Capital Draws World-Class Museums

By Lauren Melcher

Layout and Online Editor

While museums across the country face declining visitors and rising expenses, it seems Washington is always celebrating the opening of a new museum or special exhibit. With the recent media coverage of Smithsonian financial scandals and the announcement of the official opening date for the highly anticipated Newseum at its new location on the National Mall, museums are the talk of the town. Here’s what visitors and Washingtonians alike can see now and down the road.

The “Bodies” exhibit, at the Rosslyn Dome in Arlington, is open until Oct. 28. Featuring real human bodies that have been preserved with an innovative use of liquid silicon rubber, the exhibit aims to educate people about the human body.

The exhibit is controversial because the bodies come from China, where they were unclaimed by families and donated to a Chinese medical school for educational purposes. Officials from the exhibition maintain that the bodies are treated with a great deal of respect, and that all bodies have been obtained legally. They are meticulously preserved with the silicon rubber, and layers of body tissue are peeled away to show inside organs on some bodies in the exhibit.

The bodies are posed in everyday activities like playing tennis and directing an orchestra, and visitors can see other body parts like the lungs of a smoker and a nonsmoker side-by-side. It also highlights health concerns like obesity, cancer, arthritis and bone fractures. Tickets for Bodies: The Exhibition are $26.50, or $32.50 with an audio tour, and can be purchased through the Web site at http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/bodies.html.

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Eight panels of the Berlin Wall; two state-of-the-art broadcast studios; 30,000 front-pages of newspapers. The Newseum, re-opening in its new location on the National Mall, is designed to immerse visitors in the process of how - and why - the news is made. Five years after closing at its first location in Rosslyn so museum directors could devote time to planning the new museum, the Newseum will officially re-open on Oct. 15.

The museum’s iconic exterior is already visible behind scaffolds on Pennsylvania Ave. The 74-foot-high marble wall is inscribed with the words of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which outlines freedom of the press as part of freedom of speech that cannot be abridged by the government.

Galleries inside will feature interactive displays about the history of news, the rise of electronic media, photojournalism, and major world events through the media lens. News organizations will be able to rent the television studios for broadcasts, one of which has a clear shot of the U.S. Capitol dome in the background.

The Newseum is funded by the Freedom Forum and nine major news organizations and families. The interactive Web site, www.newseum.org, has been nominated for two Webby Awards this spring, which honor excellence in Internet content.

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The Smithsonian Museum of American History has been closed since 2006 for major structural and design renovations to improve basic amenities and make the museum easier for visitors to navigate. Before, the museum displayed artifacts like Abe Lincoln’s top hat and Kermit the Frog in dark, low-ceilinged rooms of the 42-year-old building. The plans for the renovation include a new, spacious atrium, skylights for more natural light, and special artifact walls in the center of the building to highlight more of the museum’s three million historical objects.

While modernizing restrooms, elevators and security systems, the museum is also creating a new gallery for the newly-restored “Stars and Stripes” flag that Francis Scott Key saw flying in 1812. The museum plans to reopen in summer 2008.

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Every year, millions of visitors wait in line to tour the U.S. Capitol Building. There has never been a centralized place for people to wait for tours, learn about its history, or be screened by Capitol security officers. Soon, that will change. The Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), which broke ground under the pavement of the Eastern side of the Capitol building in 2000, is nearing completion.

The center will serve as both a more secure entrance to the Capitol and an interactive museum about the Legislative branch of government and the Capitol building. With artifacts on loan from the National Archives, the CVC will highlight the history and achievements of the U.S. Congress in state-of-the-art galleries and theatres. Even when the legislature is in session or the Capitol is closed for tours, visitors will be able to see virtual tours and watch live feeds of activities in the Capitol building.

The new structure is three-quarters the size of the current Capitol, and has the capacity to hold 4,000 visitors at once. In order to minimize architectural changes to the Capitol and avoid obstructing views of the building, most of the new structure is underground. Large skylights will provide natural light for the center, and above-ground historic fountains and benches will be installed. Many new trees will be planted as well, to more closely resemble the original design of the Capitol grounds. Visitors will be able to enter the CVC by sloping ramps or elevators from the eastern side of the Capitol. The new Visitor Center is expected to open in summer 2008.

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