international spy museum

Guest post here from Katie's friend Steve.

Last weekend, I visited DC and intrigued by the idea of the International Spy Museum. The museum itself is located near the National Mall, and features (if I recall correctly) three floors of exhibit space along with a spy-themed gift shop and restaurant.

I was a little caught off-guard by the admission price; $18 plus tax was pretty steep, especially considering that most museums in DC are free. For an additional price there are also some more interactive activities available, called Operation Spy and Spy in the City, but I only opted for the standard museum self-tour, which had a bit of an interactive element as well.

The whole museum experience is framed by a choose-your-own-adventure style espionage action story that unfolds throughout the exhibits. You first choose one of several covers and check out the dossier with your mission details. There are various checkpoints throughout the museum at which you progress through the story and try to achieve your mission objective. This seemed like it was more to appeal to children, because progression was based almost entirely upon memorization of your mission details. It was also mostly a text-based (at various kiosks), and I thought there could have possibly been a little more video or multimedia aspect of it. Also, I must have missed some kiosk in the middle, because at the end of the museum I was being asked questions about which I knew nothing. I still succeeded in my mission despite that setback, and I'm going to take that as a testament to how awesome a spy I would be. Your move, NSA.

When you're not focused on your mission objectives, you can check out the in-depth museum exhibits. The first exhibit is about some essential tools of the covert intelligence trade, including disguises, gadgets, and people-reading skills. This is basically a primer for the interactive element, as well as a taste of what's to come. After that, the tour goes on a relatively linear path about spying throughout history, starting in pre-Roman times, going through the medieval period, the Civil War (a very interesting exhibit), the World Wars, the Cold War (duh), among other subjects. The last exhibit is about espionage in the 21st century. Each of the time-period exhibits went into further depth about the famous spies, new techniques and spy widgets of the time.

Even though at some times the exhibits felt like they were aimed at a younger audience, overall I found the museum an interesting experience and I'm glad I visited.

time on tour: 2 hrs
times on tour: 1
overall: B+