If you’re heading to D.C. for the inauguration (and it sounds like a lot of people are!), Washington has the most fabulous collection of free museums you can imagine. Most people head to the Smithsonian Mall for the big, better-known museums, but there are little gems throughout the city that may be less crowded.
The National Portrait Gallery is commemorating the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth with an exhibit of “a unique immersion experience and an opportunity to explore the life and times of the nation’s most mythic and transformative president.” And as a special bonus, it is one of the rare times that the original cracked-plate portrait of Lincoln by Alexander Gardner will be displayed. (In order to preserve the original, a facsimile of the photograph is usually on view). Historian David Ward is the exhibition curator.
The exhibition opens on November 7, 2008, and will close on July 5, 2009. Museum hours are 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. daily. (Closed December 25.) Note: some metro stations will be closed on inauguration day. Check the details here.
