The Newseum, Cr-dc.urbanturf.com
Stay Informed and See How the News Industry Works in Washington’s fascinating Museum of the News. Browse Pulitzer winning photos and see the 9/11 memorial.
According to the well-deserved hype, the Newseum, is the world’s most interactive museum and everywhere you look there are television screens, hand-on exhibits, galleries, theatres and yes, you got it, hundreds of headlines from yesteryear and yesterday.
About the Newseum
While this vast, 250,000 square foot museum that occupies a large corner on Pennsylvania and 6St N.W. in Washington D.C., is a new and welcome addition to museum mile, it is the reincarnation of an older museum formerly situated in Arlington Virginia. The Newseum there was the original and it closed its doors to allow for the actual museum to come into fruition and formally open in April 2008.
The Newseum’s Layout
With exhibits and galleries that are spread over 7 floors you could easily spend a full day here, be it posing for your photo before the Berlin Wall Gallery where there are eight original sections of this cement monument complete with West German graffiti and a three storey guard tower or scouring famous front page editions from around the world. All of the exhibits are laid out carefully and with plenty of space to allow for careful inspection of each display and the passage of the ubiquitous school groups. You are recommended to start at the Concourse Level (in the basement) and then catch the state of the art glass elevator up to Level 6 and work your way back down.
The Newseum’s Highlights
There is without doubt something for every newshound here, from the prospective hack to the lazy Sunday reader. On the Councourse Level you may be amazed to find the actual cabin that was the home and lair of the Unabomber Dr. Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski, in Lincoln, Montana from 1971 to his capture in 1996.
On Level 6 aside from unrivalled views of the U.S Capitol and the National Mall there is a permanent exhibit of “Today’s Front Pages”, where digital editions from newspapers around the world are on show.
On Level 5 you can delve into the past as you walk through “News History”, a showcase to some of the most recognizable and infamous headlines ranging from the “Sinking of the Titanic” from 1912 or “Man Lands on the Moon” from 1969. As you
walk further around this floor you’ll see the original door from the Watergate office and the “Great Books Gallery’.
And of course, before plunging into the Newseum store or grabbing a bite save some time for the largest collection of Pulitzer Prize photographs on display in Level 1.
The Newseum’s 9/11 Gallery
On the wall are 127 front pages from newspapers worldwide from September 12, 2001 that chronicle the events of 9/11. In the centre of the memorial is a snarled and twisted piece of the antennae that stood atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center. This is an austere and serious reminder to the events that took place that infamous day and may be too intense for some visitors.
The Newseum’s Journalists Memorial
Continuing with poignant and telling memorials is a section dedicated to the 1900 plus journalists who have lost their lives on the job since 1837. There is the bullet-pocked truck that was used by Time photographers in the Balkans, the laptop that belonged to murdered journalist Daniel Pearl and a large map showing the levels of press freedom in each country worldwide.
The Interactive Newseum
Located on Level 2, this is a section aimed at those schoolchildren keen on trying their hand at being a real journalist. There are dozens of touch screen stations where your child can try his or her hand at being a photojournalist or reporter or take a test to establish their knowledge of current events.
Newseum details
Opening Hours: 9am to 5pm Daily (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day).
Admission: adults 19.95 plus tax, seniors 17.95 plus tax, youth 12.95 plus tax and children 6 and younger free. This entrance fee is valid for two consecutive days.
Address: 555 Pennsylvania Avenue., N.W. Washington DC 20001.
