Washington, D.C., is probably best known (besides its government functions) as a great city for museums. The diversity and educational value of the capital’s museums is stunning, and in my many visits to D.C. I have a few I love returning to over and over again. The National Air and Space Museum has the fastest plane ever built, the SR-71 Blackbird; the original plane built and designed by the Wright brothers; and the legendary WWII-era fighter, the P-51 Mustang. Each in its own right is a treasure of aviation. The Newseum is, as its name suggests, a museum devoted to the history of media. With interactive broadcast exhibits and displays on worldwide censorship and persecution of journalists, it’s a fast-paced exploration through the Fourth Estate. As a media nut, I loved going through the histories of television and print. The National Museum of American History is a fascinating chronicle in objects of American history. There’s an incredibly diverse group of items, from scrimshaw pipes to old steel guitars, that take you back through the unique cultures and people of this nation. All of these aside, my favorite institution is probably the National Museum of Natural History, with its dinosaur exhibits and fascinating information about the background of our ecological environment. It also is a captivating scientific chronicle of human evolution and development with its exhibitions on early humans. The iconic African elephant in the rotunda lends the museum an instant air of gravitas. — Sean Williams, intern