Fall Travel

National Museum of American History
History buffs and other visitors to Washington, D.C., will want to mark November 21 on their calendars. That’s the day that the National Museum of American History will reopen after a two-year closure and $85 million makeover.

The renovation showcases new galleries, glass-fronted artifact walls and a five-story, sky-lit atrium designed to flood the museum with natural light. The centerpiece will be a climate-controlled gallery housing the original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814. Special, low-level lighting will be used to evoke the “dawn’s early light” that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the lines that became the national anthem.

Elsewhere in the museum, visitors will find six wings, each one anchored by a “landmark object” (e.g., a John Bull locomotive or Civil Rights–era lunch counter) designed to announce the theme of each exhibit. A copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, on loan from the White House, will also be on display during the opening.

Walter

Source: National Museum of American History