The Smithsonian Museum

The Smithsonian: 21 Institutions, All Free, Impossible to See in a Week

The Smithsonian Institution is not a museum. It is 21 museums, galleries, and a zoo, collectively holding 155 million objects across Washington DC and New York. Admission to all of them is free. This is a government commitment made possible by an 1846 bequest from British scientist James Smithson, who left his estate to the United States to found an institution for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” despite having never visited the country.

The practical implication is that you cannot plan a Smithsonian visit. You plan individual Smithsonian museum visits, plural, and accept that you will miss most of what exists across the institution.

The National Museum of Natural History

The Natural History building on the National Mall, between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, is the most visited natural history museum in the world. The Hall of Human Origins traces human evolution from Australopithecus through Homo sapiens using skull replicas, reconstructed environments, and interactive genetic comparison tools. The Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals contains the Hope Diamond, a 45.52-carat blue diamond with a provenance involving French royalty, an Indian mine, and a series of owners who died badly. The gem is exhibited in a rotating display case under its own spotlighting.

The ocean hall on the first floor is better than most visitors expect: a 45-foot North Atlantic right whale model hangs from the ceiling above reconstructed deep-sea environments. The Sant Ocean Hall covers six floors of marine biology, including actual specimens in display cases and preserved whale specimens that have been there since the 1960s.

The museum is large enough that a focused 3-hour visit covering one or two halls in depth is more useful than a 6-hour survey that produces exhaustion without retention.

The National Air and Space Museum

Two locations: the original Mall building near the Capitol, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Virginia, which is the better option if you can get there. The Udvar-Hazy Center holds larger aircraft that do not fit in the Mall building, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Concorde, an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, and the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

The Mall building is more accessible by Metro and contains the Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 Command Module, and the original Spirit of St. Louis. The Charles Lindbergh aircraft hangs from the ceiling in the main gallery. Touching it is not permitted, but you can stand close enough to see the fuel gauges and the interior of the cockpit.

The flight simulators in the Mall building cost extra ($10-12 per ride) and have queues on busy days. They are a reasonable addition for children, optional for adults.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture

This is the most powerful museum in the Smithsonian system and one of the most important museums in the United States. It opened in 2016 after a century of advocacy and planning. The building is clad in bronze-colored aluminum panels designed in reference to West African Yoruba architectural tradition. The shape is intentional: the three tiers of the corona represent overturned wooden shackles.

The collection starts in the basement with the era of transatlantic slavery and rises floor by floor through Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights movement, and contemporary culture. The Segregation section includes an original guard tower from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where incarcerated men, disproportionately Black, still pick cotton. The culture galleries upstairs cover music, sport, visual art, and performance.

Timed-entry tickets are required and released online 30 days in advance. Weekend slots sell out within minutes. Midweek morning slots are more available. Walk-up availability exists in small quantities at 1 PM daily, but is not guaranteed.

The National Museum of American History

The Star-Spangled Banner, the 30-by-34-foot flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the British bombardment in 1814 and inspired Francis Scott Key’s poem-turned-anthem, is displayed in its own climate-controlled gallery at the center of the building. It is behind glass in low lighting to slow deterioration; the conservation effort is ongoing.

Other notable objects: the actual ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939 production, worn by Judy Garland), Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, the First Ladies’ gowns collection, a collection of Julia Child’s kitchen equipment donated after her death including her actual refrigerator, and extensive collections related to American popular culture, military history, and industry.

Logistics

All Mall museums are Metro-accessible from the Smithsonian or L’Enfant Plaza stations on the Orange, Blue, and Silver lines. The Mall buildings are within walking distance of each other; the walk from the Capitol end to the Lincoln Memorial is 1.9 miles, which is too far to do while carrying museum fatigue.

Cafe quality at Smithsonian museums varies. The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian serves Indigenous dishes organized by regional tradition: Plains, Northwest Coast, Mesoamerica, South America, and the Native Northeast. It is the best cafeteria food in the museum complex and consistently worth the wait.

Hotels on or near the Mall are expensive. The Crystal City and Pentagon City neighborhoods in Arlington, Virginia, are a short Metro ride away and have significantly cheaper hotel options, including several around the Crystal City Metro station.