Smithsonian Headquarters, District of Columbia

The Smithsonian Institution is America’s official museum, the Museum of America, one might say. It is actually more than that, as it has nine research centers in addition to the 19 (and counting) themed museums it operates along the National Mall, and beyond, as well as more than 200 affiliate museums across the country. The headquarters of this cultural, academic, and scientific empire is the Castle, the first building of the Smithsonian, which opened in 1855. At the Castle, museum-goers will find a visitor center, a sort of virtual museum-for-the-Museum, with touchscreen kiosks that provide an orientation to the museum’s various locations, an information desk, and main offices upstairs. Little remains visible from the days when the Castle housed the entire collection of the Smithsonian, when its exhibit halls were a jumble of natural history displays, terrariums, and curious artifacts, while upstairs, apartments housed the museum’s director and visiting scientists. The institution’s original benefactor, the British scientist James Smithson, never set foot in America, until he had both of them in his grave. His tomb is on the grounds of the Castle.