The very moving 9/11 permanent exhibit at the Newseum.

This is an HDR image I took of the elephant in the Natural History Museum’s rotunda.

The Enid A. Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle features paths lined with bright pink magnolia trees. The trees bloom in mid-March to kick off the start of cherry blossom season.

Soldiers. Charioteers. Archers. Musicians. Generals. Acrobats. Nearly 2,000 years ago, thousands of life-size clay figures were buried in massive underground pits to accompany China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, into the afterlife. Their discovery outside the city of Xi’an in 1974 is one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.

The National Geographic Museum hosted a limited-run exhibit featuring several of these figures, along with other artifacts from China. Select area photographers were invited to capture the exhibit in images for the DC area to enjoy.

Found in the special “wine room” for private dinner at Plume.

National Portrait Gallery

Neither of these are death masks. The one on the left was taken at the onset of his first term, before a young woman in a letter told him, “I feel that you would look handsome with whiskers.” The other mask was made in the last few months before his death. The stresses of those few years casused marked weathering of his features.

The Heurich Mansion, near Dupont Circle, is claimed to be “the most intact late-Victorian home in the country.”  It was originally built for Christian Heurich in 1892, who was a brewer (who ran his brewery until he died at 102!).  Heurich was the largest private employer in the city and one of the largest landowners.