the education of henry

Day 21: White House Visitor's Center, Museum of African American History and Culture, and American History Museum

2023-10-04

Today were supposed to have a White House tour, but our senator's staff dropped the ball and failed to get it set up. Then they were supposed to give us a tour of the Capitol building to make up for it, and they failed on that one, too. We were also supposed to meet the Senator, but that got canceled. Just as well, since we were all disappointed about missing everything Mom had tried so hard to set up.

We started out the day at the White House Visitor's Center, which is a poor substitute for actually seeing the White House.

A scale model of the White House we were actually allowed to touch.

Woodrow Wilson's typewriter.

A fancy chair.

From the White House Visitor's Center we went across the street to the unfinished World War I monument. It was nice, but it seemed a little unfocused.

There is a picture of what the sculpture will be when it's finished.

The General Pershing statue.

Next we went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This was an impressive building - it's almost like a TARDIS, in that it seems bigger on the inside than on the outside.

The museum exhibits were really well done and very interesting. We didn't take a lot of pictures, though, because so much of what we saw was sad and horrible to think about.

This statue of Jefferson is a good example of what the museum does so well: behind Jefferson is a pile of bricks with the names of some of the 609 slaves he owned.

A statue of Phyllis Wheatley, who taught herself to read and to write poetry, despite being a slave.

This display about the Dred Scott decision was interesting because Dredd Scott and his wife were at Fort Snelling when they tried to get their freedom. Spoiler alert: the Supreme Court kept them in slavery.

Here's a Civil War recruitment poster to get black men to volunteer for the Union Army.

There was a train car in the building to show how different the "white" and the "colored" section of the car were. The "white" section was bigger and nicer, plus they even had bigger bathrooms.

By the train car.

This lunch counter display was really hard to watch. Why were people so mean?

This is the reflection room. It was very nice to sit in here and listen to the water.

I just had to take this stairway.

The history part of the museum was in the lower levels, and the culture part was upstairs. Upstairs was more fun.

Chuck Berry's Cadillac.

And Chuck Berry's guitar.

A Congressional Medal of Honor - but we forgot to make a note of the recipent for this one.

There was a lot of sports stuff, but Jackie Robinson is the one I was looking for.

A cool sculpture of Jackie sliding home.

Our next stop was the American History Museum. This one was not as interesting as the others we went to, but there were some exciting things to see.

The front of the building.

Recognize these guys?

I don't really know who Prince is, but this is his guitar (well, the one behind me is - I'm holding a fake one).

Captain America's shield.

The sign post from M.A.S.H.

The Superman suit from the TV show.

The Lone Ranger's mask.

Roberto Clemente's jersey.

Mr. Rogers's sweater and Oscar the Grouch.

Elmo!

The mosquito in amber prop from Jurassic Park.

For some reason Dad was excited about seeing this old cable box.

George Washington's portable writing desk and his field glass.

This is the hat Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot.

This is the Philadelphia, a ship used by Benedict Arnold in 1776 to delay the British advance down Lake Champlain. It was sunk in 1776 and found in 1935, mostly intact, with it's mast still standing.

This is the cannonball that sank the ship - it was still inside.

A different kind of Washington statue.

Here's one of the original lunch counters from the many Civil Rights protests.

We were all tired, so we called it a day a little early. Which was nice: less traffic to get back to the hotel, more time to relax, and time to get some pizza for supper. Plus, we got to watch the Twins beat the Blue Jays and win a playoff series for the first time since 2002!

That's it for today - thanks for reading!