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Alexandria Black History Resource Center
Memorabilia documenting the black experience in Alexandria are on display at this small resource center (enter from Wythe St). Pick up a brochure for self-guided walking tours of important local sites. In the next-door annex, the Watson Reading Room has a wealth of books and documents on African American topics. The African American Heritage Park (Holland Lane) is worth a stop to see headstones from a 19th-century black cemetery.
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Anacostia Museum
Originally a neighborhood gathering place, the Anacostia Museum expanded into a regional heritage center celebrating black history and culture and is now operated by the Smithsonian Institution. Rotating exhibits focus on the transatlantic slave trade, the earliest free black communities in the New World and art, photography and sculpture by black artists. There are free concerts, films and workshops during Black History Month (February).
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Arthur M Sackler Gallery
Big shot New York research physician, medical publisher and philanthropist Dr Arthur M Sackler had more than a little obsession with the aesthetic Asian art world - over his lifetime he gathered more than 1000 pieces, including centuries-old ceramic, jade and bronze creations. Following his 1987 death he bequeathed these items, along with around US$4 million to build a gallery to house them, to the Smithsonian.
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B'nai B'rith Klutznick Museum
The museum's ground floor houses one of the country's largest Judaica collections, covering history and culture from antiquity to present and including rarities like a 1556 Torah scroll. Exhibits address subjects such as early Jewish settlement in the US, the Holocaust, and Jews in American history and the arts. The newest exhibit is the National Jewish American Sports Hall of Fame. Behind the museum is a tranquil sculpture garden.
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Bethune Council House
One of 17 children born to poor ex-slaves on a cotton farm in South Carolina in 1875, Mary McLeoad Bethune founded a school training teachers to serve the African American community, served as President FDR's special advisor on minority affairs and became the first black woman to head a federal office. Her Washington home has been transformed into an archive and research center and small museum.
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Black Fashion Museum
This eclectic little museum showcases the work of black designers past and present. Here you can see slaves' dresses, the dress Rosa Parks wore during her historic bus ride, and the handiwork of unsung seamstresses who costumed famous figures from Mary Todd Lincoln to Jackie Kennedy.
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City Museum Of Washington, Dc
This fun interactive museum in the historic Carnegie Library highlights the local side of DC: the people, events and communities that have shaped it since its founding. Exhibits explore specific neighborhoods and ethnic groups, or specific themes. An extensive library open to the public has old photographs, maps and other archives. The film, a funny look at the juxtaposition between the federal city and local DC, is a great introduction for kids.
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Corcoran Gallery Of Art
In a beautiful 1897 beaux-arts building overlooking the Ellipse, the Corcoran exhibits American and European masterworks, with an emphasis on 19th- and early-20th-century American artists. Special exhibits often focus on particular artists or historical themes, such as Lichtenstein's sculptures and drawings or the art of the Harlem Renaissance. The Corcoran is particularly known for its surveys of historic and modern photography.
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Dea Museum
Those interested in (or disgusted by) the never-ending US War on Drugs might enjoy a visit to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Museum (the latter group will only appreciate it in a twisted way for its full frontal propaganda). Exhibits range from Target America, which tries badly to link terrorism and drugs together, to an elaborate timeline display on the history of drugs in America.
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Department Of The Interior Museum
Responsible for managing the US's natural resources, the Department of the Interior operates this small but excellent museum educating the public about its current goals and programs. It includes landscape art, Indian artifacts and photos and exhibits on wildlife and resource management. Reserve in advance for guided tours of the building itself, which contains 25 tremendous New Deal murals from the 1930s and 1940s. Photo ID needed to enter.
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District Of Columbia Arts Center
This grassroots center offers emerging artists a space to showcase their work, from theater to multimedia creations. The 750-sq-ft gallery features rotating visual arts exhibits; plays and other theatrical productions take place in the 50-seat black box theater. It's worth checking the website to see if anything interesting is going on, as this homegrown initiative introduces you to some wonderful, still obscure artists.
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Dumbarton Oaks
This 19th-century mansion houses a fine art museum featuring renowned Byzantine and pre-Columbian collections, research libraries, and is set on 16 acres of terraced gardens (enter the gardens through R St gate). Paths wind down toward Rock Creek amid boxwood and wisteria, and 19 pools and fountains; banks of cherries, crab apples and forsythias explode with color in spring. It was here, in 1944, that the agreement to create the UN was reached.
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Folger Shakespeare Library & Theatre
The world's largest collection of the bard's works, including seven First Folios, is housed at the Folger Library: Its Great Hall exhibits Shakespearean artifacts and other rare Renaissance manuscripts. Most of the rarities are viewable by the public only on Shakespeare's birthday (April 23); however, you can peek electronically via multimedia computers. The gorgeous Elizabethan Theatre is an intimate, versatile performance space.
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Fondo Del Sol Visual Arts Center
This delightful artist-run community museum promotes the Americas' cultural heritage and arts through exhibits of contemporary Latin American artists' work, pre-Columbian artifacts, santos (carved wooden saints) and folk art. In late summer, the Caribbean Festival features salsa and reggae music.
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Freer Gallery Of Art
One of the two components of the National Museum of Asian Art (the other half is the Sackler Gallery), the Freer Gallery offers an incredible ensemble of ancient ceramics, Japanese screen paintings, and centuries-old Chinese scrolls. The Freer's Asian art collection (one of the world's finest) was a gift from Charles Lang Freer.
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Friendship Firehouse Museum
This 1855 Italianate firehouse displays historic firefighting gear - a great draw for kids. Local legend has it that George Washington helped found this volunteer fire company, served as its captain and even paid for a new fire engine.
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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 18th-century Alexandria. As the center of local political, business and social life, the tavern was frequented by everyone who was anybody, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. The rooms are restored to their 18th-century appearance.
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Hillwood Museum & Gardens
Housing the biggest collection of Russian imperial art outside of Russia, Hillwood is the former estate of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post (of Post cereal fame), who was married to the ambassador to the USSR in the 1930s. Post convinced Stalin and the Soviets to sell her lots of Czarist swag, and her collection includes furniture, paintings, exquisite Fabergé eggs and jewelry. A cafe serves Russian treats. Reservations required to visit.
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Hirshhorn Museum
The Smithsonian's cylindrical modern art museum exhibits an impressive array of 19th- and 20th-century sculpture and canvases in chronological fashion, from modernism's early days to the present day. Highlights include sculpture by Rodin, Brancusi, Calder and Moore, plus canvases by Bacon, Miró, O'Keeffe, Warhol, Stella and Kiefer.
The museum gift shop is small, but has an excellent collection of books on modern art.
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Howard University
Anchoring the neighborhood is Howard University, founded in 1867. Alumni include the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (who enrolled after he was turned away from the University of Maryland's then all-white law school), Ralph Bunche, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and former New York City mayor David Dinkins. Today it has over 12,000 students in 18 schools. There are campus tours (202-806-2900). The Welcome Center is at 1739 7th St NW.
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International Spy Museum
If you've ever wanted to step into James Bond's shoes and live a glamorous spy life, this is the place to learn the secrets. DC's hottest attraction illustrates high-tech gadgetry, notorious spy cases, secret methods and the not-so-pleasant consequences of being an international person of mystery.
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Kreeger Museum
One of DC's more obscure attractions, this little known museum tucked away in the hills northwest of Georgetown houses a fantastic collection of 20th-century modernist art. Monet, Renoir, Picasso and Mark Rothko are all represented on 90-minute, reservation only tours and through Saturday open houses. Owing to ever-rotating exhibits, you're just as likely to get African art and Mayan artifacts as Edvard Munch's dark expressionism.
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Library of Congress
The world's largest library, housed in three different buildings, contains approximately 120 million items, including 22 million books plus manuscripts, maps, photographs, films and prints. But don't expect to see many books: Most are shelved on more than 500 miles of closed library stacks in the three buildings. The Library is nonetheless fascinating; The visitors center, in the Jefferson Building, shows a brief film, and there are guided tours.
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Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library
DC's main library is in Mies van der Rohe's only Washington building, a low, sleek black-glass structure; peek inside to admire the colorful mural portraying the Civil Rights movement. The MLK Library is an important community and cultural center sponsoring readings, concerts, films and children's activities. You can also access the internet here.
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National Academy Of Sciences
The academy advises the government on scientific and technical issues, and also hosts scientific and art exhibitions, concerts and symposiums. Recent exhibits have included Under Antarctic Ice, featuring incredible photographs of this harsh but breathtakingly beautiful environment, and An Intimate View of Flowers (self-explanatory). Concerts are often held on Sunday afternoons.
