By R.J. Swanson, courtesy National Building Museum
National Building Museum
“We tell the stories of architecture, engineering and design,” said Carol Abrams, vice president for marketing and communications for the National Building Museum, which is four blocks from the National Mall in a historic building that is a national historic landmark.
Originally built to handle pensions for Civil War veterans, the building features a Great Hall with 75-foot-tall Corinthian columns and a 1,200-foot-long terra-cotta frieze that is a memorial to Civil War veterans.
Inaugural balls have been held in the Great Hall for every president since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
After falling into disrepair in the 1970s, the building was saved by preservationists “who successfully argued that it is a great testament to built environment,” said Abrams.
The museum’s two permanent exhibits showcase Washington as both a monumental city and a city of neighborhoods, and feature items from the permanent collection. “You can see detailed drawings, building toys, rare early-20th-century photographs and original building fragments from national historic landmarks,” said Abrams.
The museum also has several temporary exhibits each year in its massive space. Models of world-famous buildings made from Lego building blocks will be on display until Sept. 3.
“Opening in April, ‘House and Home’ looks at American residential architecture and domestic life from the 1700s to the present,” said Abrams. “It will be open for five years.”
Folger Shakespeare Library
Situated on Capitol Hill, the Folger Shakespeare Library has one of the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare materials, along with major collections of rare Renaissance books, manuscripts and works of art.
Opened in 1932 by Henry Clay Folger Jr. and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, the library’s collection has grown to include 82 first folios — first printings of Shakespeare’s collected works — one-third of the world’s existing copies and the largest single collection.
The collection also includes more than 225,000 books, 55,000 manuscripts and 250,000 playbills, along with Renaissance musical instruments, theatrical costumes and Shakespeare films.
Exhibitions about Shakespeare include a touch-screen display of one of the first folios and changing articles from the permanent collection.
The Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre, modeled after inn-yard theaters — common inns that provided venues for plays in Shakespeare’s time — presents a full calendar of performances.
Like several of the other museums in Washington, the Folger is located in a historic building that is on the National Register of Historic Places.
