Museums: a favorite way to get exhausted

Washington, D.C. is a city of museums, and I never tire of visiting them. Even those I've seen before.

However, since I figured my trip last month might be the last time I'd be in  our nation's capital for a while, I wanted to take in some new [for me] museums.

Actually, the museum where this lovely sculpture is on the front porch isn't new. But it's been so radically re-designed that I thought it was new at first.

The National Museum of American History is one of those fantastic hodge-podge institutions where you just never know what you're going to find.

Like in their section on food, where they have this impressive display of types of to-go drink covers:

I mean, who even thinks to collect this stuff? But it's really fun to read about and see, all in one exhibit.

One of their biggest galleries deals with transportation, and I was rather taken with this exhibit. It shows logos for all the different car companies that made vehicles early in the history of autos, but are now [almost] completely forgotten (click on the picture to see a larger version, so you can read the names):

The museum also has a variety of smaller exhibits lining their spacious entrance area. Here's one I especially liked:

The signature artifact in the museum is the actual flag that flew at Ft, McHenry and inspired the writing of the national anthem. Yes, the actual flag. It is pretty awesome, literally, since it's gigantic, but also because you know what all it has seen. The exhibit surrounding it is more interesting than you might expect, too, since it not only recounts that particular anthem-inspiring battle, but also the vicissitudes of family and national history that led to the flag's being where it is today.

And as a bonus, the wall behind which the flag is exhibited (no flash allowed in there, obviously, and it was too dimly lit for a good photo) is decorated with this gorgeous "artistic rendering" (I left the gentleman in the frame for scale):

Very cool, eh?

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The other museum that I visited is very, very different from the light, airy, and somewhat quirky American History Museum, but it's not far away, across the Mall.

In spite of hearing for years what a great museum it is, I'd been putting off visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I just wasn't sure I could handle it. But as I've studied and read more and more about World War II, my desire to see what the museum could add to my understanding of this aspect of the conflict overcame my reluctance to experience it this personally.

And I'm so glad it finally did. What an amazing museum! Its exhibits are so rich and full of meaning, insights, and emotions that I wasn't able to come anywhere near seeing even all the World War II-related galleries. Not to mention the exhibitions that illuminate the evils of genocide and prejudice in other eras. It was definitely emotionally draining, but there was also simple museum-fatigue...you can only take in so much information before your brain just overflows, no matter what the subject of the museum. I definitely want to go back someday and see more of this place.

I didn't take too many pictures here. For one thing, even though it was not their busy season (and timed-tickets were not required; this is definitely the time of year to visit if you aren't constrained by school schedules) it was pretty crowded, making it difficult to get clear shots of many of the artifacts and exhibits.

But my attention was also very much taken up with reading the explanatory materials and I only occasionally brought myself out of that verbal mindset and noticed something that I thought would make a good visual. However, I do have a few to share with you.

On the right above is a chart showing the way prisoners in the concentration camps were identified. I think if click on it you can see a large enough version to be able to see the letters, but since they're in German Fraktur script, you might not be able to interpret them (although the link will take you to a reference table). Suffice it to say that there were lots of categories, and cross-categories, of people who suffered in these camps, all meticulously identified.

The photo at the top of this section was taken looking out over the museum lobby through glass in which names of Holocaust victims have been etched. Lovely, but sobering. 

Another very moving pair of spaces, and an imaginative one, from a design standpoint, is the Tower of Faces. I took a picture in the first room, which features photos of Jews who lived in a small town in eastern Poland before the war. 

After you go through this space, there are several exhibits recounting different phases of the Holocaust. Then you go through a similar space with photos of the Jews from this town who survived. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture in that room. 

The museum has some very poignant artifacts from some of the ghettos where the Jews were forced to live, like this gate. I can't remember which town it was from:

And there are recreations and models that help tell the story. The most arresting one, that's almost impossible to look at yet also impossible not to study, is a model of the Auschwitz crematorium (you can see a more panoramic view of it here): 

There was so much to take in! I was particularly interested in this chart. I guess I would have been considered a grade 2 Mischling, as I knew from previous readings about the Nuremberg laws. But to see it so starkly set out was pretty unnerving:

I was pretty exhausted by the time I finished going through the main permanent exhibition at the museum. And I know I probably slighted some of the later parts of it through simple fatigue. But I did feel it was important to record this famous quote from Martin Niemöller, which is posted near the exit:

It pretty nicely sums up the mission of the museum, and what should be the mission of citizens of civilization everywhere, with a special sense of poignance given the recent events in Paris.