Planet Word, Washington D.C.

A new museum in Washington, D.C., is Planet Word, a place dedicated to words, mostly English words (though plenty of other words from other languages sneak in, kinda like English). We visited on a recent Saturday.

Sign around the corner from the entrance

The museum bills itself as an "immersive language experience." It certainly has lots of interactive exhibits, even outside with Speaking Willow, an aluminum sculpture with little bell-shaped speakers that activate when a visitor comes within camera range. Each of the 364 speakers broadcasts a different language.  

Speaking Willow

Another outdoor sculpture is a person made out of letters. 

Many alphabets, one human

Inside, the experience starts on the third floor with a twenty-foot tall wall of words. Through an ingenious use of lights and narrative, visitors experience the various roots of the English language and have a chance to interact. The narrator asks questions and small microphones let visitors respond when the color wheel shows up on the wall.

Wall of words

Onomatopoetic words and the color wheel

A poorly-lit selfie

A better selfie

The next room has The Spoken World, with various screens representing the languages in the countries on the globe in front of it. As the speaker describes the quirks of their language (because every language has quirks), occasional images show up on the globe.

German information from native Nina

Wolof information from native Mariame

The main exhibit on the second floor is the Library, with many interactive signs, a lot of books to read, and a secret room. The ceiling is mirrored to make it look twice as big!

The library dark and quiet

A saying on the wall

That book case is sticking out!

The Word Worlds room has electronic paint brushes that paint with words like hibernal, tempestuous, crepuscular, and other creative adjectives. "Painting" the walls with the brushes will change the images to match the terms, creating a winter scene or a storm or whatever. My kids had a lot of fun changing the images, especially with the surreal paint that changed airplanes into dragons and houses into castles.

An ever changing landscape

Joking Around is a humor gallery that has a "guess the phrase" game along with joke challenge tables where two visitors face off in trying to make each other laugh.

Fruit punch

Horsing around

In the dog house

Two on one does not seem fair

A nearby room features karaoke and explains how lyricists come up with great songs.

No video, sorry!

The first floor has the obligatory gift shop and an exhibit on how advertisers use language to catch people's attention. Visitors can even make their own ads!

Using real ads

My son "Visitor" made this ad

In the Words Matter room, visitors can see various words that people find special for various reasons. Visitors are invited to add words on other walls.

Love those foreign words!

The building originally was the Franklin School, one of the early public schools built in the District of Columbia. It opened its doors in 1869. An exhibit shows the layout back then, along with pictures of the students.

Once an education building, always an education building!

The building also has a small free library out front.

Take a book, leave a book!

The other bit of trivia about the building is how the first wireless telephone call was made from the top floor, in 1880! Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the photophone before he invented the telephone. So the phone used light to send the message.

Historic plaque