IIRC Rodin’s The Thinker is in the basement of the National Gallery.
I really like the WWII memorial in DC. Great location on the caliptal mall, and it had a Lindy Hop plaque.
Smithsonian Natural History is pretty good for ones I didn’t notice mentioned upthread. Of course Air and Space is great, and I liked the Native American one as well. I also think the Roosevelt Memorial is underrated. Most of the memorials are best seen at night imo. Museums during the day, memorials at night. I also liked the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but the internet tells me it hasn’t been open for tours since the pandemic hit.
You really can’t see everything in one trip unless you are spending an entire week or more. We spent a few days a year for many years and still haven’t seen everything.
There’s Thinkers and other Rodin stuff all over the place. There’s actually a bunch of French laws about what castings can be made of his work.
Yeah there is a Thinker statue in an outdoor sculpture park in DC. I can’t recall exactly where though, but I’ve come across it a few times.
There’s a Thinker at the Norton-Simon museum in Pasadena. Site says “Bronze, Edition of 12, Cast No. 11”. They have a bunch of Rodin.
https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/browse-by-artist/artist/1056/auguste-rodin
The main bronze is in the Rodin Museum, but there are several around the world, as Rodin authorized many copies. It looks like the National Gallery of Art has a smaller, older version.
I guess the one that I was “thinking” about is only inspired by Rodin, lol.
It’s here:
I’ve seen two Thinker castings but I’ve never seen a Gates of Hell in person unfortunately.
That one’s in Zurich. Looks like the closest to me is in Philly.
I have been lucky enough to see the one at Stanford. It’s incredible
Natural History is probably the #1 cited must see museum in DC. The Air and Space in DC is OK but the good one is out by Dulles. It’s also a Smithsonian so it’s free entry but the parking costs a few dollars. And it’s way the hell out in the suburbs so you pretty much need a car to get there.
It’s the 5th most visited museum in the world and the 2nd most in the US, so I think it’s pretty pretty good. I agree that the Natural History is awesome. How long has the one at Dulles been open? I wonder if that opened after most of our visits? (We were back in 2019 for a couple of days, but most of our trips were in 2006 and earlier.)
USAF museum in Dayton, OH blows the doors off the Air And Space museum, no joke.
That’s a reasonably hot take, imo.
I’ve been to both and I think the Air and Space museum is better. Maybe I’m the weird one.
+1 to the Smithsonians. Best cultural thing about living in DC, imo.
You can tour the Capitol (should reserve tickets ahead of time, but they’re free and without the White House hoops]
Can also tour SCOTUS, but that can get a little tricky if there is a big case on the docket as it can get crowded and they sometimes limit access to the building if protests are really popping off.
[Side note: while all these things are cool, I highly encourage folks to not just do the touristy stuff. It’s easy to spend all your time around The Mall b/c there’s a ton of stuff there, but DC is also a normal city with good live music, a decent theater scene and amazing Ethiopian food, so do some of that too :)]
I always visited Thanksgiving week and the city stuff was basically dead that week. If I ever make it back though I will make a point to search out Ethiopian food.
As a history nerd, one of my favorite fun things to do downtown is to have lunch at the Chinese restaurant that was formerly the boardinghouse where the Lincoln assassins stayed. It’s within walking distance of the mall.
Also Ben’s Chili Bowl, but it’s always way crowded.
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This, on the other hand, is the most basic of correct takes.
Ben’s is the GOAT, LDO.
The internet says late 2003. Also the Wikipedia entry for your stat says it includes the Dulles annex which makes sense because it’s objectively better and I can’t imagine the DC location pulling in those stats on its own. I mean it’s not really a fair comparison, there’s more space there. The DC location certainly has some good stuff too and it’s worth a visit if you’re in the area, but if you’re seeking out aviation stuff you should be aware that the DC location is just a small sample of what the Smithsonian has.
Looks like a total of 6.2 million visitors with 1.6 million at Dulles, so the majority (as expected being in close proximity to all the other DC attractions) are tolled in DC. But I did not realize the stat I posted was counting both locations, so thanks for correcting that.