As I mentioned in a few other posts, the museums weren’t everything we expected.   The best, by far, was the Natural History museum. An excellent displays of rocks, gems and metals (gold, copper, silver, paladium)  with everything well marked and easy to read.  The Hope Diamond was also displayed (would have been nice if the story of the curse that supposedly follows it was posted.  Or even a larger post of where it was mined and who owned it.) 

There was also a very good display of preserved animals–a chance to see what ibex, bats, and various other animals look like.  The display was well done and enjoyable with many exhibits.  There was also a separate exhibit with birds.

The mummy exhibit was almost interesting, but I’m afraid compared to the British museum it came across as rather scant.  There is an exhibit of a human mummy and a very interesting one of a bull that was mummified.  The stone sarcophagus didn’t look real.  The wooden coffin looked very real and was interesting.

There was also a dinasaur exhibit on the first floor geared towards children, but worth a very quick tour.

One of the more frustrating issues we dealt with was the lack of information–both inside and outside the buildings.  When you are in the courtyard of the “mall” of museums, the buildings are not marked well.  You have to walk up to the actual door to see the name of the buiding.   Finding out what is on display inside pretty much involves looking for yourself.  The volunteers at the information desk do hand out a booklet that is supposed to help you decide which museums to visit, but the information is so scant and general, it is not worth the paper it was printed on.  Most of the “guide” was ad space.  The most useful information was a map of the buildings that I printed before I left.  I think the same map was probably inside the guidebook, but the one I took was very helpful when we first stepped off the Smithsonian metro station and had to choose an unmarked building to get started.

For some odd reason the back of the museums where the streets ran were better marked.  There were even ads outside the buildings with some pictures and information about what was on display inside.   I’m not sure why this type of information isn’t available from inside the courtyards and why there isn’t more information available.  I know that the Smithsonians have a lot of material.  I wish they’d include more of it in their exhibits and some sort of online listing of what can be found at the various museums.  I know the displays change frequently, but keeping an updated list would be extremely helpful to visitors.