For more than 80 years, the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum’s mission has been to inspire and educate Departmental employees—as well as the general public—about the ongoing stewardship of the nation’s public lands, natural resources and cultural heritage.The Museum’s collection contains more than 8,000 objects of historical, cultural and scientific importance relating directly to the policies and activities of the Department. Highlights include more than 800 North American Indian baskets, two heroic landscape paintings of the American West by Thomas Moran, geological specimens, portraiture, and items presented as official gifts to Secretaries of the Interior.