The 30 Best Museums in Washington, D.C.

One of the world’s finest collections of Western Art, the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall, is where you come to see rooms full of Old Masters and Impressionists (in the neoclassical West Building) and their more modern contemporaries (in the I. M. Pei-designed East Building). A gift of Pittsburgh banker and industrialist Andrew Mellon in 1937 to the American people, the collection continues to expand—from the original 126 paintings and 26 sculptures, there are now more than 155,000 artworks and ever-growing (with 2,300 or so on display at one time). Highlights include Auguste Renoir’s “A Girl with a Watering Can,” Wayne Thiebaud’s “Cakes,” and the Americas’ only Da Vinci “Ginevra de’ Benci” (be sure to peek at the emblematic portrait on its backside). Visitors love the giant blue Rooster by Katharina Fritsch (“Hahn/Cock”), perched on the Roof Terrace overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue. The Sculpture Garden across the street showcases more larger-than-life sculptures.

General Admission: Free.

An epicenter in the fight for women’s rights, this historic two-story brick house just a stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol dates back to 1799. Multimillionaire socialite Alva Belmont helped purchase the house in 1929 for the National Women’s Party (NWP), which lobbied for women’s rights for over a century. Alice Stokes Paul, the NWP’s founder and author of the Equal Rights Amendment, lived here for 40 years. Today, this is Washington’s only museum devoted to women’s history. You’ll find rooms filled with sepia photographs, original busts of pioneer champions of women’s rights, fading suffrage parade banners, and Susan B. Anthony’s desk.

General Admission: Free.

The epic National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall opened in 2016 to great fanfare, immediately becoming one of the top Washington D.C. attractions. You start at the lowest level, in the depths of the earth, symbolizing the devastating journey formerly enslaved people took from Africa into a life of servitude. The exhibits— spanning the Civil War, Restoration, Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights movement, and more—don’t shy away from the horrific realities, forcing visitors to examine some brutal truths of America’s very foundation. On the upper levels, African-American arts and culture are celebrated with original artifacts, including Louis Armstrong’s trumpet and Marian Anderson’s red-orange silk dress, which she wore while singing at her famous Easter Sunday concert in 1939 at the Lincoln Memorial (after being rebuked from Constitution Hall).

General Admission: Free.

Visitors flock to The Phillips Collection for one famous painting: Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” acquired in 1923 by museum founder and art collector Duncan Phillips. That was just two years after he established what would become the nation’s first modern art museum in the Dupont neighborhood. What truly sets the collection apart is the fact that Phillips was more interested in paintings that spoke to him rather than their market value—though his instinct was spot on. Examples reign throughout the museum, including the chapel-like Rothko Room, designed to the artist’s precise specifications, and Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series, “which chronicles an important chapter in American history. Watch for blockbuster traveling exhibits.

General Admission: $20, and timed tickets are required. Reserve them here.

Who knew language could be so much fun? Planet Word, which opened in 2020 in the historic Franklin Building in downtown D.C., approaches language with various interactive exhibits that entertain adults and children alike. But it’s more than that. It’s the world’s first voice-activated museum. A giant talking wall of lit-up, 3D words asks visitors questions (interspersed with interesting facts, such as the greatest language innovators of words are teenage girls). The scenes of books, hiding behind secret mirrors, spring to life in the magical library as you read passages etched beneath. You can record a speech, try to make your friend laugh with corny jokes, and learn about end words and other rhyming techniques while singing karaoke. Whatever the case, you’ll leave both wowed and smarter, guaranteed.

General Admission: Suggested $15 donation. Admittance is by advanced timed passes, available online.

The elegant Classical Revival-style building in downtown D.C. is the perfect setting for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the world’s first major museum devoted to women’s contributions to the arts. The big hitters here include Camille Claudel, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, and lesser-known artists, including Lavinia Fontana, Rosa Bonheur, and Justine Kurland. In total, more than 6,000 works span the 16th century to modern day. The museum recently reopened after an extensive, two-year renovation that included enlarging gallery space and adding structural supports to accommodate the size and weight of monumental sculptures.

General Admission: $16.

The woman who lived at this Second Empire Victorian row house in the Logan Circle neighborhood between 1943 and 1949 should be more famous than she is. Mary McLeod Bethune was a renowned educator, social advocate, and adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, who fought for racial and gender equality throughout the U.S. and the world. She led the National Council of Negro Women, among other organizations, holding meetings and formal dinners in the dining room. She hosted such distinguished guests as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and activist Mary Church Terrell, and heads of state and ambassadors. Tours of the museum—the nation’s first museum and archives dedicated solely to African-American women’s history—take in many of her original belongings, including her massive conference table.

General Admission: Free. Guided interpretive tours are offered on Thursdays and Fridays. The site is not physically accessible.

You’ll need all day to explore the massive Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, covering everything from mammals to human origins (including replicas of ancient paintings) to gems and minerals to dinosaur fossils—more than 146 million natural science specimens and cultural artifacts in total. If it’s all a tad overwhelming, start by seeking out the most famous exhibitions: the African Bush Elephant in the entrance rotunda, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond, and ”Nation’s T. rex” skeleton in the museum’s new Deep Time Fossil Hall. You’ll surely be curious to explore further from there.

General Admission: Free.

You slide down a cloud-inspired “dream machine” to access the National Children’s Museum exhibits in downtown D.C.—you don’t have to, but that’s the kid way to do it. Within the 20,000 square feet of exhibit space, you’ll find low-tech and high-tech experiences that extol STEAM (science, technology, engineering arts, math). You learn about probability while being slimed (without a mess), create lightning, clouds, and rain at a digital immersive green screen that explores weather-making, and tackle the mechanics of a home run hit at a digital/physical batting cage. There’s a lot to learn here, and kids don’t even know it; they’re having that much fun.

General Admission: $15.95 for children 1+ and adults. Advanced tickets are recommended and available online.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln retreated to this Gothic-Revival-style cottage on a hill overlooking Washington, D.C., for months at a time, in 1862, 1863, and 1864. Here, he and his family enjoyed refreshing breezes and a more relaxed presidential protocol than at the White House, 3 miles away. But here, too, Lincoln made his most defining presidential decisions, including the formulation of the Emancipation Proclamation. A small museum has Lincoln exhibits, and guided tours are available of the cottage. The house is situated on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home (formerly the Soldiers’ Home), and an app-based tour lets you explore the landscape that resembles how it looked in Lincoln’s day.

General Admission: $15. Advanced tickets are required and can be purchased online.

One of D.C.’s top attractions is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum—filled with historic celebrity air and spacecraft, including the Wright Flyer (which the Wright brothers flew to make history in 1903), the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, and a Boeing 747 cockpit. The museum has been undergoing a major renovation since 2018, with eight reimagined galleries now open that fully take advantage of 21st-century technology. Among new exhibits is “Nation of Speed,” presenting America’s fascination with being the fastest on land and sea, as well as space. The remaining galleries will reopen in phases through 2026. The museum’s annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, houses air and spacecraft too large to fit into the museum, including the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

General Admission: Free. Timed-passes required for the D.C. museum.

The Smithsonian Institution is often referred to as the nation’s attic. There’s no place more obvious of this fact than at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, a repository of America’s most important artifacts. We’re talking amazing stuff like the Star-Spangled Banner, Julia Child’s Kitchen, Abraham Lincoln’s Top Hat, Judy Garland’s Ruby Slippers, even the First Ladies’ Inaugural Gowns. The museum, covering everything from transportation to food to the President’s role to innovation, has a vast collection of more than 1.8 million objects and 22,000 linear feet of archival documents in total. While only 3 to 5 percent of these holdings are on display at any one time, displays change frequently; check the website.

General Admission: Free.

This sacred marble National Archives near the National Mall houses the nation’s most important documents: the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. You’ll find them in the hushed rotunda, each on a marble platform and encased in a gold-plated titanium frame surrounded by argon gas. But those are just the superstars of a repository numbering more than 15 billion super-important Federal papers dating back to 1774, plus millions of maps, charts, drawings, photos, motion picture films—and more than 33 billion electronic records. The David M. Rubenstein Gallery’s Record of Rights exhibit interprets some of America’s most important crossroads, including the civil rights struggle, immigration, and the women’s suffrage movement. The Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery presents changing topical exhibitions that highlight diverse stories of American history as revealed through the Archives’ holdings. Additional permanent exhibition space is undergoing a once-in-a-generation renovation and reopens in summer 2025.

Admission: Free. Entry is by appointment only; sign up here.

Where are the books? That’s the first question everyone asks when entering the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill, the world’s largest library. Indeed, the Grand Hall resembles a veritable Italian-Renaissance palazzo rather than a library, with marble statues, mural mosaics, and architectural flourishes. You can peer down on the octagonal Main Reading Room, with 250 desks beneath a towering dome, while side galleries contain permanent and temporary exhibits pulled from the library’s vast collection. More than 39 million books (plus millions of recordings, photographs, maps, sheet music, manuscripts, and baseball cards) are tucked away on approximately 838 miles of shelves.

General Admission: Free. Timed entry passes are required; sign up here.

You’re given an “identity card” of a real-life person who experienced the Holocaust upon entering the blocky, redbrick United States Holocaust Memorial Museum near the National Mall. By the end of your visit, you’ll know whether they survived or not. This is not an easy museum to visit, but it’s an important one to remind us of the atrocities committed by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945 toward Jews, Romans, the LGBTQ community, the mentally ill, and others. The exhibitions detailing the history are detailed, some are graphic. At the end, a Hall of Remembrance provides a much-needed chance to reflect.

General Admission: Free, but timed entry tickets must be secured in advance (reserve them here) or obtained on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 10 a.m.

Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post filled her northwest D.C. home with French and Russian works of art, always with the mind of turning it into a museum. Following her death in 1973, the doors of this sumptuous, 36-room Georgian mansion were opened to the public in 1977 as  Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Gardens, providing a glimpse into a spectacular world of exquisite taste and fine living, a place where presidents, royals, dignitaries, and celebrities were fêted. Highlights include the French drawing-room, Russian icons and tapestries, and an impressive collection of Fabergé eggs, one of the largest outside Russia. There are also 13 acres of formal gardens, including a French parterre, rose garden, and Japanese-style garden, and a dacha that features temporary exhibits.

General Admission: $18.

Yes, there are real-life spies in D.C., and while we don’t know where they are and what they’re doing, we can learn about their ways at the thrilling, 140,000-square-foot International Spy Museum in L’Enfant Plaza (it moved from its original Penn Quarter site in 2019). Exhibits delve into the history of espionage, going as far back as artifacts from the Mongols and a letter written by George Washington setting up the U.S.’s first spy network; inventions and gadgets used to steal secrets; famous spies, including Mata Hari; and much more. You can even crack codes, spy on other “spies,” and test your other spy skills at digital and physical interactives throughout the museum—you just have to remember your cover identity.

General Admission: from $29.95. Advanced tickets are recommended (and are discounted by up to 30%); buy them here.

Born enslaved in 1818, abolitionist, author, and statesman Frederick Douglass lived in this Anacostia house from 1877 until he died in 1895. He called it Cedar Hill for its tree-shaded hilltop perch, offering a vista of the U.S. Capitol hovering above the D.C. skyline. One of the first black national historic sites designated by Congress, the house has been meticulously restored. It’s filled with Douglass’s belongings, including books, Limoges china, and photographs, down to his spectacles perched on his roll-top desk, painting an image of his public and private life. The tour starts with a film at the nearby visitor center, and visits are by guided tour only.

General Admission: Free. Reservations are strongly encouraged; get them here.

You get two museums in one at this celebration of American art, occupying the glorious Greek Revival Old Patent Office in the Penn Quarter. The Smithsonian American Art Museum exults three centuries of art, serving as an unparalleled record of the American experience. Works range from Early American to Western Art to Impressionism to Modernism and include photography, modern folk, and self-taught art, African American Art, Latino art, and video games. Highlights include the world’s largest collection of New Deal art, a fine collection of American impressionism (including Mary Cassatt), and Albert Bierstadt’s celebratory Western landscapes. You’ll find the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House at the adjoining National Portrait Gallery, but these aren’t necessarily their official portraits. Some are staged; others are just fun. Look for Grover Cleveland’s portrait in French Impressionist style, Bill Clinton’s abstract portrayal by Chuck Close, and the most recent, the hugely symbolic portraits of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, by artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively.

General Admission: Free.

A postal museum might not sound like the most exciting museum around, but this tribute to the U.S. Postal Service is particularly well done. Housed in the former Washington City Post Office, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s interactive exhibits look at the history of mail delivery, stamp collecting, unique stories of American history, and more. The stamp collection, comprising more than six million specimens, includes the stamp that delivered the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian. A prop plane and antique railway car in the atrium remember mail delivery in the olden days.

General Admission: Free.

Dumbarton Oaks is famed for its Beatrix-Farrand-designed gardens, but few know about the small yet extraordinary museum housed in the mansion on the grounds. Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, Mildred, amassed a world-class collection of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, now curated by Harvard University and on display in specially designed galleries. The Byzantine collection spans the fourth to 15th centuries, including fine gold, silver, bronze vessels, jewelry, and coins. Housed in a glass-and-travertine wing designed by Philip Johnson, the Pre-Columbian collection gleams with gold pectorals, ceremonial jewelry, and stone carvings of Aztec deities and animals.

General Admission: Free. Gardens: Free between November 1 and March 14; $11 between March 15 and October 31; purchase them here.

Step into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art—the National Mall’s first art museum (1923), housed in a Renaissance-style palazzo—and you’re whisked into a hushed world of eclectic Asian and American art. The collections number more than 46,000 objects, ranging from ancient Egyptian stone sculptures to Korean pottery to Persian manuscripts. Here, too, you’ll find the stunning Victorian-era Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler.

General Admission: Free.

This Gilded Age mansion in the Dupont Circle neighborhood showcases the eclectic décor, tapestries, furniture, sculpture, and paintings collected during various diplomatic postings around the world of its former owners and D.C. socialites, Larz and Isabel Anderson. But what truly sets it apart is the fact that it’s also the official headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati. You know, that historical society founded by Revolutionary War veterans in 1783 (George Washington himself served as the first president general, and Larz Anderson was a devoted member). You’ll learn all about the nation’s oldest private patriotic organization on the first two floors.

General Admission: Free.

The monstrous, 430,000-square-foot Museum of the Bible just south of the National Mall opened in 2017 to much fanfare—and controversy (it’s the pet project of Hobby Lobby head and evangelist Steve Green). Most agree, however, that in the end, it provides a fascinating and richly textured look at the world’s best-selling book of all time—and its continued influence on the world today. State-of-the-art displays break the mold of museum exhibiting, including a 4-D movie experience that takes you on a virtual flying tour through D.C. in search of biblical references; a living history experience of first-century Nazareth, including costumed interpreters who field questions about life back then; and rare artifacts from the Vatican and Israel. You’ll want to set aside a good chunk of time to take everything in—and even then, you won’t see everything.

General Admission: $29.99.

Rest assured, even if you don’t have tickets to visit the White House, one of the top Washington D.C. attractions, you still can have a White House experience—at the White House Visitor Center’s fun, hands-on museum on Pennsylvania Avenue. Exhibits present the history of the Executive Mansion, behind-the-scenes stories (including the usher’s role), and a touchscreen tour of the White House. You’ll learn what it takes to move one President out and one President in on moving day, favorite presidential snacks (James Garfield enjoyed squirrel soup), and personal insights from past presidents on what it means to live in America’s most famous residence.

General Admission: Free.

Enthralling stories about early Washington come to life on tours of this federal-style row house on Lafayette Square, a block from the White House. Naval hero Stephen Decatur and his wife, Susan, lived here from 1819, when it was built, until his death 14 months later in a duel with Commodore James Barron. She went on to rent rooms to Secretary of State Henry Clay, among others. John Gadsby, a rich hotel and tavern owner, bought it and turned it into a retirement home in 1836. Enslaved workers lived in the two-story dependency, Washington’s only extant slave quarters. Tours feature the historic slave quarters along with the first and second floors, much of which reflects the influence of a later owner, socialite-to-ambassadors-and-politicians Marie Beale.

General Admission: Free.

You never know what to expect at the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. Located steps from the White House, this ode to American crafts and decorative arts continues to amaze with its exhibits rooted in its 2,000-strong collection of objects, daring to push the boundaries, entirely devoted to the words inscribed in stone above the front entrance: Dedicated to Art. “Janet Echelman’s 1.8 Renwick,” for example, is a colorful fiber and lighting installation that examines the interplay between human beings and our physical world.

General Admission: Free.

At first glance, this innovative, state-of-the-art museum near Judiciary Square appears to be a history and culture museum documenting Jewish life in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area since the 1850s. It is, but there’s so much more. The centerpiece is D.C.’s oldest synagogue, a brick structure dating from 1876, which was moved to this space from a couple blocks away in 2019. Jewish life and history are explored downstairs with photographs, artifacts, personal papers, and more, while upstairs, the former sanctuary holds 19^th-century pews, where you can watch a multimedia show providing a retrospective on the founding of the city’s first congregation. Around this historic temple was built a stunning glass-concrete-and-steel structure with more exhibition space. The thought-provoking “Connect. Reflect. Act.” is the museum’s core exhibit that connects past and present; meet 100 Jewish Washingtonians, discover Jewish perspectives on social justice issues, think about your own identity and values, and share your own thoughts on contemporary issues. The museum also hosts special exhibitions and a lively schedule of talks, dinners, workshops, and other events.

General Admission: Free; special exhibits may charge a fee.

A shining presence in Southwest D.C. since 2022, this contemporary art museum showcases provoking works from the nearly 8,000-strong collection of Don and Mera Rubell, who opened the first Rubell museum in Miami in 1993. As you walk through 24 galleries on three floors (including an eerie, brick-lined basement) spanning 32,000 square feet of space, you’ll encounter changing exhibitions devoted to the art of today, many by lesser-known, rising artists, some from the D.C. area. They’re not all new artists; pop artist Keith Haring’s drawings, for example, were on display during the first exhibition, “What’s Going On.” The Rubell Museum occupies the former Randall Junior High School, a historically Black public school built in 1906, and retains its original pine floors and brickwork, adding to the airy, light-filled exhibition space.

General Admission: Pay as you wish Wed.–Fri., $15 weekends; free for D.C. residents