Georgetown Voice: Smithsonian museums struggle to keep national treasure above water

Georgetown Voice: Smithsonian museums struggle to keep national treasure above water. “Many of the museums built on the Mall have experienced major flooding events, threatening collections stored onsite below ground level and even galleries. As a warming climate is projected to cause further sea level rise and increase the incidence of extreme weather events—major floods have doubled in the past few decades—these institutions face new collection conservation and museum sustainability challenges. The scale of the threat becomes apparent when considering the size of the 19 Smithsonian institutions and their combined collections of 155 million objects.”