The USA and Canada are almost magical; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where anyone can make it in life – or so they believed. Read more…
After looking at galleries of old world art and last century American art, it’s nice to be in a space where the building’s physical layout makes sense. The logical donut shape makes it easy to navigate between galleries and levels. If you’re not a big fan of modern art like Read more…
The galleries are placed in chronological order from the lobby to the far end, but most visitors will do a loop at the back of the building to minimize distance walked. This means the Chinese art galleries go in reverse order from gallery 13’s Qing Dynasty vases to gallery 19’s Read more…
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…