U.S. Department of the Treasury

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Collection represents one of the oldest and most intact collections of fine and decorative arts in the Executive branch of the Federal Government. Like its neighbor, the White House, the Treasury Department has remained on its original Pennsylvania Avenue site since 1800, when the Federal government moved to Washington, D.C. from Philadelphia. Acknowledged as America’s “first modern office building,” the present Treasury building has accumulated, over a one-hundred and seventy year period, a remarkable collection of furnishings. This article will focus on late 19th-century furniture in the Treasury Collection, specifically that furniture designed under the supervision of the Treasury architect Alfred Mullett and made for the San Francisco Mint.