National Museum of American History

The National Museum of American History is the Smithsonian's attic, a long marble box on the north side of the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Natural History Museum. It opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology and holds more than a million and a half objects that tell the story of the United States through the things Americans made, wore, drove, sang and fought with. The flag that inspired the national anthem hangs at its heart, and around it are lunch counters, locomotives, ball gowns, puppets, a whole kitchen and a whole house.

The building has three exhibition floors, each divided into an east wing, a centre and a west wing. The first floor is about transportation, technology, science and food, with the John Bull locomotive and Julia Child's kitchen. The second floor is about American ideals, with the Star-Spangled Banner in its dim chamber at the centre, the Greensboro lunch counter and the gallery on democracy to the east, and Greenough's marble Washington to the west. The third floor holds the military history exhibition and the gunboat Philadelphia to the east, the presidency and the First Ladies in the centre, and the popular culture galleries of Entertainment Nation, with Dorothy's ruby slippers, to the west.

Entry is free and there are two entrances, one on the Mall and one on Constitution Avenue. It is a big, busy museum, especially with school groups, so plan a route around the four or five objects you most want to see rather than trying to walk every gallery.