The Smithsonian Museum

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

James Smithson, a British scientist who had never visited the United States, died in 1829 and left his entire estate to the country with the instruction to use it for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” He had no known connection to America. The bequest led to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846, and over the following 180 years it grew into 21 museums, galleries, and a zoo collectively holding 155 million objects. All of them are free to enter.

The practical implication: you cannot plan a Smithsonian visit. You plan individual museum visits and accept that you will see a small fraction of what exists.

National Museum of African American History and Culture

This is the most important museum in the Smithsonian system. It opened in 2016 after a century of advocacy and planning. The building is clad in bronze-colored aluminium panels designed with reference to West African Yoruba architectural tradition; the three tiers represent overturned wooden shackles. The collection begins 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. Allow four to five hours minimum.

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

National Museum of Natural History

The most visited natural history museum in the world. The Hall of Human Origins traces evolution from Australopithecus through Homo sapiens. The Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals holds 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 Sant Ocean Hall on the first floor is better than most visitors expect: a 45-foot North Atlantic right whale model hangs above reconstructed deep-sea environments.

A focused 3-hour visit covering one or two halls in depth produces more retention than a 6-hour survey that ends in exhaustion.

National Air and Space Museum

Two locations: the Mall building near the Capitol (Metro-accessible) and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Virginia. The Udvar-Hazy Center is the better option if you can get there: Space Shuttle Discovery, a Concorde, an SR-71 Blackbird, and the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

The Mall building holds the Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 Command Module, and Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis hanging from the ceiling.

National Museum of American History

The Star-Spangled Banner – the 30-by-34-foot flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the 1814 British bombardment and inspired the national anthem – has its own climate-controlled gallery. Also: Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and Julia Child’s actual kitchen donated after her death including her original refrigerator.

Logistics

All Mall museums are Metro-accessible from the Smithsonian or L’Enfant Plaza stations. The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian serves Indigenous dishes organized by regional tradition; it is the best cafeteria food in the complex and consistently worth the queue.

Hotels near the Mall are expensive. Crystal City and Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia, are a short Metro ride away at significantly lower prices.