Day 29 - 7/19

We started out today by going to Ford's Theater. This was where the assassation of President Lincoln occured. The theater still holds plays today and much of the architecture is original. Across the street is the boarding house in which Lincoln died. Both of the places had adjoining museums that gave visitors background information on the Civil War, the events of the day Lincoln was killed and other facts about the causes and effects of the assassination. I asked Lydia if she learned something new. She told me that she "didn't know that Lincoln didn't die in the Theater, but in the boarding house across the street." We had the opportunity to hear a Park Ranger relate the chronological events of the day Lincoln was killed. It was eerie to imagine the movements of John Wilkes Booth and know that you're only a couple feet away from where he stood. At the end of the museum, there was a column of books about 30 feet high and 5 feet in diameter completely filled with works about Lincoln. It's fitting that one of the greatest Americans has been written of in thousands of books.

After Ford's Theater, we traveled down the road (on the sidewalk) to the National Portrait Gallery. Some of the exhibitions included portraits of all the American presidents, the art of video games and pictures of more modern famous people. I enjoyed being able to guess the president's name by solely looking at their portrait. Yes, that includes Millard Fillmore and John Tyler too. The video game exhibit had a bunch of 80's era games that one could play and many projections of game graphics. By the time we left, I became dizzy and saw colors everywhere.

The last stop of today was the National Archives. This is where the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are displayed. I was amazed at how faded they were. Despite the physical condition, it's meaning is still incredibly important. The National Archives is also home to other documents, films and sound recordings. We got to hear a sound clip of Theodore Roosevelt and see classified FBI documents about Cold War activities. Blake liked looking at patent drawings and then trying to guess what the invention was.