ONO_111014_031.JPG
[10] ONO_111014_036.JPG	[11] ONO_111014_038.JPG	[12] ONO_111014_047.JPG
[13] ONO_111014_051.JPG	[14] ONO_111014_054.JPG	[15] ONO_111014_061.JPG
[16] ONO_111014_068.JPG	[17] ONO_111014_071.JPG	[18] ONO_111014_072.JPG
[19] ONO_111014_077.JPG	[20] ONO_111014_080.JPG	[21] ONO_111014_084.JPG
[22] ONO_111014_090.JPG	[23] ONO_111014_096.JPG	[24] ONO_111014_102.JPG
[25] ONO_111014_108.JPG	[26] ONO_111014_114.JPG	[27] ONO_111014_120.JPG
[28] ONO_111014_128.JPG	[29] ONO_111014_130.JPG	[30] ONO_111014_132.JPG
[31] ONO_111014_137.JPG	[32] ONO_111014_146.JPG	[33] ONO_111014_152.JPG
[34] ONO_111014_156.JPG	[35] ONO_111014_160.JPG	[36] ONO_111014_164.JPG
[37] ONO_111014_167.JPG	[38] ONO_111014_171.JPG	[39] ONO_111014_183.JPG
[40] ONO_111014_186.JPG	[41] ONO_111014_196.JPG	[42] ONO_111014_201.JPG
[43] ONO_111014_210.JPG	[44] ONO_111014_215.JPG	[45] ONO_111014_218.JPG
[46] ONO_111014_223.JPG	[47] ONO_111014_229.JPG	[48] ONO_111014_240.JPG
[49] ONO_111014_247.JPG	[50] ONO_111014_249.JPG	[51] ONO_111014_250.JPG
[52] ONO_111014_261.JPG	[53] ONO_111014_265.JPG	[54] ONO_111014_279.JPG
[55] ONO_111014_294.JPG	[56] ONO_111014_297.JPG	[57] ONO_111014_302.JPG
[58] ONO_111014_311.JPG	[59] ONO_111014_314.JPG	[60] ONO_111014_317.JPG
[61] ONO_111014_322.JPG	[62] ONO_111014_326.JPG	[63] ONO_111014_333.JPG
[64] ONO_111014_334.JPG	[65] ONO_111014_343.JPG	[66] ONO_111014_349.JPG
[67] ONO_111014_353.JPG	[68] ONO_111014_357.JPG	[69] ONO_111014_360.JPG
[70] ONO_111014_363.JPG	[71] ONO_111014_364.JPG	[72] ONO_111014_365.JPG
[73] ONO_111014_366.JPG	[74] ONO_111014_367.JPG	[75] ONO_111014_371.JPG
[76] ONO_111014_379.JPG	[77] ONO_111014_382.JPG	[78] ONO_111014_388.JPG
[79] ONO_111014_390.JPG	[80] ONO_111014_394.JPG	[81] ONO_111014_399.JPG
[82] ONO_111014_403.JPG	[83] ONO_111014_408.JPG	[84] ONO_111014_411.JPG
[85] ONO_111014_416.JPG	[86] ONO_111014_421.JPG	[87] ONO_111014_423.JPG
[88] ONO_111014_426.JPG	[89] ONO_111014_435.JPG	[90] ONO_111014_440.JPG
[91] ONO_111014_452.JPG	[92] ONO_111014_456.JPG	[93] ONO_111014_460.JPG
[94] ONO_111014_463.JPG	[95] ONO_111014_478.JPG	[96] ONO_111014_479.JPG
[97] ONO_111014_491.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ONO_111014_002.JPG: US Naval Observatory Designed by LT James M. Gilliss in 1842, the US Naval Observatory occupied this site from 1844 to 1893. In 1894, the domed structure became home to the Naval Museum of Hygiene. Eight years later, the Naval Medical School moved here from Brooklyn, New York. The Prime Meridian: In the early 1850s, the 0 degree meridian for the United States was established here. It passed through the center of the US Naval Observatory's central dome. This Prime Meridian became the reference for determining the north-south boundaries of several western states.
2. ONO_111014_006.JPG: DC -- Old Naval Observatory
3. ONO_111014_009.JPG: The First American Alienist From http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=6991 Definition of Alienist The term "alienist" was heading for obsolescence until it was returned to a position of some prominence by the 1994 book "The Alienist" by the historian/novelist Caleb Carr. The story of "The Alienist" starts In New York City in March 1896 when reporter John Schuyler Moore is called to the East River by his old Harvard classmate and friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or "alienist," to view the mutilated body of an adolescent boy. The reporter and the alienist are enlisted as a team by the new police commissioner (who happened to be Teddy Roosevelt) to look into the murder. An "alienist" is "one who treats mental diseases; a mental pathologist; a 'mad doctor,'" according to The Oxford English Dictionary. The OED also defines "alienation" as in this sense as "mental alienation; withdrawal, loss, or derangement of mental faculties; insanity." The insane were thought estranged (alienated) from their normal faculties. The root of "alienist" is the Latin "alienare," to make strange. The word "alienist" came across the Channel to England from France where "aliene" meant insane and an "alieniste" was one who cared for the mentally ill: a psychiatrist.
4. ONO_111014_011.JPG: Signer of the Declaration of Independence
5. ONO_111014_018.JPG: Benjamin Rush Physician and Philanthropist MDCCXLV MDCCCXIII Benjamin Rush From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Benjamin Rush (January 4, 1746 [O.S. December 24, 1745] – April 19, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Rush was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and attended the Continental Congress. He served as Surgeon General in the Continental army, and was an opponent of Gen. George Washington. Later in life, he became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite having a wide influence on the development of American government, he is not as widely known as many of his American contemporaries. Rush was also an early opponent of slavery and capital punishment. Despite his great contributions to early American society, Rush may be more famous today as the man who, in 1812, helped reconcile the friendship of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams by encouraging the two former Presidents to resume writing to each other.
6. ONO_111014_023.JPG: Erected by the American Medical Association MCMIV
7. ONO_111014_026.JPG: Studium sine calamo Somnium (Literal translation: "The pursuit of the dream without pen".)
8. ONO_111014_038.JPG: Building 2 Old Naval Observatory (1844) This building once housed the U.S. Naval Observatory (1844-1893), the workplace of Navy scientists whose skill and perseverance made this institution one of the finest astronomical laboratories in the world. Here its superintendent, LT Matthew Fontaine Maury, wrote the first textbook on oceanography. As father of this science, Maury published among other works the Wind and Current Charts that revolutionized ocean travel, earning himself the title "Pathfinder of the Seas." In the east wing residence, he mapped the under-ocean route for the first transatlantic telegraph cable. In 1877, astronomer Asaph Hall, using the world's largest telescope, discovered the two moons of Mars -- Deimos and Phobos -- during what has been termed the Observatory's "Golden Age". Through the 1870s and 1880s, teams of this institution's astronomers traveled throughout the globe to study solar eclipses and transits of the planet Venus> The U.S. Naval Observatory's master clock, calibrated by celestial observations, became the time standard for the nation. After the Observatory moved to its current location on Massachusetts Avenue in 1893, the building became home to the Naval Museum of Hygiene (1895) and the Naval Medical School (1902). Since 1942, offices of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery have occupied the old Naval Observatory.
9. ONO_111014_071.JPG: Louis R Metcalfe Arch, t -- MCMIV From http://sah.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=BiographiesArchitectsM&category=Resources : METCALFE, LOUIS ROCHAT An architect, died October 22, 1946, in Paris, France, aged seventy-three. He was born in New York City. He graduated from Yale University and attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His architectural career continued until 1932. He was a collector and connoisseur of French engravings.
10. ONO_111014_072.JPG: Old Naval Observatory has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935 This site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service 1965
11. ONO_111014_130.JPG: User comment: Observatory superintendent Matthew Maury's children etched their names in this glass window before the Civil War.
12. ONO_111014_132.JPG: User comment: Observatory superintendent Matthew Maury's children etched their names in this glass window before the Civil War.
13. ONO_111014_137.JPG: User comment: Observatory superintendent Matthew Maury's children etched their names in this glass window before the Civil War.
14. ONO_111014_261.JPG: Ambler Memorial Plaque In 1879, the US Navy dispatched the exploring steamer Jeannette on a mission to the North Pole. Almost at once, the vessel became trapped in the polar ice, remaining imprisoned for two years before being crushed. What became one of the great epics of human endurance ended in Siberia's Lena River delta in 1881, when many of Jeannette's crewmen perished of exposure and starvation. The ship's surgeon, James M. Ambler, presented with an opportunity to save himself, chose instead to remain with his patients and share their fate. For many years, this bronze plaque hung above a fireplace on the rotunda's south wall when the building housed the Naval Medical School.
15. ONO_111014_343.JPG: The Moons of Mars In August 1877, astronomer Asaph Hall, using the U.S. Naval Observatory's Great Equatorial telescope located in this rotunda, discovered the two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos. The discovery of the red planet's satellites was one of the most significant scientific events of the 19th century.
16. ONO_111014_349.JPG: Ambler Memorial Plaque In 1879, the US Navy dispatched the exploring steamer Jeannette on a mission to the North Pole. Almost at once, the vessel became trapped in the polar ice, remaining imprisoned for two years before being crushed. What became one of the great epics of human endurance ended in Siberia's Lena River delta in 1881, when many of Jeannette's crewmen perished of exposure and starvation. The ship's surgeon, James M. Ambler, presented with an opportunity to save himself, chose instead to remain with his patients and share their fate. For many years, this bronze plaque hung above a fireplace on the rotunda's south wall when the building housed the Naval Medical School.
17. ONO_111014_363.JPG: Jan Herman, former historian of Navy Medicine
18. ONO_111014_367.JPG: Buildings 3 and 4: "Main Hospital" (erected 1903-1906) On 3 March 1903, Congress appropriated $125,000 for the construction of a new Washington Naval Hospital to replace the old Naval Hospital on Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. Renowned architect Ernest Flagg (1857-1947) designed the structures. The first floor housed offices of the commanding officer, executive surgeon, officer of the day, and records clerks. Four patient wards, accommodating 18 patients each, branched from Buildings 3 and 4 connected by corridors and solaria, where patients sunned themselves during the cooler months. The first floor of Building 4 housed the main operating room.
19. ONO_111014_399.JPG: Building 1 "Nurses Quarters" (erected 1903-1908) As part of the Washington Naval Hospital, Building 1 housed the female nurses' quarters. Contained in the basement was a kitchen, storerooms, and a bedroom for attendants. The first floor featured quarters and an office for the head nurse, a reception room, lecture room, and dining room. The second and third floors had accommodations for 18 nurses. With the departure of the Hospital to Bethesda in 1942, the structure began housing the offices of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; a function it currently holds today.
20. ONO_111014_411.JPG: Building 6 "Contagious Disease" (erected 1903-1908) As part of the Washington Naval Hospital, this structure once housed patients afflicted with four classes of communicable disease. The basement contained a receiving room for patients, a disinfecting plant, main kitchen, sewing rooms, a dormitory, and mess rooms for attendants. The other floors were arranged similarly, each being bisected by a wide corridor running north-south and open at each end allowing for free circulation of air. During the great influenza pandemic of 1918-19, Building 6 was jammed with patients, many of whom succumbed to the flu. In the years before World War II, the structure housed the psychiatric department. With the departure of the Hospital to Bethesda in 1942, the structure began housing the offices of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, a function it currently holds today.
21. ONO_111014_416.JPG: Building 7 "Corpsmen's Quarters" (erected 1903-1908) As part of the Washington Naval Hospital, this structure contained the hospital corpsmen's quarters and accommodated 57 men, an office, lecture room, recreation room, and mess areas. Three coal-fired 90 horsepower generators supplied power to all hospital buildings; the same boilers also generated steam and hot water for the entire hospital complex. With the departure of the Hospital to Bethesda in 1942, the structure began housing the offices of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; a function it currently holds today.
22. ONO_111014_423.JPG: Building 5 "Sick Officers' Quarters" (erected 1903-1908) Segregated by rank, the Washington Naval Hospital's patients occupied either wards, if enlisted, or this building, if officers. The first floor of the Sick Officers' Quarters featured an office, reception room, medical library, a nurses' dressing station, and medicine room. There were also give patient rooms, some with fireplaces. The prestigious Naval Hospital treated many distinguished government officials including Supreme Court Justices, cabinet officials, senators, and congressmen. Congressman William Bankhead from Alabama, father of actress Tullulah Bankhead, died here in 1940. With the departure of the Hospital to Bethesda in 1942, the structure began housing the offices of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; a function it currently holds today.
Wikipedia Description: Old Naval Observatory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Old Naval Observatory is a site in Washington, D.C.. The observatory operated from 1844 to 1893 when it was closed in favor of a new U.S. Naval Observatory facility on Massachusetts Avenue. The building and grounds were retained by the U.S. Navy, which first used it to house the Naval Museum of Hygiene from 1894 to 1902. Beginning in 1903, the Naval Medical Hospital was constructed on the grounds, and it remained in use until 1942, when hospital operations were transferred to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

Today, the facility houses the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. The grounds and observatory are closed to the public. The entire Navy Hill is being transferred to the State Dept. due to BRAC and the Navy will be moving out. The Central Intelligence Agency's forerunner, the OSS was a tenant on the Hill during World War II, and the Public Health Service had a hospital there as well.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].