Museum Diary

We’ve come to the end of of this summer’s Museum City Guide series. You may already have guessed what the last city to be featured is. After my current home stomping ground Berlin, and the home of my heart, Edinburgh, there’s another museum city that is very special to me, and that’s Washington, D.C. The first thing that springs to most people’s minds, when they think of Washington, D.C. and museums, is ‘The Smithsonian’, and while it has many great museums to offer, there is […]

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is situated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and is one of the city’s most popular museums with almost 5 million visitors in 2012. It’s home to the original Star Spangled Banner, Julia Child’s kitchen, and the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, to name just a few of my favourites. The husband really enjoys the exhibition about the Presidents of the U.S., being a bit of a geeky fan of theirs (and to answer the […]

If you’re familiar with my features on museums and the movies, you might be thinking right now “Where does a museum feature in the Wizard of Oz?” Well, it doesn’t. Previously I’ve focused on museums on the big screen, but this time I thought I’d turn it round and look at things from on the big screen that have ended up in a museum. The Movie: The Wizard of Oz, MGM, 1939, notable for its musical score – for which it received an Academy Award […]

It goes without saying that visiting museums ranks high on the list of a museum lover’s favourite pursuits. But what ranks even higher on the happiness scale, is a chance to go behind the scenes. During Washington D.C.’s Social Media Week in February, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History hosted a behind-the-scenes museum tweetup (#SITweetup). I followed online from afar, wishing it would have coincided with our D.C. holiday so that I could have been there for real. Well, sometimes wishes come true! The […]