Washington DC

Washington, DC, formally the District of Columbia is the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a large, open park in downtown Washington between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol. The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation chartered by Congress in 1846 that maintains most of the nation’s official museums and galleries in Washington, DC. The National Gallery of Art is on the National Mall near the Capitol and features works of American and European art. There are many private art museums in the District of Columbia, which house major collections such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts and The Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle, the first museum of modern art in the United States.