We drove to the College Park train station, bought our passes (really good deal), and took the train in to Washington. Because today was cold and windy, we opted to make this a museum day. We love the many many museums in Washington! We tried to pick some that we hadn't been to.
We first went to the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum - a charming small museum in a beautiful old building built in the 1860s. Can you imagine that in 1965 it was proposed to demolish this building? Lyndon Johnson and the then president of the Smithsonian saved it.
So much wonderful art including this charming contemporary piece, a game fish (little pieces of board games we all play) put together like a mounted trophy sword fish!
Then we walked right by the White House! The last time we were in Washington, all the streets around it were closed. The Pres is in Colorado right now, so I guess they decided it was safe to allow people to walk by today. How this has changed from Lincoln's day when people could line up outside the White House to try to see and talk to the president.
We toured a portion of the American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery. We had previously seen the Portrait Gallery and the other permanent collections. This time we wanted to see a special exhibit, The Civil War and American Art. The paintings showed how the war impacted artists and people's view of America. As the description says, "The exhibition follows the conflict from palpable unease on the eve of war, to heady optimism that it would be over with a single battle, to a growing realization that this conflict would not end quickly and a deepening awareness of issues surrounding emancipation and the need for reconciliation." The paintings express a very emotional darker view of America, not the New Eden that had frequently pervaded our view of our land previously. Hard to describe in words, but this was a wonderful exhibit which also included some vintage battlefield photography of the carnage of the war. The overall impact was how profoundly the Civil War affected our country in many ways, as expressed through the artists' eyes.
We walked in to the National Building Museum just to see it. Lovely building built right after the Civil War to administer pensions due to soldiers and sailors. Didn't go to any of the exhibits - our feet were getting tired!
Finally we wrapped up our day at the National Postal Museum. Great place - everything you might want to know about the postal service - its history, evolving systems and technology, stamps, delivery methods through the years and throughout the US, and finally featuring the famous 19th century postal dog, Owney, who began his "career" as a postal carrier's dog in Albany, NY. But then he started riding the trains with the mail in New York and then throughout the country. The Railway Mail Service adopted Owney as their mascot. His remains were sent to a taxidermist and now Owney sits in the Postal Museum with his metal tags worn on his little coat with the names of all the places he visited, delivering the mail.
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