Opening hours, prices and tickets for places worth your time.
The National Museum of the American Indian is the Smithsonian museum devoted to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, opened in 2004 at Fourth Street and Independence Avenue on the National Mall. Its curving building, clad in golden Kasota limestone, was designed by Douglas Cardinal. Exhibitions present objects, art and histories from across the hemisphere.
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum on the National Mall, established by Congress in 1937 with the collection and funds of Andrew W. Mellon. John Russell Pope's neoclassical West Building shows European and American art from the Middle Ages on, I. M. Pei's East Building of 1978 holds modern art, and a sculpture garden lies beside them.
Ford's Theatre opened in 1863 on 10th Street NW; on 14 April 1865 John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln here, and Lincoln died the next morning in the Petersen House across the street. Restored and reopened as a working theatre in 1968, it forms a historic site with a museum, the theatre and the President's Box, the Petersen House and exhibits on the aftermath.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts was founded by Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay and opened in 1987 in a former Masonic Temple of 1908 on New York Avenue. Its collection of more than 6,000 works by women artists ranges from the 16th century to today, with works by Mary Cassatt, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Frida Kahlo.
The National Archives Museum occupies the National Archives Building on Constitution Avenue, designed by John Russell Pope and completed in the 1930s. Its Rotunda displays the original Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and further galleries show records from the nation's archives.
The National Air and Space Museum is the Smithsonian's museum of flight and space exploration on the National Mall, founded in 1946 and housed in a building opened in 1976. Its galleries show original aircraft and spacecraft, among them the 1903 Wright Flyer, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia.
The Museum of the Bible is a museum two blocks south of the National Mall, opened in 2017 by a nonprofit founded by the Green family. It occupies a brick refrigerated warehouse of 1923, extended with two new floors under a glass roof. Its exhibitions cover the history, narrative and impact of the Bible, with manuscripts, printed Bibles and archaeological objects.
The Peabody Essex Museum in central Salem grew out of the East India Marine Society, founded in 1799 by Salem sea captains to show objects brought home from their voyages. It joins the collections of the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute, with maritime, American, Asian, Oceanic and African art, and owns 22 historic buildings.
The National Mall is a landscaped park in central Washington, laid out on Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city and run by the National Park Service. Its lawns stretch from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and, in the wider sense, on to the Lincoln Memorial, lined by Smithsonian museums, galleries and memorials.
The National Museum of Natural History is a Smithsonian museum on the north side of the National Mall, opened in 1910 in a Neoclassical building designed by Hornblower & Marshall. Its halls cover fossils and dinosaurs, ocean life, human origins, and gems and minerals, among them the Hope Diamond.
The Phillips Collection is an art museum near Dupont Circle, opened in 1921 by Duncan and Marjorie Phillips in his family's 1897 Georgian Revival house, later extended by two additions. The collection centers on Impressionist and modern art, including Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party and a room of paintings by Mark Rothko.
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the Smithsonian's museum of modern and contemporary art on the National Mall, opened in 1974 around the collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. Gordon Bunshaft designed the raised concrete cylinder with a fountain in its inner courtyard; a sunken sculpture garden lies across Jefferson Drive.
Nationals Park is the baseball stadium of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals, on the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard neighbourhood. Designed by HOK Sport with Devrouax & Purnell, it opened in 2008 and seats about 41,000. From the upper decks on the first-base side you can see the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
The Salem Witch Museum tells the history of the Salem witch trials of 1692, in which 19 people were hanged. Opened in 1972, it occupies the former East Church, a Gothic Revival building of 1844–1846 facing Salem Common. A narrated presentation with thirteen life-size stage sets follows the trials, and a second exhibit traces how the image of the witch changed.
Salem Maritime National Historical Park preserves 12 historic structures, wharves and a replica tall ship on Salem Harbor. Established in 1938 as the first US National Historic Site, it covers Salem's trade with Asia and the Caribbean, privateering in the Revolution and the slave trade. Its buildings include the 1819 Custom House, where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked.
The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian's museum of traditional and contemporary art from across the African continent, founded on Capitol Hill in 1964 and part of the Smithsonian since 1979. Since 1987 it has occupied a mostly underground building beside the Enid A. Haupt Garden, entered through a domed pavilion on Independence Avenue.
The White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the residence and office of the US president, home to every president since John Adams in 1800. James Hoban designed the Neoclassical sandstone house, rebuilt after the British burned it in 1814. Visitors see it from Lafayette Square and the Ellipse; the White House Visitor Center has exhibits on its history.
The National Museum of American History is a Smithsonian museum on the National Mall, opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology in a building by McKim, Mead & White. Its exhibitions cover the social, political, cultural, scientific and military history of the United States. Among the objects on display is the original Star-Spangled Banner.
Washington National Cathedral is an Episcopal cathedral in northwest Washington, built in Neo-Gothic style modelled on English Gothic of the late 14th century. The foundation stone was laid in 1907 and the building was completed in 1990. Visitors see the nave, chapels, stained glass such as the Space Window, and carved gargoyles and grotesques.
The National Museum of Asian Art is the Smithsonian's museum of Asian art on the south side of the National Mall. It joins the Freer Gallery of Art, opened in 1923, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, opened in 1987 and largely underground. Its collection runs from the Neolithic to today, with Chinese jades, Japanese ceramics, Islamic paintings and Whistler's Peacock Room.
Vizgu uses necessary technologies to make the site work. With your permission, we also use optional technologies to remember features and measure affiliate ticket referrals. We currently use no general analytics or advertising trackers. You can accept, reject or choose categories, and change your choice at any time through Cookie preferences in the footer.
