The Great Tours: Washington DC

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Topic Better Living

Take a detailed look at the fascinating history and culture of Washington DC with an insider’s tour sponsored by Smithsonian.

Great Tours: Washington DC

“Pure intellectual stimulation that can be popped into the [audio or video player] anytime.” —Harvard Magazine “Passionate, erudite, living legend lecturers. Academia’s best lecturers are being captured on tape.” —The Los Angeles Times “A serious force in American education.” —The Wall Street Journal

Richard Kurin is the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large. He earned his PhD in Anthropology from The University of Chicago. As a member of the Smithsonian’s senior leadership team, he helps guide the institution’s national museums, research centers, and educational programs. Dr. Kurin frequently lectures at The George Washington University in Washington DC and has led several Around the World expeditions for Smithsonian Journeys. His other Great Course is Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through American History.

Professor Photo: © Jeff Mauritzen - inPhotograph.com. Cover Image: © f11photo/Shutterstock; © Lucky-Photographer/Shutterstock; © Orhan Cam/Shutterstock; © pho.stories/Shutterstock; © Sean Pavone/Shutterstock; © usschools/E+/Getty Images. Course No. 8609 © 2019 The Teaching Company.

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The Great Tours Washington DC Course Guidebook Dr. Richard Kurin Smithsonian

Smithsonian® Guidebook

THE GREAT COURSES ® Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westfields Boulevard, Suite 500 Chantilly, VA 20151-2299 USA Phone: 1-800-832-2412 www.thegreatcourses.com

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THE GREAT COURSES Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westfields Boulevard | Suite 500 | Chantilly, Virginia | 20151‑2299 Phone 1.800.832.2412 | Fax 703.378.3819 | www.thegreatcourses.com

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RICHARD KURIN, PHD Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large Smithsonian

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ichard Kurin is the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassadorat-Large, the first person in the history of the Smithsonian Institution to hold that title. He received his BA in Anthropology and Philosophy from the University at Buffalo, and he earned both his MA and his PhD in Anthropology from The University of Chicago. During his graduate studies, Dr. Kurin was awarded a FulbrightHays Doctoral Dissertation fellowship and a Social Science Research Council fellowship. As a member of the Smithsonian’s senior leadership team, Dr. Kurin helps guide the institution’s national museums, preeminent research centers, and educational programs. His areas of focus are the Smithsonian’s strategic direction, institutional partnerships, public representation, philanthropic support, and special initiatives. Previously, Dr. Kurin served as the Smithsonian’s Acting Provost and Under Secretary for Museums and Research. In that capacity, he was responsible for all of the Smithsonian’s museums, including the National Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History, and the National

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Museum of African American History and Culture. He also oversaw the National Zoo and the Smithsonian’s research centers, including the Astrophysical Observatory, the Tropical Research Institute, and the Archives of American Art. Over his career, Dr. Kurin has produced many large-scale national celebration events on the National Mall, including festivals and ceremonies for several presidential inaugurations, the opening of the World War II Memorial, the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Smithsonian’s 150th anniversary. Dr. Kurin was appointed by successive secretaries of state to the US National Commission for UNESCO and helped draft an international treaty to safeguard living cultural heritage that is now ratified by 170 nations. He led efforts to save heritage in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and has overseen projects for saving heritage endangered by natural disasters in Nepal and the United States as well as by human conflict in Mali, Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. Dr. Kurin served as liaison to the US President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities and the White House Historical Association, and he chairs a task group for the US Department of State Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee. He is a board member of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) as well as of National History Day, and he serves on the advisory council for the Division of the Social Sciences at The University of Chicago. He has been honored by Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, the International Council of Museums, the American Anthropological Association, the American Folklore Society, and the Smithsonian, and he is an elected fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. Dr. Kurin has taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and frequently lectures at The George Washington University as well as at universities and museums across

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THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

the country and around the world. He regularly blogs for Smithsonian magazine and has led several Around the World expeditions for Smithsonian Journeys. He has given hundreds of speeches, including keynote addresses, distinguished lectures, and presentations at the world’s top universities and museums and at UNESCO and the World Economic Forum in Davos. He has also participated in more than 100 television and radio programs and oversees the programming for the Smithsonian Channel television network. Dr. Kurin is the author of many scholarly articles and several books, including Hope Diamond: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem; Madcap May: Mistress of Myth, Men, and Hope; Reflections of a Culture Broker: A View from the Smithsonian; Saving Haiti’s Heritage: Cultural Recovery after the Earthquake; and Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Culture of, by, and for the People. His book The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects provides the inspiration for his other Great Course, Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through American History. 

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ABOUT OUR PARTNER

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ounded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and 9 research facilities. The total number of artifacts, works of art, and specimens in the Smithsonian’s collections is estimated at 154 million. These collections represent America’s rich heritage, art from across the globe, and the immense diversity of the natural and cultural world. In support of its mission—the increase and diffusion of knowledge— the Smithsonian has embarked on five Grand Challenges that describe its areas of study, collaboration, and exhibition: Magnifying the Transformative Power of Arts and Design, Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe, Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet, Valuing World Cultures, and Understanding the American Experience.” The Smithsonian’s partnership with The Great Courses is an engaging opportunity to encourage continuous exploration by learners of all ages across these diverse areas of study. This course, The Great Tours: Washington DC, functions as a guided tour led by one of the Smithsonian’s leading experts on the city’s history and culture. The course covers Washington DC’s famous buildings and monuments, but beyond that, the professor also provides a deeper understanding of the symbolism, history, and political battles that lie behind each destination. Sites visited in the course include the National Mall, the National Zoological Park, and important government buildings. The course also takes a look at the

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city’s thriving restaurants and performing-arts venues, its houses of worship, and its surprisingly vast green spaces. Along the way, the professor uncovers the hidden gems, local color, and intriguing past of the city. 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i About Our Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

LECTURES 1

How Washington DC Came to Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2

The White House and the Presidency . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3

The Capitol Building and the Legislature . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4

The Supreme Court and the Law of the Land . . . . . . 28

5

The Nation’s Knowledge: Library of Congress . . . . . 36

6

The State, Treasury, and Justice Departments . . . . . 43

7

Veterans Memorials on the Mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

8

Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

9

George Washington’s Mount Vernon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

10

Ford’s Theatre and Lincoln’s Washington DC . . . . . . 70

11

Washington’s Civil Rights Landmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

12

The Holocaust Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

13

Museums on the Mall: Smithsonian and Beyond . . . . . . 92

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14

Washington, City of Scandal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

15

The Kennedy Center and the DC Arts Scene . . . . . . 107

16

Neighborhoods of Northwest DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

17

Washington’s Historic Homes and Gardens . . . . . . . . 118

18

Spiritual DC: The National Cathedral and More . . . . . . 126

19

Smithsonian’s National Zoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

20 Dining Out in Washington DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 21

Washington’s New Waterfront . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

22

Washington for Sports Fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

23

Exploring Washington’s Great Outdoors . . . . . . . . . 164

24 The National Archives and the Future of DC . . . . . . . 172

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Image Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

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THE GREAT TOURS

WASHINGTON DC

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his course begins with the story of how Washington DC became the nation’s capital and with a look at the heart of the city, the National Mall. Next, the course looks at the famous federal buildings surrounding that area: the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court, as well as the institutions that support them, like the Library of Congress and the executive departments. After that, the course turns to war memorials on the National Mall. From these memorials, the course moves across the Potomac River to Arlington, Virginia, and visits two very different types of memorial: Arlington National Cemetery and the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. Next comes a quick trip south to Old Town Alexandria and George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon for a look at how America’s first president lived and worked in this region. Returning to Washington DC proper, the course considers the life of another president—Abraham Lincoln—and the places most associated with his presidency, including Ford’s Theatre, the scene of his tragic assassination and death in the wake of the American Civil War. From the story of Lincoln, the course moves to the story of Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and the landmarks of the civil rights movement that followed the Civil War. The course also returns to the National Mall for a look at one of Smithsonian’s newest museums, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Following that is a look at another monument to the struggle for human rights: the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The course completes its tour of the National Mall and the federal core of the city with a visit to the rest of Smithsonian’s museums on and around the mall, including the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, and many others. After visiting the museums and their celebration of American history and culture, the course turns to the darker side of Washington history and looks at several of the city’s infamous scandals, including the Watergate scandal. Pivoting back to the city’s finer moments,

Course Scope

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the next lecture visits some of the city’s historic performing arts institutions, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. After that, the course moves out of federal Washington and into its neighborhoods, including Embassy Row, Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, and Georgetown. The course also visits some of Washington’s most famous houses and gardens. It then considers the spiritual life of Washingtonians with a visit to its most important religious institutions, including Washington National Cathedral. Up next is a visit to some of Washington’s most famous residents: the giant pandas and the other rare animals at Smithsonian’s National Zoo. That lecture looks at the animals themselves, the important research by the zoo’s scientists, and the zoo’s fascinating interactive exhibits and events. Following that, the course embarks on a whirlwind tour of Washington’s unique and award-winning dining scene. From local seafood and soul food to international cuisines and historic institutions, the city holds a flavor for every palate. The course then turns to a tour of Washington DC’s newest neighborhoods: National Harbor and the city’s waterfront, where locals shop, dine, and play. The course also spends a lecture visiting three of the most popular venues on DC’s waterfront: its sports arenas, with a look at the past and present of baseball, football, soccer, and other sports in DC. One of the most surprising aspects of life in Washington for many visitors is how close the city is to the wilderness. This course’s penultimate lecture visits Washington’s wild spaces—its rivers, parks, and forests— where you can get a breath of fresh air with a side of history by visiting historic canals, Civil War forts, 19th-century farms, and more. Finally, the course takes a trip to the National Archives and looks at America’s founding documents. The concluding lecture considers how the city reflects the promise of the founding fathers, how far it has come, and how far it has to go. 

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THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

01

HOW WASHINGTON DC CAME TO BE

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he 68-plus square miles that make up Washington DC today are known for their stunning architecture, museums, beautiful green spaces, monuments, and memorials. The city is home to 20 colleges and universities, more than a dozen professional and college sports teams, numerous theaters supporting countless talented performing artists, and a vibrant international culinary scene. As a starting-off point, this lecture provides information on: ●●

Historical background on Washington DC’s location.

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The works of Pierre Charles L’Enfant.

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The Lincoln Memorial.

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Events on the National Mall.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ON WASHINGTON DC’S LOCATION The US Constitution, ratified in 1789, called for a permanent seat of government in Article I, Section 8, which specified an independent “District (not exceeding ten miles square)” created from land ceded by a state or states. However, it did not specify where. In 1789, the American North and South clashed over Revolutionary War debts and slavery. Northern states tended to have more debt, and the states with little debt were not happy about having to pay for the rest. Between the issue of debt assumption and slavery, many people worried that the new nation would not survive. Northerners wanted the seat of government to return to Pennsylvania—specifically Wrights Ferry, near the Susquehanna River. Southerners—including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison— had identified a different spot, near Georgetown, Maryland, at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.

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Lecture 01 | How Washington DC Came to Be

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The Four Quadrants After determining the Jones Point boundary with Alexandria, lead surveyors Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker laid out the district in a perfect square, with the corners pointing north, south, east, and west, and the borders facing northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest. To this day, DC’s residents still think of the city as divided into these four quadrants: Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest, although most of the Southwest quadrant returned to Virginia in 1846. That is why all addresses in DC include both a street name and a direction. For example, the White House is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, which means it is north of Constitution Avenue and west of Capitol Street. This is an important tip for visitors to the city: Forgetting the direction of your destination could leave you hopelessly lost.

As disputes over the capital’s location and the debt assumption were coming to a head, Jefferson hatched a plan and made political leader Alexander Hamilton an offer he could not refuse. He invited Hamilton and Madison over to dinner and proposed a compromise: He and Madison would convince Virginia’s congressmen to vote for the assumption of Northern debt, and Hamilton would convince New York’s congressmen to vote for a capital district in the South. The compromise worked. On July 16, 1790, George Washington signed the Residence Act, empowering Washington himself to establish the District of Columbia on the Potomac River.

THE WORKS OF PIERRE CHARLES L’ENFANT George Washington entrusted Pierre George L’Enfant with much of DC’s initial layout. L’Enfant placed the Capitol Building on what was then called Jenkins Hill. (We know it today as Capitol Hill.) Although

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it was only about 100 feet high, it was one of the highest points in the district and stood out in the mostly flat landscape. L’Enfant also selected a site to the west for the president’s house. He placed it overlooking the Potomac, near the mouth of Tiber Creek, which would be reengineered into a canal connecting these two important buildings. Though it is somewhat different than how L’Enfant envisioned it, the National Mall is the one place that almost every visitor to Washington DC eventually winds up. It is a 146-acre green space stretching east to west between Constitution and Independence Avenues, from Capitol Hill to the Potomac River. The National Park Service estimates that 24 million people visit the National Mall every year. It took time, but by the turn of the 20th century, the White House and the Capitol Building were placed according to L’Enfant’s plan. The district also featured a monument to George Washington in the place, if not the style, that L’Enfant intended. The National Mall had grown and changed more or less according to the needs of the moment. In 1902, the McMillan Plan provided further guidance. Though Congress never approved it as a whole, its piecemeal implementation gave the basic blueprint for the National Mall as visitors know it now. Today, the National Mall is not only the seat of the country’s government. It is also a living and growing monument to the most important events and achievements in the nation’s history.

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL Congress called for a monument to President Abraham Lincoln as early as 1867, but many obstacles stood in the way. However, funding was finally approved in 1910, and the site on the Potomac confirmed in 1911. The builders broke ground on February 12, 1914—Lincoln’s 105th birthday—and the monument was completed in 1922.

Lecture 01 | How Washington DC Came to Be

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The Lincoln Memorial

New York architect Henry Bacon designed the monument after the Parthenon of Athens. The statue of Lincoln itself was designed by Massachusetts sculptor Daniel Chester French from numerous photographs of Lincoln. If you walk around the monument’s exterior colonnade to the back, you can see Robert E. Lee’s mansion and Arlington Cemetery on the other side of the river. If you visit the Lincoln Memorial at night, you may be able to spot a memorial to another president. Look for a flickering glow on the hillside just below Lee’s mansion. That glow is the eternal flame that marks the grave of President John F. Kennedy.

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EVENTS ON THE NATIONAL MALL Over the decades, Americans would use the Mall to exercise their rights to free speech and free assembly, enshrined in the First Amendment, to make their country a better place. From the 5,000 women who marched for women’s suffrage in 1913, to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963, to countless others down to the present day, the National Mall has cemented itself as our nation’s civic podium. Not every mass gathering on the Mall has been a protest. In 1912, while the McMillan plan was being carried out, Japanese leader Yukio Ozaki presented a gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the city of Washington DC. These trees, found scattered throughout the city but mostly around the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial on the south arm of the National Mall, are one of the city’s most beloved landmarks—so beloved, in fact, that their blossoming is celebrated with a month-long festival. About 1.5 million people visit Washington between March and April each year for parades, musical performances, art exhibits, food festivals, tree plantings, and simply to take in the trees’ beauty. Another major annual event is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, held for two weeks each year around July 4. This festival, which has been held annually since 1967, celebrates the world’s living cultures through music, dance, storytelling, food, arts and crafts, and more. DC’s most famous annual event is probably the Fourth of July. It features concerts on Capitol Hill and fireworks displays at the Washington Monument. There are also special exhibitions and historical reenactments at the National Archives and a National Independence Day Parade. Many of DC’s neighborhoods have their own celebrations and parades.

Lecture 01 | How Washington DC Came to Be

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02

THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE PRESIDENCY

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his lecture focuses on the famous house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a building whose name has become synonymous with the presidency itself: the White House. It also looks at a pair of presidential memorials. Topics covered in this guidebook chapter include: ●●

The history of the White House.

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The West Wing.

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Visiting the White House.

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The Jefferson Memorial.

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The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

THE HISTORY OF THE WHITE HOUSE The original White House took about eight years to complete and cost about $230,000. The workers who built it were a mixture of enslaved and free African American men and immigrant laborers, mostly from Ireland and Scotland. The main structure of the house was brick, with a façade of Virginia sandstone, which was whitewashed to help seal the porous material. That is how the White House came to be white, though it didn’t acquire its name until later. John Adams was the first president to occupy the building. Adams ran for reelection in 1800, just a few months after moving into the president’s house, but was defeated by Thomas Jefferson. The house was barely a year old when Jefferson arrived in March 1801, but he made several additions and repairs to the building. The most important and enduring were two colonnades, which today connect the presidential residence to the East Wing and West Wing.

Lecture 02 | The White House and the Presidency

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By the time Jefferson left in 1809, the house had a new roof, fireproof storage rooms, a grand staircase, a wine cellar, service bells, an upgraded kitchen, indoor privies, and a manicured garden. The next residents of the house were James and Dolley Madison. They would also, technically speaking, be the last: British forces burned the White House during the War of 1812. Architect James Hoban supervised the building’s reconstruction, and it was ready for occupation by President James Monroe in 1817. From 1830 until 1902, most of the changes to the White House were to the interior. The next president to expand the building was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s most noticeable contribution to the building was the addition of the West Wing. Its purpose was to move the bulk of the president’s staff out of the residence and into dedicated, much needed office space. Then, fire struck again, this time confined to the West Wing. President Herbert Hoover took the opportunity to redesign the wing and add air conditioning. The final redesign and expansion was completed under President Franklin Roosevelt. Most notably, this renovation moved the Oval Office to its present location, on the southeast corner of the ground floor of the West Wing. A small East Wing had also been added to the White House by Theodore Roosevelt as a formal guest entrance. During World War II, it was expanded, in part because they were running out of room in the West Wing, and in part as a cover for constructing an underground bunker and emergency operations center. When the East Wing was completed, Eleanor Roosevelt established her office there on the second floor, and the first lady’s office has remained in the East Wing ever since. By the end of World War II, the White House as we know it today was complete.

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THE WEST WING The West Wing is not generally open for tours. This floor contains the Oval Office and a private study and dining area for the president. The president’s chief of staff, the vice president, the national security advisor, and the press secretary all have offices on this floor as well, with several smaller offices for senior staff. The cabinet room is in the northeast corner of the wing. Each of the 20 brown leather chairs has a small brass plaque on the back, assigning it to a specific cabinet department. The president’s chair is a few inches taller than the rest.

THE EAST WING If you do visit the White House, you will likely enter the building on the opposite side, through the East Wing’s lobby. This leads into the

Lecture 02 | The White House and the Presidency

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Garden Room, which looks out onto the South Lawn, including the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The South Lawn is where the famous annual Easter Egg Roll takes place. From the Garden Room, visitors travel along the East Colonnade. Unlike the West Colonnade, this long walkway has been enclosed, but large glass windows still offer a view across the lawn. The room to the right of the walkway is the Family Theater. This is one of the rooms where the first family and their guests relax together. The president and staff also occasionally use the room to rehearse important speeches. The colonnade leads to the visitors’ foyer and eventually to the East Room. This, the largest room in the residence, has been used for

Red Room

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many purposes over the years, but it is now mainly used as a public reception room. From the East Room, you enter the Cross Hall. The walls are adorned by presidential portraits, but don’t forget to look up at the ceiling. The glass chandeliers, although added during President Truman’s term of office, are antiques made around the year 1775. This room is often used for dual press conferences when the president is being visited by another head of state. To the south of the Cross Hall are the Green, Blue, and Red Rooms. The Green Room has hosted a number of historic events. The large, oval Blue Room is the formal receiving room for White House guests. Finally, the Red Room was used by the Adams and Jefferson families as a breakfast room, but in the Madisons’ day, it became Dolley Madison’s drawing room. In the years since, it has alternately been used as a sitting room or a dining room for small parties. The last of the rooms open to the public is the State Dining Room. This room seats up to 140 guests and has been used as such for most of its existence.

VISITING THE WHITE HOUSE If you wish to see the White House in person, you’ll have to do some preparation. You need to submit a tour request through your member of congress between three weeks and three months in advance of your trip, and tours are first come, first served. If you are a citizen of a foreign country, you can submit a request through your nation’s DC embassy. For the most part, tours are only available Tuesday through Saturday mornings, though the schedule is subject to change depending on the White House schedule. All guests need a valid government-issued photo ID to enter. For foreign citizens, it must be your passport.

Lecture 02 | The White House and the Presidency

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Do not bring your purse or backpack. They are prohibited for security reasons. Do bring your smart phone or camera. Still photography is allowed, but not video recording. For other rules and restrictions, check the White House website.

THE JEFFERSON MEMORIAL The National Mall features the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, along with two memorials dedicated to presidents on the opposite side from the White House. The first of these is the Jefferson Memorial. The memorial was designed by John Russell Pope. The Jefferson Memorial is very similar to the Lincoln Memorial— an open, temple-like structure with a huge statue of the president inside. Jefferson is surrounded by excerpts of his most famous and

The Jefferson Memorial

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important writings. These include the Declaration of Independence, the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia, and a number of others. Around the inside rim of the rotunda is a quote that perhaps encapsulates them all: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

THE FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is about halfway between the memorials to Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson, in the area known as West Potomac Park. Designed by a landscape architect named Lawrence Halprin, it is less like a temple and it is more like a statuary garden. It is a winding path through seven and a half acres of statues, fountains, and inscriptions.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Lecture 02 | The White House and the Presidency

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It is divided into four areas—one for each of Roosevelt’s terms in office, starting with 1933 and the Great Depression, through to 1945, World War II, and Roosevelt’s death. Although the monument was designed in the early 1970s, funding issues delayed construction until the 1990s.

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03

THE CAPITOL BUILDING AND THE LEGISLATURE

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he Capitol Building is located on Jenkins Hill, the tallest hill in the federal core of the city. This storied building is the origin point of DC’s grid of streets. Here, senators and representatives develop, debate, and vote on upward of 12,000 bills in every twoyear legislative session. This guidebook chapter highlights many facets of the Capitol Building, including: ●●

The US Capitol Visitor Center.

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Touring the Capitol Building.

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The Capitol Rotunda.

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The Capitol dome.

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Capitol architecture.

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The Senate and House Chambers.

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Other sites at the Capitol.

THE CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER The US Capitol Visitor Center is the main public entrance to the building. This enormous, two-story facility is found underneath the Capitol Building and can be reached from the plaza on the east side of the building or via a tunnel from the Library of Congress. Just like at the White House, you will need to go through security to enter, so check the US Capitol Visitor Center website for a list of allowed and prohibited items before you go. You may carry your camera or cell phone everywhere in the building except the visitors’ galleries of the House and Senate chambers; you will be asked to check those at the gallery doors.

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TOURING THE CAPITOL BUILDING After passing through security, all visitors are welcome to in the gift shops, café, and exhibition galleries of the Visitor Center. To enter the Capitol itself, you will need to book a free tour. There are a couple of ways to do this. Many visitors obtain a same-day entry pass on the lower level of the visitor center. However, it is strongly recommended that you book in advance, especially if you are with a large group. You can book either through the Visitor Center website or through your senator or representative’s office. The tour will be fundamentally the same either way, but if you book through one of the offices, it might be targeted more toward your state’s history.

THE CAPITOL ROTUNDA At the center of the building, beneath its iconic dome, is the Capitol Rotunda. This room was completed in 1824, during Charles Bulfinch’s tenure as architect of the Capitol. It is 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet high. It is and always has been a ceremonial space. Most notably, it is where distinguished Americans lie in state or lie in honor after their deaths. These have included 11 US Presidents and such figures as Pierre L’Enfant, General John J. Pershing, General Douglas MacArthur, Rosa Parks, Senator Daniel Inouye, and Senator John McCain. The room is filled with remarkable works of art. The eight large oil paintings—each about 12 feet high by 18 feet wide—depict important events in colonial and early American history. Four of them were commissioned by Congress in 1817. The artist is John Trumbull. The other four paintings are by John Vanderlyn, William Powell, John Chapman, and Robert Weir, and were added in the 1840s and 1850s.

Lecture 03 | The Capitol Building and the Legislature

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Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence

The most famous of these images is probably Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence. It is widely reproduced. Above the paintings are a series of relief sculptures depicting famous explorers and scenes from colonial history.

THE CAPITOL DOME The typical Capitol tour does not include entry to the dome itself. Dome tours can only be arranged by your senator, your representative, or their chief of staff. The arranger must accompany you on the tour, which means these tours are fairly hard to come by. A member of Congress may take up to seven people on a tour. Dome tours are also not for the faint of heart. Reaching the highest accessible area means climbing hundreds of steps on narrow,

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twisting, sometimes spiral staircases. First, you will be taken between the outer dome and the inner dome. From there, the route leads you back inside to the gallery of windows and columns halfway up the dome. From here, you can get spectacular views of both the paintings in the Rotunda and the city outside. There is also a walkway on this level on the exterior of the dome, but it is usually not visited on tours. Keep going up, and you will reach the oculus gallery, which provides a view of the Rotunda floor below. Finally, weather permitting, you may be taken to the small circular balcony between the dome and the Statue of Freedom, where you will get an incomparable 360-degree view of the city. If visiting the dome is not possible, a scale model of the dome found in the Visitor Center will give you the experience in miniature.

THE NATIONAL STATUARY HALL To the south of the Rotunda is the National Statuary Hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House. The House of Representatives met in this chamber from 1819 to 1857. In 1864, it was converted into a permanent art gallery, and each state was invited to contribute two statues of its distinguished citizens. During the 20th century, the hall began running out of space. Today, 35 statues are in the hall. The rest are spread throughout the building and the Visitor Center.

THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER On the opposite side of the Rotunda is the Old Senate Chamber. It was occupied by the Senate until 1859, when it moved to its present,

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larger chamber. From 1860 to 1935, it was the home of the United States Supreme Court. Unlike the House chamber, this room has been restored to its 19th-century appearance. Today, this room is primarily used for educational reenactments.

CAPITOL ARCHITECTURE In the Senate wing, you will also find the stunning Brumidi Corridors. Constantino Brumidi based his design for these five hallways on Raphael’s paintings in the Vatican loggias. Here, you will find images from classical mythology side-by-side with figures from American history, plus countless flowers, fruits, and animals.

Brumidi Corridors

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The hallways on the House side are known as the Cox Corridors. Although they resemble the Brumidi Corridors somewhat in style, their paintings are much more recent. Authorized by Congress in 1971, they were created by Allyn Cox, who had originally been hired to restore and complete some of Brumidi’s work in the Rotunda. Among the notable images here are a scene of George Washington laying the Capitol cornerstone and a view of the Smithsonian Castle as it appeared in 1855.

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Also on the house side is the less elaborate but no less dramatic Hall of Columns. It is 100 feet long and lined with 28 marble Corinthian columns that echo the columns on the building’s exterior. The elaborately decorated ceiling is made of cast iron and is part of the support system for the Statuary Hall above it. Directly beneath the Rotunda is a circular room called the Crypt. Despite the name, there are no burials here. It eases traffic flow between the north and south wings, like a highway roundabout.

THE SENATE AND HOUSE CHAMBERS The Senate and House Chambers are where bills become law. These chambers are not part of the standard Capitol tour; you have to request to see them separately. This course strongly suggests that you do so, especially if Congress is in session. The Senate and House Chambers are at the center of the north and south wings, respectively, surrounded by offices and meeting rooms. When it is time for your tour, you will access them through special entrances in the Visitor Center that lead to the galleries. From here, you will have a bird’s-eye view of the chamber floors. The two chambers look very much alike. The main difference is that the House’s chamber is larger because it needs to accommodate more than four times as many members as the Senate’s. The representatives’ desks are fanned out around the area called the well. In the well is a rostrum with three tiers. The speaker’s podium is on the middle tier, and the speaker’s chair is on the top tier. The seats around the speaker are occupied by various clerks and the sergeant at arms. The Democratic members sit on the left side of the room (to the Speaker’s right), and Republicans sit on the right side of the room

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(to the Speaker’s left). Independents sit with whichever party they caucus with. Some of the objects in this room are quite old. For example, take the mace—the staff topped with a silver globe and eagle, displayed on the left side of the rostrum. It consists of 13 rods of ebony wood (representing the 13 original colonies). The sergeant at arms carries the mace in to the chamber every morning to mark the start of the day. If the House is in session, the mace sits in a green marble stand at the speaker’s right hand. When the House is in committee, it is in a wooden stand near the sergeant at arms. During the State of the Union address, it is placed out of sight. This particular mace has been in use since 1841. The Senate Chamber is smaller but otherwise similar to the House. It features a marble rostrum instead of wood. If you are interested in adding a tour of the House and Senate Chambers to your Capitol visit, you can call the Visitor Center in advance to find out if the galleries are open to tourists and what is on the legislative agenda that day.

OTHER SITES AT THE CAPITOL Either before or after your tour, make sure to spend some time in the Exhibition Hall of the Visitor Center. Here, you will find information about the building, the people who have served here, and the entire legislative process. Weather permitting, you may want to take a stroll around the Capitol grounds. The original grounds are enclosed in the stone wall at the base of Capitol Hill and include 58 acres originally landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead, who designed New York’s Central Park. The

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full complex today includes more than 270 acres of parkland and the US Botanic Garden. You might also take a walk through the neighborhood surrounding the Capitol. Appropriately called the Capitol Hill Historic District, it is full of 19th-century row houses—some of DC’s oldest residential architecture. Capitol Hill is also a permanently fashionable neighborhood, popular with DC power brokers and congressional interns alike. As such, there is always great dining and shopping to be had here.

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04

THE SUPREME COURT AND THE LAW OF THE LAND

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he Supreme Court has played a vital role in shaping American laws, upholding rights, and balancing the powers of the other two branches of government. Since 1935, it has resided in the Supreme Court Building in Washington DC at 1 First Street Northeast. This guidebook chapter focuses on that building, covering these topics: ●●

The Supreme Court Building’s layout.

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Visiting the Supreme Court.

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The Supreme Court cases.

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The Supreme Court in action.

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Considerations when visiting.

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The Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument.

THE SUPREME COURT BUILDING’S LAYOUT The center section of the Supreme Court Building resembles the Parthenon of Athens. The triangular pediments on each end feature relief sculptures. The West Pediment, facing the Capitol, features allegorical figures. The East Pediment features three great historical lawgivers: Moses, Solon, and Confucius. Flanking them are allegorical groups representing law enforcement, justice tempered with mercy, settlement of dispute between the states, and maritime law. Most visitors enter the building on the west side. Crossing the wide, oval plaza with its fountains and flagpoles, visitors climb the stairs between two sculptures. To the left is the Contemplation of Justice, and to the right is the Authority of Law. These were created by American sculptor James Earle Fraser.

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The entrance to the court is through two enormous bronze doors. The doors depict scenes from the history of Western law, including King John of England sealing the Magna Carta and an image of a former chief justice, John Marshall. Through the doors is the Great Hall. Here, between the columns, you will find busts of each of the former chief justices. The hall leads to the Supreme Court Chamber. The room’s wooden furnishings are all mahogany. A Home for the Court The columns are Italian marble. The marble on the floor, walls, and ceiling While many people— comes from Italy, Spain, and Africa. High especially the justices themselves—felt that on the walls are two pairs of friezes. the Supreme Court needed its own building, Congress was reluctant fund the project for decades. The man who finally persuaded Congress to give the court a home of its own was a chief justice and former president, William Howard Taft. Architect Cass Gilbert looked to the White House and Capitol for his inspiration, creating a structure in white Vermont marble.

The Great Hall is flanked by wings to the north and south, each of which surrounds two courtyards. The first and second floors of these wings contain the justices’ offices, conference rooms, and administrative offices, and so on.

The third floor contains the Supreme Court Library. It contains 600,000 print volumes, 200,000 microforms, and numerous electronic sources covering US state and federal law, British case law, constitutional law, and history. The library’s main function is to assist the justices and their clerks in understanding the relevant laws and precedents for any case that might come before the Supreme Court. Finally, the ground floor of the building houses visitor services, including a museum space. The museum’s changing roster of exhibitions covers topics like the history of the court and the building, landmark Supreme Court cases, and the life and work of former justices.

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VISITING THE SUPREME COURT Visitors to the Supreme Court can enjoy self-guided tours of the museum and Great Hall, guided tours of the Court Chamber, and viewings of court proceedings when the court is in session. The building is open to visitors from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm every weekday, except for federal holidays. Visitor entrances are found to the north and south of the main staircase. Security is predictably high, so be mindful of what you carry with you. Photography is allowed within the Great Hall, but not within the courtroom. The highlight of any visit to the Supreme Court is watching the court in action. Terms of court typically run from October through June. From October to April, the justices’ time is divided into two-week sittings, alternating with two-week recesses. During each sitting, the justices will hear two hour-long arguments—one at 10:00 am and one at 11:00 am—each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. During recesses, the judges research, consider, and discuss the cases and write their decisions. Decisions are usually handed down at the end of each term, in May and June.

THE SUPREME COURT CASES About 80 cases are heard and decided in each term, out of 8,000 or more petitions that the court typically receives each year. Much consideration and preparation goes into the process of selecting cases. For the Supreme Court to hear a case, it has to meet several criteria: ●●

First, the case must have been argued in the lower federal courts. Alternatively, it could be a state court case with an issue at hand that affects federal law.

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Second, the case must have exhausted all of its appeals in the lower court system. Alternatively, judges in the appeals court might request guidance from the Supreme Court before making a ruling, but that is rare.

The justices’ clerks weed out the petitions that don’t meet these criteria and pass on the rest for the justices’ consideration. The clerks then write a memo for each qualifying petition, which is passed on to the justices. The justices review these memos, discuss the cases with each other, and decide which cases to consider further. Four out of the nine justices must accept the petition for the case to move forward. The Supreme Court does not decide about the facts of a case. It also does not create any laws. It only decides whether or not the application of federal law is correct. For example, if a prisoner on death row appeals his case to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court is not being asked to overturn a guilty verdict. They are being asked whether or not the death penalty violates the prisoner’s constitutional rights in this case.

THE SUPREME COURT IN ACTION Once the justices accept a petition, each party in the case must submit a brief to the court in advance of the oral argument. The parties are known as the petitioner, who wants the lower court ruling overturned, and the respondent, who wants the lower court ruling to stand. People or groups who are not part of the case but who have a relevant interest may file amicus briefs. A brief summarizes the argument or arguments relevant to the case. The justices study these before the oral argument phase. Supreme Court cases are appeals cases. Therefore, there is no jury. There are no witnesses. There are only the arguments presented by the petitioner and the respondent, and the justices’ questions.

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If the court has any administrative business or announcements on the schedule that day, that comes early. If you are lucky during your visit, you will get to see the admission ceremony for new members of the Supreme Court bar. Being admitted to the bar is a big step in the life of an attorney. Then, the court proceeds to that day’s oral arguments. First, the petitioning attorney takes their place at the lectern in front of the chief justice and presents the argument. Justices may interrupt this presentation with questions, or they may ask questions at the end. When the petitioning attorney is finished, the responding attorney gets a turn. Each side has a strict limit of 30 minutes to present their argument, including the justices’ interruptions. The rest of the process takes place behind the scenes, in conference. Justices meet privately to discuss the case and argue for their preferred ruling, and at the end of discussion, a preliminary vote is taken. Next, one or more justice will write an opinion. These opinions circulate among the justices for review and revision, and every so often, a justice will change his or her mind based on those written opinions. In fact, justices may change their minds at any point until the opinion is handed down. At that point, the opinion signed by five or more justices is the official ruling on the case. If you visit the court in the early summer, you may witness the handing down of opinions, rather than oral arguments. Opinions are usually issued on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning. The justice who wrote the opinion will announce the decision in the case and read the opinion. This is an opportunity to witness the different speaking and writing styles of the justices. Supreme Court opinions are unanimous about half the time. When opinions are split, a dissenting justice may issue a dissenting opinion.

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These opinions have no force of law on their own. However, they are sometimes used in arguments for future cases.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN VISITING If you do want to attend court during your visit to DC, keep in mind that lines to get into court may form early, and admission to the court is on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you want to watch an entire hour-long oral argument, you will want to be in line at least 30 minutes beforehand. If you want a smaller taste of the experience, there is a separate line to attend three to five minutes of an argument. This line moves much faster, but on busy days, it may be just as long. Either way, security for the courtroom is even stricter than building security. You will need to check all electronic devices, as well as your bags and coats, at the first-floor checkroom before entering the courtroom. You can check the court’s website for the cases on that day’s docket and for the details on building security and courtroom etiquette.

THE BELMONT-PAUL WOMEN’S EQUALITY NATIONAL MONUMENT The Sewall-Belmont house is found just across the street from the Supreme Court. It is the home of a very special museum dedicated to one of the most important eras in the history of civil rights. The house was sold to the National Women’s Party, or NWP, in the early 1920s. NWP was an offshoot of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. That organization was focused on legalizing women’s suffrage on the state level. NWP focused on federal law.

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The Sewall-Belmont House

Both groups were founded by Alice Paul. Another founder of the NWP was Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. These two women gave the site the name it carries today: The Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. It operates as a museum and library dedicated to the history of the women’s rights movement, as well as an extensive 19th-century art collection. It is open Wednesdays through Sundays for tours, and offers regular lectures, workshops, and salons.

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05

THE NATION’S KNOWLEDGE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

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he Library of Congress consists of five facilities that contain 167 million cataloged items. That number grows by 12,000 to 15,000 items every day. To help you get the most out of your visit to the world’s largest library, this guidebook chapter covers the following: ●●

The Library of Congress’s location.

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The Thomas Jefferson Building.

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The John Adams Building.

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The James Madison Memorial Building.

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Research at the Library of Congress.

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The National Book Festival.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS’S LOCATION The three main buildings of the Library of Congress are found on Capitol Hill, just across the street from both the Capitol and Supreme Court, on 1st Street Southeast between East Capitol Street and Independence Avenue. (The library’s other buildings are off-site storage facilities in Virginia and Maryland.) The three main buildings are named for the three early presidents who are responsible for the existence of the library: James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

THE THOMAS JEFFERSON BUILDING The Thomas Jefferson Building is a gorgeous, monumental structure in the Beaux Arts style, modeled on some of the great public libraries of Europe and the old Paris Opera House. It was designed by Paul Johannes Pelz, an immigrant from Silesia, a German-speaking region of what is now Poland. No surface is left undecorated, and you can see this as you approach the building from 1st Street. The first

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thing you come upon is The Court of Neptune Fountain, sculpted by Ronald Hinton Perry. The structure of the building looks similar in shape to the Capitol across the street, at least at first. Wide sweeping staircases on either side of the fountain lead up to a brick plaza, another ornate staircase, and an arched entryway. The building is an open square, with a domed octagonal tower in the center, connected to the perimeter by corridors. The interior of the square is divided into what were once four courtyards. Over the years, two of the courtyards have been filled to make room for more books. The third now contains a recital hall. Only the fourth remains. All entryway arches are decorated with allegorical figures representing literature, science, and art. The 14-foot-tall bronze doors beneath the arches also contain allegorical sculptures, representing tradition, printing, and writing. In the nine windows on the second floor are nine busts of great authors. From left to right, they are Demosthenes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Babbington Macaulay, Nathanial Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott, The Library of and Dante. Congress’s Collection The Library of Congress contains 39 million books and other printed materials, 3.6 million recordings, 14.8 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 8.1 million pieces of sheet music, and 72 million manuscripts. These are stored on 838 miles of shelves.

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Next, you will step inside to the Great Hall. Almost every inch of the hall is decorated, including the inlaid marble floors, sculpted arches, columns, spandrels, balustrades, walls, and ceiling. Beyond that is the Main Reading Room. Here, you will find books, desks, and librarians working at the reference desk. You will also see more stunning Beaux

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Arts decoration. If you do not have a lot of time to visit the Library of Congress when you come to DC, it is still worth stopping in just to see the Main Reading Room and the Great Hall. If you want to see more of the Jefferson Building, the library offers several types of tours. Brochures are available for self-guided tours. You can pick up a copy in English at the information desk, or you can download a copy in English and about a dozen other languages from the library’s website. More languages are being added all the time. There are also several different guided tours available. Tours of the Thomas Jefferson Building, covering its history and architecture, take about an hour and are available Monday through Saturday. Specialty tours covering a particular subject—such as colonial history, or military history, or sports history—each have their own schedule, and it is best to check the website for hours, times, and subjects.

THE JOHN ADAMS BUILDING The John Adams Building combines Neoclassical and Art Deco elements. The exterior is white marble, but simplified and streamlined compared to other federal buildings. The figures on the bronze doors are less realistic and more geometric. They represent the mythological inventors of the world’s writing systems, such as the Egyptian god Thoth, the Norse god Odin, and the Mayan god Itzama. The showpieces of the building are the fifth floor’s North and South Reading Rooms and their Ezra Winter murals. The murals in the North Reading Room feature Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales pilgrims. The South Reading Room murals are called the Jefferson Murals, because they were inspired by Jefferson’s writings on topics like freedom, education, and good governance.

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The John Adams Building

The James Madison Memorial Building

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THE JAMES MADISON MEMORIAL BUILDING The James Madison Memorial Building is the only memorial to America’s fourth president in DC. This building, constructed during the 1960s and 1970s and opened in 1980, lies south of the Jefferson Building, right across Independence Avenue. The building’s style is distinctly mid-century modern, but it echoes the city’s Neoclassical roots in its white marble facade and columned entrance. The information kiosk out front matches the Thomas Jefferson Building’s octagonal tower and dome. Inside, to the left of the main entrance, is the James Madison Memorial Hall, featuring eight inscriptions from Madison’s writings and a white marble sculpture of Madison. The building also features a ground-floor snack bar and sixth-floor cafeteria, both open to the public.

RESEARCH AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Research at the Library of Congress is a different experience from visiting your local public library, or even most university libraries. First, you will need to obtain a reader identification card. You can obtain these cards in person at the reader registration offices in the Jefferson and Madison buildings. You will need to be at least 16 years old and bring a valid photo ID, but registration is free, and you will get your card in minutes and be on your way. Second, although there are a few shelves in each of the reading rooms where you can simply walk up and take the book you need, most of the library’s volumes are in closed stacks. That means that once you find the catalog entry for the book you need, you will need to submit a request to the nearest circulation desk, and the staff will go get it for you.

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Third, while most researchers settle down in one of the main reading rooms, the library also contains a number of specialty reading rooms on all sorts of topics. For example, there are rooms for international language collections, children’s literature, performing arts, braille and audio materials, and so on. If you need to get from one room to another to find what you need, a set of underground tunnels connect the three buildings to one another. These will help you avoid traffic and bad weather as you make your way to your destination. If you would like to look through the library’s collections, particularly the image collections, but cannot make it to DC, the Library of Congress website offers access to the library’s digitized collections. This is a work in progress—more than 100 million items take a long time to digitize—but they are worth a browse even out of casual interest, especially for historic maps and photos.

THE NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL If you are lucky enough to visit DC around Labor Day Weekend, you will get a chance to take part in the Library of Congress’s biggest event of the year: the National Book Festival. It takes place at the Washington Convention Center, and it hosts signings, readings, and panel discussions with authors. There are also family activities and special exhibitions. If you are interested in the festival, check out the Library of Congress’s website for links to the festival schedule, participating authors, and social media links to keep you up to date.

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06

THE STATE, TREASURY, AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS

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he Constitution never defines, explains, or establishes any executive departments. It was up to President George Washington, after he took office in 1789, to set a precedent and define the structure of the executive branch of government. This lecture covers three of the executive departments created by President Washington. (The fourth, the Department of Defense, is covered in a later lecture.) In particular, this guidebook chapter visits the following locations: ●●

State Department–related sites.

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Treasury Department–related sites.

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Department of Justice–related sites.

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Espionage-related sites.

STATE DEPARTMENT–RELATED SITES The work of the US Department of State is vital for America’s security and prosperity. However, for a long time, very few people understand the breadth and significance of its work. That is why, in the late 1990s, Ambassador Stephen Low and Senator Charles McCurdy Mathias of Maryland created the Diplomacy Center Foundation. The foundation’s goal was to create a museum in DC dedicated to the history and accomplishments of the State Department. That museum, now called the United States Diplomacy Center, opened in late 2018. It is located at 330 21st Street Northwest. The museum’s 7,000 or so objects from US diplomatic history include documents, equipment, diplomatic gifts, and even a large segment of the Berlin Wall featured in the center of the pavilion. The museum also features interactive exhibits. Another component of the Diplomacy Center is its education program. The center has developed classroom materials for middle

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school, high school, college, and graduate students that allow them to role-play through realistic foreign relations scenarios and to find peaceful solutions. The materials are available online to any teacher in the world, and the Diplomacy Center features a wired classroom that will let students run simulations on site. Long before the Diplomacy Center was even dreamed of, visitors came to the State Department to tour the Diplomatic Reception Rooms. As the name implies, these rooms are used for receptions and ceremonies during visits from foreign leaders and diplomats. When not in use, they are open to the public Monday through Friday, with three timed tours each day. In addition to the stellar architecture and fascinating history, these 42 rooms contain a remarkable collection of art and antiques dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The reception rooms are one of DC’s hidden gems, offering a rare glimpse at both political history and the history of American arts, crafts, and design.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT–RELATED SITES The United States Treasury Department Building is located on 15th Street Northwest, next door to the White House. Three Treasury buildings have stood on this site, with the first two succumbing to fire. The various wings of the third building were completed between 1836 and 1869, and they represent some of the most beautiful 19th-century architecture in the city. A bronze statue of Alexander Hamilton—the first secretary of the treasury—was installed in the 1920s, and it graces the building’s south side. A tour of the Treasury Building is mostly an architectural tour, and to book one, you will have to contact your congressional representative. Among the building’s interesting features is the second-floor vault.

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Bureau of Engraving and Printing

This vault was constructed in 1864, then later covered by renovations and only rediscovered in the 1980s. Another interesting site is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, located down 15th Street and south of the National Mall. About half of all US paper currency is printed in this facility. (The other half is produced in the bureau’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas.) Between the two facilities, the bureau prints about 6.6 billion individual notes a year. You can watch the entire printing process in person. The bureau offers tours every weekday (except federal holidays) between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm in the spring and summer and 9:00 am to 2:00 pm in the fall and winter. These tours are free, but during the busy season in spring and summer, you do need a timed ticket to enter.

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Same-day, timed tickets are distributed onsite, starting at 8:00 am, on a first-come, first-served basis. Larger groups can reserve tickets by phone in advance.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE–RELATED SITES The Department of Justice is responsible for enforcement of federal law and prosecution of federal offenders, for representing the US government in courts of law, and for ensuring public safety against foreign and domestic threats. It also provides federal policy on crime prevention and ensures that all the A Big Job nation’s courts administer justice in a fair and impartial manner. The Department One of its most well-known divisions is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. It is headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which is on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest between 9th and 10th Streets. This is a modern office building full of hardworking law enforcement professionals. You can learn their real stories by taking a tour called the FBI Experience. The FBI Experience is a self-guided, multimedia tour through 14,000 square feet of exhibits chronicling the history of the FBI, its work, its achievements, and its research about the future of law enforcement. You can enjoy interactive exhibits, like one that challenges you to identify a suspect in a crowd, or you can talk with any of the staff members who are there to answer your questions and enrich your experience of the objects on display.

of Justice has experienced an incredible amount of growth over the years. President Washington’s attorney general, Edmund Randolph, was the entire department in 1789. Moreover, it was his part-time job.

Edmund Randolph

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However, you cannot simply walk up to the J. Edgar Hoover Building and hop on a tour. To visit, you need to schedule your tour in advance through your congressional representative. Security is very tight: You may not bring any type of bag larger than a wallet or clutch purse, and the only cameras allowed are the ones in your cell phones. Unfortunately, for security reasons, the tour does not allow foreign citizens into the building. Only US citizens and valid green card holders are admitted. A full list of restrictions is available on the FBI’s website.

ESPIONAGE-RELATED SITES If you cannot visit the FBI Experience—or if you do, but want more adventure and espionage—this lecture has two more locations to recommend. The first is the International Spy Museum. This museum in downtown DC is dedicated to the art, science, and history of international espionage. It holds the largest collection of such exhibits and objects in the world. The other site for espionage buffs is the National Cryptologic Museum. This museum is not in DC itself. It is near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, about halfway between Washington DC and Baltimore. For lovers of military history, espionage history, mathematics, or puzzles, it is definitely worth the trip. Chronicling the development of cryptography and code breaking from the American Revolution to the present day, it demonstrates how this unique branch of spycraft has had an outsized impact on American and world history.

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07

VETERANS MEMORIALS ON THE MALL

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he United States has a long tradition of acknowledging the service and sacrifice of its veterans with monuments and memorials. In the 1970s, a movement to build national veterans memorials on the National Mall began. Today, there are three major veterans memorial complexes on the National Mall, which this guidebook chapter covers: ●●

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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The Korean War Veterans Memorial.

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The World War II Memorial.

THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is like nothing else on the National Mall: It is a 500-foot-long, V-shaped wall of black granite. It is engraved with the names of all the servicemen who died during the conflict—more than 58,000 of them. All but the last few names are listed chronologically, starting with Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr., killed in action on June 8, 1956, to Kelton Rena Turner, killed in action on May 15, 1975. More names have been added, as servicemen once considered missing in action have been confirmed deceased. The wall’s height tapers from eight inches at either end to 10 feet high at the center, but rather than rising to reach that 10 feet, it sinks into the earth. A visitor descends into the timeline of the war and rises back out again. Later, a more traditional bronze heroic figural statue by Frederick Hart, called Three Servicemen, was later added to the design. It stands some distance away overlooking the wall, symbolically standing guard over the fallen.

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Jan Scruggs The initial drive for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came from Jan Scruggs. Scruggs served in the US Army on two tours in Vietnam. He was awarded a Purple Heart, three Army Commendation Medals, and a Commendation with Valor. After the war, he dedicated himself to studying post-traumatic stress disorder.

The wall was completed in 1982 and the statue was completed in 1984. After that statue’s dedication, a memorial statue to the 265,000 women who volunteered to serve in the war was proposed. A figural memorial to these women, sculpted by Glenna Goodacre, was added to the site in 1993. After its completion, the wall rapidly became a site of pilgrimage for those who served and those who lost someone in the war. In addition to making this connection with the past, visitors to the wall made connections with each other. People came to discuss their service, their fallen comrades, and the comrades who were left behind. If you want to visit the wall yourself, you will find it just a few steps northeast of the Lincoln Memorial. Because of its low-lying form, it is surprisingly easy to miss if you approach it from the wrong direction. This course The DC War Memorial urges you to seek it out. It is a truly South of the Lincoln moving experience. If you wish to find the name of a friend or family member who is memorialized on the wall, there are several ways to find its location. At the memorial itself, at either end of the wall, you will find an alphabetical index of names, which will indicate the number of the panel where the name is found. In recent years,

Memorial reflecting pool is the DC War Memorial. This small, round, domed structure was dedicated on Veterans Day in 1931 in honor of the 26,000 Washingtonians who served in America’s military during World War I. It is the only monument to local history on the National Mall.

Lecture 07 | Veterans Memorials on the Mall

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the index has become available as both an online database and a smartphone app.

THE KOREAN WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL On the opposite side of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool from the Vietnam Wall, you will find another wall. In front of that wall stands a group of frozen figures who seem stolen out of time: a group of servicemen, laden with helmets, packs, ponchos, and weapons, their eyes scouring the landscape, alert for signs of danger. This is the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The groundbreaking for this memorial took place on June 14, 1992, presided over by President George H. W. Bush. The monument as it stands today was both influenced by and a departure from the earlier Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial

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THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

Again, it has a reflective black granite wall. It is 164 feet long and divided into 41 panels. However, rather than names, it is engraved with images derived from more than 2,400 photographs of the war. The wall forms one side of a wedge; the other side is a walkway and a curb engraved with the names of the 22 nations that participated in the war under the United Nations banner. Between these two borders stand 19 stainless steel statues—the figures mentioned earlier. On close inspection, interesting details emerge. Their faces are ethnically diverse. The insignia and weapons represent all four branches of the US military. Their equipment represents a range of duties, from riflemen to radio operators to medics. They represent everyone who served. While the statues here are meant to universalize the image of the American serviceman, the designers of the monument also wanted to acknowledge the individuals who served. They achieved this by establishing the Korean War Honor Roll. This database of those who served is accessible by a kiosk at the memorial or via the memorial’s website.

THE WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL The World War II Memorial is located at the east end of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and just west of the Washington Monument. The monument is constructed of white and gray granite, decorated with numerous carvings and bronze sculptural detail. It is strongly Neoclassical in its design, much like the White House, the Capitol, and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Ground was broken at last on November 11, 2000—that is, Veterans Day. Some 15,000 viewers, including many veterans, were in attendance, but Roger Durbin—the veteran who had inspired the monument—was not. He had passed away from pancreatic cancer a few months before.

Lecture 07 | Veterans Memorials on the Mall

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World War II Memorial

When the completed monument was dedicated on Memorial Day weekend in 2004, the ceremony was attended by 150,000 people. Today, this site is a beloved landmark, visited by approximately 4 million people every year. The center of the monument is a plaza and low-lying fountain. Along the north and south curves of the plaza are two semicircles of pillars. They number 56 in all, representing 48 states, 7 territories, and the District of Columbia—the United States as it existed at the time. On the west side of the plaza—toward the Lincoln Memorial—is a low, curved wall decorated with 4,048 golden stars. Each star represents 100 American service members who died in World War II. Since the monument’s construction, the remains of several more service members originally declared missing in action have been discovered; the official count now stands at more than 405,000. Some 16 million men and women served in America’s armed forces during World War II. As of 2018, fewer than 4 million are still alive. As this generation passes away, the monument will remain in honor of their sacrifices and achievements.

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08

ARLINGTON CEMETERY AND THE PENTAGON

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his lecture visits Arlington National Cemetery and other nearby military memorials. In turn, the guidebook chapter discusses:

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Background on Arlington National Cemetery

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Visiting Arlington National Cemetery.

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Arlington House.

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The Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

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Other memorials.

BACKGROUND ON ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY The history of Arlington National Cemetery is inseparable from the history of the American Civil War. When that war began on April 12, 1861, Arlington Plantation, as it was then known, was the home of General Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary Custis Lee. Their 1,100acre plantation stretched along almost two miles of riverfront on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, and it featured a mansion. Within two weeks of the start of the war, Virginia had seceded, and Lee had resigned his commission to the US Army. By the end of April, he was serving the Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia. Back in Arlington, the Confederate-aligned forces of the Virginia militia set up camp at Lee’s mansion. On May 24, 1861, Union troops had seized control of the plantation. The mansion became General Irvin McDowell’s headquarters. The soldiers destroyed the gardens and groves, using the lumber to build fortifications and barracks. The property remained in Union hands for the rest of the war.

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The Civil War is to this day America’s most deadly military conflict. More than 600,000 men lost their lives. By halfway through the war, the existing military cemeteries in DC and Alexandria were quickly running out of room. In 1864, the Union Army quartermaster proposed setting aside 200 acres of the Custis-Lee property as a new military cemetery. The first soldier to be buried here was Private William Christman of Pennsylvania, who was interred on May 13, 1864. Today, more 150 years later, there have been over 400,000 interments, with almost 7,000 new burials every year of veterans and their family members. The graves are visited by 3 million people every year.

VISITING ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY The Welcome Center is the first place most visitors stop on their tour of the cemetery. Inside, you will find historical exhibits, maps and pamphlets, and information services for visitors seeking a particular grave. (The cemetery has an official smartphone app called ANC Explorer, which also helps visitors to find specific graves and memorials.) From here, there are a number of ways you can enter the cemetery. This course recommends going back out to Memorial Avenue and visiting the monument at the end of the street—the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. This is also a museum and research center devoted to the 3 million women who have contributed to US military efforts, both as active and reserve duty service members and as civilian or uniformed support staff. From the reflecting pool in front of this memorial, you can turn either north or south to enter the cemetery gates. Turning south leads you to the smaller portion of the cemetery and the area closest to the Custis-Lee mansion.

Lecture 08 | Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon

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At the first intersection, you will find two graves of note. To your right is the gravesite of World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers. To the left, you will find the grave of one of two presidents buried here at Arlington: President William Howard Taft. You can then follow the signs uphill to the memorial of the second president to be buried here: President John F. Kennedy. Just uphill from the Kennedy gravesite is the Custis-Lee mansion. Along the path toward the house, you will see many of the original Civil War–era graves. You will also see a monument erected above a vault containing the remains of 2,111 soldiers from both sides of the conflict who died at the battles of Bull Run and Rappahannock. Almost directly in front of the mansion is a table tomb that marks the grave of Pierre L’Enfant, a veteran of the American Revolution and the early planner of Washington DC.

ARLINGTON HOUSE The mansion is a National Park Service site administered separately from the cemetery. Formally, it is known as Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial. Inside, the first floor of the house is more or less divided into private spaces on the north side of the house and public or entertaining spaces in the center and south side of the house. Behind the mansion are two small buildings that served as slave quarters. The north quarters included the mansion’s summer kitchen. This was also the home of George Clark, the plantation cook, and the carriage driver, known as Daniel. The building to the south was the home of Selina Gray, Mrs. Lee’s lady’s maid. She lived in a single room with her husband Thornton and their eight children.

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Arlington House

THE MEMORIAL AMPHITHEATER AND THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER To the south of the mansion are the Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The amphitheater serves as the cemetery’s chapel, where memorial and funeral services for many of the interred have been held. The Tomb of the Unknown Solider was founded in 1921, when the body of an unidentified World War I American soldier was buried there. This soldier was later joined by the remains of unidentified soldiers from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. However, in 1998, the remains of the Vietnam soldier were disinterred and identified by DNA evidence as the Air Force’s Michael Joseph Blassie. That tomb is now vacant, and its crypt cover is dedicated to all veterans of the conflict.

Lecture 08 | Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon

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The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The tomb is guarded 24 hours a day by volunteer sentinels from the 3rd US Infantry Regiment, which is headquartered at nearby Fort Myer. Any soldier who serves as a sentinel must meet a strict set of physical requirements and must study the history of the ceremony. A changing-of-the-guard ritual takes place here once per hour in fall and winter and once every 30 minutes in spring and summer. At the end of each shift, a relief commander announces the changing of the guard, salutes the tomb, and asks any spectators to stand and remain silent throughout the ceremony. Surrounding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are a number of significant memorials, including: ●●

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A memorial to the astronauts who perished aboard the space shuttles Columbia and Challenger.

THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

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The mast of the USS Maine, a ship whose destruction led to the Spanish-American War.

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A memorial to the Rough Riders cavalry unit that served in that war.

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A memorial to the veterans of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

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A memorial to the nurses who have served in the US armed forces.

OTHER MEMORIALS There are a many other memorials on and around the land that used to be Arlington Plantation. Just to the north of the cemetery is the Marine Corps War Memorial. Visitors who want to learn more about the history of the Marine Corps might consider taking a trip to the National Museum of the Marine Corps, which is found about 30 miles south of DC in Triangle, Virginia. On the grounds near the Marine Corps Memorial is a large, modern bell tower called the Netherlands Carillon. It was a gift from the people of the Netherlands to the people of the United States, in recognition of their assistance during and after World War II. Two more memorials of note are found south of the cemetery: the Air Force Memorial and the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. Additionally, another 9/11 memorial is located nearby, inside the Pentagon. This memorial, called the America’s Heroes Memorial, is located in the Pentagon’s outermost ring at the point of impact of the plane used in the attack. It consists of a memorial room, where you will find a book of photographs and biographies of the victims, and a small chapel.

Lecture 08 | Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon

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In order to visit this memorial, you will need to take a tour of the Pentagon itself. Because it is the headquarters of America’s Department of Defense, tours of the Pentagon are highly restricted. Reservations must be made between three months and two weeks of your planned tour date. Every entrant must pass a security screening, and visitors over the age of 18 must present a current, valid photo ID to enter. You should arrive about an hour before your scheduled tour to ensure you have enough time to pass through security. There is no public parking at the Pentagon; the closest parking is several blocks away. Public transportation is much more convenient. Buses and the Metro can drop you off at the Pentagon’s visitors’ entrance.

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09

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S MOUNT VERNON

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his lecture visits Mount Vernon and nearby Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. President George Washington felt this was the ideal place for the nation’s capital, owing to his affinity to the area and his belief that placing the capital here would be good for the growth of the nation. In particular, this guidebook chapter looks at: ●●

Background on Mount Vernon.

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Visiting Mount Vernon.

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Exterior sites at Mount Vernon.

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Other attractions near Mount Vernon.

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Old Town Alexandria.

BACKGROUND ON MOUNT VERNON George Washington was a Virginian by birth. In fact, he was born just a mile from the Potomac River, about 75 miles south of DC, at Pope’s Creek Plantation in Westmoreland County, on February 22, 1732. Throughout his early years, the Washington family moved around quite a bit, back and forth between a place called Ferry Farm, near Fredericksburg, and Little Hunting Creek Plantation—the original name of Mount Vernon.

George Washington

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Washington’s father passed away in 1743, leaving Mount Vernon to George’s older half-brother, Lawrence, and Ferry Farm to 11-year-old George. By 1754, Lawrence Washington had passed away, and George Washington became the proprietor of Mount Vernon.

THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

At that time, the estate consisted of about 2,500 acres of land. It also consisted of people—about a dozen enslaved African Americans who were considered part of the estate’s holdings. Over the years at Mount Vernon, Washington engaged in the purchase or trade of about 500 people. At the time of his death, there were 317 slaves on the plantation, 123 of which Washington himself owned outright. The others belonged to his wife Martha, or they were rented from other plantations. Notably, in his will, Washington freed those people he held outright, but he had no authority to free those enslaved by his wife or the rest of her family.

VISITING MOUNT VERNON When entering the Mount Vernon property today, one of the first areas you walk through is an area where many of those slaves lived and worked. The original building on this site was the mansion’s greenhouse, constructed in 1787; in the early 1790s, two wings were added as slave quarters, designed to sleep about 30 people each. At the time of Washington’s death, 90 people were housed here— including children. This building is a replica; the original, which was built in 1787, was destroyed by fire in the 19th century. It does offer an accurate glimpse into the way the estate’s enslaved people lived. As you continue along the path to the mansion, you will find a number of small outbuildings, including a blacksmith’s shop. This shop is still in operation and offers regular demonstrations of colonial smithing techniques. You will also see the spinning house, where slaves produced cloth from wool and from cotton grown on the estate. Cloth was one of the estate’s largest sources of income.

Lecture 09 | George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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Next, you will come to the mansion itself. The mansion as it stands today has been restored as closely as possible, in appearance and furnishings, to the year of Washington’s death, 1799. Over the years, it underwent expansion, ending up at around 11,000 square feet. The last room to be added to the house is the so-called New Room. This is the largest and grandest space in the house, and during Washington’s lifetime, it served several different purposes. This is where the Washingtons received their visitors, and it is also where Washington hung his paintings. Out the back of the New Room and a few steps along the piazza is the riverside, or east-side, entrance to the house, added by Washington. This leads to the Central Passage and the four rooms connected to it—the original core of the house. Upstairs are six bedrooms. The largest bedroom is the one where George and Martha Washington slept, and it also served as Martha Washington’s office. This is the room where, on December 14, 1799, Washington died of a throat infection.

EXTERIOR SITES AT MOUNT VERNON Washington’s body was first placed in the old family tomb, down the hill to the south of the mansion. A new tomb was built to replace this crumbling structure to the west, below the fruit gardens. The remains of both George and Martha, who had passed away in 1802, were placed there in 1831. From the Washington’s tomb, you can continue downhill toward the Potomac River. There, you will find a memorial to the people whom the Washingtons enslaved, near the plantation’s original slave cemetery. Leaving the cemetery and continuing downhill, you will reach the wharf. This is the spot where many of Mount Vernon’s visitors arrived

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in Washington’s day. From April to October, visitors can pick up a sightseeing cruise here and learn more about the history of the Potomac River. You can also catch a ferry here to Southwest DC, Old Town Alexandria, or National Harbor, Maryland. Finally, near the wharf, you will find the Pioneer Farm, where you can catch a glimpse of working life on the plantation in Washington’s day. The exhibit includes heritage breed animals and the unique, 16-sided treading barn designed by Washington himself for grain processing and storage.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS NEAR MOUNT VERNON After touring the Mount Vernon mansion and the grounds, you should also spend some time in Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center. It is home to both temporary exhibitions and a permanent collection of artifacts related to life on the estate, from the dress sword that Washington wore at his inauguration to his famous set of dentures. About 2.5 miles down the road from the main entrance to Mount Vernon, you will find Washington’s distillery and gristmill. It was originally built in the early 1770s and restored in 1932. The mill was not only used for grinding wheat and corn grown on the estate, but Washington also rented time on the mill to other farmers in the area. The distillery was built much later than the gristmill—in 1797, when Washington retired to Mount Vernon after his presidency. Housing five stills and producing up to 11,000 gallons of whiskey a year, it was one of the biggest distilleries in the United States at the time. Both the gristmill and the distillery are in operation today and are open for tours from April to October.

Lecture 09 | George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA Selling all of that flour and whiskey required infrastructure. It requires markets to sell goods and a reliable mode of transportation to get them there. Washington had both, about nine miles upriver at Alexandria. The area known today as Old Town Alexandria has its roots in Native American settlements. Archaeologists estimate that there were humans living here maybe 13,000 years ago. The area seems to have been continuously occupied by Native Americans from that time until the late 17th century. Colonists by and large pushed out the natives. Washington left his mark on Alexandria in several ways. For example, at the age of 17, he was hired as the assistant to official county surveyor John West. Two of the original plots surveyed by Washington in Alexandria— numbers 41 and 42 on North Fairfax Street, across from Market Square—were purchased by a man named John Carlyle. He constructed a magnificent Georgian mansion, known as Carlyle House, on those lots. The house was finished in August 1753. Then, almost exactly two years later, General Edward Braddock, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, chose the house as his headquarters at the outset of the French and Indian War. Among Braddock’s staff at the mansion was George Washington. Later, the house was returned to the Carlyle family, and later still, it became a Union Army hospital during the Civil War. Throughout the house’s existence, it has been at the center of life in Alexandria, and now it serves as a museum. On the other side of Market Square from Carlyle House, on the corner of North Royal and Cameron Streets, is Gadsby’s Tavern. Built in 1785

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Old Town Alexandria

and owned by John Gadsby from 1796 until 1808, it was at the heart of Alexandria’s social and political life for many decades. There is still a working restaurant there today, as well as a museum dedicated to the history, arts, and food of colonial America. They also host lectures, performances, and other educational events. A few blocks west of Gadsby’s, at the corner of Cameron Street and Washington Streets you will find another building that was central to life in colonial Alexandria, and to George Washington: the 18thcentury episcopal house of worship called Christ Church. There are many other fascinating sites to see in Old Town Alexandria. If you come to visit, stop by the Alexandria Visitor Center, on the corner of Fairfax Street and King Street. There, you can find out more about Alexandria’s many museums, historic sites, attractions, and events.

Lecture 09 | George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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10

FORD’S THEATRE AND LINCOLN’S WASHINGTON DC

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n President Abraham Lincoln’s day, Washington DC was a city in the midst of a dramatic transition. This lecture visits sites relevant to the DC Lincoln knew, including: ●●

The Willard InterContinental hotel.

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Fort Stevens.

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The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum.

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President Lincoln’s Cottage.

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Ford’s Theatre.

THE WILLARD INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL The Willard InterContinental is a hotel at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, just a short walk from the White House. The Willard

The Willard InterContinental Hotel

Lecture 10 | Ford’s Theatre and Lincoln’s Washington DC

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is probably one of the most famous hotels in Washington, in part because of its location, but also because of its long history. Notably, it has been a host to presidents. Every US president since Franklin Pierce has either stayed here or attended an event here. One of the most interesting visits was Abraham Lincoln’s. Lincoln’s election in November 1860 was polarizing. Many pro-slavery legislators saw this as the final straw that would lead to secession— and they were right. But in the months leading up to Lincoln’s inauguration the next March, another, more specific threat emerged. Through a complicated series of events, Allan Pinkerton of the Pinkerton Detective Agency had been hired to ensure Lincoln’s safety. One of his agents—a young widow named Kate Warne, who is believed to be the world’s first female private detective—uncovered what came to be known as the Baltimore Plot to assassinate the president-elect. Though visitors naturally have to pay to stay in the Willard, it is free to walk into the grand lobby. The hotel’s bars and restaurants are open to the public.

FORT STEVENS Fort Stevens was the only fort inside DC boundaries to see action during the Civil War. This happened in the summer of 1864, after General Ulysses S. Grant pulled about three-fifths of the troops defending Washington out of the city to fight in other campaigns. Confederate general Jubal Early, whose troops were encamped at Rockville, Maryland, sent a small number of soldiers to probe Fort Stevens’ defenses. Several small skirmishes broke out, but no battle.

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Fort Stevens

The fort is notable, however, because Abraham Lincoln visited the fort at this time and stood on top of the parapets. Some of the Confederate sharpshooters spotted him and fired, but missed. To this day, Lincoln is the only American president to come under fire from an enemy combatant while in office. The fort has been partially restored under the care of the National Park Service, and a commemorative plaque marks the place where Lincoln stood. Now, war is well known to drive technological innovation, and the American Civil War was no exception. When we think of these innovations, we logically tend to think of the development of weaponry. But what is often overlooked is the way that war drives developments in communication and medicine.

Lecture 10 | Ford’s Theatre and Lincoln’s Washington DC

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THE CLARA BARTON MISSING SOLDIERS OFFICE MUSEUM In 1861, Clara Barton, a former teacher and patent office clerk, heard that a number of wounded soldiers from her home state of Massachusetts were being housed in the US Capitol Building. She and several local women brought food, clothing, and supplies to the Capitol and offered their assistance. Eventually, Barton would serve as a nurse on the front lines of the war—at the Second Battle of Manassas, Harper’s Ferry, Antietam, and more. When the war was over, she dedicated herself to searching for missing soldiers. Working out of her home in a boarding house at 437 ½ Seventh Street Northwest, she and her assistants responded to more than 60,000 letters from distraught families searching for missing soldiers. They found more than 22,000 of these men and reunited them with their families, or, if they were deceased, helped locate and mark their graves. Clara Barton

The building from which Barton worked was eventually restored and opened in 2015 as the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum. The museum’s regular hours are limited, but group tours are available most days, so be sure to check the museum’s website if you choose to visit.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S COTTAGE Washington’s summers can be brutally hot and humid. In Lincoln’s day, the only way to escape the weather was to escape the city—

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The First Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall was not the first memorial to the president in DC. The statue of Lincoln found on Indiana Avenue Northwest, in front of the DC Court of Appeals, was actually the first. On April 28, 1865—just two weeks after Lincoln’s death—city leaders agreed to place a statue here. The project was funded mostly by private donations. The single largest donation came from John Ford, manager of Ford’s Theatre.

which he, and several of the presidents before and after him, regularly did. The house called President Lincoln’s Cottage is found about four miles northeast of the White House, in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest DC. It was built in the 1840s as the summer home of banker George Riggs, who sold the cottage and the 250-acre hilltop estate it sat on to the federal government in 1851.

President Lincoln’s Cottage

Lecture 10 | Ford’s Theatre and Lincoln’s Washington DC

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The government built a retirement home for veterans there. Known originally as the Old Soldiers’ Home, it is still in operation as the Armed Forces Retirement Home. The cottage there was first used as a summer White House by Lincoln’s predecessor, James Buchanan. Lincoln spent three summers there—from June to November of 1862, 1863, and 1864. Later on, the National Trust for Historic Preservation took on the job of restoring the home to the condition it was in when Lincoln lived there, and they competed their work in 2007. It is now open to the public, with exhibits dedicated to Lincoln’s life and work. The cottage itself is only accessible by guided tour, and it is recommended to buy tickets several weeks in advance.

FORD’S THEATRE Any visitor to DC with an interest in Lincoln will want to visit Ford’s Theatre. It is forever tied to the president. On April 14, 1865, during a performance of Our American Cousin, Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered the president’s box, shot Lincoln in the Sic semper tyrannis back of the head, and fled. After shooting Lincoln, Booth yelled, “Sic semper tyrannis”— a Latin phrase meaning “Thus always to tyrants”—and escaped the theater through the backstage door. That phrase was (and is) the Virginia state motto, which Booth probably intended as a cry of allegiance to the Confederacy. However, he may not have known that it was also the motto of the African American regiments of the United States Army during the Civil War.

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Two surgeons entered Lincoln’s box and found him still breathing. They took him across the street to the home of a tailor named William Petersen. The surgeon general and Lincoln’s personal physician joined them there. It was clear he could not be saved, so they did their best to make him comfortable. Lincoln died quietly at 7:22 the next morning.

THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

Booth was found 12 days later at a farm outside Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was killed in a shootout. His co-conspirators, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Azterodt, were captured, tried, and hanged for their roles in the conspiracy. After Lincoln’s assassination, Ford’s Theatre went through a number of changes. The government purchased the property from John Ford and ordered that the site never again be used for entertainment. However, in 1964, Congress decided to fund its restoration, and in January 1968, Ford’s Theatre became a theatre once more. The theatre as it exists today looks much as it did in Lincoln’s time, with one major exception: the presidential box is never occupied. There is also now a museum beneath Ford’s Theatre, which chronicles Lincoln’s tenure as president, important figures and events of the Civil War, and the assassination and its aftermath. Among the artifacts found in the museum is Booth’s Derringer pistol. William Petersen’s house across the street, where Lincoln died, is also part of the museum complex, and has been meticulously recreated to show visitors the scene of that terrible night. The museum is very much worthwhile, but if you visit, you should also consider seeing a performance. The theatre typically puts on four productions per year, including plays and musicals, beloved classics, and newly commissioned works.

Lecture 10 | Ford’s Theatre and Lincoln’s Washington DC

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11

WASHINGTON’S CIVIL RIGHTS LANDMARKS

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he struggle to establish civil rights for African Americans in the United States did not end with the Civil War and Reconstruction. It was (and still is) a slow, sometimes painful process marked by both tragedy and triumph. It has had a profound impact on how Washington DC became the city it is today. This guidebook chapter focuses on the mark the struggle for civil rights has left on this city. In particular, it covers the following sites: ●●

Frederick Douglass’s home.

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The Anacostia Community Museum.

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The National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS’S HOME One of the most recognized figures in the fight for the abolition of slavery was Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery in Maryland around the year 1818, he spent almost the entirety of his 77 years fighting first for his own freedom, and then for the freedom of others. Douglass moved to Washington DC in 1872, to an estate called Cedar Hill. He served on a number of federal commissions, served in DC’s territorial government, and became a board member of Howard University, one of DC’s historically black universities. He served as the US ambassador to Haiti from 1889 to 1891, and he continued to write, speak, and study until his death in 1895.

Frederick Douglass

Lecture 11 | Washington’s Civil Rights Landmarks

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Douglass’s Cedar Hill home in the Southeast DC neighborhood of Anacostia is now managed by the National Park Service as a National Historic Site. The house was restored in the early 2000s to appear much as it did in 1895 and is filled with objects from Douglass’s personal and professional life. Guided tours of the house are available daily; advance reservations are recommended and can be booked via the National Park Service website. You can also check the website for special events.

THE ANACOSTIA COMMUNITY MUSEUM Anacostia, built on the native foundations of the city, was one of DC’s earliest suburban communities. Although in the 19th century covenants were in place preventing black families from buying land in the area, by the mid-20th century, Anacostia’s demographics had shifted and the area became one of DC’s most significant African American communities. In the 1960s, recognizing that geography and segregation had isolated Anacostia from life on the other side of the river, Smithsonian embarked on an experimental museum project called the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. The idea was to bring a slice of the National Mall’s museums to the neighborhood. Based on community feedback, the museum’s mission changed to focus on the lifeways and issues most relevant to the local populace. Renamed the Anacostia Community Museum, it developed exhibits on local history in general and African American history in particular. It also developed educational programs in cooperation with local schoolteachers, and even developed a youth advisory council to ensure that the museum served the entire community.

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THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE Long before the founding of the Anacostia Community Museum, there was a movement afoot for a national museum of African American history in the nation’s capital—a museum that would tell the nation’s story through the lens of the black experience. The idea took shape among a group of African American Civil War veterans in 1915. Although it received support from President Hoover and a number of prominent black activists, funding bill after funding bill failed to pass Congress for decades. In 2001, Representative John R. Lewis and Representative J. C. Watts reintroduced funding legislation. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, intimately familiar with the historical struggles over freedom and slavery in his state, also proposed legislation, and then later joined efforts with Lewis. The bill was

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finally passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The museum opened at long last in September 2016 and immediately became one of the most popular attractions on the National Mall. About 2.5 million people visit the museum each year. The crowds were managed through the use of timed-entry ticketing—a system that remains in place for weekends and holidays. Note that if you plan to visit African American the museum on a trip to DC, you may Military Service be able to simply walk in on a weekday, African Americans but getting tickets in advance from the of the 19th century museum’s website is always advisable. participated in the fight to abolish slavery in many different ways, not least of which was through military service. Although the Union military allowed black men to serve in its ranks, they were segregated into a branch of the military called the United States Colored Troops, or USCT. Although only about 1 percent of the Northern population was African American, the USCT made up 10 percent of the Union Army and 25 percent of the Union Navy during the war.

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The museum has a unique layout. The ground floor, called Heritage Hall, is devoted to visitor services. Below it, you will find the history galleries, and above it, the culture galleries, community galleries, and a special area that includes interactive exhibits and a research center. The history galleries are often sobering, even harrowing. The community and culture galleries upstairs, on the third and fourth floors, are often joyful. For example, the Musical Crossroads exhibit celebrates the central role of African American traditions and performers in American music.

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THE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. MEMORIAL One mile away from the museum is the newest memorial on the National Mall: the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Found on the edge of the Tidal Basin, this memorial was dedicated on August 28, 2011, the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington. Its formal address is 1964 Independence Avenue Southwest, in honor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that Dr. King helped make possible. Although it was chartered by Congress, the bulk of the funds were raised by the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, which Dr. King joined during graduate school. It is the only memorial on the National Mall to an African American individual. Like several of the newer memorials, it is a sculpture garden. A fouracre granite plaza stretches in a crescent along the waterfront. The curved outer wall is inscribed with quotes from Dr. King’s writings.

Stone of Hope

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The focal point of the memorial is the 30-foot-high statue called the Stone of Hope. Its form was inspired by a quote from the “I Have a Dream” speech: “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

CONCLUSION Despite the sites in this lecture being relatively new structures, they represent a thread of American history as deep and as significant as anything else you will see on your tour of Washington DC. The struggle for civil rights—and indeed, for human rights—is not a uniquely American struggle. However, the United States has provided an example in addressing the challenge of achieving its founding ideal: ensuring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

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12

THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM

D

uring World War II, the Holocaust took an immense human toll. By the time the Nazis surrendered in May 1945, more than 6 million people had been systematically murdered in the camps by their own government. This guidebook chapter focuses on the DC site that came in its wake: the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In particular, the chapter covers: ●●

The founding of the museum.

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Visiting the museum.

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The museum’s coverage of the Nazi Party’s rise.

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The museum’s coverage of World War II.

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The museum’s coverage of the aftermath of the Holocaust.

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Other facets of the museum.

THE FOUNDING OF THE MUSEUM The idea for the museum began in 1978 with a memorandum created and supported by three people in President Jimmy Carter’s administration: Stuart Eizenstat, Mark Siegel, and Ellen Goldstein. Based on their recommendations, President Carter established the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and asked its members to recommend a suitable memorial. The commission, chaired by novelist and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, recommended not a memorial, but a museum and education center. The museum would, first and foremost, ensure that the memory of what had happened to the Holocaust’s 6 million victims was not lost. Through the work of its educational foundation, it would also seek to understand how this and other acts of genocide happen, in an effort to prevent them in the future.

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VISITING THE MUSEUM The museum is located near the National Mall, just a few blocks south of the Washington Monument on 14th Street Southwest. The museum is open from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm on weekdays and 10:00 am to 5:30 pm on weekends. It is open on every day of the year except for the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and Christmas Day. Admission to the museum is free, but from March through August, a timed entrance ticket is required for the permanent exhibitions. You can reserve timed tickets online in advance of your visit, or you can pick up same-day timed entrance tickets at the museum itself, starting 15 minutes before opening. Tickets are not required for the research library, the Survivor and Victims Resource Center, the Hall of Remembrance, or temporary exhibits. Visitors reach the permanent exhibition via the elevators on the first floor, to the left of the main hall as you enter. Before entering the elevator, each visitor receives an ID card. This is a passport-sized booklet that tells the true story of a person who lived through the Holocaust. As you move through the museum, you can compare the person’s story with what you see in the exhibition, putting a human face and personal perspective on the larger historical narrative.

THE MUSEUM’S COVERAGE OF THE NAZI PARTY’S RISE The elevators then take visitors to the fourth floor of the museum and the start of the permanent exhibition, covering the years 1933 to 1939. It chronicles the period of the Nazi Party’s rise to power up through the outbreak of World War II. The exhibits immediately confront the museum’s driving questions: How and why did Hitler and the Nazis come to power? Why were

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the Jews targeted for persecution? What forms did this persecution take? What was the response of others, both within Germany and around the world, to this persecution? Because these events took place in modern times, the museum is able to exhibit material objects, like propaganda posters or personal possessions. The curators were also able to use an enormous amount of original newsreel footage, documentary footage, interviews, and home movies, which are displayed on screens throughout the museum. This is yet another way the museum makes the experience of the Holocaust personal and visceral. You are sharing an experience with those who witnessed the Holocaust. The films and objects tell two intertwined stories. One of these stories is the story of everyday life among the European Jewish communities before the war. The other story is the story of how totalitarianism takes hold in a nation: the motives of its leader; the tools of control like propaganda, terrorism, and scapegoating; and the conditions that gave rise to nationalism, racism, and violence from ordinary people against their neighbors.

THE MUSEUM’S COVERAGE OF WORLD WAR II The third floor of the museum covers the period of World War II. The war began with Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. One of the Nazis’ first acts in occupied Poland was the creation of ghettos—the only area of the city where Jews were allowed to live. Between late 1941 and the summer of 1944, each and every resident of the 1,000 or so ghettos across Eastern Europe was eventually transported to a concentration camp. Residents of the ghettos did occasionally rebel. The largest such uprising was in Warsaw in 1943. The museum’s holdings include both objects from the Warsaw ghetto and photographs of the uprising, most of them taken by members of the German military. Once again,

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curators have collected oral histories from Jewish witnesses to the uprising and play them in the theaters on this floor. Much of this floor is devoted to life in the concentration camps. Visitors can step inside one of the original barracks buildings from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

THE MUSEUM’S COVERAGE OF THE AFTERMATH OF THE HOLOCAUST The final floor of the museum’s permanent exhibition is called the Last Chapter, and it chronicles the aftermath of the war and Hitler’s fall as well as the lasting legacy of the Holocaust. Many of the images in this part of the exhibition are both horrifying and familiar. As the German military retreated from the Allied advance, the mass murder of imprisoned Jewish people increased. In some camps, the entire population was executed and the buildings destroyed, leaving the Allies to discover the mass graves. At other camps, the Nazi guards and administrators fled and left the imprisoned behind. When the Soviets reached Auschwitz, the largest of the killing centers, they found it mostly empty. Those prisoners who were able to walk had been force-marched westward to other camps by the Nazis. Those who could not—about 6,000 men, women, and children—were left behind. The children who survived, as seen in the Soviet military footage and photographs on display at the museum, all had one thing in common. They were all twins, used by Dr. Josef Mengele in his terrible medical experiments. Any other children sent to Auschwitz were usually killed immediately, as the mass graves and the personal belongings the Soviets found at the camp proved.

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It is often said that the full scale of the Nazi atrocities were not understood until the camps were liberated. There is some truth to that. However, it was not entirely unexpected, and some people did act to save their friends and neighbors. There were individuals throughout Europe who helped Jewish and other refugees to hide, to obtain false identities, and to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. The story of Anne Frank is probably the most famous, thanks to the diary she left behind, but it is not the only such story. In Denmark, German diplomat Georg Anne Frank Ferdinand Duckwitz passed intelligence to the Danish resistance, warning them in 1943 that Denmark’s Jews, about 8,000 people, were about to be deported to the camps. Within two weeks, 7,200 of them were successfully smuggled to neutral Sweden. A few hundred more were successfully hidden within the country. Only 500 Danish Jews were captured and imprisoned either in ghettos or camps, and all but 51 survived their imprisonment. Similar stories can be found throughout Europe and America.

OTHER FACETS OF THE MUSEUM This chapter only scratches the surface of what you will find at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum also features a program of temporary exhibitions. Recent exhibits have included ones that focus on America’s response to the Holocaust and on the current human rights and refugee crisis in Syria. Previous exhibits have examined other acts of genocide in modern history. Like many of the museums in DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum offers regular lectures and educational programs. The museum and its resources support the research of historians who study the

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Holocaust and other acts of genocide, as well as policymakers who are working to understand and prevent future crises. There are also resources available to the family members of victims and survivors of the Holocaust. The public is invited to research their family history and share their family stories. They may be able to help with the ongoing Remember Me? project, which is attempting to trace 1,100 refugee children who were separated from their families during the Holocaust and whose fates are unknown. There are two other locations that deserve a visit. First, at the end of the permanent exhibition, there is a room with desks and pens and notecards, where guests are invited to write down the thoughts, impressions, and questions the museum has evoked. Visitors then hang their cards on the wall, with those of thousands of other visitors. They help visitors to see the exhibits through others’ eyes and foster mutual understanding. The second spot is the Hall of Remembrance. This large, solemn room is used for both public ceremonies and quiet reflection. Guests are invited to light memorial candles and to read the inscription on the eternal flame that is the focal point of the room. It is a passage from the Torah, from the book of Deuteronomy: Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children, and to your children’s children.

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13

MUSEUMS ON THE MALL: SMITHSONIAN AND BEYOND

P

eople make more than 30 million visits per year to the Smithsonian Institution’s museums and galleries. Washington DC is home to many of them, as well as other museums and galleries. This guidebook chapter covers many such attractions, including: ●●

The National Museum of American History.

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The National Museum of Natural History.

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The National Museum of the American Indian.

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The National Air and Space Museum.

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Smithsonian art museums.

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The National Gallery of Art.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY The National Museum of American History houses about 1.8 million objects relating to the history of the United States, from before the American Revolution to the present day. It includes one of the most important and beloved objects in the entire Smithsonian collection: the Star-Spangled Banner. This is the actual flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, and it is the flag that Francis Scott Key saw while he was held captive on a British navy vessel in Baltimore Harbor. The sight of the flag, still flying after a full night of bombardment by British naval forces, inspired Key to write the poem that became America’s national anthem. Another huge draw at American History is the First Ladies exhibit. The main attractions here are more than two dozen gowns worn by America’s first ladies. The exhibit also includes objects recounting the

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first ladies’ personal lives, like letters and photographs. Throughout the museum are other objects relating to famous figures.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Next door to the National Museum of American History is another Smithsonian museum: the National Museum of Natural History. Founded in 1910, today this museum holds more than 140 million natural science specimens and cultural artifacts. It is the largest such collection in the world. The Hope Diamond

It is also home to Smithsonian’s single most visited object: the Hope Diamond. At the museum, you can learn about the history and the chemistry of this unique gemstone, along with other astounding gems, mineral specimens,

James Smithson The Smithsonian Institution is named for James Smithson, a wealthy English chemist and mineralogist. When Smithson died in 1829, he left his fortune to the people of the United States on the condition that it was used to create an institution for, as his will put it, “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” The Smithsonian Institution is now the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, but its mission remains the same as it was set out to fulfill Smithson’s vision.

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and meteorites. There are also exhibits on topics like plate tectonics, seismology, volcanology, zoology, anthropology, and more.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN Another innovative museum is the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened on the south side of the National Mall in 2004. Its mission is to advance the knowledge and understanding of the

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native cultures of the Western Hemisphere—past, present, and future—and to support the continuity of native cultures. The museum is surrounded by a simulated wetland planted with native plants, recalling the American landscape before first contact with Europe. These include traditional crops that were once unique to the Americas but now supply about 60 percent of the world’s diet—foods like potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and chocolate.

THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM Next door to the National Museum of the American Indian, you will find the most visited Smithsonian museum: the National Air and Space Museum. The museum is dedicated to the science of air and space travel, and the research and discoveries that made them possible. The collections include more than 60,000 objects, including some of the world’s most famous aircraft, from the invention of flight to the present day. The collections also include uniforms, models, engines, video footage, and more. In addition to the exhibit galleries, there is a planetarium, an IMAX theater, and an observatory where visitors can safely view the sun in the middle of the day. Because of its enormous collection, it was almost inevitable that this museum would eventually run out of display space. In 2003, the museum opened an annex called the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. It is about 30 miles from downtown DC, but it includes many incredible objects, including the space shuttle Discovery.

SMITHSONIAN ART MUSEUMS Art lovers will find lots to enjoy on the National Mall as well. In terms of Smithsonian museums, the National Mall features the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, both featuring Asian art.

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Also on the National Mall are the National Museum of African Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Some of Smithsonian’s art museums are a short walk north of the National Mall. For example, near the White House is the Renwick Gallery. The Renwick’s collections include painting, drawing, sculptures, photography, crafts, and decorative arts. A few blocks east of Renwick, almost directly north of the Natural History Museum, are the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. They are housed in the Reynolds Center at the historic old Patent Office Building. Opened in 1968, the National Portrait Gallery seeks to chronicle American History through portraits of the people who shaped it. The museum’s most famous collection is the only complete set of American presidential portraits outside the White House. The museum also features portraits of other important American figures, such as the abolitionists Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART Not every museum in DC is part of the Smithsonian Institution. For example, take one of the largest and most visited art museums in the world: the National Gallery of Art. Located on the north side of the mall, across from National Air and Space Museum, it draws more than 5 million visitors annually. The National Gallery of Art consists of three parts: the East Building, the West Building, and the Sculpture Garden. The West Building houses art from the medieval period to the late 19th century, while the East Building is home to 20th-century and contemporary art. The collections include examples from some of the most celebrated artists in history, including Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, Rubens,

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West Building

Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Matisse, and Calder. The museum also regularly hosts temporary exhibits and special installations. In the Sculpture Garden, the central fountain is converted to an ice rink each winter, so visitors can enjoy the garden year-round.

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14

WASHINGTON, CITY OF SCANDAL

P

olitical scandals are nothing new in the nation’s capital. It is important not to sweep them under the rug. With that in mind, this lecture focuses on several Washington DC–related scandals and sites, including: ●●

Scandals involving Ulysses S. Grant.

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Teapot Dome.

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Watergate.

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The Newseum.

SCANDALS INVOLVING ULYSSES S. GRANT Though Ulysses S. Grant was undoubtedly one of America’s greatest military leaders, as a president, his legacy was more checkered. He came to the presidency at a very difficult time. His predecessor, Andrew Johnson, had been impeached due to conflicts over his cabinet appointees, and only escaped removal from office by one vote. The Republican Party—the party of Grant, Johnson, and Abraham Lincoln— was sharply divided over how to handle Reconstruction in the aftermath of the Civil War. The nation was also struggling under postwar debt. Ongoing conflicts between Native Americans and groups of settlers were turning the west into a powder keg. However, one of the biggest issues Grant faced as president was his own personality: He was honest and loyal to a fault.

Ulysses S. Grant

In 1869, two stock market speculators who were friends of Grant’s brother-in-law worked their way into the president’s inner social

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circle. These men, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, slowly, carefully, and methodically manipulated Grant’s opinions on fiscal policy. Grant’s treasury secretary had been regularly selling off gold from the treasury as a way to buy back Civil War bonds, reduce the national debt, and stabilize the economy. Gould and Fisk began buying up as much gold as they could, while simultaneously trying to convince Grant that the gold sales were bad for the economy. Grant was skeptical at first, but eventually, and without warning, he halted gold sales. The price of gold shot up, and Gould and Fisk made a small fortune. That fortune only lasted a week. Other market speculators panicked and began selling gold, and the price dropped again. Gould and Fisk began hoarding gold, trying to drive the price higher. They also, very foolishly, sent a bribe to Grant in the form of $60,000 worth of art. Grant now understood that he had been played. He ordered the treasury to release more gold, flooding the market and bankrupting Gould and Fisk. Unfortunately, the crash in the gold market also crashed the rest of the economy. Stocks dropped by 20 percent; some commodity values, like grains, dropped 30 or 40 percent. When the smoke cleared, Congress set up an investigation. Grant was acquitted of any wrongdoing, but several members of Grant’s treasury department were convicted of taking bribes from Gould and Fisk in exchange for insider information. Ironically, Gould and Fisk escaped conviction. By the end of Grant’s second term, his administration would be rocked by 11 more scandals. None of them implicated Grant directly, but all of them involved his cabinet members, or his political appointees. Because of this, historians often rank Grant as a mediocre president. He made some important strides, especially in the area of civil rights.

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However, he was a terrible judge of character, and his reputation has suffered for it. That is part of the reason it took so many years after the Civil War for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial to be constructed on the National Mall. When it was constructed, it framed Grant as a general, not a president. Grant’s memorial, completed in 1924, sits on the west front of the Capitol grounds, on the edge of the Capitol Reflecting Pool. It is the largest equestrian monument in the United States, depicting Grant on horseback. A complex of marble steps and pedestals supporting multiple bronze statues and relief sculptures, it is 252 feet long, 71 feet wide, and 44 feet high.

TEAPOT DOME Teapot Dome, involving the administration of President Warren G. Harding, was the biggest scandal and largest investigation into political misconduct in American history up to that time. In the case of Teapot Dome, the problem was Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall. The Ohio Gang When representing the state of New Mexico in the US Senate, Albert Fall became a member of what would later be called the Ohio Gang. The gang met in a house at 1625 K Street House Northwest known as the Little Green House, which is no longer there. They would talk government business, but they also conspired with some unsavory characters, including bootleggers and liquor smugglers.

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Teapot Dome was an oil field. In Harding’s day, it was one of three that the federal government set aside to produce its strategic oil reserve. Originally, the Department of the Navy managed the reserve. However, Fall convinced Harding to transfer the reserve to his department—the Department of the Interior. Fall immediately sold drilling rights to two of the three oil fields to close personal friends

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in sweetheart deals. These deals bypassed the competitive bidding process and drastically reduced the government’s share of the profits. Fall himself got a healthy kickback—an amount equal to about $5 or $6 million today. Fall was not very good at covering his tracks. A Senate investigation led by Senator Thomas Walsh of Montana uncovered evidence of bribery. Some of Fall’s associates, known as the Ohio Gang, resorted to perjury, forgery, threats, jury tampering, and blackmail to try to stop the investigation, but it was no use. Fall was convicted of accepting bribes and became the first presidential cabinet member in American history to go to prison.

WATERGATE The Watergate scandal left an indelible mark on American history. Eventually, 69 people were indicted, and 48 of them were found guilty or pleaded guilty to crimes committed for the benefit of President Richard Nixon’s administration. The name Watergate originally referred to six buildings constructed in the 1960s on 10 acres of Potomac River waterfront, just north of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The office building at 2600 Virginia Avenue Northwest is where the scandal’s famous break-ins at the Democratic National Committee headquarters building took place. The five conspirators actually broke in at least twice. The first breakin was on May 28, 1972, when the team planted listening devices, which they monitored from the motor lodge across the street. The second was on June 17, when they broke in to repair some of the listening devices that had already broken. It was because of that June break-in that the conspirators were caught.

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It seems that Nixon did not know about the break-in and bugging of the DNC Headquarters until after it happened. The president got in trouble for the attempted cover-up. Nixon ordered his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, to have the CIA prevent the FBI from investigating the break-in. He made a public statement denying administration involvement. However, the press was already making connections between the Watergate burglars, Nixon’s reelection campaign, and the administration. It was two Washington Post reporters—Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—who kept the case in the public eye by continuing to investigate and write about ties between the burglars and various officials, not only in the White House but within the Justice Department, and specifically the FBI. Their main source was an informant they called Deep Throat. His real name was Mark Felt. He was a senior FBI official who Woodward had used as a source for other matters before investigating Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein protected his identity for more than 30 years, until when, at the end of his life, Felt chose to reveal his own identity. With Felt’s help, Woodward and Bernstein discovered evidence that perfectly legal campaign contributions had been illegally funneled to the Watergate burglars. They published their evidence in The Washington Post on October 10, 1972, but this did not do much harm to Nixon’s campaign. He was reelected less than a month later, on November 7. However, this did not put an end to the story. In January 1973, the five Watergate burglars and the two administration officials who hired them were found guilty of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal surveillance. In February, four senior White House officials—including the chief of staff and the attorney general—resigned. In May, the Senate began hearings, and a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox,

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was appointed. In July, a former White House aide named Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of Nixon’s tapes—recordings the president made of nearly all his conversations in the Oval Office. This revelation was the beginning of the end. The administration did everything it could to avoid releasing the recordings, but it was no use. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to hand over the original tapes. They revealed his knowledge of and involvement in the cover-up. Rather than face impeachment hearings, Nixon resigned 15 days later, on August 8.

THE NEWSEUM Many of the sites mentioned in this lecture are gone or difficult to visit. However, if you want to learn more about these or any of the other famous political scandals that have rocked the city of Washington, this lecture does have one more location to recommend. It is called the Newseum. This museum of media history is found on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, across the street from the National Gallery of Art and just a short walk from the National Archives and the Capitol Building. The museum is operated by the Freedom Forum, a charitable foundation dedicated to promoting and preserving freedom of speech and freedom of the press. That is the museum’s goal: to celebrate the way these First Amendment freedoms have contributed to the history of the nation. Opened in 1997 and moved to this location in 2008, it features more than 600,000 square feet of exhibitions. It is designed as an interactive experience, allowing visitors to experience both the history of American journalism and get hands-on experience with the technical aspects of print, radio, and television production.

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15

THE KENNEDY CENTER AND THE DC ARTS SCENE

T

he performing arts are alive and thriving in the nation’s capital. This lecture covers some terrific venues relevant to Washington DC’s arts scene, including:

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The Kennedy Center.

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The National Theatre.

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The Shakespeare Theatre and the Folger Theatre.

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Regional theaters.

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Music venues in the DC area.

THE KENNEDY CENTER The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, or Kennedy Center, is the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. It also welcomes touring performers from all over the world. It is perhaps most famous for two prestigious annual awards ceremonies: the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. For theatergoers, the Kennedy Center offers three large theaters and multiple smaller spaces. The Concert Hall, Opera House, and Eisenhower Theater are the venues for big performances, including direct-from-Broadway musicals. These are all found on the main level of the theater. Also on the main level is the Millennium Stage. That name usually refers to the performance spaces at either end of the Grand Foyer, but it is more accurately the name of a free performance series with a broad range of offerings—from music to plays to children’s theater to comedy. It is a great way to get a taste of the DC arts scene in a way that fits any budget.

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Millennium Stage shows often take place in the Grand Foyer, but they might also take place outside or in one of the Kennedy Center’s more intimate performance spaces. These include the Family Theater on the main floor or the Terrace Theater or Theater Lab upstairs. As the name implies, regular programming in the Family Theater is geared toward kids, though parents will no doubt enjoy the shows. The Theater Lab is the Center’s black-box performance space. For more than 30 years, its regular performances of the murder-mysterycomedy Shear Madness have been a DC institution, but it has recently opened up to a broader range of performances. For more than 40 years, the Kennedy Center has been at the heart of the DC performing arts scene. The center has produced or coproduced 300 new works of theater. There is always something wonderful playing at the Kennedy Center. The best place to find out what is on during your trip is to check its website, especially for Millennium Stage performances, which change daily. If you cannot fit a performance into your schedule, you can stop in for a guided tour, browse around the gift shop, or take in the beautiful views of the Potomac from its terraces.

THE NATIONAL THEATRE The National Theatre is a private nonprofit organization. Located just a few blocks from the White House, on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest between 13th Street and 14th street, it opened its doors in 1835. This historic venue specializes in national tours of Broadway shows and pre-Broadway premieres. Among the hits the National Theatre has launched were Show Boat, premiering in 1927, and West Side Story, which had its debut here in 1957. It continues to serve as a launching pad for Broadway to this day.

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THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE AND THE FOLGER THEATRE Today, Washington has two theaters dedicated to the work of William Shakespeare: the Shakespeare Theatre and the Folger Theatre. The Shakespeare Theatre offers five shows each season. Typically, the shows consist of two Shakespeare plays, a piece of classical Greek or Roman theater, and two modern shows. The theater has two performance spaces: the larger, newer Sidney Harman Hall at 6th Street and F Street Northwest and its smaller, original space at the Lansburgh Theater at 7th Street and E Street Northwest. The Folger Theatre, DC’s other major Shakespeare venue, is located on East Capitol Street, just east of the Library of Congress. It is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The Folger Theatre typically puts on three Shakespeare plays and one non-Shakespeare offering each season. The non-Shakespeare play is often a classical work, a work by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, or plays about the world of Tudor and Stuart England.

REGIONAL THEATERS The DC metro area also features well-regarded regional theaters. The Signature Theater in the Shirlington neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, is a Tony Award–winning theater that focuses on contemporary plays and musicals, particularly the development of new works. Through the American Musical Voices program, it offers grants to aspiring young, talented writers, composers, and directors to help them develop their work. Arlington is also home to Synetic Theater. Located in the Crystal City neighborhood, this theater develops both innovative, avantgarde productions and fantastic family shows. Synetic also offers performance workshops for both children and adults.

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The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, another small but innovative regional outfit, is located downtown on D Street Northwest. Woolly Mammoth is also dedicated to the development of new shows and new talent, with a focus on thought-provoking, boundary-breaking themes. Arena Stage is another great DC nonprofit theater group, this time found in the burgeoning Southwest Waterfront district, at Maine Avenue and 6th Street Southwest. More than 20 of Arena Stage’s productions have made it to Broadway. Also notable is the Capital Fringe Festival. Like similar festivals around the world, Capital Fringe offers opportunities for artists and works on the cutting edge of theater or works that defy neat categorization. Since its founding in 2006, it has brought more than 120 original works to DC audiences each year in July. Performances are held in their new, purpose-built theater on Florida Avenue Northeast in the Trinidad neighborhood.

MUSIC VENUES IN THE DC AREA The DC area also offers several notable music venues. In Vienna, Virginia, the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts offers more than 80 shows in their amphitheater each summer, plus yearround performances in their smaller indoor facility. Additionally, in DC, venues like DAR Constitution Hall, Warner Theater, and various sports arenas welcome concert tours in nearly every genre. DC even gave rise to its very own genre of music: go-go. The historic U Street Corridor in Northwest DC has been home to one of the country’s largest urban African American communities since shortly after the Civil War. In the early 20th century, it was also the center of musical life in DC. Performers like Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, and DC native Duke Ellington were regular attractions at its clubs and theaters.

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One of the many talented performers who began their careers here was Chuck Brown. In the 1970s, he formed a band called the Soul Searchers and began combining elements of rhythm and blues, funk, Latin music, and call-and-response church music to create a whole new musical genre—that is, go-go. Although not well known outside the DC area in its original form, go-go has been a huge influence on hip-hop artists throughout the country. Some of the area’s best and most popular music venues specialize in folk, bluegrass, blues, punk, and alternative music. For example, DC’s legendary 9:30 Club was the place to be in the 1980s and 1990s for emerging rock artists. The club is nationally recognized as one of the country’s best venues for both emerging and established rock artists. The 9:30 Club’s friendly rival, the Black Cat, is also still going strong since its opening in the 1990s. Located on 14th Street Northwest between S Street and T Street, it welcomes both local and national talent from the punk, alternative, and indie genres. There are also venues to enjoy folk music, along with the aforementioned Wolf Trap. One is The Hamilton Live, at 14th Street and F Street Northwest, not far from the main Treasury Building. Meanwhile, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, the Birchmere is the place for great folk, bluegrass, blues, country, jazz, and acoustic rock.

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16

NEIGHBORHOODS OF NORTHWEST DC

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his lecture looks at some of the parts of Northwest DC that are less well known to tourists, but are no less interesting. They offer visitors a glimpse of what everyday life is like for Washingtonians. In particular, this lecture looks at ●●

Embassy Row.

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Dupont Circle.

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Georgetown.

EMBASSY ROW On the northwest corner of Northwest DC is Embassy Row. This is an informal designation, but Embassy Row typically refers to the stretch of Massachusetts Avenue Northwest between the Naval Observatory at 34th Street Northwest and Scott Circle at 16th Street Northwest. Not all of DC’s embassies are in this area, but the overwhelming majority are. Because of the area’s beautiful architecture and the shady trees that line the avenue, you can look at Embassy Row as just a nice place to take a stroll. However, many of the embassies open their doors for tours and celebrations throughout the year. The biggest of these events is held in May. It is called the Around the World Embassy Tour. About 50 embassies welcome visitors for food tastings, music and dance performances, art exhibitions, demonstrations, and more. A smaller open house festival featuring the embassies of the European Union states, called the EU Open House, is also held in May. Other events are specific to a particular embassy. In October, the Italian Embassy hosts a Venetian ball that includes not only food and drinks, but also opera performances. The Mexican Cultural Institute

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holds a week-long Day of the Dead art exhibition and black-tie Day of the Dead Masquerade Gala each November. Also in November, the French Embassy celebrates the annual release of that year’s Beaujolais Nouveau with wine tastings, food catered by local French restaurants, dancing, and a silent auction. In addition to special events, many embassies offer regular tours. To find out more about events, check out the calendar at the DC Embassy Events website. Local newspapers like The Washington Post and Washington City Paper publish events calendars at least once a week. If you are interested in a particular embassy, you can check its website and its social media platforms for upcoming events and contact information.

DUPONT CIRCLE The name Dupont Circle refers to both the neighborhood and the somewhat intimidating traffic circle where Massachusetts Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue, P Street, and 19th Street Northwest all intersect. The neighborhood surrounding Dupont Circle has long been known for its restaurants, nightlife, boutiques, and bookstores. There is also a Sunday morning farmer’s market here, on 20 Street, between Q Street and Massachusetts Avenue. The neighborhood also features excellent Collection is found on 21st Street between Founded in 1921, it is considered the oldest in the United States. It is open seven days evening hours on Thursdays.

museums. The Phillips Q Street and R Street. museum of modern art a week, with extended

On O Street between 20th Street and 21st Street, you will find what is probably Washington DC’s most eclectic museum: the Mansion on O. Made up of five connected townhomes, its 100 rooms display art, crafts, furniture, architecture, and interior design work spanning from

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Dupont Circle

Foggy Bottom Directly south of Dupont Circle is the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom. The single biggest institution in this neighborhood is The George Washington University, which includes multiple museums.

the Victorian period to the modern era.

A few blocks to the southeast of Dupont Circle, at M Street and 17th Street Northwest, is the National Geographic Museum. Tucked into the first floor of the National Geographic Society headquarters, it features a permanent exhibition on the history of the society and of National Geographic magazine, plus a continually changing roster of exhibitions on science, history, and anthropology.

GEORGETOWN The Georgetown neighborhood is famous not only for its age and its university—a Jesuit institution founded in 1789. It is famous for its

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residents, both past and present, which have included Pierre L’Enfant, Francis Scott Key, Elizabeth Taylor, and John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy. Devout Roman Catholics, the Kennedys and their children worshiped at Holy Trinity Church, at 36th Street and N Street, near the Georgetown University campus. Another famous resident was the inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who moved to Washington DC in 1879. In 1893, he broke ground for a new, purpose-built laboratory at 1540 35th Street. The person who held that shovel was Helen Keller. Bell and Keller were friends and collaborators who shared a deep interest in improving education for the hard of hearing. Bell named it the Volta Bureau, after a prize he had received from the French government that funded its construction. Today, that building is the headquarters of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Movies in Georgetown A number well-known movies have been filmed in Washington DC, particularly in Georgetown. Notable examples include the 1987 thriller No Way Out, the superhero film Wonder Woman 1984, and the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist.

If you walk about three blocks east from the Volta Bureau to Wisconsin Avenue, you will find yourself in the middle of Georgetown’s shopping district. The intersection of Wisconsin and M Street is the busiest part of this district, and on M Street, you will find even more shops and restaurants. M Street east of Wisconsin is particularly packed with places to eat. One notable location is Georgetown Cupcake, found at the corner of M Street and 33rd Street. This bakery became famous as the subject of a reality TV show in 2010, and it arguably kicked off a gourmet cupcake trend across the nation.

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17

WASHINGTON’S HISTORIC HOMES AND GARDENS

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istory has been made in many of Washington DC’s homes— both its grand mansions and its humble houses. This lecture tours some of those structures, including:

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Houses in Georgetown.

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Octagon House.

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Decatur House.

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Hillwood Estate and Gardens.

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The Woodlawn plantation.

HOUSES IN GEORGETOWN The Old Stone House is a standalone structure. It is easy to spot among Georgetown’s historic townhouses, especially since it is on the main thoroughfare of M Street Northwest. In 1765, the original owners, Christopher and Rachel Layman, constructed their one-room home from locally quarried fieldstone and blue granite. Subsequent owners expanded the home, and the house as visitors see it now was completed in 1790—the year the capital was established by Congress. In the 1960s, the National Park Service took over the site and set about restoring both the house and its garden to its 1790s appearance. A visit to the Old Stone House allows visitors to imagine how DC’s original citizens lived. In that same period, Georgetown was becoming a major port in the international tobacco trade, and more than a few of its residents were amassing great wealth. Soon, they began using that wealth to build homes that rivaled the great country houses of Europe. In 1702, Charles Calvert granted about 800 acres of land between the Potomac River and Rock Creek to a Scottish immigrant and former

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indentured servant named Ninian Beall. Beall named the plantation the Rock of Dumbarton, saying that the views from his new estate reminded him of the view of the Clyde River from Dumbarton Castle in Scotland. The Bealls prospered, and Beall’s son, George, added to the estate, bringing it to more than 2,000 acres. In 1751, however, the colonial government decided to incorporate the village of Georgetown, and Beall was forced to sell most of his land on the riverfront to create it. After George Beall’s death, his descendants sold off pieces of the remaining estate. On three of those pieces, all near Q Street and R Street Northwest, you will find three of the oldest and most storied homes in all of Washington. The first is a mansion at 32nd Street and R Street: Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Research Library. This large, brick mansion was constructed in 1801 and expanded in the 1840s. The site’s house, art collection, and gardens are open to the public Tuesdays through Sundays. Some of the highlights of the art collection include jewelry from the Byzantine Empire, limestone relief carvings from Persepolis, and ancient Turkish mosaics. A short walk south down 31st Street from Dumbarton Oaks, you will find the second estate carved out of Beall’s Rock of Dumbarton. It is called Tudor Place, and it has multiple connections to George Washington and the creation of Washington DC. At the heart of this site’s collection are almost 100 objects that belonged to George and Martha Washington. Tudor Place is open Tuesday through Sunday throughout the year. The house is only accessible by guided tour; the garden tour is self-guided. A few blocks east on Q Street is the third of the former Beall estates: Dumbarton House. A number of important figures in Washington DC’s history have called Dumbarton House their home over the years, but the most famous guest to stay at the estate was undoubtedly

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Dolley Madison. This is the home she fled to when the British burned the White House in 1814. Like the other Georgetown mansions, the Dumbarton House offers public lectures about the history of the house and of Georgetown. It also holds some more unusual programs, like film festivals, yoga classes, and ice cream tastings. Be sure to check the website’s events calendar if you plan to visit.

OCTAGON HOUSE In the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom is the unusual townhouse known as the Octagon House. This home is one of architect William

Octagon House

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Thornton’s masterpieces. Located on New York Avenue Northwest just a block from the White House, it was constructed between 1798 and 1801 for John Tayloe III, a wealthy Virginia politician and businessman. The Octagon House is actually a hexagon. It survived the 1814 British burning of Washington because the Tayloes wisely invited the French consul to take up residence there during the war. In 1814, the British had just stopped receiving trouble from Napoleon, at least temporarily, and they did not need any more conflict with the French. After the war, when the Madisons returned to find their residence destroyed, the Tayloes offered them the use of Octagon House. For six months, Octagon House was the president’s mansion. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, was signed here in February 1815. Today, the house is owned by the American Institute of Architects. Once the Institute’s headquarters, it is now a museum dedicated to the relationship between architecture and history. The museum is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons for self-guided tours, or you can schedule a guided tour for other days and times.

DECATUR HOUSE On the opposite side of the White House from the Octagon House, you will find the Decatur House. This three-story, square brick mansion might look unremarkable to a casual passerby, but it has an impressive history. It was built by Commodore Stephen Decatur and his wife Susan in 1818. After Stephen’s death, Susan rented it to a number of important Washington figures. Most notably, it was the home of three secretaries of state: Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, and Edward Livingston. It passed through many stages of public and private ownership before finally being turned over to the National Trust in 1956.

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Today, it is the home of the White House Historical Association. The association offers three tours of the house every Monday, which highlights the history of the home and particularly its slave quarters.

HILLWOOD ESTATE AND GARDENS Some of DC’s more modern homes are just as important and interesting as its historic ones. Take, for example, Hillwood Estate and Gardens, in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest DC. Hillwood was the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post. Post was the heiress to the Post Cereal/General Foods empire. She was known as a philanthropist, a savvy businesswoman, and an art collector. During her time at Hillwood, Post became one of the most important figures in DC society. Invitations to her garden parties and formal dinners were the most sought after in the city. Hillwood was a place

Hillwood Estate and Gardens

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where Washington’s power brokers could meet, foster friendships, and make deals outside the confines of their offices. In her will, Post left the Hillwood Estate and its art treasures to the Smithsonian Institution. Post wanted to see her home turned into a museum in order to preserve it as a slice of American history as well as an exhibit space for her art collection. After several years of developing the concept, however, the Smithsonian realized that the estate would be better managed by the Post family charitable foundation, and they returned the property to them. The two institutions occasionally collaborate on events, exhibitions, and programs. Today, Hillwood can be thought of as three museums in one. Some rooms, like the Russian Icon room or the French Porcelain Room, are arranged purely for the display of these wonderful collections. Other rooms offer a glimpse into everyday life at Hillwood. Rooms like the Post Bedroom Suite and the English Bedroom show how the family lived with and among all these treasures, while the kitchen and staff rooms demonstrate what it took to run the household. Finally, there are 25 acres of gardens and grounds to explore. In addition to the formal garden elements you might expect, like a rose garden and a Japanese-style garden, there are unexpected elements like a putting green and a reproduction Russian summer cottage. Check the museum’s website for information about special exhibitions. Hillwood’s website also keeps visitors up to date on what is currently in bloom on the grounds.

THE WOODLAWN PLANTATION The Woodlawn plantation, located in Alexandria, Virginia, makes for an interesting detour when visiting Mount Vernon or Old Town

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Alexandria. It is about four miles east of the Mount Vernon estate. For a time, it was the home of Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Nelly Parke Custis, and her husband, Lawrence Lewis. In 1846, Nelly Custis Lewis sold the plantation to a group of Quaker timber merchants. Many, if not all, of those who followed the Quaker faith were staunch abolitionists, and these merchants were no exception. Their timber operation ran entirely by employing free African American workers—many of whom had been freed by the Washington, Custis, and Lewis families. Exhibits at Woodlawn today are therefore dedicated to two themes: the lives of the Custis family and the lives of the free African American community. Woodlawn has chosen to highlight its agricultural history by hosting the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture. Architecture buffs will find a rare treat at Woodlawn: the Pope-Leighey House, an original Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Usonian home. Although Wright is remembered today for public buildings, he was also interested in creating practical, affordable, efficient housing for the masses. He eventually designed 60 homes based on these Usonian principles. They were typically single-story homes with two or three bedrooms and minimal storage space. They were made of natural local materials, and—in typical Wright fashion—incorporated elements of the surrounding landscape. Wright’s Usonian idea has been a huge influence on American residential architecture down to the present day. It inspired the L-shaped ranch homes found in suburbs all over America, and its principle of minimalist living in harmony with the landscape is at the roots of the tiny-house movement today. If you are interested in the history of architecture, it is not to be missed.

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18

SPIRITUAL DC: THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL AND MORE

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his lecture visits some of Washington DC’s most historic houses of worship and looks at the many contributions these institutions have made to Washington life. In particular, the guidebook chapter focuses on: ●●

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square.

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St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Rock Creek.

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St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.

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The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

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Jewish congregations.

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Islamic congregations.

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The Washington National Cathedral.

A City of Faith Over the years, people of many faiths have made their homes in Washington DC and have established places of worship. For example, on the six-mile stretch of 16th Street Northwest, between Lafayette Square and the Maryland border, there are 44 religious institutions—including mosques, temples, synagogues, churches, and religious education centers. That is just a tiny fraction of the more than 850 religious institutions in the city—about one for every 750 residents. Along with Jewish, Christian, and Islamic places of worship, DC also features Hindu and Buddhist temples, Shinto and Daoist temples, Sikh gurdwaras, Baha’i temples, and many more. All of these communities are part of the vital tapestry of life in Washington DC.

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ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, LAFAYETTE SQUARE St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square was not the first house of worship in DC, but it is the one most closely associated with the presidency. It is just one block away from the White House, at the corner of 16th Street and H Street Northwest. St. John’s opened its doors in 1816, and every person who has held the office of president since James Madison has attended at least one service there. Pew 54, James Madison’s original pew, is still reserved for the president’s use. The 18th-century prayer book found in the pew has been autographed by many presidents.

ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ROCK CREEK The oldest religious institution in Washington is St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Rock Creek, between the Petworth and Fort Totten neighborhoods. Although the church on this site has been rebuilt many times over the past three centuries—most recently after a fire in 1921—the parish has been in existence since 1712. More famous than the church building itself is the adjoining parish cemetery, opened in 1719. It is known for its beautiful landscape and its fantastic and eclectic grave markers.

ST. PATRICK’S CATHOLIC CHURCH Washington’s oldest Roman Catholic parish is St. Patrick’s Catholic Church at 10th Street and G Street Northwest. The original wooden church on this site was constructed in 1794 and the second brick structure was built in 1809. That brick church was a major witness to the British sack of Washington DC in 1814. During that famous invasion, where the British burned the White House to the ground, the British troops

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would come here to attend Sunday mass. The present church is much newer, constructed during the 1870s and 1880s.

THE BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Although Saint Patrick’s is the oldest Catholic church in DC, the largest and most prominent is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, found in Northeast DC near the Catholic University of America. It is not a parish church but a national one, dedicated to the patron saint of the United States: Mary, the mother of Jesus, under her title of the Immaculate Conception. The shrine stands out for its unique blend of Romanesque and Byzantine architecture—styles that date back to the first few centuries of the Christian era. The interior contains more than 75,000 square feet of mosaic artwork as well as sculpture, painting, and textile art, making it one of the largest collections of contemporary religious artworks in the world.

JEWISH CONGREGATIONS The first Jewish congregation in Washington DC—called the Washington Hebrew Congregation—formed in 1852. Today, it is DC’s largest Reform Judaism congregation, located in upper Northwest DC. The second congregation in DC was the Adas Israel, an offshoot of the first congregation, formed in 1869. In 1876, they erected a synagogue, which now houses the Lillian and Albert Small Jewish Museum. It is the oldest surviving synagogue structure in the city. Additionally, Adas Israel built what is now called the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue for its growing congregation in 1908. This beautiful building served the Adas Israel congregation until shortly after World War II, when, like so many places in the

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US, Washington’s urbanites were becoming suburbanites, and their religious institutions followed them. For the next 50 years, the building became the home of the Turner Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church. After that church in turn followed its members to the suburbs in 2003, the building was restored to its original state and was rededicated as the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, with an expanded mission. In addition to regular religious services, they also host cultural, educational, and social events for the entire DC community—everything from book readings to comedy and musical performances.

ISLAMIC CONGREGATIONS The first Islamic congregation in DC was the Masjid Muhammad, founded in the 1930s. Many of its members were the descendants of African American slaves. The congregation struggled in its early years. Due to both prejudice against the unfamiliar religion and the racial segregation in DC at the time, they had difficulty finding a permanent place of worship. They gathered in private homes or rented spaces until 1960, when— with the help of Malcolm X—they raised the funds to build the first mosque in DC, in the Shaw neighborhood, where it is still in use today. Over the years, its congregation has broadened to include Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds, and it has been a leader in interfaith dialogue in the DC community. Another of DC’s famous mosques is found on Massachusetts Avenue, at the heart of Embassy Row, and has long served the Muslim diplomatic community. This is the Islamic Center of Washington. The center was the brainchild of Egyptian ambassador Mahmood Hassan Pasha and was dedicated by President Eisenhower in 1957.

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The building was designed by an Italian architect, and it was based on the architecture of 15th-century Mamluk Egypt. Though Egyptian on the outside, the interior is pan-Islamic, including materials and design elements from all over the Muslim world. The center not only serves the community as a place for prayer but as an education and research center. The Washington DC Temple Although technically located in Kensington, Maryland, one of the most striking parts of DC’s skyline is the Washington DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the tallest Mormon temple in the world.

Washington DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL Washington DC planner Pierre L’Enfant envisioned a national, ecumenical place of worship. The church that would eventually take on this role was the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, better known as the Washington National Cathedral. From the moment in 1891 when the American Episcopal Church proposed creating a Washington DC diocese and a cathedral for that diocese, the church’s leaders linked this cathedral to L’Enfant’s idea of a national church. The cathedral’s charter, written in 1893, declared that the church would be both an Episcopal see and “a House of Prayer for all people, forever free and open.” In 1898, Washington’s first Episcopal bishop, Henry Yates Satterlee, purchased a few dozen acres of land in northwest Washington for the construction of the cathedral. The land was just up Wisconsin Avenue from Georgetown, on the spot called Mount Saint Alban—the highest point in the city. Construction formally began in 1907, when Bishop Satterlee oversaw the laying of the foundation stone, known as the Bethlehem Stone, with 10,000 spectators and President Theodore Roosevelt in attendance. The president who dedicated the cathedral was George H. W. Bush, in 1990. The planning and construction had taken more than 90 years. Important events happened at the site before its dedication, though. For example, on March 31, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his final Sunday sermon here, just four days before his assassination. The cathedral has a memorial statue to him. The cathedral’s Pilgrim Observation Gallery offers visitors some of the best views of Washington DC to be found anywhere in the city.

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You will also find a number of exhibits there relating to the cathedral’s construction and history. If you want to visit the cathedral’s central bell tower, you will need to arrange a tour with the cathedral staff. The climb is not for the faint of heart, but it gives a unique look at the cathedral’s bells as well as the interior structures of the church. Generally speaking, if you are interested in a guided tour of the National Cathedral, it is strongly recommended that you book online a few days in advance. They can fill up quickly, especially during the peak of the tourist season in the spring and summer.

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19

SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO

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his lecture focuses on Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest DC. Today, the zoo’s two facilities—the National Zoo itself in DC and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in nearby Front Royal, Virginia—are home to 1,800 animals representing 300 species. The zoo is free to the public and open 364 days a year, only closing on Christmas Day. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook chapter looks at: ●●

Entering the zoo.

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Cheetahs and clouded leopards at the zoo.

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The Elephant Trails exhibit.

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The Amazonia area.

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The Kids’ Farm and the Great Cats Exhibit.

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The Think Tank.

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Pandas.

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Planning your trip to the zoo.

ENTERING THE ZOO It is a good idea to start your tour of the National Zoo at the visitors’ center, near the Connecticut Avenue pedestrian entrance. Here you can pick up a zoo map, find out about that day’s special events, and get the schedule for daily guided tours. However, you do not need a tour to enjoy the zoo.

CHEETAHS AND CLOUDED LEOPARDS AT THE ZOO Some of the animals are grouped by type, but others are grouped by geography. For example, just past the visitors’ center, you will find one of the most innovative exhibits in the zoo: the Cheetah

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Conservation Station. The cheetahs are housed with animals found in their native African habitat. You will find zebras, maned wolves, oryxes, hornbills, vultures, and a number of other species within this exhibit, which helps researchers observe how these animals interact in the wild. The zookeepers feed the carnivores by planting meat around the enclosure for them to forage, so they do not hunt and eat their companions. Another conservation success story found near the park entrance is the clouded leopard. Despite their name, they are not technically leopards, but are a unique species of big cat native to Nepal, Bangladesh, eastern India, Sumatra, and Borneo. There are maybe 10,000 clouded leopards left in the wild, and breeding them in zoos has proved challenging. In 2017, Smithsonian scientists, collaborating with colleagues at the Nashville Zoo, made a great technical breakthrough in clouded leopard conservation, producing the first ever cub from cryopreserved semen. Hopefully, this is the first step to a new, successful breeding program for these beautiful animals.

THE ELEPHANT TRAILS EXHIBIT A short walk down the path from these two big cat exhibits, past the bison, you will find one of the newest, largest, and most complex exhibits at the zoo: Elephant Trails. This is a complete Asian elephant conservation facility. It was designed to be as close to their natural habitat as possible, while still allowing zookeepers access for medical and dental care, assisted breeding, and behavior research. The facility is big enough for up to 10 adult animals, plus their offspring, with plenty of room for them to move and explore. The elephants can be viewed by visitors from a number of vantage points throughout the zoo, but this course recommends a stop at

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the Homer and Martha Gudelski Elephant Outpost in good weather when the elephants are walking the track. You can also check them out on the zoo’s elephant cam, which gives you views both inside and outside their enclosure.

THE AMAZONIA AREA Toward the end of the zoo is the Amazonia area, which is home to a number of fascinating exhibits. For example, in the Electric Fishes Demonstration Lab, electric eels actually power part of the exhibit. When the animals emit a charge, it activates lights, screens, and speakers in the lab. You can also touch a model electric eel and feel the currents. Another aquatic resident of Amazonia is the arapaima, possibly the world’s largest freshwater fish. Amazonia may have the widest variety of animals of any of the zoo’s exhibits. Along with those fish, you will find striking birds like the roseate spoonbill and the green aracari, surprising invertebrates like the Goliath bird-eating tarantula, popular mammals and primates like the Andean bear and two-toed sloth, and endangered amphibians like the poisonous Panamanian golden frog.

THE KIDS’ FARM AND THE GREAT CATS EXHIBIT If you want to get really close with the animals, nothing beats the Kids’ Farm at the south end of the complex. This is a petting zoo where you can visit farm animals from all over the world. There, you will find not only find not only cows, goats, chickens, and hogs, but more unusual animals like alpaca and miniature donkeys. This is the only exhibit at the zoo where visitors are encouraged to touch the animals. Near the farm, you will find the extremely popular Great Cats exhibit, featuring some of the world’s most dangerous, and yet most endangered, animals. The tiger is critically endangered throughout all of its native habitats.

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In particular, the National Zoo works with Sumatran and Amur tigers. These iconic cats are solitary creatures and territorial in the wild, which contributes to the decline of the species. Competition for resources and mates is fierce among adult tigers in the wild, which, combined with human poaching and encroachment, has caused the wild population to dwindle to a little under 4,000 individual animals. Smithsonian is part of the species survival plan, or SSP, for the Sumatran and Amur tigers. SSPs are inter-zoo agreements that help sustain good genetic diversity within an endangered species through genetic analysis of individual animals, which helps zookeepers choose the best breeding pairs from across North America’s zoos, and sometimes from elsewhere in the world. Smithsonian is also involved in the Global Tiger Recovery Program, which helps nations prioritize and implement tiger conservation projects. When you leave the Great Cats area, look up. The cables you see overhead are called the O-line. The O stands for orangutan, and if your timing and the weather are right, you may see some of these fantastic apes swinging right over your head.

THE THINK TANK The O-Line, which the orangutans can use in the late morning or early afternoon, is the route from the apes’ habitat to the Think Tank. The Think Tank is an interactive exhibit where visitors can watch and even participate in primate research. Here, the orangutans, along with Allen’s swamp monkeys, Schmidt’s red-tailed monkeys, Norway rats, and hermit crabs, are offered games, mazes, and other tests of their thinking and learning abilities. Visitors can test their strength of mind and body against orangutans by competing with the apes in memory games and even a tug of war.

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The O-Line

PANDAS Since the giant pandas’ arrival, they have been one of the zoo’s most popular attractions. The giant pandas are found along the Asia Trail at the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat. There are both indoor and outdoor viewing areas where you can watch these treasured animals eating, sleeping, climbing, playing, and interacting with one another. The zoo’s first giant pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived in 1972 as a diplomatic gift from the People’s Republic of China. In

Giant Pandas across the World The National Zoo’s giant pandas are among about 300 living in zoos and breeding centers worldwide. Another 1,800 or so live in their natural habitat, among the bamboo forests of China.

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return, the State Department sent musk ox. (The American bison was also considered, but the Beijing Zoo already had some.) When Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing passed away in the 1990s, Smithsonian negotiated a lease on a new breeding pair of pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. This was not only because of their popularity, but because important research in breeding was still going on at the zoo—and is still going on today. Giant pandas are one of the great conservation success stories of our time. They were declared endangered in 1990 due to the ravages of poaching and deforestation, but in 2016, their status was upgraded to vulnerable. That is thanks in large part to the work done by the Smithsonian and in other research centers around the world. The giant pandas are not the only type of panda at the National Zoo. Right next to those famous bears, you will find a smaller exhibit

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featuring the red panda. Despite their name, red pandas are not very closely related to giant pandas. Red pandas are in a family by themselves—the Ailuridae family—and their closest relatives are skunks and weasels. Like the giant panda, the red panda is endangered, with an estimated 50 percent decline in the wild population over the past two decades. That is why the Conservation Biology Institute is part of red panda conservation efforts. More than 100 cubs have been born at the institute since 1962.

PLANNING YOUR TRIP TO THE ZOO When planning your trip, visit the zoo’s website and check out the events page. Special events take place throughout the year at the zoo, from seminars on special topics to fun events for families and for adults. Among the most popular events for families is Boo at the Zoo, a Halloween event where kids are invited to trick-or-treat at the zoo and learn about the animals along the way. Another popular attraction is ZooLights during the winter holiday season, when beautiful light displays, live music, and holiday treats are the order of the day. For the grown-up crowd, there are beer- and wine-tasting events like Brew at the Zoo and Zoo Uncorked, as well as the hugely popular annual culinary festival called ZooFari. The money raised at these events goes directly back into animal care and research at the zoo. If you want to be a regular contributor to the zoo’s mission, check out FONZ: the Friends of the National Zoo. Members can get special discounts and VIP status at events, as well as a subscription to Smithsonian Zoogoer magazine.

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20

DINING OUT IN WASHINGTON DC

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ashington DC’s contemporary food scene grew out of three movements: fresh, local food; recipes from both colonial and later immigrant traditions; and new combinations that offer exciting experiences to adventurous palates. This lecture looks at a variety of DC’s neighborhoods and their food traditions. In particular, the lecture focuses on: ●●

Seafood.

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Soul food.

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The Adams Morgan neighborhood.

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Historic dining locations.

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Food festivals.

SEAFOOD When European settlers first arrived in the Chesapeake Bay and explored the Potomac River, they were amazed by the abundance of seafood. The bay in particular is famous for two types of seafood: the blue crab and the oyster. Blue crabs are the most important commercial fishing species in Maryland. When you order your crabs, you may be asked what size you want, and whether you want males or females. They might be graded as small, medium, large, jumbo, or colossal, or they might be graded as number 1 (the largest), number 2 (medium), and number 3 (small). Marine biologists suggest eating more male crabs, leaving females behind to lay eggs and sustain the population. The traditional way to eat Maryland blue crabs is at a crab house, although many locals pride themselves on cooking their own crabs. You will find traditional crab houses all over Maryland and even in Virginia. But when you are in downtown DC, your best bet is to head

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The District Wharf

down to the fish market at the District Wharf. The wharf is a short walk from either the Waterfront or L’Enfant Plaza metro station. There, you will have a choice of enjoying crab in a crab house or restaurant, or you can pick up expertly steamed crabs to go. Before crab became king of the Chesapeake, Maryland’s most profitable seafood species was the eastern oyster. Their population has crashed, and though conservation efforts are underway, they may be scarce. Regardless, oysters remain permanently popular in the nation’s capital. You will find dozens and dozens of raw bars in the city, featuring not only Maryland oysters but also other oyster species from the East Coast’s best fisheries.

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In particular, a short walk from the White House, you will find the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the district: the Old Ebbitt Grill, at 675 15th Street Northwest. The main attraction is its top-ranked oyster bar. If you are an oyster lover, you might be interested in the restaurant’s annual Oyster Riot. This is a relatively new tradition, starting in 1995. Each November, to close out oyster season, the Old Ebbitt oyster bar hosts a multi-day, all-you-can-eat event, with up to 20 different oyster varieties served with expertly selected wine pairings. Tickets are sold in advance and often sell out in under an hour, so if you want to experience this quintessentially DC food event, you will need to keep an eye on the website for the schedule and move quickly when the tickets go on sale. The event is also held for a good cause: Discarded shells are sanitized and returned to the bay, where baby oysters use them for anchorage during their early growth cycle. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds from Oyster Riot are donated to the Oyster Recovery Partnership every year.

SOUL FOOD Oysters and crab are both important parts of DC’s particular soul food tradition. The term soul food refers to the African American variants on American Southern cuisine that spread to the rest of the country during the Great Migration of the early 20th century. Soul food’s focus was on ingredients including corn and beans, potatoes and sweet potatoes, collard and turnip greens, game meat, pork, chicken, seafood (especially catfish), and biscuits. The two main ways soul food differs from other cuisines of the region is consumption of the whole animal—including organ meat—and a flavor palate that emphasizes hot and spicy. Hot sauce is a staple.

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One popular option for soul food is Sweet Georgia Brown’s, just a few blocks from the White House on McPherson Square. For a more casual soul food dining experience, you could start your journey in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest DC. The Florida Avenue Grill, for example, at 11th Street and Florida Avenue a few blocks north of U Street, has been serving up soul food since 1944. However, the most famous dining destination in this neighborhood is not a soul food restaurant; it is a chili restaurant. Ben’s Chili Bowl, on U Street between 12th Street and 13th Street, is a DC landmark.

Ben’s Chili Bowl

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Opened in this location in 1958 by Ben Ali and his wife, Virginia Rollins, it has witnessed major events in DC history. It was one of the few buildings to survive the riots in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, staying open throughout the struggle and feeding police officers and protesters alike. Their specialty is chili. However, the true icon at Ben’s is the halfsmoke: a spicy, half-pork, half-beef smoked sausage served with mumbo sauce—DC’s homegrown version of barbecue sauce. Another restaurant in DC with roots in African American foodways is located at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. There, you will find the Sweet Home Cafe, which serves fresh, seasonal food from four African American regional cuisines. The food is phenomenal, but you have to get into the museum to get into the cafe, so make your plans accordingly.

THE ADAMS MORGAN NEIGHBORHOOD Immigrants have made DC home since its founding, so it has always been a great place to discover world cuisine. One notable location is the neighborhood of Adams Morgan, which is centered on 18th Street and Columbia Road Northwest. For much of the late 20th century, this was DC’s immigrant gateway community and one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the city. Salvadorian and other Central American immigrants in particular made their home in Adams Morgan in the 1960s, followed by Caribbean and African immigrants in the 1970s and 1980s, all of them bringing foodways with them. Some of these cuisines are rarely found anywhere else in the United States. For example, Ethiopian cuisine came to DC in the 1970s and is still a local favorite. One DC institution found in Adams Morgan is Mama Ayesha’s. The founder, Ayesha Abrams, was born in Jerusalem in the late 19th

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century and came to DC to work as a cook at the Syrian Embassy. She opened this restaurant on Calvert Street in the 1960s, calling it the Calvert Café and pioneering Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food in the city. The restaurant was renamed Mama Ayesha’s after Abrams’s Food in the Suburbs passing in the early 1990s and is still run by her family. If you are willing to go a bit farther afield for great ethnic cuisine, you might consider venturing out into DC’s suburbs, where new immigrant communities are forming and bringing even newer dining experiences to the city. A few that are worth seeking out are the Vietnamese restaurants of Falls Church, the Korean community in Annandale, Lebanese and other Middle Eastern cuisines in Arlington and Fairfax, and Indian food throughout the suburbs.

Adams Morgan is also notable because of its nightlife. In Adams Morgan, you will find everything from craft beer brewers to blues-and-bourbon clubs, but it is particularly known for its rooftop dining and drinking, made possible by the flat-roofed Victorian and Edwardian architecture that makes up most of the area.

Possibly the best way to get to know Adams Morgan is the annual Adams Morgan Day festival. Held on the Sunday after Labor Day Weekend for more than 40 years, this festival celebrates the neighborhood’s eclectic roots with music and dance performances, an arts and crafts festival, family-friendly games and activities, and delicious food. Local restaurants often have booths at the festival as well as food and drink specials in-house.

HISTORIC DINING LOCATIONS DC features several historic dining locations. The Old Ebbitt, discussed earlier, often tops the lists thanks to its age. Another one of DC’s oldest restaurants is just a few blocks from the Old Ebbitt, tucked inside the historic Willard Hotel. It is called the Occidental Grill, and it has been serving food for 110 years.

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The Tabard Inn Restaurant in Dupont Circle, just south of Embassy Row, has a country-inn aesthetic that is unique in downtown DC. It is a popular spot for Sunday brunch. Georgetown is the oldest part of Washington DC, and it is home to two of the city’s most historic restaurants. Martin’s Tavern, on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and N Street Northwest, is a family-run business. The tavern opened in 1933, right as Prohibition was ending. The menu features classic Anglo-American pub fare. Another longtime Georgetown favorite is found at Prospect Street and 36th Street. Opened in 1962 by a Georgetown University alumnus named Richard McCooey, it is called, simply, 1789—the momentous year when the US Constitution went into effect and Georgetown University was founded. The interior of 1789 is filled with 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century art and antiques. The menu focuses on fresh, seasonal, local ingredients and an outstanding wine list. Aside from its historic restaurants, Georgetown is also renowned for the finest of fine dining restaurants. Restaurants like Fiola Mare and Café Milano are the spots where Washington’s elite show up not just for the outstanding food, but also to see and be seen.

FOOD FESTIVALS The best week for food lovers in Washington is Restaurant Week. Many cities around the country have a similar span of time when fixed-price, three-course menus, often with drink pairings, are available at bargain rates to eager and curious diners. DC is no exception. In fact, it has two: one in mid-August and the other in late January. About 200 restaurants, bars, and cafes participate in the program. If you are visiting during Restaurant Week, the best way to find out who is participating and what is on their menus is to check the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan

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Washington’s Restaurant Week website, or scan a local newspaper for reviews and advertisements. Other food festivals occur in the city throughout the year. Examples include chocolate festivals around Valentine’s Day, the Japanese Street Food Festival in the spring, the Embassy Chef Challenge in May, the Capital Barbecue Battle in late June, and multiple local wine, beer, and cider festivals throughout the summer. No matter when you visit, you are likely to find something delicious going on.

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21

WASHINGTON’S NEW WATERFRONT

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his lecture discusses the revitalized waterfront districts along the Potomac River and Anacostia River. In particular, this lecture visits:

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The Anacostia Riverwalk.

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Anacostia Park.

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Water activities.

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National Harbor.

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The District Wharf.

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The Georgetown waterfront.

THE ANACOSTIA RIVERWALK The Anacostia Riverwalk is a multiuse trail that stretches north from Nationals Park and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to Kingman and Heritage Islands Park on the west bank of the river. It crosses the river at Benning Road Northeast, and then returns south again from the Anacostia Recreation Center back to the Douglass Bridge and Poplar Point, Anacostia, on the east bank of the river. The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative In the year 2000, a concerted redevelopment effort of the Anacostia Watershed area began. As part of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, the DC government and the Department of the Interior joined forces.

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Along the way, it passes through playgrounds, nature areas, marinas, historical monuments, and more, and it connects to a number of other trails in the area. As a bonus, the Anacostia Riverwalk is so well situated that it is used not only for recreation, but also for bicycle and pedestrian commuting. Kingman and Heritage Islands Park is an area that consists of a stretch

THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

of mainland riverfront and two manmade islands, created from the dredging of the river in the early 20th century. The islands are only accessible by foot, and they do not contain any major facilities like restrooms or developed picnic areas. It is one of the closest areas you will find to a wilderness within the city boundaries. However, there is plenty of parking on the mainland near RFK Stadium, and it is a short walk from the Stadium-Armory Metro Station on the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines.

Bald Eagles Anacostia Park is one of the places you are most likely to spot one of the DC area’s resident bald eagles. The eagles currently nest nearby in two locations: at the National Arboretum and in a park near the Metropolitan Police Training Center. They regularly hunt along the river.

On the east bank of the river, the oldest and largest of the Riverwalk parks is Anacostia Park, managed by the National Park Service. It blends the best features of urban community recreation centers and a wildlife oasis. It offers playgrounds, ball fields, picnic and grilling areas, and outdoor fitness equipment, plus the only roller skating rink in the entire National Park Service. The skating pavilion is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and skate rentals are free.

WATER ACTIVITIES Anacostia Park also offers a public-access boat ramp, and fishing is legal with a valid DC fishing license. You can find information about obtaining a license from the DC.gov website. With the restoration of the Anacostia River, kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, and even paddleboard yoga have become popular. The Ballpark Boathouse, on the west bank of the river near Nationals Park, offers boat rentals that access the Anacostia River. Additionally, the Anacostia Watershed Society offers motorboat tours from a

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number of locations, including Bladensburg, Kingman Island, and the 11th Street Bridge. These tours are free but require advance reservations, which can be made on their website. Additionally, a number of companies also offer sightseeing cruises along the southern reaches of the Anacostia and down into the Potomac River on larger ships.

NATIONAL HARBOR National Harbor is a fairly new development on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, just south of the Capital Beltway. Developed in the early 2000s, it was designed as a tourist destination and includes hotels, restaurants, shopping, outdoor recreation, and a casino. One of its star attractions—and probably the easiest to spot—is the Capital Wheel, a 180-foot-tall Ferris wheel positioned on the edge of a dock extending into the river. Rides are available both day and night. Each ride lasts about 15 minutes, and each car seats up to eight adults.

National Harbor

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At National Harbor, another attraction is water-taxi trips, which are available to and from Old Town Alexandria, the National Mall, the District Wharf, and Nationals Park and DC United’s Audi Stadium. At Old Town, you can transfer water taxis to reach Georgetown. The National Harbor waterfront also features many places to including pubs, wine bars, fast food, family-friendly restaurants, places offering seafood and international cuisine. You will also a number of shops selling clothing, jewelry, gifts, home goods, specialty foods.

eat, and find and

THE DISTRICT WHARF The District Wharf is a new development in Southwest DC. Stretching south along the Potomac riverfront from the historic fish market, it is a modern complex of mixed-use development, consisting of mid-rise buildings with ground-floor commercial spaces and residences above.

The District Wharf

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The developers aimed to attract DC’s young urban professionals to the area, as well as young families, by including shopping, dining, nightlife, event spaces, green spaces, fitness facilities, playgrounds, and more. This neighborhood is also home to the Arena Stage, which features three separate stages and focuses on new works by American artists. The complex also includes a marina for privately owned boats as well as entertainment cruises, water taxies, and rowing facilities like those at Anacostia and National Harbor. Free yoga classes are offered in the parks in the warmer months, and an ice-skating rink operates from December through February.

THE GEORGETOWN WATERFRONT The Georgetown waterfront district perfectly blends the old and the new. The newest part of the Georgetown waterfront is called Washington Harbor. This new, mixed-use complex focuses on food, especially seafood. From November to March, it is also where you will find the region’s largest ice-skating rink. It is almost 12,000 square feet in size and positioned right on the riverfront. Just downriver from the Washington Waterfront is the Thompson Boat Center for canoe and kayak rentals, as well as mile marker 0 of the C&O Canal towpath. It a quick walk from there to the Kennedy Center. Upriver is Georgetown Waterfront Park, operated by the National Park Service. This park hosts a set of riverfront trails that are convenient for walking or biking along the waterfront and also offer unique features, like a labyrinth for walking meditation and a pollinator garden that attracts bees and butterflies.

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22

WASHINGTON FOR SPORTS FANS

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his lecture looks at sites related to Washington DC sports teams, both professional and college teams. It also looks at a couple of ways you can get in on a game yourself. In particular, this lecture covers: ●●

Nationals Park.

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FedEx Field.

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College sports.

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Capital One Area.

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Audi Field.

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Other sports.

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Playing in DC.

NATIONALS PARK (PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL) Nationals Park is the home of the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team. It is located on South Capitol Street in DC’s newly revitalized Anacostia waterfront. This beautiful, modern stadium seats about 41,500 people, with great views of the field from just about everywhere and views of the city skyline from the upper deck. In addition to the usual concession options of hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, and the like, several popular local restaurants and brewpubs have opened outposts in the stadium. The stadium even has a sitdown restaurant. If you would like to come out to the park while visiting DC, it is strongly advised that you take public transportation. The Green Line Metro station Navy Yard-Ballpark is half a block from the main gates,

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or you can take the 15-minute walk from the Capitol South station on the Orange, Blue, or Silver line. There is also a dedicated DC Circulator bus from Union Station to the Navy Yard metro station. Taxis are another good option, and there is even plenty of bicycle parking at the stadium. If you need to drive, metered parking and flat-rate lots are both available nearby. Even if you can’t make it to a game, or if you’re here in the off-season, consider a stadium tour. There is a fee for tours, but all proceeds go to the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, which supports DC’s underserved youth.

FEDEX FIELD (PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL) Washington’s National Football League franchise, the Redskins, presently plays at FedEx Field. This stadium is not in Washington DC proper but just a few miles over the Maryland border, in Landover.

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A Controversial Name Controversy over the use of the name Redskins has drawn a lot of attention both in public opinions and even in courts of law. The team’s current owner contends that the name honors Native Americans as warriors. Many Native American rights advocates disagree, arguing that the term is racist, disparaging Native Americans and presenting them in a stereotypical way.

It is still a quick trip from the city either by car or by taking the Blue or Silver Metro line to the Morgan Boulevard station. If you do plan to drive, it is strongly advised that you purchase parking ahead of time via the team’s website.

COLLEGE SPORTS

Washington is also a home for college football. The metro area has three NCAA Division I teams: the Georgetown University Hoyas, the Howard University Bison, and the University of Maryland Terrapins. The area is also home to two NCAA Division III teams: the Catholic University Cardinals and the Gallaudet University Bison. All of them command strong local and alumni followings. DC’s colleges and universities are better known for their nationally ranked men’s and women’s basketball teams. Six local schools have NCAA Division I teams: The American University Eagles, the George Mason University Patriots, the George Washington University Colonials, the Georgetown Hoyas, the Howard Bison, and the University of Maryland Terrapins. With so many great college basketball teams in the area, March Madness can be a big deal in DC, as one or more of the teams usually emerges as a serious contender for the national title. Almost every bar becomes a sports bar, and food and drink specials abound.

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CAPITAL ONE ARENA (PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL AND HOCKEY) For professional basketball, Capital One Arena is home to both the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Washington Mystics. The Wizards—then named the Bullets—arrived in the mid-1970s, while the Mystics were one of the first WNBA franchises to be established when the league was founded in 1996. They qualified for the playoffs in 10 of their first 20 years of existence. The Wizards and Mystics share Capital One Arena with the Washington Capitals National Hockey League team. Like the Wizards, the Capitals came to Washington in the 1970s. In 2018, in a moment Washington sports fans could hardly hope to dream of, the Capitals won the Stanley Cup.

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Capital One Arena, located in Chinatown, is close to the National Portrait Gallery and in walking distance from a number of DC’s downtown hotels. It is also accessible by Metro via the Gallery Place–Chinatown station on the Green, Yellow, and Red lines. The Blue, Orange, and Silver lines are just a few blocks farther away, at Metro Center. Additionally, the Capitals’ practice rink is located in Arlington, Virginia, a short walk from the Ballston Metro station on the Orange Line. All team practices are open to the public. When the team is away, visitors can rent a pair of skates and take their own turn on the ice.

AUDI FIELD (PROFESSIONAL SOCCER) The youngest of DC’s professional sports teams is its Major League Soccer (MLS) team, DC United. MLS was established in 1993, just in time for the World Cup, although the league did not field any teams until 1996. DC United was one of MLS’s original 20 teams. From its founding, it has been one of the league’s most successful teams. On four occasions, the team has won the Supporters’ Shield, the annual award for the best regular season record. It has also won four MLS championship cups, in 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2004. One of the contributors to the league’s overall success has been the construction of purpose-built stadiums with modern amenities that draw in the fans. DC United’s stadium—Audi Field, completed in 2018—is about two blocks from Nationals Park on the Anacostia waterfront at Buzzard Point. The Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station and Circulator buses will transport you there.

OTHER SPORTS DC is an international city. People from all over the world live in DC, whether as diplomats, students, or immigrants, and they bring their favorite sports with them.

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Take rugby, for example. The Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club competes in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference of USA Rugby, and they have played exhibition matches with clubs in Great Britain, Australia, and Argentina. They also have an educational and philanthropic mission. The Renegades practice at Cardozo High School in Northwest DC and give back to the school by supporting its library. They have also raised funds for Food & Friends, a charity that delivers food and groceries to those with life-threatening illnesses as well as for the Whitman Walker Clinic. They also host rugby educational camps for players of all ages, from elementary school through adulthood. DC also has an Irish sports league that plays Ireland’s two national sports: hurling and Gaelic football. Hurling is sort of like a cross between lacrosse and field hockey, while Gaelic football is closely related to both rugby and soccer. The DC Gaels have teams for both men and women, and their teams are open to experienced players and newcomers alike. The DC metro area also has multiple cricket leagues, with dozens of teams.

PLAYING IN DC One of the great things about being a sports fan in Washington DC is the opportunities it offers to play. In addition to the teams mentioned in this lecture, the city and surrounding suburbs are full of intermural and pickup leagues. If you want to get out on the field, you can find pickup games of soccer, volleyball, kickball, tennis, bocce, and many other sports. The best way to do this is to get online and simply search for “DC pickup leagues,” but you can also check community center websites from DC and surrounding counties to find a game.

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EXPLORING WASHINGTON’S GREAT OUTDOORS

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ashington DC is not just an urban landscape. All around the city, you can find some hidden and not-so-hidden wild spaces, where Washingtonians like to hike and bike, play golf, ride horses, have picnics and barbecues, and enjoy the landscape and the wildlife. This lecture looks at several of those locations, including: ●●

Rock Creek Park.

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Potomac River sites.

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The Potomac Heritage Trail and the Mount Vernon Trail.

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Great Falls Park.

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Anacostia River sites.

ROCK CREEK PARK Rock Creek Park is a 1,754-acre oasis that winds along the spine of the city, just west of the 16th Street Northwest meridian line. It passes through some of DC’s oldest neighborhoods and brushes up against some famous landmarks, including the National Zoo, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Hillwood Estate. The valley of Rock Creek—which runs from Lake Needwood in Montgomery County, Maryland, south to meet the Potomac River at Georgetown—was inhabited by Native Americans for millennia before European settlers arrived in the 17th century. If you really love a good walk, you could hike the whole length of the park by starting in Georgetown, at the trailhead on M Street, between 27th Street and 28th Street. For shorter hikes, there are entry points and parking access all along the park, particularly north of the National Zoo. Two of the best places to start exploring this

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northern end of the park are the Rock Creek Nature Center and the Peirce Mill historic site. The Rock Creek Nature Center is just off Military Road NW, between the Chevy Chase and Brightwood neighborhoods of Northwest DC. It is the main visitor center, open Wednesday through Sunday. This is the place to pick up maps, brochures, books, and ranger-led tours. Further to the south, historic Peirce Mill is just off Tilden Drive, between the Cleveland Park and Van Ness neighborhoods. It offers access to both the Western Ridge Trail and the Valley Trail on the opposite side of Rock Creek itself. The mill itself also offers visitors unique insights into the area’s history. This gristmill ran from the 1820s until 1897. Its inner workings have been restored, and visitors can watch grain being ground by water power, as it was in the 19th century.

POTOMAC RIVER SITES The Potomac River features long stretches of riverfront that have been allowed to remain or have been restored to something like their natural state, where the only structures you will find are 19th-century buildings that served the commercial traffic along the Potomac River. One of the longest of these stretches is the C&O Canal towpath. The towpath formally begins in Georgetown, at Lock 1, off 29th Street and just south of M Street. From there, it runs west along both sides of the canal, behind the historic buildings of Georgetown, many of which have been converted into shops and restaurants. If you want to continue your walk beyond Georgetown, make sure to cross over one of the pedestrian bridges to the south side of the canal before passing under the Key Bridge. Your last chance to do so

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is at 34th Street. The path then continues along the riverfront below Georgetown University and turns northwest. At around the third mile, you will reach an inlet and boathouse at a place called Fletcher’s Cove. This boathouse was run by the Fletcher family from 1850 to 2004 and is still in operation under the National Park Service today. Fletcher’s Cove is the point where the sights and sounds of the city truly begin to fall away. You will be able to spot lots of native wildlife, from great blue herons to white-tailed deer, beavers, and box turtles.

North from here, the trail intersects with dozens of historic sites, recreation areas, and campgrounds. One notable location is Glen Echo Park. For serious hikers and climbers, the aptly named Billy Goat Trail lies a few miles west of Glen Echo, at the Carderock Recreational Area. The Billy Goat Trail connects Carderock to Great Falls Park and Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center, where you can learn more about the history of the canal. From April through October, you

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can also pick up a mule-drawn canal boat ride here and experience this historic mode of travel. If boating is of interest, there are plenty of places within the C&O Canal National Park area to rent canoes and kayaks along the river, including at Fletcher’s Cove and at Thompson’s Boat Center in Georgetown. Paddling tours and classes are also available. You can rent bikes at both of these locations as well, and you are welcome to bring your own bike. Most of the lower towpath is broad, flat, and bike friendly. Finally, if camping is of interest, the lower towpath offers a special opportunity: Six of the canal’s historic lock keepers’ houses have been refurbished and are available for overnight stays. These cabins are managed by the C&O Canal Trust. Each of them offers different features and amenities and has been restored to a different historical period, from the 1830s to the 1950s. If you are interested in this unique historical experience, check the trust’s website for more information.

THE POTOMAC HERITAGE TRAIL AND THE MOUNT VERNON TRAIL For those of you spending time on the Virginia side of the river, similar trails and parks await. From the Key Bridge, two trails run along the riverfront: The Potomac Heritage Trail starts just below the bridge and runs north, and the Mount Vernon Trail runs south. The Mount Vernon Trail runs through Arlington, Old Town Alexandria, and all the way to George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon. Notably, Roosevelt Island, a local favorite, is accessible via a bridge from the Mount Vernon Trail. To the south of Roosevelt Island are Columbia Island, Lady Bird Johnson Park, and Gravelly Point.

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If you head north from Roosevelt Island instead, you will soon find yourself on the Potomac Heritage Trail. The Potomac Heritage Trail is actually a series of trails, and they extend well beyond the DC area. One section follows the Potomac upriver about 10 miles, from Roosevelt Island to the DC beltway, concluding at Turkey Run Park. The trail offers beautiful views of the Potomac and the DC side of the river, including Georgetown University’s campus and the Foxhall and Palisades neighborhoods of DC.

GREAT FALLS PARK Ten miles upriver from Turkey Run Park is Great Falls Park, which is maintained by the National Park Service. This is the companion park to Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center, the state park on the Maryland side of the river. It is one of the most popular natural recreation areas in the region and can be extremely busy on weekends from the

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spring through the fall, with long waits to get into the parking lot. For nature lovers, the view is worth it. From one of the three overlooks, visitors look down on steepest fall line anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard. The waters of the Potomac tumble 76 feet in less than a mile through a rocky channel that narrows from 1,000 feet to 60 feet. The waters spill out into Mather Gorge. Because of the narrowing of the river here, it is prone to flooding. Additionally, the park offers about 15 miles of hiking trails. The hiking trails at Great Falls connect to Riverbend Park to the north and Difficult Run Stream Valley Park to the south, both excellent places to continue your outdoor adventure.

ANACOSTIA RIVER SITES This lecture now turns to the often-underappreciated shores of the Anacostia River. Two places particularly worth visiting are the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and the United States National Arboretum. The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are the northernmost section of the Anacostia Park complex, right on the northeastern border of DC. It was once part of the ancient wetlands that bordered the river, which local Native American tribes used for food, medicine, and clean water. British settlers cleared the Anacostia wetlands for farming. The Industrial Revolution and the city’s 20th-century boom slowly turned the river into a dumping ground. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that city planners recognized the ecological and cultural value of this area and set about restoring the wetlands to their natural state. The gardens themselves developed out of a small farm and commercial water-lily nursery owned by Helen Shaw. Her father, a Civil War veteran, had moved there in the 1880s and planted the first lilies in the location. From 1930 to 1938, Shaw fought off dredging

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Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

and development of the land. Congress finally purchased the land and added it to the new Anacostia Park, to be managed by the National Park Service. Today, the park and surrounding wetlands look much as they did in colonial times. Federal wildlife researchers estimate that 150 species of land plants, 76 species of birds, 9 species of mammals, and 8 species of reptiles share the space with the descendants of the Shaws’ water lilies. Rangers lead garden tours and birding walks along a mile and a half of trails. The United States National Arboretum stands on the west bank of the Anacostia, exactly opposite the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Consisting of 446 heavily wooded acres, beautifully designed gardens, and special exhibits, it is a gardener’s delight.

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24

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M

any people have read the words of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, but not many have had the opportunity to see the rare original copies of those documents in person. Washington DC is one place where you can see them, at the National Archives, located just a block off the National Mall, at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest. This lecture focuses on the National Archives, covering the following topics: ●●

Background on the National Archives.

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The Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom.

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The Records of Rights Exhibit.

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Visiting the National Archives.

BACKGROUND ON THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES The National Archives is the repository for the documents and materials created by the United States federal government during the course of its business. This can include anything from the full text of bills and laws to letters or emails written by a sitting president. The collections now include approximately 10 billion pages of text, 12 million maps and charts, 24 million photographs, and more than 400 terabytes of electronic data.

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The National Archives’ first duty is to preserve the information, and their second duty is to make it available to anyone who needs it. If you need to look up historical court records, family genealogies, or war service records, you can access these kinds of records at the National Archives. You can also access many of them online. The National Archives Electronic Records Archive has been in development since 2008 and is working backward to get its entire archive online. For most visitors to Washington DC, the real reason to come to the National Archives is its exhibitions. The Public Vaults, as the permanent exhibition is called, display original records from the White House, Congress, and more. You can see objects like Abraham Lincoln’s telegrams to his generals at the front lines of battle during the Civil War, or listen to audio recordings made in the Oval Office during momentous events.

THE ROTUNDA OF THE CHARTERS OF FREEDOM Even if you only have an hour to spare on your trip to DC, the one place you should visit is the Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom. This is the permanent home for the National Archives’ copies of America’s founding documents. These include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom—along with the rest of the building—was designed by architect John Russell Pope in the 1930s. The rotunda was purpose built to hold this collection and allow their safe, permanent display. The documents are displayed in climatecontrolled, light-filtered, bombproof, bulletproof, titanium-framed cases designed to preserve and protect these national treasures. The murals above, by artist Barry Faulkner, depict fictionalized scenes from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.

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THE RECORDS OF RIGHTS EXHIBIT Downstairs from the rotunda, on the main floor of the National Archives, you will find the Records of Rights exhibit in the David M. Rubenstein Gallery. This gallery displays other documents chronicling the history of civil rights in America. The oldest document on display is a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta. The documents were produced in America and span 200 years of its history, from the 1780s to the 1980s. Not all of them reflect progress toward greater rights; some reflect setbacks. Take, for example, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. This decision not only denied Dred Scott his freedom from slavery, but it asserted that no person of African ancestry could be considered an American citizen. Outrage over this decision was one of the major milestones on the path to the American Civil War. The exhibit also contains copies of the Thirteenth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution—abolishing slavery and acknowledging the citizenship of African Americans and anyone else born in the United States. Those amendments, of course, did not end the struggle for rights—nor were African Americans the only Americans struggling for equal recognition. You will also find documents relating to the rights of Asian Americans, the rights of immigrants, the rights of the accused to a fair trial, and so on. There is no better place in DC to witness the entire spectrum of the debate about rights and freedom in America.

VISITING THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES If you want to visit the National Archives, you can find it quite easily. It is just across Constitution Avenue from the National Mall and the

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National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. To reach it by Metro, take the Green or Yellow line to the Archives–Navy Memorial stop. The archives exhibitions, including the Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom, are open every day of the year except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can check the National Archives’ website for details about access to the research collections.

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TIMELINE OF WASHINGTON DC

Earliest Native American settlements in the region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c. 8,000 BCE Piscataway peoples settle the region . . . . . . . . . . . c. 1300 CE Virginia Colony chartered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606 John Smith explores the Potomac River and Anacostia River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1608 First European settlements in the region . . . . . . . . . . . c. 1630s Maryland Colony chartered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1632 George Washington born near Pope’s Creek, Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1732 Alexandria, Virginia incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1749 George Washington obtains control of Mount Vernon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1754 American Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1775–1783 US Constitution ratified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1789 Georgetown, Maryland, incorporated and Georgetown University founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1789 Departments of State, Treasury, War, and Justice established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1789–1790

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Residence Act establishes a new US capital . . . . . . . . . . . 1790 Pierre L’Enfant submits his plan for the District of Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791 Benjamin Banneker and Andrew Ellicott survey the District of Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791 Construction of the White House begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1792 Construction of the Capitol Building begins . . . . . . . . . . . 1793 Seat of US government officially moves to the District of Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1800 Library of Congress established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1800 Maine Avenue Fish Market opens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1805 British sacking and burning of the city of Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1814 Washington City Canal opens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1815 White House building and restoration completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1817 Capitol Building completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826 Smithsonian Institution founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1846 Washington DC territory south of the Potomac River retrocedes to Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . 1846 Washington Monument constructed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1848–1888 Smithsonian Castle constructed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1849–1855 American Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861–1865 District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1862

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Arlington Memorial Cemetery established . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1864 Battle of Fort Stevens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1864 Assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1865 Capitol Building expanded and enlarged dome added . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1868 Washington DC’s first professional sports teams established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871 Eastern Market opened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873 Frederick Douglass dies at his home in Anacostia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1874 Bureau of Engraving and Printing established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1874–1875 Smithsonian’s Department of Living Animals becomes the National Zoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1889 Library of Congress Jefferson Building constructed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1890–1897 Coxey’s Army conducts the first protest march on the National Mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894 McMillan Plan for revitalization of Washington submitted to Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1902 West Wing added to the White House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1902 United States Bureau of Investigation (later the Federal Bureau of Investigation) founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1908 First of Washington DC’s Japanese cherry trees planted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912 Lincoln Memorial dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1922

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The Pentagon constructed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1941–1943 East Wing added to the White House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1942 Supreme Court constructed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1932–1935 Washington National Cathedral begins construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1907 National Archives and Records Administration established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1934 Washington Redskins National Football League team established in DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1937 Jefferson Memorial dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1943 Marian Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial Concert . . . . . . . . . . 1939 National Gallery of Art opened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1941 Harry Winston donates the Hope Diamond to Smithsonian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958 The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1963 Kennedy Center dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Watergate break-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1972 Vietnam Veterans War Memorial dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . 1982 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1993 Korean War Veterans Memorial dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1995 DC United Major League Soccer team established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1996

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Anacostia Waterfront Initiative begins waterfront revitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2000 National World War II Memorial dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . 2004 Washington Nationals bring Major League Baseball back to Washington DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2011 National Museum of African American History and Culture opened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2016

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asch, Chris Myers, and George Derek Musgrove. Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital. Four hundred years of Washingtonian history through the eyes of its African American residents. A chronicle of conflict and hope. Breyer, Stephen. The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities. New York: Vintage, 2015. Written by a sitting associate justice, this book examines the role of the least-understood branch of the federal government, with particular emphasis on its effects on international relations and foreign policy. Brower, Kate Andersen. The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. New York: Harper, 2015. A view of life in the White House not from the perspective of the first families but of the staff who look take care of them and guard this national architectural treasure. Carrier, Thomas J. Washington, D.C.: A Historical Walking Tour. Images of America Series. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 1999. This is just one of an ever-expanding series of books featuring stories and photographs of Washington as it once was. Other topics in the series include historical buildings and monuments, communities and neighborhoods, music and arts, and much more. Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Books, 2005. This Pulitzer Prize–winning biography famously inspired the musical

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Hamilton, but beyond the hype, this biography offers a compelling portrait of a complex founding father. Cole, John Y. America’s Greatest Library: An Illustrated History of the Library of Congress. Lewes, UK: D. Giles Limited, 2018. Written by a longtime Library of Congress staffer, this contains a guide to the buildings, the collections, and the people who care for both. Conwill, Kinsasha Holman, and The National Museum of African American History and Culture, eds. Dream A World Anew: The African American Experience and the Shaping of America. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2016. Using the museum’s collections as a lens, the museum’s curators present the broad sweep of African American history from the 17th through the 21st century. Crimi, Elody R., and Diane Ney. Jewels of Light: The Stained Glass of Washington National Cathedral. Washington DC: Washington National Cathedral Press, 2015. A detailed guide to the cathedral’s 231 stained glass windows, with gorgeous photography. DeFerrari, John. Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats. American Palate Series. Mount Pleasant, SC: The History Press, 2013. Written by a native Washingtonian and local history buff, this book covers the past and present of Washington DC dining. Frey, Lou, and Michael T Hayes, eds. Inside the House: Former Members Reveal How Congress Really Works. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001. The workings of the legislative branch as told by those who know it best. Goode, James M. The Evolution of Washington, DC: Historical Selections from the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection at the George Washington University. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2015. Drawing on one of the city’s premier historical archives (as featured in Lecture 16), Goode paints a portrait of Washington

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as it once was and as it might have been. Goode’s other works on Washington DC history and architecture are also highly recommended. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Leadership: In Turbulent Times. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018. A portrait of four presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson) and how each managed domestic crisis and conflict. ————. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. A biography of Lincoln with a focus on his time in the White House and his relationships with the men who ran against him in the 1860 Republican primary and who later joined his administration. Kapsch, Robert J. Building Washington: Engineering and Construction of the New Federal City, 1790–1840. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Kapsch draws on a wealth of original documents to explain not only the what but the how of planning and building the capital. Kennon, Donald R., and Thomas P. Soma, eds. American Pantheon: Sculptural and Artistic Decoration of the U.S. Capitol. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2004. An art historian and a Capitol historian combine forces to explain both the aesthetics and historical significance of the Capitol’s many works of art. Kurin, Richard. Hope Diamond: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2006. The authoritative history of one of the most visited objects in Smithsonian’s collections, covering not only the history of the stone but the legends attached to it and the science behind its unique beauty. ————. The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects. New York: Penguin, 2013. A guide to some of the most iconic objects in Smithsonian’s collections relating to the history of the United States.

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This book was the basis for the Great Course Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through American History. Maass, John R. George Washington’s Virginia. Mt. Pleasant, SC: The History Press, 2017. The story of Washington’s life and his relationship to the region he called home. McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of the first president to occupy the White House. National Portrait Gallery. America’s Presidents: National Portrait Gallery. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2018. The complete (as of the publication date) collection of official presidential portraits, supplemented with images from their administrations and essays on each work’s historical and artistic significance. Official Guide to the Smithsonian. 4th ed. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2016. The most comprehensive single guide to Smithsonian’s museums and zoo. Protopappas, John J. Washington on Foot: 24 Walking Tours and Maps of Washington DC, Old Town Alexandria, and Takoma Park. 5th ed. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2012. A guide for the urban rambler. Reed, Henry Hope. The United States Capitol: Its Architecture and Decoration. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. A delight for architecture buffs, this book describes the details the Capitol’s structure and decoration in exquisite detail. Schoelwer, Susan P., ed. Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Alexandria, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 2016. Some of the most interesting and innovative work in the study of American history is being done in the area of early

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African American history. This book, which combines traditional historical research and archaeology, is an excellent introduction to the subject, describing what we know, how we know it, and why it matters. Seale, William. The White House: The History of an American Idea. 2nd ed. Washington DC: White House Historical Association, 2001. Stories of the construction, reconstruction, and expansion of the president’s mansion, coupled with stories of the families who lived there. Sklarew, Renee, Rachel Cooper, Brian Cooper, and Paul Elliott. 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Washington, D.C. 3rd ed. Birmingham, AL: Menasha Ridge, 2017. Excellent maps and trail guides to an abundance of recreational trails close to Washington DC. The National Museum of African American History and Culture. Sweet Home Café Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking. More than 100 recipes from the museum’s renowned café that represent the spectrum of African American cooking while emphasizing the fresh local food available to Washingtonians. Urovsky, Melvin I. Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court’s History and the Nation’s Constitutional Dialogue. New York: Vintage, 2015. Though the majority opinions of the court receive the most fanfare, this book highlights the surprising importance of dissenting opinions. Washington National Cathedral Guidebook: Official Commemorative Guide. Washington DC: Washington National Cathedral Press, 2016. The illustrated insider’s guide to the cathedral, recently updated to include details of the damage and restoration process from the 2011 earthquake.

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THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC

IMAGE CREDITS

3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kreicher/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images. 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Volcycle/Wikimedia Commons/Pubic Domain. 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marilyn Nieves/ iStock/Getty Images Plus. 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OlegAlbinsky/E+/Getty Images. 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarfa/Wikimedia Commons/Pubic Domain. 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . White House Photo Office. 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glowimages/Getty Images. 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxcheng/Getty Images. 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images. 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~riley/Wikimedia Commons/Pubic Domain. 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USCapitol/flickr/Public Domain. 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . eurobanks/Getty Images. 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0. 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LUNAMARINA/Getty Images. 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jupiterimages/Getty Images. 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-DIG-highsm-03169. 43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0. 46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MattCC716/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0. 47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-DIG-det-4a26389. 49 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mike Nelson/flickr/CC BY 2.0. 52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jerry/flickr/CC BY 2.0. 54 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephanie Hohmann / EyeEm/Getty Images. 55 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ed-Ni-Photo/Getty Images. 59 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shackleford-Photography/Getty Images. 60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo Credit: D. Myles Cullen. 63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JacobH/E+/Getty Images. 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-DIG-pga-12445. 69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glowimages/Getty Images. 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0. 71 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-HS503- 4070. 73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-B817- 7692. 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-USZ62-75827. 75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eric T Gunther/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0. 78 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomanication/flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0.

The National Archives and the Future of DC

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79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Art Institute of Chicago, Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment. 81 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rex Hammock/flickr/CC BY 2.0. 83 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . gregobagel/Getty Images. 85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phil Kalina/flickr/CC BY 2.0. 90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo Collection Anne Frank House/flickr/Public domain. 92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lorax/Wikimedia Commons/CC bY-SA 3.0. 94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rain0975/flickr/Rain0975/CC BY-ND. 94 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ineuw/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain. 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-HS503-1437. 98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0. 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jupiterimages/Getty Images. 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . wynnter/Getty Images. 104 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tbobx/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0. 107 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matthew Straubmuller/flickr/CC by 2.0. 113 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ultima_Gaina/Getty Images. 116 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . littleny/Getty Images. 118 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack E. Boucher, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior. 121 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steveturphotg/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0. 123 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gryffindor/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0. 126 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HaizhanZheng/Getty Images. 131 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . joeravi/Getty Images. 134 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy/flickr/CC BY 2.0. 139 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephanie Kenner/Getty Images. 140 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Keren Su/Getty Images. 142 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joesboy/Getty Images. 144 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fred Schroeder/flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0. 146 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ted Eytan/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0. 151 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tim Evanson/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0. 154 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .jjgervasi/Getty Images. 155 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tim Brown/Getty Images. 157 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William F. Yurasko/flickr/CC BY 2.0. 159 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Keith Allison/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0. 161 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U.S. Air Force Photo by 2nd Lt. Chris Hoyler. 164 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LC-DIG-highsm- 09668. 167 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JLFCapture/Getty Images. 169 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . drnadig/Getty Images. 171 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . roc8jas/Getty Images. 172 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gryffindor /Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain. 173 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . National Archives and Records Administration.

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THE GREAT TOURS: WASHINGTON DC