Official Guide To The Smithsonian 5th Edition

The go-to guide for visitors who want to maximize their experience at the Smithsonian’s 19 museums and National Zoo The Smithsonian holds more than 155 million artifacts and specimens in its trust. The Official Guide to the Smithsonian makes navigating the world’s largest museum complex more efficient and fulfilling. Featuring a huge amount of history, highlights, and pertinent museum information, the colorful guide is designed to enrich time spent in the Smithsonian’s incredible galleries and museums on the National Mall, the Washington metropolitan area, and New York City. The new 2021 edition features major updates for all the museums. This includes a full treatment of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the most recent Smithsonian museum, as well as the Deep Time hall at the National Museum of Natural History, their new fossil hall that displays towering fossils of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures to explore the epic story of Earth. Each detailed section presents the history of the museum and offers a fully illustrated, gallery-by-gallery tour. It also includes all the practical information such as location, hours, phone numbers, public transportation, services, tours, dining, gift shops, special attractions for children, and website addresses. With so much to see and do across the vast Smithsonian collections, this is the definitive source of information in one place.

From Dorothy's red slippers to dinosaurs to the Wright brothers' plane, the Smithsonian is filled with objects fascinating to kids. Yet choosing what to see at the Smithsonian can challenge even the most enthusiastic families. Packed with activities, information, and pictures, this lively new guide offers children ages 8-12 years a way to navigate the Smithsonian. Engaging maps, photographs, and illustrations present the main museum halls along with puzzles, games, mad libs, and pages for journal entries, drawings, and superlatives that will help get kids ready for their big trip to the nation's capital and keep them focused and attentive as they navigate the world's largest museum complex that is the Smithsonian Institution. Awesome Adventures at the Smithsonian (spiral bound) is the perfect way to engage any child on their big trip to Washington, DC, and the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian Institution is America's largest, most important, and most beloved repository for the objects that define our common heritage. Now Under Secretary for Art, History, and Culture Richard Kurin, aided by a team of top Smithsonian curators and scholars, has assembled a literary exhibition of 101 objects from across the Smithsonian's museums that together offer a marvelous new perspective on the history of the United States. Ranging from the earliest years of the pre-Columbian continent to the digital age, and from the American Revolution to Vietnam, each entry pairs the fascinating history surrounding each object with the story of its creation or discovery and the place it has come to occupy in our national memory. Kurin sheds remarkable new light on objects we think we know well, from Lincoln's hat to Dorothy's ruby slippers and Julia Child's kitchen, including the often astonishing tales of how each made its way into the collections of the Smithsonian. Other objects will be eye-opening new discoveries for many, but no less evocative of the most poignant and important moments of the American experience. Some objects, such as Harriet Tubman's hymnal, Sitting Bull's ledger, Cesar Chavez's union jacket, and the Enola Gay bomber, tell difficult stories from the nation's history, and inspire controversies when exhibited at the Smithsonian. Others, from George Washington's sword to the space shuttle Discovery, celebrate the richness and vitality of the American spirit. In Kurin's hands, each object comes to vivid life, providing a tactile connection to American history. Beautifully designed and illustrated with color photographs throughout, The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects is a rich and fascinating journey through America's collective memory, and a beautiful object in its own right.

The best way to see—really see—any city is on foot. The perennial favorite Washington on Foot has been completely revised and updated to offer 24 walking tours of Washington's neighborhoods. Familiar monuments and museums are all here, side-by-side with lesser-known historic sites and storied residential neighborhoods. Washington on Foot offers history, culture, architecture, urban planning, and more. It's the complete city in a tidy package and the only "outdoor" Washington guidebook needed. Ideal not only for visitors but for locals who truly want to get to know their city. The updated fifth edition of this essential guide features user-friendly maps, architectural illustrations, historical and culture information, and much more.

An inspiring and surprising celebration of U.S. women's history told through Smithsonian artifacts illustrating women's participation in science, art, music, sports, fashion, business, religion, entertainment, military, politics, activism, and more. This book offers a unique, panoramic look at women's history in the United States through the lens of ordinary objects from, by, and for extraordinary women. Featuring more than 280 artifacts from 16 Smithsonian museums and archives, and more than 135 essays from 95 Smithsonian authors, this book tells women's history as only the Smithsonian can. Featured objects range from fine art to computer code, from First Ladies memorabilia to Black Lives Matter placards, and from Hopi pottery to a couch from the Oprah Winfrey show. There are familiar objects--such as the suffrage wagon used to advocate passage of the 19th Amendment and the Pussy Hat from the 2016 Women's March in DC--as well as lesser known pieces revealing untold stories. Portraits, photographs, paintings, political materials, signs, musical instruments, sports equipment, clothes, letters, ads, personal posessions, and other objects reveal the incredible stories of such amazing women as Phillis Wheatley, Julia Child, Sojourner Truth, Mary Cassatt, Madam C. J. Walker, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Till Mobley, Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta, Phyllis Diller, Celia Cruz, Sandra Day O'Connor, Billie Jean King, Sylvia Rivera, and so many more. Together with illuminating text, these objects elevate the importance of American women in the home, workplace, government, and beyond. Published to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, Smithsonian American Women is a deeply satisfying read and a must-have reflection on how generations of women have defined what it means to be recognized in both the nation and the world.

This fully illustrated guide to the world's most-visited aviation and space museum is both an indispensable companion for visitors and a detailed history in itself of humanity's quest for flight. The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum maintains the world's largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft plus an amazing assortment of other historic objects. Many fascinating items from the twenty-three galleries and two off-site facilities—including the Wright Flyer, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1, and the spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin—are presented here in 200 full-color photographs, accompanied by their equally intriguing stories.

Which president holds the record for the most vetoes? Which president had the largest shoe size? Who was the only president to serve in both World War I and World War II? Who was the tallest president? These questions and many, many more are answered in The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia, which has been fully updated to 2024 to include trivia question and answers about every US president to date. Divided into 11 chapters, The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia looks at every aspect of our heads of state and presidential history: Citizens, Officers, Heroes, and Saviors; Stumping: From Front Porch to Facebook; The Pledge and the Parties; Inside the Oval Office; The Perpetual Podium; Home, Hotel, Parlor, Playground; First Families; Impeachment, Controversy, Shame; Assassination; Death, and National Mourning; Presidents in the Popular Imagination; and The Quotable President. Many of the questions are accompanied with photographs of artifacts from the Smithsonian's collections. The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia is sure to puzzle the trivia buff and presidential expert alike!