Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Washington DC

The National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which manages most of the museums on the National Mall. We visited on a Sunday with free street parking.

Mall-side entrance to Natural History Museum

Like in previous museum trips, we let each family member pick out an exhibit to visit. Our first exhibit was Fossil Hall on the main floor.

Entering the past

The exhibit is set up in chronological order, though we started at the most recent part of the millions of years of history. A time line shows the various ages and the mass extinction events that separate them.

Looking at history

The skeletons here (with some added bits to fill out what archeologists could not find) are more familiar shapes, like horses and deer.

A recent ancestor to current animals

I hope that skeleton in the back isn't doing what it looks like it is doing!

Primal primate

Soon enough, we were back in dinosaur ages.

Rodin's Thinker as a dino?

Fun interactive exhibit

One display dispelled the idea that oil comes from dead dinosaurs. Creatures with shells and bones left petrified remains. A lot of the oil finds are in areas that were oceans or shallow bays, where a lot of invertebrates like plankton and microscopic organisms fell to the bottom of the sea. As layers of sediment covered the organic material, it broke down and formed into oil and natural gas.

Origins of oil

A stegosaur!

A fish with too many bones

Around a corner, a research area lets visitors see scientists working on fossils from around the world. Well, you would see them working if you didn't visit on a Sunday.

Asking for help with their science!

An off-to-the-side display showed dinosaur poop, including this sample that they think was from a T-rex. They could tell because there is some undigested bone in it, so definitely from a carnivore. Also, the tyrannosaur was the only carnivore big enough to have a turd this large.

Dino-dung, not worth stealing

Mammoth with some recreated bones (maybe Loki stole the tusks for his helmet?)

Next, we went upstairs to the gems and minerals exhibit, the main attraction being the Hope Diamond. 

Hope Diamond, definitely worth stealing

Ronald Winston donated a set of "Fancy Color Diamonds" ranging from pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, white, grey, and black. It's much more impressive to see in person. Most diamonds don't have a color outside of white.

Winston Fancy Color Diamonds

This aquamarine gem is the largest in the world at 10,363 carats. Jeweler Bernd Munsteiner named this "Dom Pedro" after the first two emperors of Brazil (where the original, sixty-pound crystal was found in 1980s Brazil). 

Dom Pedro Aquamarine

These diamond earrings belong to French Empress Marie Antoinette. 

Marie Antoinette earrings

The Logan Sapphire was cut from a Sri Lankan crystal and weighs 423 carats. The lighting does a great job highlighting the beauty of the gem.

Logan Sapphire

Further into the exhibit are less precious stone. You can tell because you are allowed to touch them!

Another interactive exhibit

A case full of crystals

Stibnite that looks like nails with barite that looks like mini-snowballs

Part of the exhibit simulates a cave where mining of gems happens.

You'd think this would be interactive

The cave leads into the Geology exhibit that talks about the earth was formed.

Making magma?

Meteorite (space poop?)

Display of southern space stones

We went for a snack next. By the cafe is a recreation of a megalodon, a gigantic shark that looks quite fearsome. Maybe we were supposed to be the snack.

Fish out of water

Me inside the jaws of another shark

The museum is famous for its African Bush Elephant located in the main rotunda. Around it are displays about Africa elephants.

Seen from upstairs

We decided to try out the Cellphone: Unseen Connections exhibit though we had low expectations.

Poor primate

Info in a friendly format

Some displays showed the history of cell phones, going back to the big clunky ones like I used to own twenty-five years ago. Another display shows elements used to build phones, including a jar of oxygen. I kid you not, check the photo below.

Not worth stealing

A timeline unlike the Fossil Hall exhibit

My kids played a roll-and-move game. I wasn't paying any attention to it so I do not know what they learned from it.

RU Serious?

The next hall had an exhibit on mummies, which I was interested in, but the rest of the family was "museumed out" so we went through quickly on the way to the exit. 

Burial masks

More funerary fun!

The live butterfly pavilion was closed, otherwise we probably would have visited that too. I guess it pays to check the website before going!