Below are a collection of museums and curated sites in and around Washington, DC for you to optionally explore on weekends. We encourage you to visit museums and other sites not covered in our Institute and to coordinate your explorations with other NEH participants. Given the many local and regional offerings, this is hardly an exhaustive list but provides ideas to get you started.

Curated Sites @ Georgetown University

• Booth Family Center for Special Collections (Lauinger Library)
• Gelardin New Media Center and Maker Hub (Lauinger Library)
• Georgetown Art Galleries (Walsh Building)
• Carroll Parlor (Healy Hall)
• Medical School Sculpture Garden
• Observatory (see also here)
• Additionally, there are neighborhood self-guided walking tours (e.g., Black Georgetown and Georgetown Civil War Walking Tour) and park trails (e.g., C&O Canal and Rock Creek Park)

Museums, Memorials, and other Curated Sites around Washington, DC

• National Museum of African American History and Culture
• National Gallery of Art
• African Art Museum
• Air and Space Museum
• American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery
• American History Museum
• Museum of the American Indian
• Anacostia Community Museum
• Freer Gallery of Art
• Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Zoo
• Museum of Natural History
• Postal Museum
• Botanical Garden
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum
• National Building Museum
• Newseum
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Phillips Collection
• Art Museum of the Americas
• Kreeger Museum
• Octagon House
• National Arboretum
• Arlington House and Cemetery
• Library of Congress
• Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens
• GW Museum and Textile Museum
• Ford’s Theater and Lincoln Museum
• Frederick Douglass House
• Lincoln Cottage: Home for Brave Ideas
• Vietnam Memorial, FDR Memorial, MLK Jr. Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and other memorials
• Washington Monument
• Folger Library
• Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Garden
• Dumbarton House
• International Spy Museum
• Tudor Place
• National Geographic Museum
• Glenstone Museum
• Curated performance spaces: Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Jazz in the Garden, embassies (like the Swedish Embassy in Georgetown), etc.
• More!

Weekend Trip Ideas

• Virginia: House Museums include Colonial Williamsburg, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, James Madison’s Montpelier, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Poplar Forest
• Delaware: Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
• Maryland: Eastern Shore’s Harriet Tubman Trail, Blackwater Bird Refuge, CV Starr Center for the American Experience, Maritime Museum
• Baltimore, MD: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Science Center, George Peabody Library
• Philadelphia, PA: Museum Mile with Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Rodin Museum, Academy of Natural Sciences, Mütter Museum (College Museum of Physicians of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Fabric Workshop and Museum, as well as historical sites (e.g., Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House), and more
• New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, MoMA, PS1, The Frick Collection, Guggenheim, Whitney, Morgan Library, Museum of Natural History, Tenement Museum, Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, American Folk Art Museum, Cooper-Hewitt, New York Historical Society, and many more
• Civil Rights Trail (including Washington, DC)
• Civil War Trails (Harpers Ferry, Appomattox Court House, etc.)
• Transportation options: For weekend trips, trains and buses run to Philadelphia and New York (e.g., Amtrak, Megabus, Vamoose, Bolt Bus — some of these depart from Dupont Circle and Roslyn, near Georgetown Shuttle stops), or rent a car for driving trips. Consider coordinating trips with fellow NEH participants.