I have been to all the major sites more than a few times. Any offbeat places to visit such as museums , galleries or historic sites?
Ford’s Theater has a museum on Lincoln’s assassination. Could be interesting, depending on what interests you.
They have on display some of the items he was carrying and wearing when he was killed.
Try the Spy Museum.
What about Anacostia? The crime rate has fallen after the crack epidemic died down. Frederick Douglass’s home is there and the Smithsonian has a museum over there.
Did you go to Georgetown and see the canal?
I think that there may be an old one-room schoolhouse tucked away somewhere in DC, but I don’t know if it’s open for tours.
Are you open to stuff in Alexandria or environs (not technically DC since the mid-1800’s)? There are some great things to see down there, including the old slave trading office and George Washington’s home church (still open for services, you can just stop on by).
Have you been to the Postal Museum? I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It also suprised me by having a section dedicated to the Japanese-American Internment. It’s a part of American history that really doesn’t seem to get acknowledged much.
The DEA Museum, near the Pentagon, features a replica crack house.
The National Cryptologic Museum. It’s off the beaten path. You get to play with the enigma machine. What could be more fun? Or go to DC in the spring when the embassies have open house and drink their wine and taste their food for a minimal amount of $$.
Sucks.
It too is in Georgetown, on M Street before you get to Wisconsin (if you’re traveling out from downtown).
Have you been to the Phillips Collection in Dupont? I wouldn’t call it out of the way, but it’s never the first museum someone goes to as it costs money. But it’s worth the price. I believe Kandinsky’s Painting With White Border is still there (but not much longer), and it’s the permanent home of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party.
There are various Civil War forts that are supposed to be worth the trip, although I’ve never been myself.
–Cliffy
Oh and go to the Library of Congress and get on a tour, it’s totally awesome. But then again, I love books.
Doesn’t the US Military maintain a museum of funerary customs near Arlington National Cemetery?
The National Museum of Health and Medicine is currently closed for relocation, but should reopen this fall.
I would expect that some of the exhibits might change, but they have interesting displays on Civil War medicine and battlefield surgery, some Lincoln stuff (including the bullet that killed him), and the spookiest display for formaldehyde-and-body-part-filled bottles you’ve ever seen
There is the Lincoln Cottage in Petworth on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home. It is where he spent about a quarter of his presidency; across the street is the Rock Creek Church Cemetry where Alice Roosevelt, Tim Russert, Upton Sinclair, and many others are buried. Henry Adams’ grave is probably the most well know, it is commonly called Grief after a comment Mark Twain made after seeing the site; it is also where Eleanor Roosevelt used to come to sit and think.
ETA: there is also the Big Chair in Anacostia. It is exactly what it sounds like.
The Spy Museum has already been mentioned (I like it, for what it’s worth).
There’s also the Folger Shakespeare Library, with its facade of scenes from the great plays and its full-size replica Globe Theater.
DC abounds in art museums. Besides the National Gallery there’s the Sackler Gallery and the Corcoran
Anderson House is the home of the Society of the Cincinnati, and houses its library. Lots of the Founding Fathers were members: http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/lib.htm
some museums are only open by appintment, and you may have to arrange in advance
Also, as a Russian studies major, I am legally required to recomend the Hillwood museum’s Russian collection http://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/.
You can see the Darth Vadaer grotesque at the national cathedral
Pick a few countries you like, look up their embassy and see if they do tours.
A tourist thing to do is to take a canal boat ride through one of the locks (if that’s still an option). There used to be free “concerts on the canal” during the summer, which were fun. Go to a concert at Wolf Trap and sit on a blanket on the lawn with your picnic lunch.
Theodore Roosevelt Island is a really nice little park, with a fitting monument to our most outdoorsy president. It’s not really accessible by public transport though.
Tour Arlington Manor.
The Wakefield Chapelin Annandale (Across to the graveyard and two houses to the left is where I grew up.)