by On our way to visit family for Thanksgiving, we spent a few days in Washington, DC. You could spend a month in the city and still not visit all of the museums and sites in the U.S. capital!
Union Station opened in 1907, restored in recent years to its original glory after decades of neglect.
There are 46 statues of ancient Roman soldiers (Legionnaires) in Union Station, which were hand-carved by Louis Saint-Gaudens (brother of famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens). They were originally supposed to be nudes, but fearing the shock and awe of passengers, modesty shields were added. Supposedly you can still see some man-bits if you position yourself correctly, but we didn’t spend too much time trying (though we did spend a little time).
Ashes to Answers, by Austin Weishel, honors dogs who investigate arson fires.
Architectural detail on the streets of DC.
1882 Temperance Fountain. When you’ve got easy access to free, cool drinking water, all temptation to imbibe alcoholic beverages vanishes!
We toured the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, where there’s not too much to see, to be honest. The amazing Clara Barton (founder of the Red Cross) established this office during the Civil War to help learn the fate of missing soldiers for families. Because believe it or not, such a thing was not being done by the government! They processed 60,000 letters and helped identify 20,000 missing soldiers, 13,000 of whom had perished in the notorious Andersonville prison camp, which we had visited earlier in the year.
The amazing thing is, the Missing Soldiers Office was lost to time. In 1996 an inspection was being done on a building slated for demolition when a treasure trove of old artifacts was discovered in the attic, including the original office sign. Hundreds of socks were found; it is believed that they were sent to the office for repair and redistribution to soldiers in need. The pictured bayonet was also found; it is known that Clara took artifacts including a bayonet from Andersonville — could this be it?
Though we have previously done a real visit to The Phillips Collection, I wanted to go back to see Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, painted in 1881. The museum is covered under our NARM membership, so my conscious was clear about popping in just to visit one painting. The large painting (over 4 x 6 feet) is magnificent; we were lucky enough to have it to ourselves, to sit, look and appreciate for an extended bit.
Our friend Amanda recommended the book Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland (affiliate link), which took my appreciation of the painting to a whole new level. It’s a fictionalized account of Renoir pulling the people together to paint it, and it really forces you to see so many details. I had to look at the painting again and again while reading it. I’m absolutely in love with it.
Beautiful pop of color at the end of the fall season.
Robert Emmet, Irish Patriot, from 1916. He is sculpted as he appeared in 1803 when he delivered a speech in Dublin before being sentenced to death by hanging.
I called to find out about tours of the L. Ron Hubbard House, and they said “just stop in.” When we arrived they asked us to come back in an hour. I thought “are you crazy?” and then I remembered where we were. We’re saving this for another day, I definitely want to know what gets presented on that tour.
I was not particularly impressed with the National Archives Museum, where you get to wait in line to see a lot of reproductions under lock and key, along with the original documents of the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution of the United States. These are all very wordy documents written in difficult-to-read script, so while it felt like a worthwhile exercise to visit, I found it rather underwhelming in the end. The murals are by Barry Faulkner, The Declaration and The Constitution.
The scene of the assassination attempt on Ronald Regan at the Hilton Hotel in 1981. This counts as a Presidential Site for Doug.
In 2002 there was a citywide display of 200 “Party Animals,” which were afterwards auctioned off. This woolly mammoth is named Strom in “honor” of one of the oldest and longest-serving senators, Strom Thurmond, who was 100 years old and still serving. I wish I could attribute the artists, but I can’t read it in my picture and I can’t find it online!
The Washington D.C. Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which is actually located in Kensington, Maryland) is the tallest of their temples, at 288 feet. It was dedicated in 1974. Like all LDS temples, you can only enter if you are a member, but we were able to meander through the Visitor’s Center (in a separate building), where we were greeted by one of the Osmond Brothers (“You’ve heard of Donnie and Marie?” he said). Only a brief attempt was made to indoctrinate us, the futility being quickly realized. The church has obviously done some marketing research, as their focus was all about the family and how you could be united for all eternity. Polygamy, suspicious origin stories, Mormon underwear, homophobia, and other interesting bits were nowhere to be found.
The temple was lovely lit up at night; I liked the way the trees were illuminated (cover photo to post), too.
The visitor’s center had a lovely exhibit of interesting and unusual creches from around the world. This one is from China.
A Peruvian creche.
