National Air and Space Museum
6th St. & Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC
While the American History Museum is closed for renovation (Sept. 5, 2006-fall 2008), more than 150 highlights from the museum are on view here. The exhibition is divided into four sections: Creativity and Innovation, American Biography, National Challenges, and American Identity.
Highlights include:
- Dorothy's ruby slippers and the rarely seen Scarecrow costume worn by Ray Bolger in The Wizard of Oz
- First lady Jacqueline Kennedy's inaugural gown
- the compass used by Lewis and Clark during their journey across the Louisiana Territory
- the Woolworth's lunch counter from Greensboro, N.C., where four African American students began a "sit-in" in 1960 that lasted for six months
- Thomas Jefferson's bible and lap desk
- Abraham Lincoln's top hat
- Thomas Edison's lightbulb
- General Custer's buckskin jacket
- R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars
- Kermit the Frog
- Duke Ellington's sheet music for "Mood Indigo"
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