United States National Museum. Dept. of Engineering and Industries.

The Department of Engineering and Industries was established in 1881 as the Department of Arts and Industries. It was made up of sections dealing with transportation, naval architecture, fisheries, engineering, and physical apparatus. In 1897 these sections were combined in the new Department of Anthropology as the Division of Technology (called the Division of Mechanical Technology after 1912). In 1919 William de Chastignier Ravenel reestablished the Department of Arts and Industries, consisting of the Divisions of Mechanical Technology and Mineral Technology, Medicine, Textiles (a division established independent of departmental affiliation in 1912), and, in 1920, Graphic Arts. In 1931 the Department created a Division of Engineering, which incorporated the old Divisions of Mineral and Mechanical Technology as sections, and added a new Section of Aeronautics, which was ultimately given separate status in 1947 as the National Air Museum. In 1938 the old Sections of Textiles and Medicine became the Divisions of Crafts and Industries and Medicine and Public Health, respectively. In 1939 the Department was renamed the Division of Engineering and Industry, the name it retained until it was transferred to the Museum of History and Technology in 1957.

G. Brown Goode was in charge of the Department from its inception in 1881 until his death in 1896. In the period from 1897 to 1919 the various elements of Arts and Industries were attached to a Department of Anthropology whose head was William Henry Holmes. In 1919 William de Chastignier Ravenel directed the reconstituted Department of Arts and Industries. Following Ravenel's retirement in 1932, John Enos Graf succeeded him as Acting Curator (1932), followed by Carl Weaver Mitman, Head Curator of Arts and Industries, 1932-1938, Head Curator, Engineering and Industries, 1939-1947; and Frank A. Taylor, Head Curator, 1948-1957.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Agency History. Record 222793