Our capital has good museums, too!

Last week I was in Washington, D.C. for a librarians' meeting and was able to take a couple of extra days to sightsee when it was over.

Since it had been a while since I had been to a really big, wear-yourself-out museum, that's what I opted for on my free Saturday. Two, in fact: our National Gallery of Art (we seem to feel the need to add the prepositional phrase, whereas the British don't) and our National Museum of Natural History.

view from the porch of the Natl. Gallery, resting up for the Natural History Museum

Yes, they wore me out, and in just a few hours. I was only able to see a few galleries of each (I know my limitations). But it was very worthwhile, both in the neat things I was able to see, and in the memories of similar London museum-ing that were brought back to me.

Natural History's central dome

I first picked the National Gallery since it has been a really long time since I was there. And, as I recall, that last visit was a whirlwind dash just before closing. This time I had a little more time to savor the sights.

Of course, the building is spectacular in itself, as you can gather from the photo of the gorgeous (and enormous) pillars in the main rotunda.

Not to mention the fine details, such as this completely over-the-top water fountain!

why not make a functional device pretty, too?

But the museum also has some really spectacular art. Since I knew I couldn't cover the whole place, I concentrated on some of my favorite periods and schools. And was rewarded by seeing some of my favorite artists, as you can see below. Note: in addition to the prepositional phrase, another big difference between this National Gallery and the one in London is that our allows photos!

Canaletto painting Venice: a favorite artist with a favorite subject matter

El Greco is always interesting

if I had to pick a single favorite artist, it would probably be Vermeer

this tiny Da Vinci is one of the jewels of the collection...

...and it's a two-fer! this is on the reverse

I'm also a fan of these ceramics

I was reminded of what became my favorite London museum, the V&A, by a special exhibit of colonial furniture. What I loved about the V&A was the way it made everyday objects into works of art, like the teapots and dinnerware you can see in this post.

The furniture exhibit accomplished a similar task. Here are some highlights:

panorama of one of the exhibit's rooms

chess, anyone?

sewing table, with a lovely hanging "basket" for supplies

this pickle dish display was almost V&A-worthy!

Another very interesting little exhibit that I saw on my way out highlighted the real "Monuments Men," some of whom were National Gallery employees in civilian life, who were taken away from duties elsewhere to help find and conserve the art treasures that had been hoarded by the Nazis. I didn't take any good pictures there, but you can learn more about this fascinating World War II side-bar story here. It made me want to see the movie!

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Next up was science. (Actually, I had planned to go to the National Archives Museum, but the line was almost around the block! I knew I wouldn't last that long.)

Since I could feel my strength already starting to flag (in spite of the infusion of a scrumptious falafel wrap from a food truck in the mall—another England flashback!), I decided to focus on just one section of the Natural History Museum. However, I did stop to snap a shot of the iconic main rotunda:

The subject I chose to tour was geology, gems, and minerals, which is always one of my favorites. Here are some highlights of this extensive gallery:

fuzzy crystals

just one of MANY displays

more gorgeous crystals

and more (does the one in the foreground remind anyone else of a Horta?)

I wish I'd gotten someone to stand in front of this one for scale. It is HUGE! Probably about as tall as I am!

Very footsore and completely museumed-out, I was able to make my way back to the metro station—just barely! It was a great day of museum-ing and London-remembering, two activities that always go hand in hand for me.