~The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum~
These two Museams, are now refereed to as the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.
~The National Portrait Gallery~
The National Portrait Gallery is a must see if any of you are in D.C. There is an "American Presidents" exhibit, kind of self explanatory, which houses portraits of early american presidents, this is located on the second floor. This exhibit, besides the paintings in the White House, is the only other complete collection of presidential portraits in the United States. The painting in this exhibit that I liked the most was "Lansdowne". It is a portrait of our very first president George Washington. The painting was done by Gilbert Stuart in 1796. I did not have a chance to stay in the Portrait Gallery for very long, however i did have a chance to see the "One life: Echos of Elvis" exhibit, which is not a permanent exhibit, like the "American Presidents". Everything was breathtaking.
~The Smithsonian American Art Museum~
The first floor is full of 19th century paintings, pictures as well as some modern sculpture. It is called "American Experience". The Paintings are mostly done by Edward Hopper, who lived from 1882 to 1967. Edward Hopper was a prominent realist painter, and I believe he was also into print making. His most commonly known painting is "Nighthawks" which was done in 1942. One painting that stuck in my mind was "Manhattan" By george O'keeffe, It was absolutly amazing to finally get to see this in person. On the second floor, the exhibit that I enjoyed most was, "American Art Through 1940" some artists in this exhibit were Frederic Auguste Barthold, Thomas Moran, and John Singer Sargent. John Singer Sargents work on display is known as the "Guided Age Portraits" <- I remembered that from Art History. John Singer Sargent lived from 1856 to 1925.
~National Air and Space Museum~
On my adventure in Washington D.C. during the cherry blossoms in april, along with going to the National Gallery of art and the Reynolds Center, I also went to the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History.
First, i will talk about the National Air and Space Museum. The National Air and Space Museum is a fascinating place, not only do you learn about Space and Technology, but the history behind it, as well as learning about techniques used during WWI and WWII, the planes and battleships that our country has used since the early 1900's. When you first walk into this museum, there are planes hanging from the ceiling. They have the wright brothers plane on display as well as Apollo 11's command module. The amount of United States history in this museum is astonishing. They have a number of Grumman planes- including the 'Hell Cat' , 'X-29 Experimental', and the f-14 tomcat. Seeing these planes in person was wonderful for me. my late grandfather was a head engineer for Grumman and specifically worked on these planes.
There are so many things to see in this Museum, the exhibits are broken down like this: On the first floor, they have "milestones of flight" which include the spirit of st. louise, apollo 11 and the x-15. "Golden Age Of flight" with Howard Hughes, H-1 racer, breaking speed records in 1937. "America by Air" with the nose of a 747 passenger jet you can literally walk in and a Douglas DC-3. "Space Race" With huge rockets extending almost to the ceiling. "Explore the Universe" Cosmo-Technology show room, this exhibit has telescopes used to look into space. My favorite exhibit: "How things Fly"
- The second floor has "Sea-Air Operations" Battleships/aircraft carriers, examples and movies of what life is like on an aircraft carrier. You can even stand at the helm of one! "Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" including the drones. "World War Two Aviation" , "Legend, Memory of the Great War in the Air" , "Exploring the Planets" , " Apollo and the Moon" , " the Wright Brothers and Invention of the Areal Age" and "Beyond the Limits".
There is so much historical information to absorb at time spent at this museum. Being able to see the first plane that ever took flight, or seeing how astronauts live in space, (what they eat/wear) is amazing to me. By far the most intriguing thing I absorbed was the advancement of technology within 100 years, we went from flying a wooden plane to traveling to the moon. What's Next?
~The National Museum of Natural History~
This is a Museum i'm sure you all know of. Im sure most of you have visited or at least herd of this Museum. This Museum is fascinating. When you first walk in, there is a giant elephant on display. Once again the architecture inside is absolutely amazing. All marble stairs and railings and walls makes it feel like a palace. The vast open space of the main hall, (the first room you walk into) is immense, almost somewhat hard to grasp. they have everything from fossils of dinosaurs to precious gems. My favorite piece was the, Architeuthis (Giant Squid), i have always wanted to see one, and they have one thats 36ft long or something. Its being preserved in formaldehyde behind glass, but it is unbelievable to see in person. Another one of my favorite exhibits was the precious gems. They had the Hope Diamond. which was really hard to see due to how many people were looking at it, but i finally got my turn. The hope diamond is an astonishing 45.52 carrot diamond. Other exhibits they have there are named "Sant Ocean Hall" Which has everything you ever need to know about ocean life. "Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals" which has a tremendous amount of stuffed animals. (Probably 200+)
"Discovery Room" has fossils, shells and skulls, as well as a fossil lab set up, so you can see what goes on in the lab. "Paleontology" which is where the dinosaurs are. "life in the Ancient Seas" 540 million years of life? wowzer. "Fossil Plants Hall" self explanatory, but 350 million year old fossils here. " The Ice Age hall" is how humans lived during the ice age. "Western Cultures", "Forensic anthropology" , "Bones and Reptiles" , "the Korea Gallery" , "Insects" <- this was really cool, i enjoyed looking at all the butterflies, with all the different designs on their wings. There is so much to see at the National Museum Of Natural History, its hard to see it all in one day.
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