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also located on the east side of the Mall, is the Smithsonian Institution's museum of east Asian art, including art from China, Korea, Japan, and southeast Asia. The gallery was founded by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), a railroad-car manufacturer from Detroit who gave the country his collections, & funds for a building to house them. The Italian Renaissance building of granite and marble, was designed by American architect Charles A. Platt. When the gallery opened to the public in 1923, it was the first Smithsonian museum for fine arts. In subsequent years, the collections have grown through gifts and purchases to nearly triple the size of Freer's bequest.
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