DC Museums Worth the Price of Admission

Spies, Criminals and Journalists take Center Stage at 3 DC Museums

Apr 24, 2009

One of the great things about Washington DC are all the free museums. But there are several niche museums that are well worth the price of admission.

Visitors to DC should venture away from the Mall and check out these interesting offerings.

Become a spy

For anyone who has dreamed of being James Bond, the International Spy Museum is the place to go. This highly interactive museum is the only public museum in the U.S. dedicated to espionage.

Before entering the exhibits, guests adopt a cover identity to use throughout the experience. Immediately upon entering the School for Spies exhibit the visitor will be quizzed on their cover and learn the tricks of the spy trade including observation, analysis, surveillance, disguises and identification. Guests can view over 200 artifacts related to the technical aspects of spying including button cameras, lipstick guns, and an ominous sounding rectal tool kit!

The museum also examines the history of espionage, highlights famous spies like Julia Child and Ian Fleming, and looks at spying during the Cold War.

In June, the museum launches its Spy in the CityÔ GPS program. Guests undertake a high-stakes mission to uncover and stop a planned terrorist attack in the capital by locating hidden clues, cracking codes and finding a secret password in the nick of time. This outdoor adventure sends aspiring spies throughout the city on a one to three hour adventure. Former spies helped create the program.

All the news that’s fit to view

The news industry is all about timeliness, and the Newseum, a 250,000 square foot museum dedicated to journalism, is the timeliest museum ever conceived. Every day, 80 newspaper front pages are displayed, and the staff reacts to news of the news as quickly as a journalist. For example, when Tim Russert passed away suddenly on a Friday, the museum opened on Saturday with a tribute exhibit and film on his life.

The Newseum features 14 exhibition galleries focused on news history, photojournalism, electronic media, world news and how the media covers major events. In the News History Gallery over 30,000 historic newspapers trace the evolution of the industry, while the Interactive News Gallery gives the visitor the chance to take on the role of reporter, editor, anchor or photojournalists. The 9/11 Gallery looks at how the media covered September 11, while the Berlin Wall Gallery looks at the media’s 30-years of coverage, and features one of the largest sections of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany. The Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery showcases the largest and most comprehensive collection of Pulitzer Prize winning shots ever assembled.

Men in blue

Crime and punishment fascinate the general population as evidenced by the success of TV shows like Law & Order and CSI. Visitors to the National Museum of Crime & Punishment get a snapshot of crime and punishment through the eyes of both the criminal and the crime fighter.

Five galleries explore the history of crime, the consequence of crime, crime fighting, crime solving and America’s Most Wanted. Throughout each exhibit the visitor can participate in interactive activities like testing shooting skills in the Wild West, trying to beat a lie detector, taking part in a simulated police chase and participating in an FBI bust. The highlight of the museum is the chance to play CSI investigator in the crime-solving gallery. Here the visitor analyzes the scene of a crime and then follows the steps an investigator would undertake to solve the murder.

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