Highlights of the collection include locomotive engines, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Frances Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner, the first ladies gowns, and Jackie Robinson baseball memorabilia. Interactive stations survey the past 100 years of American technology. The Museum of African Art was founded in 1964 to display the cultural heritage of Americans of African decent. The galleries contain displays from the museum s collection of textiles, jewelry, and musical instruments, as well as sculpture in wood, brass, iron, ivory, and gold. The National Museum of Natural History serves as the national center for the natural sciences.
Exhibits are devoted to the history of the earth and life on earth from prehistoric times.
The National Portrait Gallery was founded by an act of Congress in 1962 and opened to the public in 1968. The museum celebrates American history through paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings and prints depicting the movers and shakers, heroes and villains of our nation s past. More than 600 works from the gallery s collection of over 16,000 portraits are on view. Edgar Degas s painting of Mary Cassatt hangs near portraits of Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martha Graham and Babe Ruth. A group of prints made by famous Civil War photographer Matthew Brady can be seen near portraits of Langston Hughs, Rosa Parks and Pocahontas.