Tours
10:00 am–5:30 pm
On-your-own tour
Complimentary | Limited to 40 people SOLD OUT
Transportation to and from the museum is at the discretion of the attendee.
On-your-own tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members.
Please note: 40 tickets are available per day to visit the museum at your leisure but must be used on the date specified.
(Tickets are free but not transferable)
12:30 pm–4:30 pm
Including travel time
Tour and Tea 1:30 pm–3:30 pm
Museum Tour
$65 | Limited to 45 people
Payment includes return bus transportation
Tour and Tea at the Washington National Cathedral
The Washington National Cathedral is one of the architectural masterpieces of the District of Columbia. On this tour, one of the Cathedral’s docents will take you on a 75-minute behind-the-scenes tour of the Cathedral’s breathtaking artistry and engineering. You will journey through stone stairways and other church passageways to view stunning stained glass—including the famous “Creation” rose window, which was created out of 10,000 pieces of glass—as well as learn the history behind the structure’s religious iconography and famous gargoyles. Finally, you will learn how this sanctuary has become a central stage for national religious celebrations and American mourning rituals. These historic events include President William McKinley’s 1898 dedication of the Peace Cross to mark the end of the Spanish-American War, as well as the 1973 Mass for Peace in Vietnam when Leonard Bernstein conducted the National Symphony’s performance of Hayden’s “Mass in a Time of War” to an audience of 5,000 in the main sanctuary and the, approximately, 15,000 who stood outside in the rain to listen.
The tour concludes with high tea in the St. Paul Room of the Cathedral’s South Tower where you will enjoy tea service including a variety of finger sandwiches, scones, and sweets as you enjoy some of the best views of Washington, D.C. The National Cathedral’s “Tour and Tea” is one of the hottest tickets in town during peak Cherry Blossom season. Don’t miss your chance for this one-of-kind tour and relaxing high tea.
10:00 am–5:30 pm
On-your-own tour
Complimentary | Limited to 40 people SOLD OUT
Transportation to and from the museum is at the discretion of the attendee.
On-your-own tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members.
Please note: 40 tickets are available per day to visit the museum at your leisure but must be used on the date specified.
(Tickets are free but not transferable)
9:30 am–12:30 pm
Including travel time
Tour 10:00 am–11:30 am
Walking Tour
$29 | Limited to 15 people
Payment includes one way travel from hotel to tour location.
The Campaign Against Covenants: A Tour of Bloomingdale's Racial Divide
In conjunction with a new online/mobile walking tour for Mapping Segregation in Washington DC, this tour will highlight key sites along a historic racial dividing line in D.C.'s Bloomingdale neighborhood. Named for a former estate that was divided and sold in 1889, Bloomingdale became ripe for development when the North Capitol streetcar line was extended five years later. Its location immediately north of Florida Avenue, once the city’s northern border, made for an easy commute downtown. Its mix of row house—many quite elegant and spacious, and others more modest—attracted a range of buyers.
Participants will discover why Bloomingdale’s premier architectural corridor was also a racial barrier, and how black homeseekers and civil rights attorneys chipped away at this dividing line in the 1920s—‘40s. During the first half of the twentieth century, real estate developers and white citizens used racially restrictive deed covenants to establish and maintain racial segregation. Black citizens contested these efforts by risking lawsuits to purchase houses with deed covenants. In deciding these cases, the courts were ultimately responsible for upholding or eliminating racial barriers and controlling the shifting boundaries of segregated neighborhoods. Participants are encouraged to download the DC Historic Sites mobile app, available for iOS or Android.
The tour begins at a triangle park across from Big Bear Café, First and R streets and Florida Ave NW, and ends at Second and Bryant streets NW. It will be led by Sarah Jane Shoenfeld or Mara Cherkasky, the co-directors of Mapping Segregation in Washington DC.
11:30 am–1:45 pm
Including travel time
Tour 12:00 pm–1:15 pm
Tour participants are invited to attend the panel following at 1:30 pm–3 pm and Reception 3 pm–4:15 pm
Museum Tour
$10 | Limited to 25 people
SOLD OUT
Payment includes SmarTrip card for public transport for return trip to and from museum.
Because of Her Story: Women’s History and the Public
Smithsonian National Museum of American History Tour
As a part of the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative and to celebrate the Centennial of the 19th Amendment, the National Museum of American History is launching two new exhibitions in 2020: Creating Icons: How We Remember Women’s Suffrage and Girlhood (It’s Complicated). At this exclusive event, participants will receive behind-the-scenes tours of both exhibitions led by Smithsonian curators who will explain the goals, design, and challenges of creating these innovative projects in the public history of American women.
Creating Icons: How We Remember Women’s Suffrage, opening March 2020, commemorates women’s achievements in winning suffrage and invites audiences to explore how we celebrate milestones, what we remember, what (and who) has been forgotten or silenced over time, and how those exclusions helped create the cracks and fissures in the movement that continue to impact women’s politics and activism. Items from the National American Women Suffrage Association (now the League of Women Voters) collection, donated in 1919 and 1920, are featured along with later donations of materials related to Adelaide Johnson (sculptor of Portrait Monument in the Capitol), Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party (NWP), and other suffrage and women’s activism collections.
Opening in June of 2020, Girlhood (It’s Complicated) is a signature exhibition of the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative. For decades, young women were told that girls were “made of sugar and spice and everything nice.” What we learn from history is that many girls were made of stronger stuff. They changed history. Through its rich collections and new acquisitions, Girlhood (It’s Complicated) explores how girls have been on the front lines of social and cultural change. The exhibition engages in timely conversations about youth movements and women’s history through unexpected stories of girlhood in the United States. With the design inspired by zines, the 5,000 square-foot gallery has five story sections: Education (Being Schooled), Wellness (Body Talk), Work (Hey, Where is My Girlhood?), Fashion (Girl’s Remix), as well as biographical interactives called “A Girl’s Life.” This tour offers participants a rare opportunity to preview a major exhibition before it opens to the public.
Following the tours, participants are encouraged to attend the “Because of Her Story: Women’s History and the Public” roundtable, moderated by Dr. Kathleen Franz, curator of Girlhood (It’s Complicated). The session, which is open to all, will feature Dr. Anthea Hartig, the first woman director the National Museum of American History; Dr. Linda Gordon, New York University; Dr. Catherine Ceniza Choy, UC Berkeley; Dr. Marcia Chatelain, Georgetown University; and Dr. Lisa Tetrault, Carnegie Mellon University. The panel will conclude with a special reception sponsored by the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College, the Department of History at Mount Holyoke College, and the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
10:00 am–5:30 pm
On-your-own tour
Complimentary | Limited to 40 people SOLD OUT
Transportation to and from the museum is at the discretion of the attendee.
On-your-own tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members.
Please note: 40 tickets are available per day to visit the museum at your leisure but must be used on the date specified.
(Tickets are free but not transferable)
9:00 am–12:00 pm
Including travel time
Tour 9:30 am–11:30 am
Museum Tour
$28 | Limited to 25 people
SOLD OUT
Payment includes return bus transportation
Temple of Democracy: History Made Here (U.S. Capitol)
Join a U.S. Capitol Historical Society expert for a walking tour of the Capitol Grounds, filled with anecdotes and perspectives about the Congress, the origin and construction of the building itself, and discussions of the broader concepts of democratic government. Learn why it took nearly 40 years to build the original Capitol Building, as well as why and how it has been expanded and changed since then. Hear about famous – and infamous – incidents that have taken place inside, crucial turning points in the history of the republic, and how the daily activities in the complex today still shape the way our government – and nation – works. This tour is a different, more historically inclined, experience than those offered by Congressional offices and the Capitol Visitor Center, and was named “Best Specialty Tour” by Washingtonian Magazine.
11:30 am–2:00 pm
Including travel time
Tour begins 12 pm–1:30 pm
Museum Tour
$28| Limited to 45 people
Payment includes return bus transportation
Kennedy Center Tour
The Kennedy Center, located on the banks of the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., opened to the public in September 1971. But its roots date back to 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation creating a National Cultural Center. To honor Eisenhower's vision for such a facility, one of the Kennedy Center's theaters is named for him.
President John F. Kennedy was a lifelong supporter and advocate of the arts, and frequently steered the public discourse toward what he called "our contribution to the human spirit." Two months after President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Congress designated the National Cultural Center (designed by Edward Durell Stone) as a "living memorial" to President Kennedy and authorized $23 million to help build what was now known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
On this guided tour, participants will learn about the historic events that led up to the establishment of the Kennedy Center, the architecture of the building and its various performance spaces, and the works of art given to the Center, including Robert Berks's bust of President Kennedy, Willy Weber's Apollo X, and the stunning Israeli Lounge. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to tour the Kennedy Center’s new REACH project, a living theater where diverse art forms collide to break down the boundaries between audience and art. Envisioned as a complement to, and extension of, the Kennedy Center’s mission, the REACH is an open stage for differing ideas and divergent cultures, delivering on a vision for what a 21st century arts center should be—inclusive, accessible, and interactive.
1:30 pm – 4:30 pm
including travel time
Tour 2 pm - 4 pm
Walking Tour
$37 | Limited to 30 people
Payment includes return bus transportation
Congressional Cemetery and LGBTQ History: A Walking Tour
History comes to life in Congressional Cemetery. The creak and clang of the wrought iron gate signals your arrival into the early decades of our national heritage. Congressional Cemetery, currently led by gay President Paul K. Williams, is believed to be the world’s only cemetery with an LGBTQ section. Although earlier LGBTQ burials are located in Congressional Cemetery, the designated section began in 1988 with the burial of Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force Vietnam War veteran who purposely outed himself in 1975 to challenge the U.S. military’s ban on homosexuals. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the AIDS crisis gripped the country and particularly affected the gay community, Congressional Cemetery was one of the few cemeteries that would inter AIDS victims. The cemetery’s policy of encouraging interesting, unique, and poignant headstones and inscriptions has led to efforts to educate future LGBTQ individuals about the struggles their forbears experienced.
On this tour, you will learn about the history of LGBTQ burial at Congressional Cemetery and visit the gravestones of individuals such as: Frank Kameny, known as “the father of the modern gay rights movement;” Barbara Gittings, New York Chapter founder in 1958 of the Daughter of Bilitis, the first U.S. lesbian rights organization; Peter Doyle, veteran of the Confederate Army and love interest of Walt Whitman; and Alain Leroy Locke, African American intellectual and father of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1907, Locke became the first African American and first known gay Rhodes Scholar. After the guided tour ends, participants will be given some time to visit the gravesites of other Washington, D.C. luminaries interred in the cemetery.
10:00 am–5:30 pm
On-your-own tour
Complimentary | Limited to 40 people SOLD OUT
Transportation to and from the museum is at the discretion of the attendee.
On-your-own tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members.
Please note: 40 tickets are available per day to visit the museum at your leisure but must be used on the date specified.
(Tickets are free but not transferable)
June 2019-September 2020
Library of Congress
The exhibit is open during all regular library hours and public tours are available at 1:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Library of Congress is adjacent to the Capitol South Metro Station.
Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote, Library of Congress,
Handwritten letters, speeches, photographs and scrapbooks, created by American suffragists who persisted for more than 70 years to win voting rights for women, are featured in a groundbreaking exhibition at the Library of Congress. Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote, tells the story of the largest reform movement in American history with documents and artifacts from the women who changed political history 100 years ago.
Drawing from the personal collections of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Mary Church Terrell, Carrie Chapman Catt, Harriet Stanton Blatch and others, along with the records of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman’s Party – all donated to the national library years ago – the exhibition explores women’s long struggle for equality. Shall Not Be Denied traces the movement from before the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, through the divergent political strategies and internal divisions the suffragists overcame, the parades and pickets they orchestrated for voting rights, and the legacy of the 19thAmendment that was finally ratified in 1920.
May 2019-January 2021
10 am -5:30 pm
The exhibit is free and open to the public and is on display in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Museum.
The National Archives Museum is located on the National Mall on Constitution Ave. at 9th Street, NW.
Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote: The National Archives
The National Archives celebrates the centennial of Women’s suffrage with a special exhibit, Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote.
This 3,000-square-foot exhibit showcases more than 90 items including records, artifacts and photographs. Highlights include original World War One-era Red Cross Uniforms, a National Woman's Party banner, and a collection of political campaign buttons.
American democracy dramatically expanded in 1920, when the newly-ratified 19th Amendment granted millions of women the right to vote. Though a landmark voting rights victory, this document did not open the polls to all women. Millions remained unable to vote for reasons other than sex. Rightfully Hers examines the relentless struggle of diverse activists throughout U.S. history to secure voting rights for all American women.
Visitors will be able to:
- See the original Nineteenth Amendment (on limited display - check back for dates)
- Vote on contemporary ballot-box issues that matter the most to you
- Learn more about the Equal Rights Amendment
- View records from suffragists’ struggle to secure women’s right to vote in the Constitution, including this Universal Suffrage petition signed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone
- See a Petition for Woman Suffrage signed by Frederick Douglass, Jr. and Rosetta Douglass Sprague
6 pm every evening
Kennedy Center
To enjoy a free performance at the Millennium Stage, take the Metro to the Foggy Bottom stop where you can catch a free shuttle directly to the Kennedy Center or enjoy a short .5 mile walk to the nation’s performing arts center!
CANCELED
Kennedy Center: Millennium Stage
The Kennedy Center is the only U.S. institution that offers a free performance every day of the year, (6 p.m. daily on the Millennium Stage), fulfilling the Center's mission of making the performing arts accessible to everyone. Featuring a broad spectrum of art forms, more than 3 million visitors have enjoyed over 4,300 performances from renowned and emerging local, national, and international artists. Since 1999, each daily performance has also been broadcast live over the internet to millions on YouTube, Facebook Live and on the Kennedy Center website.
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