National Museum Of Natural History Dc

Ginevra De Benci By Leonardo Da Vinci

Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci depicts a well-known young Florentine aristocrat. Leonardo painted the portrait in Florence in 1474 to commemorate Ginevras marriage at the age of 16.

The juniper bush that fills much of the background was regarded as a symbol of female virtue, in Renaissance Italy, while the Italian word for juniper, echos Ginevras name.

Ginevra is shown beautiful but reserved with no hint of a smile. Her gaze, although forward, seems indifferent to the viewer.

Whats Inside The National Museum Of Natural History

The museum contains some of the most famous artifacts in the world. The has the supposedly cursed Hope Diamond on display. Meanwhile, Q?rius, the museums education center, offers teens and tweens a lab where they can make their own scientific discoveries.

After a five-year renovation, the museum has reopened its David H. Koch Hall of Fossils. The 31,000-square-foot exhibits theme is Deep Time, borrowed from a scientific phrase that illustrates how Earths history has played out over billions of years. Prepare to be amazed, overwhelmed, engaged and dazzled by one of the biggest exhibitions to come to DC in years.

Other permanent exhibits include an insect zoo and The Sant Ocean Hall, which features an exact replica of a living North Atlantic right whale.

Smithsonian Museum Of Natural History Private Guided Tour

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The John F Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts

The Kennedy Center is a vibrant campus of theaters and other artistic spaces that is also a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. It is home to the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, the Washington Ballet and thousands of annual performances of theater, dance, ballet, and orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, and folk music.

• Find out about their current and past exhibitions

True To Nature Virtual Tour

An integral part of art education in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, open-air painting was a core practice for emerging artists in Europe. Intrepid artists such as André Giroux highly skilled at quickly capturing effects of light and atmospheremade sometimes arduous journeys to paint their landscapes in person at breathtaking sites, ranging from the Baltic coast and Swiss Alps to the ruins of Rome. Drawing on new scholarship, this exhibition of some 100 oil sketches made outdoors across Europe during that time includes several recently discovered works and explores the variety of inventive ways in which enraptured artists recorded their moments in nature.

The dynamic new virtual tour allows you to explore each room of the exhibition True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 17801870. Zoom in on the works, click on the different-colored dots to read wall texts, view higher-resolution photos, and see artist biographies. While available on mobile, this tour is best viewed on a desktop or tablet.

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Explore More From The Exhibition

Louis Dupré, French, 1789 1837, View of Santa Trinità dei Monti in Rome, c. 1817, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, Gift of Jacques and Brigitte Gairard

Michel Dumas, French, 1812 1895, Fountain in the Roman Campagna, c. 1838 1840, oil on canvas, mounted on wood panel, Private Collection, London

August Kopisch, German, 1799 1853, View of Capri, oil on wood panel, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris

Jean-Charles Rémond, French, 1795 1875, Eruption of Stromboli, 30 August 1842, 1842, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Private Collection, London

Louis Léopold Robert, French, 1794 1835, View of Naples with Vesuvius, 1821, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, Bequest of Carlos van Hasselt and Andrzej Niewgowski

Baron François Gérard, French, 1770 1837, A Study of Waves Breaking against Rocks at Sunset, oil on millboard, Private Collection, London

Carl Frederik Sørensen, Danish, 1818 1879, Rough Sea beside a Jetty, 1849, oil on canvas, The Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Johan Carl Neumann, Danish, 1833 1891, Landscape with Dunes, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris

Richard Parkes Bonington, British, 1802 1828, Dezenzano, Lake Garda, 1826, oil on millboard, The Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

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Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

The Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden displays some of the most unique artworks in modern and contemporary art, including painting, sculpture and photography. Explore the Sculpture Garden through the museums virtual view 1 and virtual view 2. The museum is also offering an array of at-home activities for kids and virtual programs for art lovers.

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The Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery captures America through the imagery of remarkable people who have shaped history. The museum is offering a range of digital programs while its physical doors are closed, including workshops, in-depth chats with artists, storytelling for kids and more.

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A small group of technologists working within the Smithsonian Institution Digitization Program Office have brought the Smithsonian museum collections to life with 3D digitization.

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The National Museum of African American History and Culture learning lab offers students and teachers digital resources including imagery, essential documents and engaging videos. These materials bring stories to life and inspire readers to become agents of change. You can also browse upcoming virtual events hosted by the museum.

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American Museum Of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 34 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time. The museum occupies more than 2 million square feet . AMNH has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.

The mission statement of the American Museum of Natural History is: “To discover, interpret, and disseminatethrough scientific research and educationknowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”

Milstein Hall Of Ocean Life

The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life focuses on , botany and . The hall is most famous for its 94-foot -longblue whale model, suspended from the ceiling behind its dorsal fin.

The upper level of the hall exhibits the vast array of ecosystems present in the ocean. Dioramas compare and contrast the life in these different settings including polar seas, kelp forests, mangroves, coral reefs and the bathypelagic. It attempts to show how vast and varied the oceans are while encouraging common themes throughout. The lower, and arguably more famous, half of the hall consists of several large dioramas of larger marine organisms. It is on this level that the famous “Squid and the Whale” diorama sits, depicting a hypothetical fight between the two creatures. Other notable exhibits in this hall include the Andros Coral Reef Diorama, which is the only two-level diorama in the Western Hemisphere. One of the most famous icons of the museum is a life-sized fiberglass model of a 94-foot long Atlantic blue whale. The whale was redesigned dramatically in the 2003 renovation: its flukes and fins were readjusted, a navel was added, and it was repainted from a dull gray to various rich shades of blue. Upper dioramas are smaller versions of the ecosystems when the bottom versions are much bigger and more life like.

History

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Fun For The Whole Family

One of the most popular exhibits is the National Gem and Mineral Collection, featuring some of the world’s most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond and the Star of Asia Sapphire.

Kids of all ages will love the T-Rex and Triceratops skeletons in the Hall of Dinosaurs. Visit the museums iconic African Elephant exhibit, located in the Hall of Mammals.

With over 8 million visitors each year, the National Museum of Natural History is the most visited natural history museum in the world. Make the most of your family vacation in our comfortable accommodations, just a short walk from numerous Smithsonian museums!

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Civil Rights And Home Rule Era

The was ratified in 1961, granting the district three votes in the for the election of president and vice president, but still no voting representation in Congress.

After the , on April 4, 1968, , primarily in the U Street, 14th Street, 7th Street, and H Street corridors, centers of black residential and commercial areas. The riots raged for three days until more than 13,600 federal troops and D.C. Army National Guardsmen stopped the violence. Many stores and other buildings were burned rebuilding was not completed until the late 1990s.

In 1973, Congress enacted the , providing for an elected mayor and thirteen-member council for the district. In 1975, became the first elected and first black mayor of the district.

The Library Of Congress

The Library of Congress is essentially our national library. One of its major functions is to serve as a resource for the United States Congress. Our representatives use it as a research library. With well over 170 million items, its the largest library in the world and contains some pretty cool treasures.

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Allison And Roberto Mignone Halls Of Gems And Minerals

The Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals houses thousands of rare gems, minerals specimens and pieces of jewelry. The halls closed in 2017 to undergo a $32 million redesign by Ralph Appelbaum Associates and reopened to the general public in June 2021. The redesigned exhibits adopt newer philosophies in exhibit design, including a focus on storytelling, interactivity, and connecting ideas across disciplines. The halls explore a range of topics, including the diversification of mineral species over the course of Earth’s history, plate tectonics, and the stories of specific gems.

The halls display rare samples chosen from among the more than 100,000 pieces in the museum’s collection including the Star of India, the Patricia Emerald, and the DeLong Star Ruby.

• Assorted faceted and polished minerals

• Quartz var. amethyst geode

Best Exhibit For Elementary Age

Dinosaurs! The newly opened David H. Koch Hall of Fossils: Deep Time exhibit is not only enormous but also incredibly well thought out for this age group. The 700 fossils definitely steal the show but in the process, kids travel through Earths past and learn more about our present. My kids personal favs include: watching real scientists use a microscope to look for fossils, touching fossils at the volunteer cart and sketching in their museum passport. Check out this DC Area Moms Blog post for a deeper dive into Deep Time!

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Hotel Near Smithsonian Museum Of Natural History

Stay minutes away at our hotel near the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and experience one of the most popular museums in Washington. Attracting over 8 million visitors each year, the National Museum of Natural History offers visitors a look at the natural world through collections of more than 126 million specimens and artifacts. Discover rocks, fossils, preserved plants, animals and ancient human cultural relics during your stay at our hotel near the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington, DC!

Rose Center For Earth And Space

The Hayden Planetarium, connected to the museum, is now part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, housed in a glass cube containing the spherical Space Theater, designed by James Stewart Polshek. The Heilbrun Cosmic Pathway is one of the most popular exhibits in the Rose Center, which opened February 19, 2000.

Tom Hanks provided the voice-over for the first planetarium show during the opening of the new Rose Center for Earth & Space in the Hayden Planetarium in 2000. Since then such celebrities as Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford and Maya Angelou have been featured.

Founded in 1869, the AMNH Exhibitions Lab has since produced thousands of installations. The department is notable for its integration of new scientific research into immersive art and multimedia presentations. In addition to the famous dioramas at its home museum and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, the lab has also produced international exhibitions and software such as the Digital Universe Atlas.

The exhibitions team currently consists of over sixty artists, writers, preparators, designers and programmers. The department is responsible for the creation of two to three exhibits per year. These extensive shows typically travel nationally to sister natural history museums. They have produced, among others, the first exhibits to discuss Darwinian evolution,human-induced climate change and the mesozoic mass extinction via asteroid.

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Hall Of Geology Gems And Minerals

The National Gem and Mineral Collection is one of the most significant collections of its kind in the world. The collection includes some of the most famous pieces of gems and minerals including the Hope Diamond and the Star of AsiaSapphire, one of the largest sapphires in the world. There are currently over 15,000 individual gems in the collection, as well as 350,000 minerals and 300,000 samples of rock and ore specimens. Additionally, the Smithsonian’s National Gem and Mineral Collection houses approximately 45,000 meteorite specimens, including examples of every known type of meteorite, and is considered to be one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind in the world.

The collection is displayed in the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals, one of the many galleries in the Museum of Natural History. Some of the most important donors, besides Hooker, are Washington A. Roebling, the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge, who gave 16,000 specimens to the collection Frederick A. Canfield, who donated 9,000 specimens to the collection and Dr. Isaac Lea, who donated the basis of the museum’s collection of 1312 gems and minerals.

Easiest Exhibit For Babies And Toddlers

The Q?rious Jr. Discovery Room on the ground level in the Q?rius Science Center Area. It is a wonderful place for this age and up to 10 years old. It includes tons of hands-on activities with real museum artifacts including fossils, shells, and minerals. Q?rius Jr. is now open every day 10 AM 5 PM.

MOM TIP: Look for Q?rius carts with museum volunteers around the museum. After learning about their topic, they hand out stickers! We learned all about baleen whales and even got to touch a real whalebone. My kids proudly wore their whale stickers for the rest of the day!

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Later Additions Restorations And Renovations

Since 1930, little has been added to the exterior of the original building. The architect Kevin Roche and his firm Roche-Dinkeloo have been responsible for the master planning of the museum since the 1990s. Various renovations to both the interior and exterior have been carried out. Renovations to the Dinosaur Hall were undertaken beginning in 1991, and the museum also restored the mural in Roosevelt Memorial Hall in 2010. In 1992 the Roche-Dinkeloo firm designed the eight-story AMNH Library. However, the entirety of the master plan was ultimately not fully realized, and by 2015, the museum consisted of 25 separate buildings that were poorly connected.

The museum’s south façade, spanning 77th Street from Central Park West to Columbus Avenue was cleaned, repaired, and re-emerged in 2009. Steven Reichl, a spokesman for the museum, said that work would include restoring 650 black-cherry window frames and stone repairs. The museum’s consultant on the latest renovation is Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., an architectural and engineering firm with headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois.

A Lady Writing A Letter By Johannes Vermeer

A Lady Writing a Letter by Johannes Vermeer depicts a lady writing a letter while sitting at a table in a room. She appears to have been interrupted, as she looks up towards the viewer, while she continues to hold the quill in her right hand.

The lady is dressed in an elegant lemon-yellow morning jacket and wears pearl earrings. A necklace lies on the table.

Vermeers compositional focus is on the woman and her face. The smaller objects on the table stand in contrast with the large forms used in the rest of the composition, which create a geometric framework for the figure.

The table is brought close to the picture plane to emphasizes the directness of her gaze. Johannes Vermeer preserves the integrity of the picture plane to create a vivid illusion of three-dimensional space.

On the back of the wall is a dark painting that covers much of the background and contrast with the ladys brighter colors.

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