Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, the stone has been used in the construction of numerous notable buildings and monuments throughout the United States and Canada, including the National Gallery of Art, National Air and Space Museum, and United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., the Minnesota State Capitol, Grand Central Terminal in New York, and Union Station in Toronto. Tennessee marble achieved such popularity in the late-19th century that Knoxville, the stone's primary finishing and distribution center, became known as "The Marble City."
Quarried block of pink Tennessee marble
Polished pink Tennessee marble surface
The 18th-century "Old Stone House" near Friendsville, Tennessee, built of brown Tennessee marble
Marble quarry near Knoxville, circa 1911
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated a substantial art collection and funds for construction. The core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, and Chester Dale. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.
The West Building facade of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The East Building
Exhibitions in the West Building
Exhibitions in the East Building