The Library of Congress - The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library preserves a collection of more than 119 million items, more than two-thirds of which are in media other than books. These include the largest map, film and television collections in the world.

The White House - Take a tour of the White House where you can view the rooms and furnishings, past and present.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - NARA's mission is to ensure ready access to the essential evidence that documents the rights of American citizens, the actions of Federal officials, and the national experience. Visitors can see on display our nation's Charters of Freedom — The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The exhibit halls are temporarily closed due to renovations.

Washington National Cathedral - The Cathedral towers above the city from its 57-acre site high on Mt. St. Alban. Sixth largest cathedral in the world, burial sites of President Woodrow Wilson, Hellen Keller, and her two teachers. War Memorial and Children's Chapels, Space Window with moon rock inset. Observation Gallery offers magnificent views of Washington, Virginia, and Maryland.

      
FBI Tour - The FBI Tour is designed to inform visitors of the responsibilities, organizational structures, accomplishments, history, and law enforcement services of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The one-hour, guided tour, which is taken by nearly 500,000 persons each year, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Nation's Capital.

Bureau of Engraving and Printing - Watch stacks of cash being made. The bureau is the largest producer of security documents in the United States. The BEP produces over 9 billion Federal Reserve notes each year and over 20 billion postage stamps.

Supreme Court of the United States - The Supreme Court offers a variety of educational programs. Exhibits, which are changed periodically, and a theater, where a film on the Supreme Court is shown, are located on the ground floor. Lectures in the Courtroom are given every hour on the half-hour, on days that the Court is not sitting.

U.S. Capitol - Under this magnificent white dome, senators and representatives meet to shape U.S. legislative policy. The Capitol Guide Service conducts free guided tours of the Capitol Monday through Saturday throughout the year.

National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Explore the technology and science behind fighting and solving crimes, discover the heroes of law enforcement, and venture into the dark side of the criminal mind through this intensely interactive experience. Located in downtown Washington, D.C., the National Museum of Crime & Punishment includes a crime scene lab and the filming studios for "America's Most Wanted" with host John Walsh.

National Gallery of Art - The National Gallery of Art houses one of the finest collections in the world illustrating major achievements in painting, sculpture, and graphic arts from the Middle Ages to the present.

Capital Children's Museum - Capital Children's Museum (CCM) has fostered children's love of learning for over 25 years. Children are encouraged to explore by touching, climbing, tasting and using their imagination to learn about the world around them. At CCM, there are five permanent exhibits and more than a dozen traveling exhibits each year.

Decatur House - The Decatur House's distinguished neo-classical architecture and prominent location across from the White House made Decatur House one of the capital's most desirable addresses and home to many of our nation's most prominent figures. Today, visitors hear compelling stories of this unique site, from elite socializing to a fatal duel to a slave's campaign for freedom.

Daughters of the American Revolution Museum - The museum is Washington's only American Decorative Arts Museum. The Museum features 33 period rooms depict scenes of early American life, two galleries with permanent and rotating exhibits, over 33,000 objects made or used in America prior to 1840 and more.

National Museum of Women in the Arts - The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women artists. The museum features a collection of more than 1,500 pieces by 400 women artists from 28 countries, including Cassatt and O'Keeffe.

The Octagon Museum - The oldest museum in the United States devoted to architecture and design, the Octagon Museum enables the American Architectural Foundation to increase public awareness of the power of architecture and its influence on the quality of our lives. This building was designed by Dr. William Thornton for Col. John Tayloe III, and was constructed between 1799 and 1801.

The Phillips Collection - The Phillips Collection, America's first museum of modern art, opened in 1921 in the home of Duncan Phillips (1886-1966). Renoir's great masterpiece Luncheon of the Boating Party hangs here, along with other outstanding Impressionist paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Degas and Cézanne.

International Spy Museum - The International Spy Museum is the first public museum in the world solely dedicated to the tradecraft, history, and contemporary role of espionage. The museum features the largest collection of international espionage artifacts ever placed on public display. Spanning the history of espionage around the globe, many of these artifacts can now be seen by the public for the first time.

Kreeger Museum - One of the greatest legacies of David and Carmen Kreeger is the museum that bears their name. In 1959, Mr. & Mrs. Kreeger began to amass a formidable collection of modern art. For the next fifteen yearsthey assembled most of the museum's holdings. The collection of The Kreeger Museum reflects the spirit of the Kreegers.

Woodrow Wilson House Museum - Washington's only presidential Museum. Each year, thousands still visit the final home of the twenty-eighth President. The remarkable collection offers the visitor unique insights into the personality of one of America's greatest leaders. On display are objects from the White House, family items, memorabilia, and elaborate gifts of state from around the world.

National Building Museum - The National Building Museum is America’s premier cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning.

National Museum of Health and Medicine - Discover a smoker's lung, the bullet that took Abraham Lincoln's life, a brain still attached to a spinal cord suspended in formaldehyde.  You can see Paul Revere's dental tools and what a kidney stone looks like.  You can try on a pregnancy garment that makes you feel what it's like to be with child.  You can find out what on earth a shoe fluoroscope is.  You can even touch a real brain if you dare.

Hillwood Museum & Gardens - Hillwood Museum and Gardens is one of America's premier estate museums, featuring the most comprehensive assemblage of imperial Russian fine and decorative arts outside Russia, and an extensive collection of eighteenth-century French works of art.

The Textile Museum - The Textile Museum is dedicated to furthering the understanding of mankind's creative achievements in the textile arts. As a museum, it is committed to its role as a center of excellence in the scholarly research, conservation, interpretation and exhibition of textiles, with particular concern for the artistic, technical and cultural significance of its collections.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - The Museum's Permanent Exhibition The Holocaust spans three floors of the Museum building. It presents a narrative history using more than 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theaters that include historic film footage and eyewitness testimonies. Also hosting a variety of traveling exhibitions, the museum is a fascinating and educational experience for the young or old.

Shakespeare Theatre - Each season, The Shakespeare Theatre, under Artistic Director Michael Kahn's leadership since 1986, presents five plays by Shakespeare and other classical playwrights in its 451-seat theatre in DC's Pennsylvania Quarter arts district. "The nation's foremost Shakespeare company"-The Wall Street Journal "One of the world's three great Shakespearean theatres"-The Economist

Discovery Theater - The theater is dedicated to offering the best in live performing arts for young people. Each season more than a dozen productions feature puppets, storytellers, dancers, actors, musicians, and mimes in performances that present classic stories for children, folk tales from all over the world, American history and cultures, and innovative theater techniques.

The Washington Opera - Under the stewardship of Artistic Director Placido Domingo, The Washington Opera continues to move confidently forward on a great adventure that began when the company was founded in 1956. The Opera has achieved the stature of a world class company and plays to standing-room-only audiences at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Studio Theatre - Founded in 1978, The Studio Theatre is the third largest producing theatre in Washington DC--recognized as a Major Cultural Institution in the nation's capital. The Studio is Washington's premiere stage for the best in contemporary theatre.

Arena Stage - The core purpose of Arena Stage is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics to charged dramas to robust musicals. Our focus is on Theater of the Americas; we produce American classics, premieres of new plays and contemporary stories.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - The Kennedy Center is the nation's busiest arts facility, presenting more than 3,000 performances each year for audiences approaching 2 million. The Center presents the greatest performers and performances from across America and around the world, nurturing new works and young artists, and serving the nation as a leader in arts education.

Ford's Theatre - Ford's Theatre is a live, working theatre located in downtown Washington, DC. As a living tribute to President Abraham Lincoln's love of the performing arts, Ford's Theatre produces musicals and plays that embody family values, underscore multiculturalism, and illuminate the eclectic character of American life.

Warner Theatre - When the Warner Theatre opened in 1924 it was hailed as a building of beauty, featuring a spectacular marble and gold leaf lobby and large auditorium complete with gold leaf ceilings and chandeliers. Today, having undergone a $10 million restoration, the Warner is host to a variety of Broadway productions, comedy, dance, film, and music concerts.

The Washington Ballet - Founded in 1976 by the great American ballet pioneer Mary Day, The Washington Ballet is considered one of the country's finest ballet companies. The Company is recognized nationally and internationally for its high standards, artistic integrity, and unwavering commitment to presenting the very best in ballet.

The National Theatre - One of America's oldest continually operating theaters features national tours of Broadway favorites, pre-Broadway shows and American premieres.

National Museum of Natural History - Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Natural History offers displays which comprise more than 120 million scientific specimens and cultural artifacts from around the world.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden - The Hirshhorn offers a superb collection of modern art. The collection features outstanding works by major artists of our time. Changing exhibitions focus mostly on established contemporary masters and emerging artists.

National Museum of African Art - As a leading center for the visual arts of Africa, the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) fosters and sustains--through exhibitions, collections, research, and public programs--an interest in and an understanding of the diverse cultures in Africa as these are embodied in aesthetic achievements in the visual arts.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery - The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the national museum of Asian art. The galleries offer one of the Western world's most refined collection's of Asian art and the finest collections of paintings by James McNeill Whistler . . . anywhere.

National Postal Museum - The National Postal Museum offers an educational experience for those who are interested in the history and facts of different aspects of the postal system. Unique collection of airmail planes, stagecoaches, rare stamps and letters, Owney the Postal Dog, Pony Express exhibit, rare postage and more.

Smithsonian American Art Museum - The Museum features paintings, sculpture, folk art, photography and graphics by American artists from the 18th century to the present.

Arts and Industries Building - The Arts and Industries Building (originally known as the U.S. National Museum) was designed in a High Victorian style by the Washington architectural firm of Cluss and Schulze. Opened in 1881 in time for the inaugural ball of President James A. Garfield, the building was constructed to exhibit materials acquired from the nation's Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia.

National Air and Space Museum - The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight.

The National Zoo - The Zoo was created in 1889 'for the advancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the people.' Today they are becoming a new kind of zoo, the BioPark. This vision of the modern zoo combines wildlife with the best of natural history museums, botanic gardens, aquaria, and even art galleries to illustrate the splendor of all living things.

Freer Gallery of Art - The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the national museum of Asian art. The galleries offer one of the Western world's most refined collection's of Asian art and the finest collections of paintings by James McNeill Whistler . . . anywhere.

Smithsonian Institution Building - Completed in 1855, the original Smithsonian Institution Building, popularly known as the Castle, was designed by architect James Renwick Jr., whose other works include St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Today, the Castle houses the Institution’s administrative offices and the Smithsonian Information Center.

National Museum of American History - The Museum offers three floors of exhibitions that explore the rich diversity of American history, from 'After the Revolution: Everyday Life in America, 1780-1800' to the 'Information Age: People, Information, and Technology.'

Anacostia Museum and Center - The Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture has grown from an experiment in community outreach to a national resource devoted to the identification, documentation, protection, and interpretation of the African American experience.

National Portrait Gallery - Unique collection of portraits of famous Americans from the world of politics, sports, literature, stage and screen. The Hall of Presidents features official portraits of U.S. presidents.

 National Geographic Society Explorers Hall - In Explorers Hall, past and current expeditions come to life. Learn the latest from scientists in the field through interactive programs, artifacts and more.

The Old Post Office Pavilion - The Old Post Office Pavilion is located on Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Streets, NW, halfway between the White House and the United States Capitol. It is Washington, D.C.'s first modern skyscraper standing an impressive 12 stories tall. The building was originally built to house the United States Post Office Department and the Washington, D.C. Post Office.

Union Station - For over 90 years, Union Station has welcomed people to the most important city in the world. This magnificent building has even played host to 17 Presidents and countless foreign dignitaries. However, what may be most impressive is the fact that Union Station's marble floors echo with the footsteps of over 23.4 million people each year, making it the most visited site in all of Washington.

United States National Arboretum - The Arboretum's beautiful 446-acre campus in Washington, D.C. contains an array of display gardens, collections, and historical monuments set among native stands of eastern deciduous trees.