There are two places to visit. This downtown Washington, D.C. location on the national mall and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Visit both for free. The first floor exhibits are only interesting for anyone who has never been to an airport. You can board the B747 and DC-7, Read more
You get six free stamps with every visit, it’s truly a stamp collector’s paradise. From the Pony Express to FedEx, the free-to-enter museum is all about the history of the postal service in America, even during colonial times. There’s lots to see and learn, but too many exhibits require visitors Read more
Americans don’t have deep historical roots, their approach to history mirrors that of Catholic relics. They encase fragments of flags that flew during major battles in a glass case and show off Lincoln’s paperweights. None of those items have any historical significance apart from being associated with an event or Read more
Best known for its portrait gallery of American presidents and the home to Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished painting of George Washington that became the likeness for the one dollar bill, it is the finest collection of classical and modern American portraits. To say that its art is an understatement, it is Read more
Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin Da Vinci, Medici, the National Gallery of Art is to Washington, D.C. What the Louvre is to Paris. Except it’s free and there isn’t a massive line to get in. It’s a democratically operated institution, unlike the capitalist enterprise from the so-called French Read more
Is a name that is needlessly long. It’s assumed that any museum of history in the capital would be a national museum about the country’s past. In its well laid-put galleries, American racial identity, industry, democracy, and culture are deconstructed. But the ugly truth that the Americans the museum serve Read more
I would have thought Chicago or New York would be the place for this, but turns out the National Building Museum lives on one side of Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C. Buildings are everything; we live, work, and rest in them. They’re all around us. America used to be the Read more
The museum is expensive and small for Washington, D.C. standards, but time your visit correctly and you’ll be able to participate in simulations that gives you a broader perspective on law enforcement training. Its location under the D.C. courts and opposite a memorial etched with the names of law enforcement Read more
There are four originals of the 1297 Magna Carta, one of them is in Washington, D.C.‘s National Archives. Entry is free but photography is prohibited. The modest downstairs gallery tells the troubled national history of how slaves built the Capitol and the White House, broken promises, the long-time disenfranchisement of Read more
This is the most child-friendly museum of the Smithsonians in Washington, D.C. If you don’t like having your seat kicked by a toddler on the bus, screaming babies on airplanes, or parents bringing tweens into bars then you will not like this place. The Smithsonian is a revered institution, but Read more