Information Center

At the Castle, get up-to-the-minute times and dates for events and exhibitions in all 17 Washington, D.C.-area Smithsonian museums, as well as the American Indian Museum's Heye Center and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City. Ben Stiller is your host in a ten-minute film tour of the museums.

Castle Exhibitions

The Smithsonian Institution: America's Treasure Chest (Indefinite) Commons area. See select artifacts from the Smithsonian's vast collections, including portraits from the studio of Mathew Brady.

Bradley and Hubbard: Masters of Metal work (Indefinite) Schermer Hall. Decorative objects—lamps and chandeliers, bookends, match safes and candlesticks—trace the history of this 19th-century manufacturer that would eventually patent a total of 238 designs and mechanical devices.

Castle Cafe and Coffee Bar

Featuring coffees, sandwiches, salads and desserts, the Castle Cafe and Coffee Bar is open daily from 8:30 to 5.

Who Was James Smithson?

The founder of the Smithsonian Institution, English scientist James Smithson (1765-1829) devoted his life to research in chemistry, mineralogy and geology. Although he never visited the United States, Smithson bequeathed his estate of $508,318, or about $15 million in today’s dollars, to establish in Washington, D.C. an institution for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.” In 1904, Smithsonian regent Alexander Graham Bell had Smithson’s remains brought from Genoa, Italy, where he was buried, to Washington, and interred them in a crypt in the Smithsonian Castle’s north entrance vestibule.