Historical Profile: Charles W. Gilmore (1874-1945)
Dr. Charles W. Gilmore of Smithsonian Institution with dinosaur Diplodochus, 9/25/24
While it is relatively easy to dig into the history of a place and figure out when a house was built or a road paved, it’s often harder to flesh it out with personal histories. While more digging, research, and interviews are needed to uncover other stories of Park View’s residents — past and present — I found this history interesting.
Dr. Charles W. Gilmore moved into 451 Park Road in 1908 and lived there until his death in 1945
Charles W. Gilmore, a prolific scientist, moved to Washington in 1903 when he was hired by the U.S. National Museum (Smithsonian). In the Spring of 1908, he permanently settled in Park View, living at 451 Park Road, NW.
Gilmore was originally hired as a preparator to work on the O.C. Marsh dinosaur collection that was transferred from Yale University to the Smithsonian in the late 19th century. He later became curator of fossil reptiles and was in charge of mounting the world’s first Triceratops skeleton. He published 170 scientific papers including monographic studies on the osteology of Apatosaurus and Camptosaurus and the osteology of the carnivorous and armored dinosaurs.
The Smithsonian Triceratops after its move to the Natural History building in 1910
More about the Smithsonian Institution’s Triceratops and its history can be found at this link.
Tags: history and culture, Park View
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
Park View, D.C. 
September 22, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Impressive!
September 22, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Very cool!
I hope remembers my house like this one day.
http://www.FrankieJames.com
September 22, 2010 at 5:34 pm
awesome!
October 7, 2010 at 7:14 am
[…] In 1918, the school had both a community store and a post office on the lower level. By 1920, the building also contained a notary office and library in addition to being used as a recreation center. Adding to its educational purpose, 1920 also witnessed a gift to the school of an exact copy of the Triceratops skull in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection. The gift was made by Park View resident and National Museum curator Charles W. Gilmore. […]
March 6, 2014 at 7:01 am
[…] original “Dinosaur Hunter”, Charles Whitney Gilmore, lived here in Park View at 451 Park Road. Soon, on April 28th, the hall will be closing for a $48 million makeover that is long overdue. It […]
March 7, 2014 at 6:10 pm
I go to see every day a few wweb sites and sites to read posts, however this weblpog provides quality based content.