Museums dot the region’s landscape like fast casual restaurants pepper downtown, only with cultural awareness instead of reasonably priced lunch. DMV residents are lucky in this regard. Sometimes, though, the usual suspects get a little, well, usual. Here are 20 museums off the beaten path—and we mean way off the beaten path—that will definitely satisfy anyone’s curiosity, but at a minimum are just curious. And for those looking for the region’s other attractions, peruse our favorite museums, best galleries and art collections, and the best places to take guests when they’re done with all that.—Scott Harris
In the District
Art Museum of the Americas. (Photo via Facebook).
ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS: If you’re interested in Latin American and/or Caribbean art, this is your place. Situated on a beautiful parcel of land not far from the White House, this is the oldest art collection of its kind in the United States. All told, a permanent gathering of about 2,000 paintings, sculptures, installation pieces, prints, drawings and photographs are on display. The museum was created and is administered today by the Organization of American States, a United Nations-like organization bridging North, Central and South Americas.
The Art Museum of the Americas is located at 1889 F Street NW.
LILLIAN AND ALBERT SMALL JEWISH MUSEUM: When this tiny synagogue hosted its first service, Ulysses S. Grant was in attendance. That was 1876, and it gave Grant the distinction of being the first sitting president to attend a Jewish worship service. Today, the Adas Israel congregation is the oldest synagogue structure in Washington and hosts a treasure trove of Jewish historical items specific to the Washington, D.C. area.
The Lillian and Albert Small Jewish Museum is located at the corner of Third and G Streets NW.
BELMONT-PAUL WOMEN’S EQUALITY NATIONAL MONUMENT: Until earlier this year known as the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, this Capitol Hill mansion has served as a seat of the women’s suffrage and equal rights movements since 1929. The building itself is on the National Register of Historic Places and serves as the headquarters of the National Women’s Party; President Obama named it a national monument earlier this year. What may draw the most visitors, though, are the extensive art and memorabilia exhibits that include Susan B. Anthony’s desk and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s chair.
The Women’s Equality National Monument is located at 144 Constitution Avenue NE.
Blind Whino. Photo via Facebook.
BLIND WHINO: It may not define itself as a museum in the strictest sense of the word, but that’s kind of the point. The building’s uniqueness—and exhibits—begins with the building itself. It’s an old Baptist church the congregation abandoned for two decades after moving to new digs. A group of artists found the building and covered it in a vibrant mural. It’s several degrees cooler inside, with 1,200 artists from around the world represented.
Blind Whino is located at 700 Delaware Avenue SW.
THE TEXTILE MUSEUM: Weave your way through the Foggy Bottom campus of The George Washington University and you’ll come across this museum dedicated to rugs, flags, and other pieces of textile art. The museum’s regular collection includes rugs dating back to 3,000 BCE and specializes in pieces from Asia. For something a little closer to home, check out the museum’s Washingtoniana Collection, co-located within the museum and containing art and manuscripts that illustrate the history of the district.
The Textile Museum is located at 701 21st Street NW.
ANACOSTIA COMMUNITY MUSEUM: Likely the most overlooked of the storied Smithsonian Institutions, it is also one of the closest things we have to a museum of D.C. history—with a particular emphasis on the neighborhood where it sits. Every exhibit is developed in collaboration with residents, community activists, and others. Current exhibitions include one that highlights the linkages between Washington and Panama and a seminal look at the years between 1963 and 1975, which saw the movement toward self-governance, suburbanization, and the civil rights movement..
The Anacostia Community Museum is located at 1901 Fort Place SE.
National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. (Photo via Facebook).
NATIONAL BONSAI AND PENJING MUSEUM: Yeah, this is exactly what you think it is: a big museum full of 150 of the sickest freaking bonsai trees you will ever see. (Penjing is a similar art that predated bonsai.) It’s all ensconced in pagodas, water features, beautiful Chinese architecture and several non-bonsai plantings that are pretty nice in their own right. The museum actually turns 40 this year, and they’re celebrating with the “Aki Matsuri Autumn Festival: Bonsai & Beyond” over the weekend.
The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is located at the National Arboretum, which has one entrance at 3501 New York Avenue NE, and the other at 24th & R Streets NE.
CLARA BARTON MISSING SOLDIERS OFFICE MUSEUM: Most people know the shorthand history of Clara Barton: The Civil War nurse who founded the Red Cross. As illustrious as that is alone, there’s plenty more to the story. After the war she formed a place where families could file reports on soldiers who went missing during those four chaotic years. This museum is the office from which Barton and a few others helped an estimated 22,000 families reunite with their loved ones.
The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum is located at 437 7th Street NW.
D.C. FIRE AND EMS MUSEUM: Don’t let the narrow niche fool you. Yes, the museum is solely dedicated to the history of firefighting in the District. But there’s a lot packed into that sentence and this small space. Housed on one floor of a working fire station, there are artifacts from helmets to old-fashioned fire trampolines (or whatever they’re really called). Some of them date back to the 18th century. The headliner may be an original leather fire bucket from Francis Scott Key’s home.
The D.C. Fire and EMS Museum is located at 439 New Jersey Ave. NW.
Laogai Museum. (Photo via Facebook.)
LAOGAI MUSEUM: In an ornate, Brewer’s Castle-like structure near Dupont Circle sits the Laogai Museum, a brick-and-mortar indictment of China’s long-standing forced labor camps, the Laogai. Billing itself as “an alternative voice about China,” the museum offers a fascinating, multi-media look at one of the world’s powerful and mysterious nations, and the prison camps that allegedly still operate there today.
The Laogai Museum is located at 1901 18th Street NW.
MARIAN KOSHLAND SCIENCE MUSEUM: An Earth Lab, a Life Lab, and an Idea Lab comprise this STEM haven in Penn Quarter. The museum is designed mainly for teenagers and adults, so it might be best to keep the tykes at home for this one. Interactive games and experiments are the focal point here, with a liberal dose of current events and state-of-the-art tech.
The Marian Koshland Science Museum is located at 525 E Street NW.
THE OCTAGON HOUSE: Consider this the Falling Water equivalent for the person who designed the U.S. Capitol Building. Architect William Thornton completed this house, built out of local materials, in 1800. But there’s a big, distinctly Washington bullet point in its history: the Treaty of Ghent, which formally ended the War of 1812, was signed within its walls. A small museum inside the mansion preserves original artifacts.
The Octagon House is located at 18th Street and New York Avenue NW.
In Virginia
James Monroe Museum. (Photo via Facebook.)
THE JAMES MONROE MUSEUM: Located in downtown Fredericksburg but brought to you by the University of Mary Washington, it’s the nation’s fifth president! Monroe may not get all the headlines, but every president, particularly in the Founding Father era, is pretty fascinating. Monroe’s no different. Did you know he was a soldier in the American Revolution and was almost killed in the famous Battle of Trenton? It’s true, Jimmy. And of course that’s to say nothing of the Monroe Doctrine, which you surely remember from history lessons.
The James Monroe Museum is located at 908 Charles Street in Fredericksburg.
DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY MUSEUM: If you’re a fan of Narcos, you’re a fan of this small museum. Think of this as a Spy Museum for the drug trade. Drug concealment artifacts capture the eye and a detailed photographic history of illegal drugs and the war against them in America provide a rich education.
The DEA Museum is located at 700 Army Navy Drive in Arlington.
STABLE-LEADBEATER APOTHECARY MUSEUM: Do you like your history served visually? How about medically? I like mine served medically, so I’m a fan of this place, situated in its old Alexandria rowhouse location. Martha Washington and Robert E. Lee used to pop in to this drug store, all the way back before drug stores technically existed. The apothecary, which first opened in 1792, boasts a massive collection of antique medical equipment and herbal remedies that were used centuries ago.
The apothecary museum is located at 105-107 Fairfax Street in Alexandria.
In Maryland
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. (Photo via Facebook.)
CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM: The museum’s website declares it as being “dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment and people of the Chesapeake Bay.” A big order for a big estuary. They do it with things like a replica crab-processing plant, a “living shoreline,” a working boatyard, an oyster skipjack and a lighthouse built in 1879.
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is located at 213 North Talbot Street in St. Michaels.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CIVIL WAR MEDICINE: Lay down your bullet-biting stereotypes and learn yourself a little something. Because if you stop at saws and whisky, you won’t learn about the ways in which the war, as grim and gruesome as it was, incubated the modern hospital and plenty of other medical advances we take for granted today. Thankfully, saws and whisky are no longer among them.
The National Museum of Civil War Medicine is located at 48 East Patrick Street in Frederick.
NATIONAL CAPITAL TROLLY MUSEUM: This is about as interactive as museums get. Visitors can ride preserved streetcars out into the wooded areas around the museum. Several cars from around the nation and the world operate regularly or on special occasions, and those that don’t, including a handful from D.C.’s streetcar heyday, sit in the exhibit hall. Trolleys from as far away as Belgium and Germany round out the collection.
The National Capital Trolley Museum is located at 1313 Bonifant Street in Colesville.
COLLEGE PARK AVIATION MUSEUM: Wilbur Wright trained the first army pilots right here, across the street from the University of Maryland campus and six blocks or so from R.J. Bentley’s. If that isn’t enough, this is the oldest continuously operated airport in the history of this little planet Earth. This is a must-see for airplane buffs. Heck, American history buffs. This is going to basically satisfy all buffs in your family. Bring any buff and see what happens.
The College Park Aviation Museum is located at 1985 Corporal Franklin Scott Dr. in College Park.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE: This museum has earned something of a reputation as “the creepy museum,” suitable only during Halloween or when those off-center cousins are in town. It’s true that the museum, in its swanky new Silver Spring digs, features, as the museum’s own website states, “specimens of morbid anatomy.” Preserved bodies displaying exotic diseases and other conditions do appear in the collections. But if that isn’t to your taste (and even if it is), there’s plenty more to see, like historical artifacts on vaccinations, wartime medicine, and a series on the evolution of the microscope that is far more fascinating than it sounds. And hey, if all else fails, there’s always the centerpiece of the museum’s collection, the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln.
The NMHM is located at 2500 Linden Lane in Silver Spring.
