Museum Tour in D.C.

There is no doubt that D.C. is the paradise of museum lovers. People can find museums in quite different areas like the air and space, history, arts, journalism, spy, portraits, and science. I love visiting museums because they are places where you can learn a lot by experiencing yourself. It feels real and touched when I’m seeing those pictures, documents, videos, models and statues. At some point, I feel like I were a witness and seeing everything unfold in front of me.

Since my friend Tyche who is staying in D.C. with me this weekend also likes museum, I brought her to my three favorite ones:The Holocaust Memorial Museum, The National Gallery of Art, and The Newseum.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum locates on the 14th and 15th street which was established in 1993 in order to show its audience a living memorial to the Holocaust. It gathered thousands of photos and documents about the Holocaust spreading on two floors. The interior design of the whole museum is imitating the Nazi concentration Camp in World War II which make people feel very heavyhearted. The exhibition of the first floor varies by different themes and the second floor is the fixed exhibition within several films and many precious documents, pictures and things left from the Holocaust. It explained the historical background and reasons why and how the tragedy happened. What impressed me most are those photos of how Nazi did to Jewish people in their concentration camp. Nearly six million of Jewish were killed in from 1933-1945 including one and half million of children. Their cruel behaviors created a huge damage to other races of people which would never be forgiven.

Our next stop was The Newseum which was really an interesting name. The Newseum was filled with millions of information since very long time ago in United States Journalism history. In Newseum, people could access to see the developments of journalism, there were also stunning photos from Pulitzer Prize. We experienced the 4D movie which told us three journalism stories throughout history. The most touching part is the section of 9/11. There was a short film about the responses of some journalism witnesses of 9/11, they shared their heart-broken stories of 9/11. One could also have hands-on experience in Newseum and be a part of the news team.

Eventually we went to the National Gallery of Art which located right across the street of Newseum. Due to the short time we had, we only visited a small part of the West Building.

I have always built many images in my mind whenever I visit a museum. The exhibitions tell stories and I’m willing to be the listener. Sometimes it is amazing to me that I can find many things happening in those art pieces so similar to real life. Other times I can even experience other’s suffering with anger and sorrow. Museums are the bridges that connect reality and history.

- T.H.