After a break to ponder the complexity of history (and grab a bite) your guide will lead you to the dual exhibition space of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Inside the local Washingtonians favorite Smithsonian space you’ll wander hallways that seamlessly flow between the two collections surrounding one of the most relaxing spaces in downtown Washington DC, the Kogard Courtyard. Your guide will take you to see the famous Presidential Portrait Gallery and you’ll hear stories of other famous Americans as you view their portraits in painting, sculpture, and video form. Make your way over to the Luce Center of the American Art portion and get a chance to peek inside the labs of the Lunder Conservation Center! Some of the most iconic figures in Art and History pop up in the most unexpected places in this criminally overlooked Smithsonian!
The best way to understand the who and the what of the United States of America! Skip-the-line at the National Archives and start with the original handwritten “Charters of Freedom” housed in their spectacular Rotunda. Your guide will narrate the extraordinary circumstances that brought this nation into existence. Surrounded by documents and paintings giving depth and nuance to the founding period, no trip to the US Capital city is complete without a visit to the National Archives. But at Babylon we take it a step farther. In the Rubenstein Gallery, go even further to the philosophical foundations by viewing a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta. You will be guided around the room as the concept of citizenship, what it means and who is included evolves from the declaration that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”.
The entire tour was amazing. Our guide Anne-Marie was fantastic as we know from experience. The tour is only as good as your guide and ours was unbelievably good. I give it five stars and have already recommended her to a few of our friends.
This was an incredible tour with Brenda. Her knowledge really enhanced our visit. Her enthusiasm for our founding fathers and our country’s history was infectious. Well worth it!
Rebecca was great. She had great knowledge that she shared through very engaging stories. She has good energy and made the day interesting.
Annemarie did a great job. Outstanding job communicating and making sure we knew the meeting location. We appreciate the service.
My tour guide was Maribeth Oakes. She was wonderful. She was knowledgeable and helpful. I highly recommend here
Amanda was a great tour guide. Lots of anecdotes and stories one doesn’t hear about usually. Fun time, easygoing, clearly stated.
Ryan was wonderful! Very knowledgeable, great sense of humor
5 of 5 stars great experience, I would recommend this to anyone
We learned so much. Very entertaining.
Jim was an exceptional tour guide! He was very knowledgeable and accommodating!
Our guide was informed, enthusiastic, and a good communicator. We learned much about the archives and were impressed with how she went the extra mile to answer our questions and make our experience pleasant.
Allen was an amazing tour guide! So informative and we learned so much from him!
Maribeth was very knowledgeable and entertaining! She had answers for everyone’s questions and was very apologetic that it was so cold and that the Supreme Court was closed! And we all knew it was not her fault. It is truely AMAZING how much information is stored in her head! You could tell she could have talked for days! Such a sweet lady… Very aware of everyone’s needs.
Annmarie was fantastic! Very knowledgeable and really did her best to give us the best bang for our buck with so many golden nuggets! I would highly recommend making a day out of one of her toys tours!
Our tour of the National Gallery of Art was outstanding! Annemarie took us through the many highlights starting with a painting by Leonardo Di Vinci! She had so much information about every piece that we visited....facts that we did not know about the creation of the art, stories about the artists life, and history that brought each work new meaning for us! She is so knowledgeable about so many parts of the city! We will definitely be scheduling tours with her on future trips.
Meghan is a scholar in this field. Absolutely awesome experience!! We never would have absorbed this much information without this tour.
I give Annemarie five stars. Wonderful tour guide for the National Portrait Gallery and National Archives. You can tell she loves art.
Excellent tour guide....! What a pleasure to listen to a person with so much enthusiasm and knowledge ... Ask for Meghan
Ryan was great! We had him for three separate tours. Knowledgeable and informative. It was a great choice using Babylon tours on our trip.
Annemarie was a superb guide. She added much context and did an exceptional job providing all sorts of insights — from who was included in paintings and why and where, to nuances of preservation of historical documents. We got so much more out of both locations — Archives & Portraits — than we would have on our own. Worth the money!
Annemarie's knowledge and personal insights made this trip memorable. She made the history come to life and explained the reasons behind creating the documents.
Annmarie was fabulous and very knowledgeable in history and art. We had a great time and learned so much. Would definitely do again and highly recommend.
Ann Marie was a great tour guide! Very knowledgeable and personable. I would definitely ask for her specifically for our next tour!
Best of the best. We learned so much. More than we would have received if we went in a self guided tour. Ask for Maribeth. So knowledgeable and took such time to explain in depth all of the documents.
Annemarie was excellent. She is incredibly knowledgeable and had fascinating stories of key items on our tour. We would highly recommend her!!!
We did a tour of the National Portrait Gallery. Brenda was our guide. She was amazing! She knew each president and anecdotes about each one. She took us to see exactly what we were interested in and we were able to concentrate on her narrative as we went through the museum. She knew where we could sit for a break, where we could go for a quick lunch, and how to navigate thru the maze of exhibits to see exactly what we might enjoy the most. So knowledgeable and personable. A great guide and a great visit !
Annemarie was so knowledgeable, she kept us all engaged pointing out interesting facts throughout the tour. She asked if there were any specific portraits we wanted to see and made sure we did. Weaving US & art history together made all the information easy to absorb.
Annemarie was amazing! She was thoughtful, considerate and knowledgeable. She shared interesting stories and knew where to take us throughout the tour just by figuring out who we were as tourists and catered to us for our experience. I can’t thank her enough for making our last day in Washington DC a memorable one.
Annemarie was a great guide and super knowledgeable! We had all ages in our group and she was able to make deep dives into history accessible to all of us!
Mary Anne did a great job educating us and showing us all the highlights despite having to navigate some street and building closings. We learned a lot and kids enjoyed it!
Brenda was a great tour guide that was able to answer all the questions and tell interesting stories.
Richard did a great job and used his unique ability as a story teller to convey an easy understanding of the subjects in a very informative way.
Richard was great, I would highly recommend him to friends and family. He was great with communicating with the group.
Richard was Amazing!!! He guided us on two tours yesterday. We could not have had a better guide ever! He also went above and beyond and helped us get 2 tables combined at a local restaurant last night. Words cannot express how engaging he is. Our family was blown away with his knowledge. We all feel like we have a new beat friend in DC. We plan on keeping in touch, as our daughter lives here and wants to book him for her future tours. We loved every minute and was sad when our day came to a close.
Babylon has the best guides. Kimberly was a scholar and we enjoyed our time at the archives. Definitely do this tour right at 10am when the gallery opens so you beat the crowd.
Knowledgeable and professional and know history very well. She leaves room to ask questions. Good sense of humor.
Brenda was great! Very informative. She answered our questions thoroughly. She had handouts for additional information.
Brenda was such an amazing tour guide! Extremely interesting and so quick with her fun facts ! Would suggest you ask for her if you are booking this tour anytime soon!
Richard was an excellent tour guide and we had an absolutely wonderful time on our tours. We can't thank him enough for an incredible time!
We felt very fortunate to have invested in this tour; Donna, our tour guide, knew these buildings well, as well as her American History, and patiently paced us through the best of the exhibits, taking time where it was needed. Highly recommended!
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