Annapolis

The Colonial Annapolis Historic District is a part of Annapolis including a large number of historic homes, the Maryland State House, Maryland Government House, and historic Hammond House; Paca House; Brice House; and Chase-Lloyd House.

The Maryland State House is the legislative house of Maryland, home of the state General Assembly and the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor. It is the oldest continuously operating legislative building (construction was started before the Declaration of Independence) is a former US Capitol, from before the foundation of Washington DC, and the location of the formal formation of the United States of America. The building has a great many historic features. Tours are available. The State House, like the Government House, is in central Annapolis, just off campus, making it the best protected state capitol in the USA.

The Maryland Government House has been the residence of the Governor of Maryland since 1870. Tours are available by appointment.

The Banneker-Douglass Museum is in Annapolis - this museum was named for a Revolutionary era scientist, Benjamin Banneker, and Civil War era statesman, writer, and speaker Frederick Douglass, and preserves and presents the history of African Americans in the USA and Maryland since Colonial times.

The Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts is Annapolis' center for performing and static arts, and houses an art gallery, theater (including drama, opera, and dance performances), and educational programming for children and adults in dance, theater, paint, ceramics, and other arts.

The Annapolis Maritime Museum focuses on the history, economics, and ecology of sea travel and sea life, and includes youth, adult, and family education.

The Chesapeake Children's Museum is a hands-on, activity based education center, with a variety of arts, science, and craft classes and other activities.

The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial commemorates the now famous African and his descendant; Annapolis was a major seaport at the time, and was where Kunta Kinte was forcibly imported.

USNA is not the only college in Annapolis: the College of St. John's is also in the city, and is the site of a replica of the Liberty Bell, identical other than age and the absence of a crack.

Fort Meade is a large Army base, also in Anne Arundel County, several miles inland. It is home of the Fort George G. Meade Museum, which presents the complex history of Fort Meade, including photos, actual vehicles, safetied display weapons, and other artifacts.

The National Cryptologic Museum is a small but important museum on codes, code security, and codebreaking in American history since the Revolutionary War. Exhibits include Revolutionary, Civil War, and 20th Century encryption techniques, examples, cypher devices, and displays of MAGIC and ENIGMA, among other important historic codes.

The National Museum of Language is a very small museum focused on the history, development, oddities, and magic of language, in College Park, near US-1.

The College Park Aviation Museum is located on the grounds of the College Park Airport, the world's oldest continuously operating airport, and features vintage aircraft, rotating exhibits, and a youth education program and activities.

Washington DC

Washington DC has a very large number of national monuments, institutions, and historic sites. A short list includes the National Mall, site of many monuments to presidents, other national figures, and heroes of US wars, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, National World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial, and Washington Monument.

The US Capitol Building, the White House, and the US Supreme Court Building are all available to tour, although times and seasons are limited and access restricted. The Smithsonian Institution is the national museum, with 17 branches in the DC area alone, 11 on the National Mall, and to fully tour any of these would take some days of dedicated effort. The Library of Congress is open to the public, although the public may not check out books.

Washington DC has many museums, including many dedicated to art, historical, science, and cultural. All are worthy of mention (we don't have space) but visitors may be especially interested in the National Museum of the United States Navy, the National Air and Space Museum, National Gallery of Art, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, the International Spy Museum, the Marian Koshland Science Museum.

Baltimore

The Baltimore Washington Monument, in Mount Vernon, was the first monument to our first president, designed by the same architect who drew up plans for the more famous Washington Monument in the District of Columbia. The monument has an attached museum, and is currently closed for internal visits due to repairs and refurbishing, but is still viewable.

Fort McHenry is where the Star Spangled Banner still waved over the land of the free, despite rockets and bombs bursting in air, and is today a national monument. This coastal defense fort was the target of a British bombardment during the War of 1812. The Fort successfully defended Baltimore and the harbor against the British, and still flew colors at dawn, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write what later became the National Anthem of the United States.

Baltimore has several museums, including art museums, including Baltimore Museum of Art, a museum with a large collection of classic art; the Walters Art Museum, housing a collection of thousands of works from around the world and throughout history; and the American Visionary Art Museum, which focuses on visionary art, typically art by self-taught artists.

There are a number of history museums in Baltimore, such as the Baltimore Museum of Industry, which preserves the history of Baltimorean industry and working people; the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, a very small museum highly dedicated to the works of the famous American author and his works written in Baltimore itself; and the Historic Ships in Baltimore museum, home of several historic ships, including the USS Constellation (a sailing ship, second of the name), USCGC Taney (last survivor of Pearl Harbor), the USS Torsk (WWII submarine with over 10,000 dives), LV116 Chesapeake and a number of maritime artifacts and items.

The Maryland Science Center is near Baltimore Harbor, and features active exhibits, science demonstrations, and an IMAX and planetarium theater.

Baltimore has a number of museums on, for, or about ethnic groups, including the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum is a wax museum featuring life-sized wax models of famous and important African Americans, as well as less well known people and events; the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture; and the Jewish Museum of Baltimore.