Washington - Smithsonian Institution (Castle)

The Anacostia Museum focuses on African American history and culture. The research, programs and exhibitions are community based and try to raise consciousness of the Black experience in the United States. Past exhibits at the Anacostia Museum have included African American inventions, black churches, African American artists and the meaning of Kwanzaa.

The building's exhibition halls are currently closed in preparation for renovation.

Discovery Theater presents live dramas, musicals and puppet shows for children. Each season offers over 30 productions.

The National Museum of American Art is a part of the Smithsonian Institution. It houses a collection of approximately 38,000 paintings, sculptures, folk art pieces, photographs and graphics. The museum's Lincoln Gallery was the site of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball.

The collection is designed to represent the "nation's ethnic, geographic, cultural, and religious diversity." A few examples of the artists included in the collection are Thomas Cole, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence and Georgia O'Keeffe. The Indian paintings of George Catlin are one of the collection's highlights.

It began in 1829 on the initiative of Washington resident John Varden, thus making it the nation's first federal art collection.

The National Museum of American Art is located in the Greek-Revival Style Old Patent Office Building built between 1836 and 1867.

The National Museum of the American Indian presents galleries and displays of Native life and history. The collections include Native art, events, Native American object, and information on boat building. The Main Theater provides plays, storytelling, dance and music presentations, film and video viewing, lectures and seminars.

The 75,000 square-foot National Postal Museum houses a wide collection of postal related material including rare stamps and letters, airmail planes and a Pony Express exhibit.

It is located in the City Post Office Building, which was constructed in 1914 and served as the city's main post office from that year until 1986.

There are more than 16 million items in the museum collection, which started back in 1884 as the National Philatelic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. It moved to its present location in 1993.

Some of the highlights include an original postcard salvaged from the German Zeppelin "Hindenburg", a number of very rare, inverted stamps and the first piece of mail flown across the Atlantic.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery displays crafts and decorative arts, including wood, glass, fiber, metal and clay, from early America to the present. The Renwick Gallery was built in 1859 to house the American and European art collection of William Wilson Corcoran.