Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Visitors can tour the exhibits and use the society's Kiplinger Research Library, which has books, maps, photographs, and other materials relevant to the history of the city.

"[3] The organization had as its goal "collecting the scattered and rapidly disappearing records of events and individuals prominent in the history of the city and District.

[4] Although African Americans constituted one-third of the then-racially segregated city's population, the membership of the Columbia Historical Society was all white.

[3] In the late 1940s, a bill to finance reassembly of Francis Scott Key's home and give it to the society was passed by Congress, but President Harry Truman vetoed it for budgetary reasons.

[4] In 1975, a real estate transaction produced a significant endowment, which was used to hire the first full-time, professional historian as executive director, Perry Fisher.

[3][5] In 1998, Monica Scott Beckham, vice president of the society's board of trustees, went before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations to seek federal funding for a City Museum of Washington, D.C.[6] Congress appropriated $2 million in 1999 "provided that the District of Columbia shall lease the Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square to the Society ... for 99 years at $1 per year".

[6] On July 14, 1999, District Mayor Anthony A. Williams announced the creation of the City Museum of Washington, D.C. in the Carnegie Library.

[3] Ninety percent of the society's historic collections, which include artworks, documents, maps, objects, and over 100,000 photographs, are stored on-site.

[3] A permanent exhibition, Window to Washington, now traces the development of the District's built environment and serves as an introduction to the society's collections.