A museum cafe showcases Native American dishes and indigenous ingredients from across the Western Hemisphere.

The remains of Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, serve as a tool to educate about conservation.

The privately owned cemetery that holds room for Washington's finest when they step down from life.

The most accurate timepiece in the world.

A hoard of sky catalogs, astrophysical journals, even the works of Galileo and Copernicus.

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.

The oldest building in the District of Columbia was preserved because of a mistaken connection to George Washington.

The first purpose-built art gallery in the United States is once again open as a center of craft arts.

The actual model from the original "Star Trek" series is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

The national park was once a plantation estate.

The Byzantine, pre-Columbian, and medieval art at this stately mansion are some of the most under-appreciated collections in D.C.

The beloved statue at the National Academy of Sciences is oh so inviting to sit on.

A three-story tower of books about Abraham Lincoln is one of the more unusual monuments to the president.

Fittingly, America's museum of architecture is itself a magnificently designed old building.

A hidden gem on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

During the Industrial Revolution this “Temple of Invention” was full of intricate miniature machines and gadgets.

A lovely aquatic park built by a one-armed Civil War veteran who made a fortune from lotuses.

Enormous piles of historically significant stones, dumped by Congress in a forest, and abandoned for 60 years.

This grand gothic brewery has been pumping out suds for over a hundred years.

One of the dwarven trees dates back to 1625 and survived the Hiroshima bombing.

This shop and studio is dedicated to the art of the book, from letterpress to bookbinding.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.