Museum sights in Washington, DC
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Both grim summation of human nature and fierce confirmation of basic goodness, the Holocaust Museum is unlike any other museum in Washington, DC. In remembering the millions murdered by the Nazis, it is brutal, direct and impassioned. Visitors are given the identity card of a single Holocaust victim, narrowing the scope of suffering to the individual level while paying thorough, overarching tribute to its powerful subject. Many visitors leave in tears, and few are unmoved. James Ingo Freed designed the extraordinary building in 1993 and its stark facade and steel-and-glass interior echo the death camps themselves.
Apart from the permanent exhibits, the candlelit Hall of R…
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National Building Museum
Devoted to the architectural arts, this museum is appropriately housed in an architectural jewel: the 1887 Old Pension Building. Four stories of ornamented balconies flank the dramatic 316ft-wide atrium, and the Corinthian columns are among the largest in the world, rising 75ft high. An inventive system of windows and archways keeps the so-called Great Hall constantly glimmering in natural light, and this space has hosted 17 inaugural balls – from Grover Cleveland’s in 1885 to Barack Obama’s in 2009. The showy space easily overshadows the exhibits, but they’re worthwhile nonetheless – ‘Washington: City and Symbol’ examines the deeper symbolism of DC architecture; and ‘Too…
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National Air & Space Museum
The most popular Smithsonian museum is one of the best for kids and kids at heart, full of interactivity and things that go fast/boom/swoosh/etc. When you visit, don’t forget to touch the moon. No, really, there’s an actual chunk of lunar love here, its well-worn surface pressed by millions of curious fingers over the years. Other must-sees include Chuck Yeager’s sound-barrier-breaking Bell X-1, Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis, the Lunar Lander and the Wright Brothers’ original airplane. They all hang from wires off the enormous ceiling, directing your gaze ever upwards to the eternal vault of the endless sk – ow – watch it kid!
That’s the drawback of this sp…
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National Museum of Natural History
Kids: bust out the dinosaur fangs and your best T-Rex shamble. It’s time to drag mom and dad around till they drop. Don’t worry parents, you’re only joining the several other million guests who annually enter the second-most-popular museum in the Smithsonian. Say hello to the famous African elephant dominating the entrance rotunda and the nearby rotting carcass of a giant squid and get ready to explore one of the most eclectic collections of, well, stuff, anywhere. The exhibits are a bit oddly mashed up – what exactly do Javanese shadow puppets have to do with birds of northern Europe? Traipse past the Hall of Dinosaurs to the supposedly cursed Hope Diamond, Easte…
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National Museum of the American Indian
The award for most impressive external architecture of any museum on the Mall (and perhaps in the city) goes to the Museum of the American Indian. The curving exterior blobs like an art-house amoeba on the eastern edge of the Mall; fashioned from rough Kasota limestone that blushes honey in the sunset, it manages to look rustic and strong yet liquid and organic all at once. In fact, there are no sharp edges to be found anywhere – the impression is one of nature flowing into the learning space, accentuated by an outside green area of wetlands and micro-biomes meant to simulate the ecosystem of the North American continent. Inside, you’ll find the story of Native Americans …
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National Museum Of American Art & National Portrait Gallery
These inseparable Smithsonian museums are looking brilliant these days, thanks to a multi-million-dollar facelift. They share the 19th-century US Patent Office building, a neoclassical quadrangle that hosted Lincoln's second inaugural ball and a Civil War hospital. Walt Whitman based The Wound-Dresser upon his experiences as a volunteer nurse here ('The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand/I sit by the restless all the dark night…').
The Portrait Gallery's permanent collection contains more than 4000 images of known faces from all walks and eras of life. The presidential portraits are particularly notable. Look for Gilbert Stuart's famous Lansdowne portrait of G…
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National Gallery of Art
Affiliated with but not a part of the Smithsonian, the National Gallery needs two buildings (connected by an underground tunnel) to house its massive collections (more than 110,000 objects) of painting, sculpture and decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the present. The gallery, being a generalist sort of spot, doesn’t quite excel in any one area (the Hirshhorn has better modern art, and the American Art Museum keeps a better national retrospective), but it’s still pretty impressive. Kids love the walking escalator that traverses the two buildings. The original neoclassical building, known as the West Building, exhibits primarily European works, from the Middle Age…
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National Museum of American History
After undergoing a long series of renovations, this institution has accented itself with the daily bric-a-brac of the American experience – synagogue shawls, protest signs and cotton gins – along with icons such as Dorothy’s slippers and Kermit the Frog (yes, he is the cutest thing you’ll find in Washington, DC. Even the pandas in the zoo can’t compete). The centerpiece of the museum is a viewing space of the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812 – the same flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen The Star-Spangled Banner. In general, this is a better museum for children than adults; displays tend to be bright and interactive,…
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US Naval Observatory
If you’re ever late to an appointment after visiting this place, you’ve got no excuse, buddy: the Naval Observatory is the official source of time for the US military and by extension, the country, so you know the clocks are set right here. Framed by a pair of stately, white ship’s anchors, the observatory, created in the 1800s, is here ‘to determine the positions and motions of celestial objects, provide astronomical data, measure the Earth’s rotation, and maintain the Master Clock for the US.’ Modern DC’s light pollution prevents important observational work these days, but that cesium-beam atomic clock is still tickin’. Tours let you peek through telescopes and yak wit…
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Textile Museum
This gem is the country’s only textile museum, and is as unappreciated as the art itself. In two historic mansions, its cool, dimly lit galleries hold exquisite fabrics and carpets dating from 3000 BC to the present. Accompanying wall commentary explains how the textiles mirror the social, spiritual, economic and aesthetic values of the societies that made them. Founded in 1925, its collection includes rare kimonos, pre-Columbian weaving, American quilts and Ottoman embroidery. (Find the flaw: traditional textile artists, from Islamic carpet makers to Appalachian quilters, weave intentional flaws into their work to avoid mimicking God’s perfection.) Upstairs, the learning…
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Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
The Smithsonian’s cylindrical modern art museum is the best of its kind in Washington. Sculptures and canvases are presented in chronological fashion, from modernism’s early days to pop art to contemporary. Gallery spaces are usually airy and bright, infused with the right edge of cold showroom chic you expect in modern art museums. Highlights include sculptures by Rodin, Brancusi, Calder and Moore, along with canvases by Bacon, Miró, O’Keeffe, Warhol, Stella and Kiefer. On Fridays and Saturdays, the Improv Art Room invites children to create their own works of art. Outside and across Jefferson Dr, the sunken Sculpture Garden feels, on the right day, like a bouncy …
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National Academy of Sciences
Made up of approximately 2100 members, including almost 200 Nobel Prize winners, these are the guys the government hits up for scientific advice (whether the government listens to them or not is, as you may have guessed, entirely up to the government). The NAS hosts scientific and art exhibitions and symposiums, and concerts are often held on Sunday afternoons. The nicely landscaped grounds along Constitution Ave feature DC’s most huggable monument (well, besides the Kitten and Puppy Memorial – kidding) : the Albert Einstein statue. The larger-than-life, sandal-shod, chubby bronze reclines on a bench, while little kids crawl all over him and frolic on a ‘star map, ’ w…
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National Museum of Health and Medicine
Located in the Walter Reed Army Medical center, the NMHM is one of the older museums in the city (opened in 1862) and one of the few partially operated by the military. That’s because the focus of the museum’s eclectic collection is military medicine – the displays on Civil War combat ‘nursing’ are gruesome and fascinating in equal measure. This is hands-on stuff (well, not literally) and not for the faint hearted – visitors will see the effects of diseases, the tools used to battle them and all the messy side and after effects. Probably the most popular exhibit remains the paraphernalia connected to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, including the bullet that killed him an…
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Kreeger Museum
One of DC’s more obscure attractions, this little-known museum is tucked away in the hills northwest of Georgetown and houses a fantastic collection of 20th-century modernist art. The art – by Renoir, Picasso and Mark Rothko, among many others – represents the amassed collection of David and Carem Kreeger, and their individual taste adds a charming degree of intimacy to the experience; you feel more like you’re popping into a home than visiting a museum. Speaking of visiting, you must do so on 90-minute, reservation-only tours unless you come for Saturday open houses. Exhibits are constantly rotated, so you’re just as likely to see Monet’s dappled impressionism as Edvard …
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Gadsby’s Tavern Museum
Once a real tavern (operated by John Gadsby from 1796 to 1808), this building now houses a museum demonstrating the prominent role of the tavern in Alexandria during the 18th century. As the center of local political, business and social life, the tavern was frequented by anybody who was anybody, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. The rooms are restored to their 18th-century appearance, and the tavern occasionally still hosts pricey balls. The restaurant here tries to emulate an 18th-century hostelry; the overall effect is rather kitsch, but it’s good, clean, historical fun. Besides, who wouldn’t want to try ‘George Washington’s Fa…
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Newseum
Unaffiliated with the Smithsonian (ergo the cost of admission), the ‘most interactive museum in the world’ is dedicated to the craft of news gathering and dissemination. Unfortunately it offers a little too much flash and not quite enough substance – lots of CNN-esque zippy graphics and booming montages of current events, but not a lot of insight into the day-to-day work of beat reporting. Still, it’s great for the kids, and the memorial to journos killed in pursuit of the truth, plus exhibits on press freedoms and ethics, are worth the price of admission. It’s also worth your time to wander in front of the Newseum, where the front pages of newspapers from around the worl…
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National Geographic Explorers Hall
The museum at National Geographic Society headquarters can’t compete with the Smithsonian’s more extensive offerings downtown, but it’s worth a stop if you have kids in tow. They’ll enjoy the rotating, hands-on exhibits on exploration, adventure and earth sciences, drawn from the society’s well-documented exhibitions to the far corners of the Earth (and beyond). The society’s year-round series, Live…from National Geographic, at the Gilbert Grosvenor Auditorium (202-857-7700), located in the National Geographic Society Headquarters next to the Explorers Hall, includes films, concerts and lectures by famed researchers and explorers.
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Bethune Council House
Mary McLeod Bethune, one of 17 children born to poor ex-slaves on a cotton farm in South Carolina in 1875, founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls and served as President Franklin Roosevelt’s special advisor on minority affairs. In Washington, DC, she rose through the political ranks to become the first African American woman to head a federal office. Her Vermont Ave home, where she lived for seven years, has been transformed into an archive, research center and small museum administered by the National Park Service. Rangers lead tours and show videotapes about Bethune’s life, and exhibits, lectures and workshops on black history are held her…
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African American Civil War Museum
Every museum has a mission; this one makes the point that for some, the Civil War was about secession versus union, but for others, it was a matter of breaking human bondage. The permanent exhibit includes photographs, documents and some audiovisual programs following African American history from the Civil War through the Civil Rights movement. The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Project allows visitors to search for ancestors in databases of black troops, regiments and battles. The museum will gradually begin moving into the nearby Grimke building (corner Vermont Ave and U St), just next to the memorial, which will allow for an expansion of its exhibits.
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DEA Museum
If you’ve got issues with the US War on Drugs, you may want to give the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Museum a pass. If, on the other hand, you think all drug users and pushers should go to jail for a very long time and drugs and terrorism go hand in hand – or if you just have a thing for heavy-handed propaganda – well, stop on by. We’re not trying to be flip, by the way – most Washington museums do a good job of presenting all sides of controversial issues such as the Vietnam War versus the antiwar movement, but there’s no such nuance here. Then again, this is the only place in official Washington that displays bongs.
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Hillwood Museum & Gardens
Hillwood, the former estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post (of Post cereal fame) and her third husband, the ambassador to the USSR, contains the biggest collection of Russian imperial art to be found outside of Russia. Post convinced Stalin and the Soviets to sell her loads of Czarist swag, and her impressive collection includes furniture, paintings and a shockingly gorgeous collection of Fabergé eggs and jewelry. As a bonus, the 25-acre estate incorporates some lovely gardens (which include Post’s dog cemetery), a greenhouse and a museum shop. The on-site cafe serves up Russian treats (borscht, blintzes and the like) and afternoon tea.
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Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Cha-ching! Like a Pink Floyd single given stony form, this is where the most important currency in the world (well, for now…damn you euro!) gets churned out – something like $700 million a day. Forty-minute guided tours demonstrate how money is designed, printed and cut, from wads of green ink to the stuff that is sadly lacking in a travel writer’s wallet. During the summer season (April to August here), line up at the NBEP ticket kiosk (Raoul Wallenberg Pl) for tickets; arrive early (it opens at 8am), as only a limited number are distributed. For the rest of the year you can come in through the main entrance.
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Navy Memorial & Naval Heritage Center
The hunched figure of the Lone Sailor, warding off the wind with his flipped-up pea coat, waiting quietly by his duffel, is our favorite service (rather than war) memorial in the city. No other work of art quite captures the quiet strength that drives enlisted personnel on and brings them home after years away. The sailor waits in a circular plaza bordered by masts sporting semaphore flags; the space is meant to evoke both the vastness and ubiquity of the sea. The Naval Heritage Center, on the same grounds, displays artifacts and ship models, and has a meditation room and Navy Memorial Log.
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Alexandria Black History Resource Center
Paintings, photographs, books and other memorabilia documenting the black experience in Alexandria, one of America’s major slave ports, are on display at this small resource center (enter from Wythe St). Pick up a brochure for self-guided walking tours of important Alexandria black-history sites. In the next-door annex, the Watson Reading Room has a wealth of books and documents on African American topics. Operated by the museum, the African American Heritage Park (Holland Lane) is worth a stop to see headstones from a 19th-century black cemetery.
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Department of the Interior Museum
Responsible for managing the nation’s natural resources, the Department of the Interior operates this small but excellent museum to educate the public about its current goals and programs. It includes landscape art, Native American artifacts and some great historical photos of Native American life, as well as exhibits on wildlife and resource management. Reserve two weeks in advance for guided tours of the building itself, which contains 25 tremendous New Deal murals from the 1930s and 1940s. Adults need photo identification to enter.
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