The African American Civil War Memorial, along with the African American Civil War Museum across the street, memorializes nearly 220,000 members of the United States Colored Troops involvement in the American Civil War.
The African American Civil War Museum is dedicated to preserving and telling the stories of the United States Colored Troops involvement in the American Civil War.
I took this photo last spring during the very brief blooming of the tulip magnolias (or saucer magnolias) in Washington DC. They’re one of the spring’s first dramatic blooming varieties in the DC area, usually beating the more famous cherry blossoms by a couple of weeks.
The LBJ Memorial is on the Virginia bank of the Potomac with views of Washington DC’s monuments across the river. It’s dedicated to the 36th president who occupied the White House during the tumultuous 1960s.
DC’s cherry blossom season brings a huge number of photographic opportunities. Here’s how to take one of its iconic scenes: cherry blossoms with the Washington Monument.
When we get a solid snowfall, Washington DC’s monuments and landmarks become a winter wonderland.
Sitting on the banks of the Tidal Basin amongst the famous Japanese cherry blossoms, the Japanese Lantern dates back to the middle of the 17th century and has been here since 1954.
The 17th century Japanese Pagoda is nestled amongst the famous cherry blossoms on the banks of the Tidal Basin in Washington DC.
The blooming of Washington DC’s beautiful cherry blossoms is a highlight of spring.
The Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial, featuring a large, evocative aluminum sculpture of a cresting wave and seagulls in flight, sits on Columbia Island on the Arlington side of the Potomac.
The Simon Bolivar Statue in Foggy Bottom in Washington DC is dedicated to the Latin American revolutionary.
The Cuban Friendship Urn is not the most impressive landmark you’ll find in Washington DC, but it does have an interesting story behind it.
Mr Republican has his own Carillon. Senator Robert Taft had a long political career and had connections–he was a former Speaker and was President William Howard Taft’s oldest son–but the arch conservative is best remembered as an leading opponent of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
It’s entirely appropriate that the memorial dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt is a little unkempt. America’s 26th president was famously a champion of the environment and an avid hunter and outdoorsman. But his memorial isn’t well known.
The Sackler Gallery joins the Freer Gallery of Art to form the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art for the United States of America.
The First Division Monument, standing in President’s Park next to the White House and in front of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, is dedicated to those who served and died in the First Division of the American Expeditionary Forces.
Hidden away behind the Smithsonian Castle, the Moongate Garden is a small oasis of calm inspired by Temple of Heaven Garden in Beijing.
The Smithsonian Castle looks like it should housing exotic treasures. But it doesn’t really–at least, not many and not any more. The Smithsonian now sprawls across 19 different facilities, but this is the original building.
Originally opened in 1923 to display the collections of Charles Lang Freer, the Freer Gallery has since been merged with the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the National Museum of Asian Art for the United States of America.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, out the back of the Smithsonian Castle, showcases ancient and modern African art.
The Reynolds Center, in the heart of downtown Washington DC, combines two museums in one: it houses both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. It has paintings, sculptures, photos, and drawings ranging from classical oil paintings to folk art to modern art.
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History, on the National Mall in Washington DC, is dedicated to all aspects of American history and culture.
The Newseum is a celebration of Freedom of the Press, featuring exhibits focusing on print, radio, and television media. It also features exhibits of superb photography, a section of the Berlin Wall, and a large collection of historic newspapers.
While it’s not especially well known even to locals, the original National Aquarium is still in the heart of downtown Washington DC. It’s nowhere near the biggest public aquarium in the United States, but it is the oldest. And it’s in a place you would never expect.
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, in tribute to the celebrated Civil Rights leader, is now open on the banks of the Tidal Basin opposite the Jefferson Memorial.
Sitting across the street from the US Capitol Building, the Supreme Court houses the judicial branch of the United States federal government. It’s in an appropriately grand building built in the mid-1930s and fronted by imposing classical marble columns.
If there’s a combination that can draw the museum crowds almost as much as spaceships and airplanes, it’s dinosaurs and whopping huge diamonds. And having a life-size elephant just inside the main entrance doesn’t hurt either.
The National Arboretum makes for a pleasant park, but its official mission is education and research. With 446 acres and 9.5 miles of meandering roads, it’s laid out as a very large park with paddocks, forested areas, ponds, and groves, lots of groves.
It’s not just any old train station that can be the venue for a black-tie presidential inaugural ball. But the lavish Union Station, not far from the US Capitol Building, is one of the few that does. It’s an impressive blend of form and function.
The U.S. Capitol Building is one of Washington DC’s most distinctive buildings. In fact, you’d be surprised how many tourists find the building so recognizable and in such a conspicuous location that they assume it must be the White House.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC houses one of the finest collections of paintings and sculptures in the world. On permanent display are works by Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Raphael, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya, Manet, Monet, Rodin, Degas, and many, many more.
For what is really just a big, stone tower you’d expect the Washington Monument to be a boring thing to take photos of. But this isn’t just any old tower and happens to be near some of the world’s great landmarks, making for a bunch of ways and vantage points to get some interesting shots.
The Maine Avenue Fish Market on Washington DC’s Southwest Waterfront is the oldest continually operating outdoor fish market in the United States.
As both the home and office of the President of the United States, the White House is probably the most widely recognized building in Washington DC.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool does what it does best very well indeed, providing some great photographic opportunities for capturing reflections of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.
Arlington Memorial Bridge runs across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, one of six bridges connecting Virginia with the District of Columbia.
The FDR Memorial, on the western bank of the Tidal Basin, is dedicated to the 32nd president but also features the twin challenges that defined the era: the Great Depression and the Second World War.
The Einstein Memorial, featuring a 21-foot, stylized bronze statue of physicist Albert Einstein, sits in a grove of holly and elm trees on the Constitution Avenue side of the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences.
Tucked away between the Jefferson Memorial and the 14th Street Bridge, the George Mason Memorial commemorates one of the lesser known founding fathers and Virginia plantation owner, George Mason.
The World War I Memorial near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool isn’t well known or much visited. It has been neglected and forgotten for decades but in the past few years has gotten some long-overdue attention.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial, unveiled in 1992, consists of several elements designed by different people and groups. It has a triangular footprint with the main elements being “The Column” consisting of 19 stainless steel solders, each over 7 feet tall.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial memorializes Americans who served and died in the Vietnam War. The reflective wall, in particular, offers some interesting photo opportunities.
There are only a handful of museums in the world that get more visitors than the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. It’s a wonderful showcase of all things to do with space exploration and flight.
Every Memorial Day weekend, thousands of motorbike-riding military veterans descend on Washington DC for the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally.
The Lincoln Memorial is one of the grandest and most distinctive of Washington’s monuments. Anchoring the western end of the National Mall and framed by the Reflecting Pool, it’s an outsized tribute to an American president who played an outsized role in America’s history: Abraham Lincoln.
I take photos and travel. I do it for a living. Seven continents. Dozens of countries. Up mountains. Under water. And a bunch of places in between. Based in Washington DC.
© 2009-2024 David Coleman | Have Camera Will Travel LLC
Photos by David Coleman. Please contact me for licensing images. Images are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
