While in Washington, D.C. last week, I visited the Newseum. One of my former bosses in high school had practically ordered me to go sometime as he was confident I would love it. He was entirely right.
The Newseum had six stories of exhibits, much more than I was expecting. On the bottom floor, there was a segment of the Berlin Wall, taken the year that it came down, which already made my admission fee worth its value. The West side was covered in graffiti and the East Side was practically bare, though I could see a few places where it looked like graffiti had been washed off. The wall came down and the Cold War ended only six years before I was born, which always astounds me. It feels like history, something that must have occurred many decades ago, but it was really very recent.
The West side of the Berlin Wall was a stark contrast to the East side.
The main exhibit that I had come for is what gives the Newseum its name. I walked into a dark room with over six hundred newspapers under special lighting, dating back to the 1700s. The curators had picked front pages of newspapers from the days that major events across the United States, and in some cases, the world, had occurred. It was really intriguing to see the way the news had been portrayed at each different point in time and what had been deemed important enough for what space.
An Iranian newspaper from the time of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
Additionally, they had that day’s newspaper from a major newspaper in every state and some from various countries across the world. The amount of space and coverage each topic received was cool to see, as well as small tidbits from random areas.
I did have to pay $20 to get in, which is hefty as D.C. has the Smithsonian museums which are all free, but the money was well spent, and the ticket was valid for the following day, too. I definitely recommend going when you have a lot of time to spend exploring.
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