National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center

The National Museum of American History (NMAH): Kenneth E. Behring Center, a museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution, collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. The first of the National Mall’s post-war Brutalist behemoths. It consists of three H-shaped floors with a central axis leading to exhibition space on either side.

The south facade of the museum

Opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology, it was one of the last structures designed by the renowned architectural firm McKim Mead & White, the firm that initiated the Classical Revival on the Mall with its 1910 Beaux Arts National Museum of Natural History. In 1980, the museum was renamed the National Museum of American History to represent its mission of the collection, care, study, and interpretation of objects that reflect the experience of the American people.

1 West

From September 5, 2006 to November 21, 2008, the museum was closed when it underwent an US$85 million renovation.   Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, led by Gary Haney, provided the architecture and interior design services for the renovation.

Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

Major changes made include a new, five-storey, skylit atriums surrounded by displays of artifacts that showcase the breadth of the museum’s collection; a new, grand staircase that links the museum’s first and second floors; a new welcome center; the addition of six landmark objects to orient visitors; new galleries such as the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Hall of Invention; and an environmentally controlled chamber to protect the original Star-Spangled Banner.

Archive Center

In 2012, the museum began a US$37 million renovation of the west wing; adding new exhibition spaces, public plazas, an education center, panoramic windows overlooking the National Mall on all three floors and new interactive features to the exhibits. On July 1, 2015, the first floor of the west wing reopened and, in 2016 and 2017 respectively,  the second and third floors of the west wing were reopened.

Linda and Pete Clausen Hall of Democracy

Visitors can enter the vast NMAH building either from the on-grade National Mall entrance or from the below-grade Constitution Avenue entrance (a walled terrace bridges the differing heights), both minuscule apertures that are not fitting entrances that furnish a sense of grandeur or importance to a museum built to tell America’s story.  At its National Mall entrance is Infinity, a 7.3 m. (24-ft.) tall abstract sculpture (one of the first abstract sculptures displayed at a major public building in Washington D.C.) dedicated in 1967. Designed by José de Rivera and created by Roy Gussow, the sculpture is a 4.9 m. (16-ft.) long, polished stainless steel ribbon on top of a granite tower.

Alexander Calder’s steel sculpture Gwenfritz.  In the background is the National Museum of African American History and Culture

We entered the museum via the latter. Here, on the west side, is Alexander Calder‘s sculpture, Gwenfritz, a 35-ton steel abstract stabile (named after its socialite patron Gwendolyn Cafritz) installed in a fountain and dedicated to the museum on June 2, 1969. The long entrance hall, like many other areas of the building, is poorly illuminated and dispiriting. During our visit, the west side of the second floor was undergoing refurbishment through the end of 2017, and the west side of third floor until 2018.

Artifact walls line the first and second floor center core, with dimly lit 84 m. (275 ft.) of glass-fronted cases, each crammed with hundreds of random objects, big and small, are organized around themes that include arts; popular culture; business, work and economy; home and family; community; land and natural resources; peopling America; politics and reform; science; medicine; technology; and the United States’ role in the world.

A landmark object highlights the theme of each wing of the museum’s three exhibition floors. These include the John Bull locomotive, the Greensboro, Woolworth’s North Carolina lunch counter (where four legends from North Carolina A&T State University staged a sit-in in 1961 to protest segregation), a one of a kind draft wheel and, from pre-existing exhibits, the 1865 Vassar Telescope, a Red Cross ambulance and a car from Disneyland‘s Dumbo Flying Elephant ride.

John Bull Locomotive of 1831

The first floor contains a café, the main museum store, the Constitution Avenue lobby (1 Center) as well as a space for temporary exhibits. 1 East, the first floor’s East Wing, houses the General Motors Hall of Transportation which has series of two transportation-related exhibits that are roughly related – “America on the Move” (opened November 22, 2003) and its companion exhibition, “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America” (opened on May 20, 2009).  One of the best parts of the museum, the John Bull locomotive is the signature artifact.

America on the Move: On the Interstate – 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix convertible and 1986 Dodge Caravan

“America on the Move,” designed by the Museum Design Associates of Cambridge, Mass.; AMAZE Design of Boston; and the Smith Group, of Washington, D.C., encompasses nearly 26,000 sq. ft. on the first floor of the museum, and includes 340 objects and 19 historic settings in chronological order.

Roadside Communities: Tourist cabin at Ring’s Rest (Muirkirk, Maryland).  On the left is a 1934 Ford Deluxe Roadster

City and Suburb: Fageol Twin Coach “Old Look” Liquefied-Propane Gas-Powered Bus, 1950 (2)

It takes visitors on a fascinating journey, from the coming of the railroad to a California town in 1876 to the role of the streetcar and the automobile in creating suburbs to the global economy of Los Angeles in 1999, as they travel back in time and experience transportation, through multimedia technology and environment, as it changed America, seeing historic artifacts as they once were, a vital part of the nation’s transportation system and of the business, social, and cultural history of the country.

1926 Ford Model T Roadster on its side on a Turn Auto

A Streetcar City: Electric streetcar, 1898

The Smithsonian’s popular and voluminous collection of the many and varied forms of rare, fascinating, and important transportation is showcased in historic settings brought to life by large mural backdrops, 73 cast figures and soundscapes.

On the School Bus: 36-passenger Dodge school bus, 1936

The People’s Highway: Route 66

It  includes the horse-drawn cart, early automobiles, the electric car, buses, a Chicago Transit Authority “L” car,  a massive 199-ton, 92-foot-long “1401” Southern Railway locomotive and a gigantic 1930’s steam engine plus a 40-foot stretch of the famed Route 66.

On the Water:  Stories from Maritime America

The brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America,” a pleasing and instructive museum experience on the left side of the entrance of General Motors Hall of Transportation, leads the visitor through 7 topical/chronological sections that span American maritime history from 1450 to the present.

Ocean Crossings

It explores the many ways in which Americans, from Colonial times to the present, have pursued commerce at sea and on America’s extensive coastal and inland waterways through impressive artifacts, flawless audiovisual aids, instructive texts, and a powerful aesthetic.

Web of Connections

The 8,500 sq. ft. exhibit seamlessly carries the visitor through topics as diverse as commercial fishing, passenger liners, the slave trade, container ships, and the contributions of the merchant marine to victory in World War II.

Tobacco ship Brilliant

On display are rigged ship models (including a large model of the tobacco ship Brilliant) representing the web of vessels that transported sugar, tobacco and slaves; a wooden snuff box carved into the shape of a potbellied man (with one eye bulging, the other missing) that connects vast trade systems to everyday consumer habits; a real-life steam engine room; a Fresnel lighthouse lens that lit waters 17 miles afar; a tucked-away safety vest invention that appears to be a twin mattress folded, diaper-like, under the wearer’s torso; and the first sliver of gold found at Sutter’s Mill that precipitated the California Gold Rush.

Lighting a Revolution

The “Lighting a Revolution” exhibition, opened at 1 East to commemorate the centennial of Thomas Edison’s light bulb, considers experiments with electricity before Edison’s, the “Invention Factory” at Menlo Park, how Edison created a market for his product, and the impact of electricity in factories, on city streets, and in the home.

The exhibition features a bulb from a public demonstration of Edison’s light in Menlo Park during Christmas week, 1879; and early electrical appliances for the home, some of which caught on, such as electric fans, and some which did not, namely the electric marshmallow toaster.

Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation

The large but sparsely furnished “Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation,” opened July 1, 2015, features “Places of Invention,” Draper Spark!Lab and “Inventive Minds.”  “Places of Invention” is centered on the theme of innovation, where the museum is transforming how its audiences will experience history.

Inventive Minds

“Inventive Minds,” a small gallery, introduces visitors to the work of the Lemelson Center, particularly its efforts to document diverse American inventors.  Draper Spark!Lab, a hands-on exhibit, has the Vassar Telescope as its signature artifact.

Places of Invention

The exhibition features 37 objects illustrating the inventions at the heart of each case study. Highlighted objects include a Technicolor camera used to film The Wizard of Oz; a turntable used by Grandmaster Flash; the prototype of the first computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute (on loan from SRI International); 1886 Columbia Light Roadster men’s high-wheel bicycle; an example of the Medtronic 5800 Model External Pacemaker invented by Earl Bakken; and several prototypes representing cutting-edge clean energy inventions coming out of Fort Collins.

In addition, there are five interactive stations set up on tables where visitors can participate in fun, hands-on learning experiences such as designing their own eight-bit icon (Silicon Valley section) or learning and practicing their DJ “scratching” skills (The Bronx section). However, objects such as a jukebox, a Howdy Doody puppet and a pink Patsy Cline costume do not necessarily bring the word “invention” to mind.

Vault door marking the entrance to the Gallery of Numismatics

The Gallery of Numismatics, opened July 1, 2015 at 1 West, delves into the world-class National Numismatic Collection (NNC), one of the Smithsonian’s oldest and most treasured collections (with more than 1.6 million objects), to uncover stories related to the origins, innovations, messages, artistry and allure of money.

Collecting Money and the World’s Gold

Entered via a vault door, it showcases more than 400 objects from the NNC, some of which are among the rarest in the world. The exhibition, thematically organized into five sections, allows visitors to learn about the origins of money, new monetary technologies, the political and cultural messages money conveys, numismatic art and design, and the practice of collecting money.

Origins – 168 pound stone ring from Yap Island

Featured American objects includes a storied 1933 Double Eagle, a personal check signed by Pres. James Madison in 1813, a 1934 US$100,000 note and a Depression-era $1 clam shell. International artifacts include a 168-pound stone ring used to make payments on Island of Yap, a 465 B.C.; a decadrachma coin from Syracuse, Sicily; a 14th-century Ming Note from China and a 1762 8 Real Coin from Mexico (also known as a Spanish piece of eight).  The gallery will also showcase the famous Josiah K. Lilly Jr. collection of gold coins and the Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich collection of Russian coins (thought to be the finest outside of Russia).

Stories on Money

“Stories on Money,” a numismatic exhibition housed in a small room, comprehensibly traces the historical and aesthetic evolution of US banknotes and coinage through a skillfully culled collection.

Female Figures on Money

“Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000,” a 3,800 sq. ft. exhibition opened last November 20, 2012 in 1 East, is a creative blend of objects, graphics, video and an interactive, communal table that highlights how American eating and shopping habits have changed during those five decades.

Julia Child’s Home Kitchen

Julia Child‘s Home Kitchen, the opening story of the museum’s first major exhibition on food history, contains the tools, appliances, equipment, and furnishings arranged exactly as they were when Julia donated it to the museum. New and Improved!” explores the innovations behind some of the major changes in food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption since the 1950s.

Wine at the Table: Innovations at the Vineyard and the Winery

At Wine for the Table, discover how new technologies, innovators, and changing attitudes led to the tremendous growth and expansion of wine and winemaking, an important story in postwar America, in all 50 states by 2000.

The large, communal table in the center of the exhibition

At Open Table, the public is invited take a seat at a large, communal table, in the center of the exhibition, and engage in conversation about a wide range of food-related issues and topics, sharing their own thoughts and experiences about food and change in America.

American Enterprise

The 8,000 sq. ft. American Enterprise, opened last July 1, 2015 at 1 West, focuses on the role of business and innovation from the mid-1700s to the present.  It chronicles the tumultuous interaction of capitalism and democracy that resulted in the continual remaking of American business—and American life.

Westinghouse Compound Engine

Visitors are immersed in the dramatic arc of labor, power, wealth, success, and failure in America. It traces the development of the United States from a small dependent agricultural nation to one of the world’s largest economies through the following 4 chronological eras: the Merchant Era (1770s – 1850s), the Corporate Era (1860s – 1930s), Consumer Era (1940s – 1970s), and the Global Era (1980s – 2010s). On display are John Deere’s plow, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, Barbara McClintock’s microscope, Stanley Cohen’s recombinant DNA research notebook, Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephones, Alfred Bloomingdale’s personal credit cards, a New York Stock Exchange booth from 1929, an early Monopoly board game and one of Michael Dell’s early computers.

The second floor of the museum, whose lobby leads out to Madison Drive and the National Mall, houses the museum’s new welcome center and a store. 2 West, the west wing of the second floor, has the George Washington statue (created in 1840 for the centennial of Washington’s birthday) as its signature artifact. The Wallace H. Coulter Unity Square, at 2 West, is the floor’s new program space dedicated to immersive activities and performances that richly illustrate America’s participatory democracy. At the center of Unity Square, is the Greensboro lunch counter, a small section of the original F.W. Woolworth’s Lunch Counter from Greensboro, N.C. 2 East, at the east wing of the second floor, has exhibitions that consider American ideals.

The Star Spangled Banner Exhibit

The original, newly conserved Star Spangled Banner Flag, in 2 East, the center of the second floor, is displayed in a dimly lit room, at the heart of the museum, with a climate-controlled environment to help preserve its color and fabric..  During the War of 1812, it was the same flag seen by Francis Scott Key come morning, after a long nighttime battle, above Fort McHenry, outside Baltimore, Maryland, signifying that the U.S. defenses had held.

Check out “Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine – Birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner“

This marked the penultimate major battle in the war, which ended a few weeks later. It inspired him to write the poem which is now the U.S. national anthem. In the days and years after the battle, the flag was flown in all kinds of weather, and parts were snipped off as souvenirs. Just across the room from the flag is an interactive display by Potion Design featuring a full-size, digital reproduction of the flag that allows patrons to learn more about it by touching different areas on the flag.

LEGO Statue of Liberty

The 9 ft. tall Statue of Liberty, at 2 West, is made of sand green LEGO bricks and weighing 125 pounds without its steel support.

George Washington Statue (Horatio Greenough, 1841)

The 12-ton marble George Washington Statue, atop a granite pedestal and base, was created in 1841 (on the occasion of the centennial of the first president’s birthday) by Horatio Greenough.  Envisioned to be a symbolic representation of Washington as a great exemplar of liberty, it depicts Washington wearing a chest-baring toga.

Within These Walls Exhibit

The 4,200 sq. ft. Within These Walls Exhibit, opened last May 16 2017 in 2 West, tells the stories of five families who lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about 30 miles north of Boston, over the years and made history in their kitchens and parlors, through everyday choices and personal acts of courage and sacrifice. Through their lives, the exhibition explores some of the important ways ordinary people have been part of the great changes and events in American history.

The partially reconstructed Georgian-style, two-and-a-half-story timber-framed house, built around 1700

At the center of the gallery is the largest artifact in the museum, a partially reconstructed Georgian-style, two-and-a-half-story timber-framed house, built around 1700, that stood for 200 years at 16 Elm Street and was saved from demolition by an Ipswich citizen and then brought to the Smithsonian Institution.

The exhibition also features an 18th-century tea table; an anti-slavery almanac and the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery medallion; a Philco radio from the 1930s; and World War II-era cookbooks, posters, rationing coupons and a proximity fuse used to detonate bombs and artillery shells.

The American Presidency – A Glorious Burden

3 Center, the center of the third floor, presents The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, which explores the personal and public lives, ceremonial and executive actions of the 43 men who have held that office and had a huge impact on the course of history in the past 200 years. Composed of 11 thematic sections, the exhibition addresses such topics as inaugural celebrations, presidential roles, life at the White House, limits of presidential power, assassinations and mourning, the influence of the media, and life after the presidency.

Hat worn by Lincoln to Ford’s Theater on the night of his assasination

The role of the presidency in American culture is brought to life by more than 900 objects, including national treasures from the Smithsonian’s vast presidential collections.

The horse-drawn carriage that carried Ulysses S. Grant in his second inaugural parade in 1873

They include Abraham Lincoln‘s life mask; a Lewis and Clark Expedition compass; the horse-drawn carriage that carried Ulysses S. Grant in his second inaugural parade in 1873; a radio microphone used by Franklin D. Roosevelt to give his fireside chats during World War II; an early teddy bear (named after Theodore Roosevelt) and Bill Clinton‘s saxophone.

The First Ladies of America

The First Ladies of America, a popular permanent exhibit also at 3 center, encourages visitors to consider the contributions and changing role played by the first lady and American women over the past 200 years by exploring the unofficial but important position of First Lady and the ways that different women have shaped the role to make their own contributions to the presidential administrations and the nation.

White House China Collection

The exhibition features, as a mark of changing times, more than two dozen gowns from the Smithsonian’s almost 100-year old First Ladies Collection.  It includes those worn by Frances Cleveland, Lou Hoover, Jacqueline Kennedy, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.  A section, entitled “Changing Times, Changing First Ladies,” highlights the roles played by Dolly Madison, Mary Lincoln, Edith Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson and their contributions to their husband’s administrations.

Martha Washington’s Silk Gown, 1780s

National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center: 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW,  National Mall,  Washington, D.C. Admission is free. Open daily (except December 25), 10 AM – 5:30 PM.

National Museum of Natural History

The Neo-Classical style  National Museum of Natural History, administered by the Smithsonian Institution, is a natural history museum dedicated to maintaining and preserving the world’s most extensive collection of natural history specimens and human artifacts.

It fosters significant scientific research and produces educational programs and exhibitions that present the work of its scientists to the public. Its facilities include the Museum Support Center (Suitland, Maryland), a marine science center in Fort Pierce (Florida) and field stations in Belize, Alaska and Kenya.

Petrified Wood

Pre-Cambrian Banded Iron Ore (Jasper Knob, Michigan)

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the museum:

• It has the largest natural history collection in the world, with over 146 million specimens of human remains, human cultural artifacts, plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks and meteorites. They include 30 million insects, 4.5 million plants preserved in the Museum’s herbarium, 7 million fish (stored in liquid-filled jars) and 2 million cultural artifacts (400,000 of which are are photographs housed in the National Anthropological Archives). Through an off-site active loan and exchange program, the museum’s collections can be accessed. Around 3.5 million specimens are out on loan every year and the rest of the collections not on display are stored in the non-public research areas of the museum and at the Museum Support Center.
• It is the third most visited museum in the world
• The museum on was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed exclusively to hold the national collections and research facilities.
• It is the most visited natural history museum in the world
• It is the most visited museum (of any type) in North America.
• With 8 million visitors in 2013, it is the most visited of all of the Smithsonian museums
• The main building has an overall area of 122,632 sq. m. (1,320,000 sq. ft.) with 30,200 sq. m. (325,000 sq. ft.) of exhibition and public space.
• The  building, as part of the 1901 McMillan Commission plan, was the first structure constructed on the north side of the National Mall
• The structure cost US$3.5 million (about US$85 million in inflation-adjusted 2012) dollars.
• It houses 415 full time employees
• It is also home to about 185 professional natural history scientists, the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural history in the world.
• It is only one of about six museums in the United States that has a T. rex skeleton.
• Research in the museum is divided into seven departments: mineral sciences, anthropology, botany, entomology, invertebrate zoology, paleobiology and vertebrate zoology.

Replica of Olmec Collosal Head (Tenochtitlan, Veracruz, Mexico, 1200-900 BCE)

Here’s the historical timeline of the museum:

• In 1846, the United States National Museum, initially housed in the Smithsonian Institution Building (better known today as the Smithsonian Castle) was founded as part of the Smithsonian Institution.
• In 1858, a formal exhibit hall opened.
• On June 28, 1902, due to its growing collection, Congress authorized construction of the new National Museum Building (known today as the Arts and Industries Building), covering a then-enormous 9,100 sq. m. (2.25 acres) and built in just 15 months at a cost of US$310,000.
• On March 1881, the National Museum Building was opened.
• On January 29, 1903, in order to provide the Smithsonian Institution with more space for collections and research, a special committee (composed of members of Congress and representatives from the Smithsonian’s board of regents) published a report asking Congress to fund a much larger structure than originally planned.
• On March 1903, the regents began considering sites for the new building
• On April 12, 1903, they settled on a site on the north side of B Street NW between 9th and 12th Streets. The D.C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall was chosen to design the structure.
• On July 1903, testing of the soil for the foundations.
• On March 17, 1910, the Natural History Building (as the National Museum of Natural History was originally known) opened its doors to the public.
• On June 1911, the building was fully completed.
• In 1997, Kenneth E. Behring donated US$20 million to modernize the museum.
• On November 2003, the museum opened the US$100 million Behring Hall of Mammals
• In 2004, the museum received US$60 million for the Sant Hall of Oceans and received a US$1 million gift from Tiffany & Co. for the purchase of precious gems for the National Gem Collection.
• In June 2008, the Victoria and Roger Sant family donated US$15 million to endow the new Ocean Hall at the museum.
• On August 2009, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its acquisition of the Hope Diamond, the gemstone was given its own exhibit and a new setting
• In March 2010, the museum opened its US$21 million human evolution hall.
• On March 2012, the museum received a US$35 million gift to renovate its Dinosaur Hall.

The Rotunda with its centerpiece stuffed African bush elephant named Henry

We entered the museum from the National Mall side.  At the Rotunda, we were greeted by the 8 ton, 14 ft. tall male African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) named Henry (at that time was the world’s largest land mammal on display in a museum), an iconic centerpiece installed here since 1959.  It was donated to the Smithsonian by  Josef J. Fénykövi. Fénykövi, a Hungarian big-game hunter who, in November 1955, tracked the elephant in the Cuando River region of southeastern Angola. 

Easter Island moai (stone figure)

This museum has 3 floors, but only 2 really have exhibits. At the north lobby entrance (Constitution Ave.), there is a Tyranosaurus rex skull, an intriguing Easter Island stone figures or moai (one of two acquired in 1888, one a complete statue, the other a head), probably one of the most photographed objects in the museum.

Skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex

Near a staircase is the 19th century Tsimshian Totem Pole from the  from Fort Simpson, British Columbia, at the American Northwest Coast, in 1876.

The Totem Post

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, opened on March 17, 2010 (the museum’s 100th anniversary), is “dedicated to the discovery and understanding of human origins.”  Named for David H. Koch (who contributed US$15 million to the $20.7 million exhibit), it occupies 1,400 sq. m. (15,000 sq. ft.) of exhibit space at the first floor.

Walking Upright

This permanent exhibition focuses on the epic story of how the human species evolved over 6 million years, adapting and surviving during an era of dramatic climate change.

Creating a World of Symbols

It features more than 285 early-human fossils and artifacts, lifelike full-size reconstructions of several hominid species and 23 interactive experiences, including a morphing station where visitors can see what they would look like as early humans.

Specimens include 75 replica skulls and an interactive human family tree that follows six million years of evolution.  The Changing the World Gallery focuses on issues surrounding climate change and humans’ impact on the world.

The What Does It Mean To Be Human Exhibit, designed by Reich + Petch, is the Hall’s core concept idea.  It focuses on milestones of Human Evolution (Walking Upright, Bigger Brains, Creating a World of Symbols, etc.).  It also covers the Smithsonian’s significant research on the geological and climate changes which occurred in East Africa during significant periods of Human Evolution.

Meet Homo Floresiensis

The exhibit highlights an actual fossil Neanderthal and replicas created by John Gurche, a famed Paleo artist. The exhibit also provides a complementary web site (which provides diaries and podcasts directly from related fields of research) and a Companion Book, What Does It Mean To Be Human (written by curator Richard Potts and Christopher Sloan).

Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals

The multi-award-winning   Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals, a permanent first floor exhibition designed by Reich + Petch, represents the oldest exhibition in the National Museum of Natural History. It has the largest collection of vertebrate specimens in the world (nearly twice the size of the next largest mammal collections), including historically important collections from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its collection, initiated by C. Hart Merriam, was expanded in the 1890s-1930s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (later the Department of the Interior).

It tells the story of mammal evolution across 225 million years, with more than 274 meticulously preserved specimens on permanent display, classified by continent and habitat. They include a koala, hippopotamus, gorilla, the tiny Spix’s disk-winged bat, the massive walrus, the familiar Eastern gray squirrel, the rare okapi,  a white rhinoceros (collected by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909) and  a short-beaked echidna (one of only five species of monotremes, or egg-laying mammals).  There’s also a bronze recreation of Morganucadon oehleri, the earliest-known mammal, which lived 210 million years ago.

Designed with families in mind, its mammal specimens are presented as works of modern art within strikingly minimal environmentals. Here, we discovered mammal’s evolutionary adaptions to hugely diverse contexts, and ultimately discovered that they too are mammals.

Wide Open Prairie

The hall includes four discovery zones with hands-on activities that help visitors explore an array of mammal adaptations and habitats around the world. An 8-minute film at the Evolution Theater  surveys the mammal family tree and the vast changes its members have been through in the past 225 million years.

Sant Ocean Hall

The 23,000 sq. ft. Sant Ocean Hall, the largest renovation of the museum since it opened in 1910, was named for the Roger Sant family, who donated US$15 million to endow the new hall and other related programs. Opened on September 27, 2008, this hall includes 674 marine specimens and models drawn from the over 80 million specimens in the museum’s total collection, the largest in the world.

Basilosaurus cetoides

This one-of-a-kind interpretive, permanent exhibition, at the first floor,  demonstrates how the ocean is intrinsically connected to other global systems and the daily lives of people around the world.

North Atlantic Right Whale

The collection includes: a real, life-size, coelenterate-long North Atlantic Right Whale named Phoenix (who scientists have been tracking since her birth in 1987), a 1,500-gallon aquarium, one female giant squid displayed in the center of the hall and a male displayed off to the side, an adult coelenterate, a Basilosaurus cetoides and 3 skeletons of ancient whale relatives (one of which had legs).

At the Ocean Explorer Theater, we watched a short film inviting visitors to explore the multitude of life that thrives two miles below the surface on board Alvin, a deep-ocean submersible. We also watched an innovative video presentation of global ocean data projected on a 6-ft. diameter sphere.

Global ocean data projected on a 6-ft. diameter sphere.

Other exhibits include bubblegum coral  (the largest-known deep sea coral, named for its bright pink color and gumball-like branch tips), a massive fossilized jaw of C. megalodon (a gigantic shark that prowled the ocean between 2.6 and 23 million years ago), carpet anemone, a snapping shrimp, a long-spined sea urchin plus 21 other species in the living Indo-Pacific coral reef.

African Voices

The African Voices  exhibit and associated website “examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa‘s peoples and cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, and the natural environment.”

Mud Masons of Mali

This permanent first floor exhibit includes historical and contemporary objects from the museum’s collection and commissioned sculptures, textiles, and pottery. Video interactives and sound stations provide selections from contemporary interviews, literature, proverbs, prayers, folk tales, songs and oral epics.

Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Materials

The 20,000 sq. ft.  Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals, at the second floor, is one of the most significant collections of its kind in the world.

Rubies and Sapphires

This permanent exhibition currently houses over 15,000 individual gems in the collection, as well as 350,000 minerals, 300,000 samples of rock and ore specimens and approximately 35,000 meteorites (which is considered to be one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind in the world).

Anthromorphic Stone

It showcases the most famous pieces of gems and minerals in the collection include the Hope Diamond (donated in 1958 by Harry Winston), the Star of Asia Sapphire (one of the largest sapphires in the world) and the Gachalá Emerald, one of the world’s largest, at 858 carats (172 g.)

Hope Diamond

It also encompasses re-created mines and galleries that present important research in mineral chemistry and physics; plate tectonics, seismology and the study of volcanoes; and planetary science.

Shattered Worlds

The specimens are augmented by two dozen interactive computer presentations and videos, large panels of stunning artwork, and a real-time display of global earthquake data.

Calcite (Elinwood Mine, Smith County, Tennessee)

Some its most important donors, besides Janet Annenberg Hooker, are Washington A. Roebling (the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge)  who gave 16,000 specimens to the collection; Frederick A. Canfield, who donated 9,000 specimens to the collection; and Dr. Isaac Lea, who donated the basis of the museum’s collection of 1312 gems and minerals.

Macleay’s Spectre (Extatosoma tiaratum, Australia)  at O. Orkin Insect Zoo

The O. Orkin Insect Zoo,  a permanent second floor exhibition sponsored by Orkin (a pest control company), offers visitors a variety of exhibits about insects, plenty of hands-on activities and entomologists and features live insects as well as daily tarantula feedings.

Brazilian red and white tarantula

Different habitats have been created to show the type of insects that live in different environments and how they have adapted to a freshwater pond, house, mangrove swamp, desert and rain forest.

Osteology: Bone Hall – Man and the Manlike Apes

The Osteology: Bone Hall, the oldest exhibition in the National Museum of Natural History, displays almost 300 vertebrate skeletons grouped by their evolutionary relationships.

Perciform Fishes

This permanent second floor exhibition highlights the diversity and unity of every major group of vertebrates, supporting ideas of evolution and common ancestry.

The diversity and unity of every major group of vertebrates is highlighted, supporting ideas of evolution and common ancestry.

Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt

The Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt Exhibit, at the second floor, West Wing, showcases more mummies than have been on display at any time in the museum’s history. The exhibition combines rare artifacts and cutting-edge research tools to illuminate how Smithsonian scientists have pieced together the lives of ancient Egyptians through their burial practices and rituals in preparation for their eternal life.

The Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution, an exhibit at the second floor (off the Rotunda, above the Mammals Hall) designed by Reich + Retch, innovatively combines a traditional exhibition with experiential learning provided by the live Butterfly Pavilion.  It allows “visitors a rare, up-close look at living butterfly and plant specimens, observing the many ways in which butterflies and other animals have evolved, adapted, and diversified together with their plant partners over tens of millions of years.”

Learning About Elephants, a learning station (added in the mid-2000s) on the second floor balcony, overlooking the “Fényköv Elephant” in the Rotunda, teaches the public about these endangered land mammals and their habitat, an important way to build support for their conservation. 

The 30-year-old, 2,300 sq. m. (25,000 sq. ft.) Dinosaur and Fossil Hall  was closed (since spring of 2014) during our visit as it was then undergoing a US$45 million (US$35 million of which was donated by billionaire David H. Koch on May 2012) upgrade (the largest, most extensive exhibition renovation in the museum’s history) and was anticipated to reopen in 2019. “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World,” a temporary exhibit, was opened last November 25, 2014 and will end upon the completion of the museum’s newly renovated dinosaur and fossil hall.

Check out “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World“

It consists of 46 “complete and important specimens” of fossilized skeletons and cast models of dinosaurs, including casts of a Tyrannosaurus rex  facing a Triceratops. The Triceratops exhibit, showing the first accurate dinosaur skeleton in virtual motion, was achieved through the use of scanning and digital technology. Its centerpiece is the 11 m. (35-ft.) long, 85% complete skeleton of “Wankel” or “Devil” rex, the first T. rex fossil skeleton owned by the museum (which until now has only had the cast of a skull).  It was  found in 1988 on United States Army Corps of Engineers-owned land in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana,  was obtained (via a 50-year lease) by the Smithsonian on June 2013 and arrived, packed up in 16 crates, at the National Museum of Natural History on April 15, 2014.

“The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost Work” – a temporary exhibit

The museum also has an IMAX Theater for feature-length films, and the Discovery Room, a family- and student-friendly hands-on activity room on the first floor.  In the lower level, there is a bird exhibit, Urban Bird Habitat Garden, with all the migratory and native birds to Washington D.C.

Rai (status stone, Yap, quarried 1904 on Palau)

National Museum of Natural History: 10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW, National Mall, Washington, D.C. 20560, United States. Open daily (except December 25), 10 AM – 5:30 PM. Admission is free.

Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700–1830

The “Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700–1830” is a permanent installation celebrating a generous promised gift to the National Gallery of Art (NGA). One of the largest and most refined assemblages of early American furniture and decorative arts in private hands, it was acquired, over the course of four decades, by George M. and Linda H. Kaufman of Norfolk, Virginia.  In October 2010, it was promised to the National Gallery of Art.

Philadelphia desk and bookcase, ca. 1755-65, with two heavily carved side chairs with hairy ball and claw feet. These high-style chairs were commissioned by John and Elizabeth Cadwalader, ca. 1770, for their home in Philadelphia.

In 1986, the NGA devoted ten rooms (more than 4,000 sq. ft., previously used for temporary exhibitions such as The Treasures of Tutankhamun and American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850–1875) to an extensive exhibition based exclusively on the Stellar Collection of Early American Furniture, Dutch and American Paintings, and some 100,000 works on paper acquired, with great connoisseurship together, by the Kaufmans.

Impressive specimen-top center table, ca. 1827–1830; whose massive frame was crafted by Philadelphia furniture maker Anthony Quervelle (1789–1856).

The installation will, in addition, also include paintings by celebrated American artists in the Gallery’s collection such as Gilbert Stuart. The new installation, highlighting nearly 100 examples of early American furniture and decorative arts from this distinguished collection, includes some 40 French floral watercolors by Pierre Joseph Redouté plus American, Chinese, and French porcelains. In the emergent American Republic, furniture was an expression of personal and national identity and stylistic influences from Europe were tempered by a vigorous independence and sense of pragmatic functionalism.

The Kaufman gift, dramatically complementing the NGA’s fine holdings of European decorative arts (donated by the Widener family) and major Dutch paintings with equally important American works of art, offers visitors to the nation’s capital an unprecedented opportunity to view some of the finest furniture made by colonial and post-revolutionary American artisans.

The Kaufman Collection of American furniture includes more than 200 objects, many of which were featured in the 1986–1987 “American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection” Gallery exhibition and catalog. The addition of the Kaufman Collection significantly enhanced the NPG’s decorative arts holdings which, although the NGA doesn’t actively collect decorative arts, consists of some 515 objects, including European furniture; tapestries; enamels; ceramics from the 15th and 16th centuries; Medieval treasury objects; a fine selection of 18th-century French furniture; and a large group of Chinese porcelains ( primarily from the Qing Dynasty of the 17th to 19th centuries).

Furniture and decorative arts from the collection have been on loan or appeared in exhibitions at numerous museums throughout the United States such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts; the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Winterthur, Delaware; the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; and the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C..  A smaller selection of other decorative arts, including looking glasses, mirrors and clocks, were all in the 1986–1987 exhibition.

Among the items on display are:

• A Boston dressing table with exotic japanned designs (1700–1730)
• A chest-on-chest (1765–1790) with four sculptural carved shells and a history of ownership by Providence merchant John Brown
• A monumental Philadelphia desk-and-bookcase (c. 1765) considered by many scholars to be one of the greatest examples of American case furniture
• An ornately inlaid Federal sideboard (1793–1795) made by Williams and Deming, New York, for Oliver Wolcott, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
• A tea table (1755–1765) with claw and ball feet and pierced talons attributed to John Townsend
• A singular inlaid Pembroke table (1780–1800) that descended in the Pringle family of Charleston.
• Numerous examples of seating furniture from distinguished sets, including two from the famous suite commissioned by Philadelphia merchant John Cadwalader and his wife Elizabeth Lloyd.
• A pair of painted and gilded porcelain “Old Paris” vases (c. 1820) with portraits of Presidents  George Washington and John Adams
• Four rare pieces of Bonnin and Morris porcelain (1770–1772), America’s first porcelain manufactory, made in Philadelphia
• An Amelung glass tumbler with the American eagle, made for the inauguration of President George Washington in 1789.
• Gloucester Sunset (1880), one the most dramatic of a series of watercolors done by the Winslow Homer of sailboats on Gloucester Harbor and  one of the artist’s most vibrant and luminous early watercolors.
• Two major watercolors by Childe Hassam, including Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (Leaning on a Garden Wall) (1890).
• More than 40 stunning watercolors of flowers, vegetables, and plants painted on vellum by French artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840), a favorite of Empress Josephine
• Important watercolors by Francis Augustus Silva, William Trost Richards, and others.
• The celebrated River View (1645), a painting by Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/03–1670), one of the finest and most atmospheric of this Dutch master’s majestic river scenes.
• A Pier in Dordrecht Harbor (early 1640s), a light-filled river scene by Aelbert Cuyp (1620–1691)
• An imposing landscape from the end of the 1640s by Jacob van Ruisdael (c. 1628/29–1682) that depicts a weathered brick bridge crossing an inland waterway near a large oak tree.
• A fanciful view of Amsterdam by Jan van der Heyden
• A representation of the marketplace in Haarlem by Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde (1638–1698).
• A trompe l’oeil depiction of a letter rack (1703) by Evert Collier.
• Bearded Man with a Beret (c. 1630), an expressive head study by Jan Lievens.

The Kaufman Collection, comprised of masterpieces from the major centers of furniture making (Boston, Salem, Newport, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Charleston), includes work from many renowned cabinetmaker such as Thomas Affleck, John Goddard, Benjamin Randolph, John and Thomas Seymour, and John Townsend.

Spanning the years from 1690 to 1830, furniture in the Kaufman Collection includes objects in the William and Mary, Queen Anne, Chippendale, and Neo-Classical styles. Most of the 35 paintings in the gift are Dutch, which greatly enhance the Gallery’s collection (particularly landscapes) in terms of quality and significance, plus some from the American and French traditions.

The exhibit was divided into four high-ceilinged areas in a roughly chronological manner, with stylistic and regional subsections.  At the entrance to the installation, from Sixth Street, is the first gallery which incorporated a variety of decorative arts.  It features a monumental Philadelphia Rococo desk and bookcase, flanked by two robustly carved chairs; two recently acquired early looking glasses hung over a marble-topped table; a rare japanned dressing table; plus some of the earliest and most dazzling pieces, which date from around 1700 to 1760.

The second room is a select grouping of furniture that draw attention to the diverse regional characteristics that had developed, by the third quarter of the eighteenth century, in the colonial centers. Featured is a vigorously carved Philadelphia high chest placed opposite an elegant Newport high chest, while the center of the room is dominated by an extraordinary Providence chest-on-chest.

Two projecting cases that display four exceedingly rare American porcelains, made at the American China Manufactory founded by Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris of Philadelphia, divide the Rococo from the Federal alongside an early glass tumbler crafted by John Frederick Amelung (active 1784 to about 1795).  American portraits from the Gallery’s permanent collection hang throughout the space, including seven recently conserved paintings by Gilbert Stuart, seen with exceptional porcelains from the Kaufmans’ collection.

The Federal room is highlighted by a magnificently inlayed, 18^th century New York mahogany sideboard made and labeled by cabinetmakers William Mills and Simeon Deming (active 1793–1798) and masterworks by renowned Boston furniture makers John and Thomas Seymour and Duncan Phyfe.

The fourth room, a striking finale to the installation, features Empire Style objects such as one of the finest specimen marble-top tables, installed on a faux-marble plinth in the center of the room. Ornately painted and archeologically inspired furniture, popular during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, is epitomized by the scrolled Grecian couch attributed to John and Hugh Finlay of Baltimore. Sixteen botanical watercolors by Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759–1840), contributing to the grandeur of this gallery, are double-hung on either side of a pair of exquisite New York girandole mirrors.

The Kaufman Collection – Masterpieces of American Furniture, 1700–1830: G/F West Building, National Gallery of Art Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Tel: 202-737-4215. Website: www.nga.gov.  Admission is free.

The Smithsonian National Postal Museum, a museum located opposite Union Station in DC’s NoMa neighborhood, was established on November 6, 1990 through a joint agreement between the United States Postal Service and the Smithsonian Institution.

Smithsonian National Postal Museum

Opened on July 30, 1993, it is located in the historic historic Beaux Arts-style City Post Office Building, a building that once served as the Main Post Office of Washington, D.C. from 1914 (when it was constructed) until 1986.

Museum entrance along 1st Street

The building, which also serves as the headquarters of the United States Department of Labor‘s Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as a data center for the United States Senate, was designed by the Graham and Burnham architectural firm (the same architectural firm as Union Station), which was led by Ernest Graham following the death of Daniel Burnham in 1912.

Museum lobby.  On the right are the four large video screens

Its historic lobby, restored in 1989, was designed to be active.  It includes a welcome center, and four large video screens with a series of vignettes.

Systems at Work Exhibit recreates the paths of letters, magazines, parcels, and other mail as they travel from sender to recipient over the last 200 years

The museum, honoring and celebrating America’s proud postal history, occupies 100,000 sq. ft. of the building with 35,000 sq. ft. devoted to exhibition space.

Statue of Benjamin Franklin, located in the foyer, done by Lithuanian-born artist William Zorach (ca. 1935)

The  museum’s award winning public spaces, shops and support facilities were designed by the Washington, D.C. firm of Florance Eichbaum Esocoff King Architects while the galleries and inaugural exhibitions were designed by Miles Fridberg Molinaroli, Inc. with Bowie Gridley Architects.

Binding the Nation – Post Secret: The Power of a Postcard (August 3, 2015 – January 1, 2018) – exhibits more than 500 artfully decorated postcards mailed anonymously from around the world

It displays a vast collection of stamps from the National Philatelic Collection, which features more than 5.9 million items (the Smithsonian’s second-largest collection after that of the National Museum of Natural History).  The museum has one of the largest and most significant philatelic and postal history collections in the world and one of the world’s most comprehensive library resources on philately and postal history.

Check out “National Museum of Natural History“

Trailblazing: 100 Years of Our National Parks (June 9, 2016 – March 3, 2019) exhibit chronicles intersections between mail and US national parks

It also houses a 6,000 sq. ft. research library (more than 40,000 books and archival documents), a gift shop, a separate stamp shop and many interactive displays about the history of the United States Postal Service and of mail service around the world.

Pony Express: Romance vs Reality examines fictional and actual stories from the history of the world’s best known mail carriers.

Replica of mud wagon that crisscrossed the western territories

It also has informative exhibits, for all ages, on the Pony Express, the use of railroads with the mail and the preserved remains of Owney (the first unofficial postal mascot).

Railway mail train. The Railway Mail Service revolutionized the way mail was processed by sorting mail aboard moving trains.

Interior of train car. Mail previously untouched in bags on train floors was processed as the train sped toward its destination.

An exhibit on direct marketing, called “What’s in the Mail for You,” produces a souvenir envelope with your name printed on it and a coupon for the gift shop.

The preserved remains of Owney, the first unofficial postal mascot, who died from a bullet wound on June 11, 1897. His harness is weighed down by a number of tags.

Bronze statue of Owney

Visitors here learn the fascinating evolution of how Americans have used the mail to communicate with each other and the world.

Mail-carrying stagecoach from 1851

Guests will take a walk through history and see how mail has been transported, in a variety of eye-catching displays, whether it be early automobiles on dirt roads, stagecoaches chugging across the country, prop-planes in the skies above, or being pulled by real horsepower.

Creating Your Own Stamp Design

Visitors will see the diversity of postage from around the globe and also discover the art of stamp making and design, as well as how to start their own collection.

William H. Gross Stamp Gallery

In 2005, the museum acquired John Lennon‘s childhood stamp collection and, on September 2009, the museum received a US$8 million gift from Pimco investment management firm founder William H. Gross  to help finance the expansion of the museum. Every two years, since 2002, the museum has presented the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award.

The 12,000 sq. ft. William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, the largest of its kind dedicated to philately, was named in his honor and opened on September 22, 2013. It houses the first American stamps, from 1847, a piece of mail from the 1860 Pony Express with “recovered from a mail stolen by the Indians” written on the envelope, and the 1918 “Inverted Jenny” with its biplane printed upside down — the most famous U.S. stamp-printing error. 

The author (right) at the atrium

The Postal Museum’s atrium, sporting a 90 ft. high ceiling, has vital objects from the postal past hanging overhead such as 3 airmail planes –  a De Havilland DH-4 airmail plane No. 249; a Wiseman-Cooke airplane and the Stinson Reliant SR-10F.

Stinson Reliant SR-10F was used in 1939 to test a unique airmail service for communities that did not have landing fields.

De Havilland DH-4 airmail plane No. 249 was used in the early 1920s to carry mail primarily in the western U.S. Henry Boonstra crashed this aircraft into a snow covered mountain on December 15, 1922.

Wiseman-Cooke airplane. Fred Wiseman took off in his airplane on February 17, 1911, the first heavier-than air flight sanctioned by a U.S. post office

The room is also adorned with a stagecoach from 1851 and a 1932 Ford Model A postal truck. They can also browse through a 1920s-style post office.

Jandy (right) beside a 1931 Ford Model A postal truck

Among its permanent exhibitions are: “Binding the Nation” (opened July 30, 1993), “Systems at Work” (opened December 14, 2011), “Moving the Mail,” “Mail Call” (opened November 10, 2011), “Customers and Communities” (opened July 30, 1993) and “Pony Express: Romance vs. Reality” (opened April 3, 2010).

Modular post office was in operation in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania from 1913 to 1971. Prefabricated panels, produced by the Federal Equipment Company of New York, New York and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, included one with a designated “Money Order” window, another for “Registry” mail and a third for “General Delivery.” The post office door was marked “Postmaster” and “private.” A separate section offered brass drops for letters, papers and packages.

The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Stamp,” is on display here through November 2017. 

The 1986 Long Life Vehicle (LLV), a white, boxy postal truck, marked a major change in how postal officials approached buying vehicles

Museum Shop

Smithsonian National Postal Museum: Postal Square Building, 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. Tel: (202) 357-2700. Website: www.postalmuseum.si.edu. Open daily (except December 25), 10 AM – 5:30PM. As a Smithsonian museum, admission is free.The library is open to the public by appointment only.

How to Get There: take the Metro‘s Red Line to Union Station and use the Massachusetts Avenue exit.  The museum is across the street. The DC Circulator also connects the museum and Union Station to the National Mall. Street parking is available nearby and all-day paid parking can be had at Union Station (2,000 slots), located right next to the museum. The museum is accessible by wheelchair, with ramps at its 1st Street entrance and North Capitol Street entrance, via the U.S. Post Office.