Free
In 1835, the United States got some amazing news. James Smithson, an Englishman who had never set foot in the U.S., had given our country half a million dollars. He wanted to establish a Smithsonian Institution “to increase . . . knowledge among men.”
Three years later, 105 bags of gold coins arrived. This gift confused the nation’s leaders. First they debated about whether to take the money. Then they couldn’t decide how to use it. Finally, in 1846, Congress passed an act that established the Smithsonian Institution as both a museum and a research organization. The Smithsonian’s first building was completed in 1852. Today the institution includes 19 museums. Seventeen of these are in Washington, D.C. There are also nine research centers and the National Zoo. The newest addition is the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It’s set to open soon.
There are so many national treasures in the Smithsonian, it has been called the Nation’s Attic.
◀ Ten of the Smithsonian’s museums are located on or near the Mall. This is a huge green lawn that runs from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. It was part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original design for the city. It’s also the site of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Blossom Kite Festival, and the National Independence Day celebration. The Million Man March took place there in 1995. ▼
The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum is devoted to African American history. The Griffiths family of Washington, D.C., donated personal items. Many had been passed down from generation to generation, from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There were dolls, old letters, cookbooks, and schoolbooks. There were also old jewelry boxes that held bus tokens and political buttons. These items show what daily life was like in the twentieth century. This mural is from an exhibit called “Whose Art Is It Anyway?” ▶
◀ Want to see Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone? How about the gowns that first ladies wore to inaugural balls? Are you interested in George Washington’s gold-and-ivory false teeth? What about Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz? You’ll find these and thousands of other pieces of history and culture in the National Museum of American History.
▲ The National Museum of Natural History contains exhibits from the world of nature. Walk in one door and you’ll see a 13-foot-tall African elephant. At another entrance stand two giant totem poles carved by Northwest Coast Indians. Inside, you’ll find dinosaur skeletons, a model of a blue whale, and the world’s largest blue diamond. The museum also has a live-insect zoo, where you can watch tarantulas being fed. Or you can check out a foot-long centipede. You can even pet a hissing cockroach.
▲ The National Air and Space Museum is the most popular museum in the world. Ten million visitors a year come to look at its historical flying machines. These include the plane Amelia Earhart flew in the first female solo crossing of the Atlantic, in 1932. You’ll also find the Wright Brothers’ first plane. It hangs as high off the ground as it rose on its first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Spirit of St. Louis is there, too. Charles Lindbergh flew it on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. There’s also the Apollo spacecraft, in which man first landed on the Moon.
◀ Who are the most famous animals in the National Zoo? They’re probably Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, two giant pandas on loan from China.
