On Fri, 10 Feb 2006, Suzi Clarke wrote: > I am hoping to be in Washington DC in June, and wondered if anyone > knew of a not-too-expensive hotel within walking distance of the > Smithsonian. I hope to get an introduction there from a curator > friend, and see what I can see.
If I still lived there, I'd offer to have you stay with me! But I moved six years ago, sorry. I don't think there's such a thing as a not-too-expensive hotel within walking distance of the Smithsonian! It is located in the middle of all the federal buildings, and the hotels I can think of near there are extraordinarily ritzy. Fortunately the public transit in Washington is quite civilized, and the bulk of the Smithsonian museums (located on the Mall) are served by three stops: the Smithsonian stop at the west, the Archives at the Northeast, and L'Enfant Plaza at the south. The Portrait Museum and the American Art museum are a bit further north from the Mall, and served by the Gallery Place stop. So whatever line you come in on, you are not too far. Just make sure you stay at a hotel that is walking distance from a Metro stop! You can find some quite reasonable in Arlington (on the Virginia side) and Rockville (on the Maryland side); anything in Virginia on a Metro line will be rather closer to the Smithsonian and have a shorter ride. > Now I have to decide what I'd like to see!! (Whee!) And of course > find out what I'll be allowed to see!! Don't forget the National Gallery, which is operated separately from the Smithsonian (and of much more interest to me from a costume standpoint); it is also located on the Mall, at the Archives end. There are also a number of private collections of art and artifacts, including the Textile Museum, scattered around town, some harder to reach than others. Your focus will depend on your period of interest. For instance, for people interested in medieval Europe, I usually recommend the National Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library (for Elizabethan), Dumbarton Oaks (for Byzantine in particular), the National Cathedral (for its bookstore), and the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore -- in other words, not the Smithsonian at all. --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
