smithsonian journey map

My Rock, My Story: Building a Customer Journey Map from Scratch at the Smithsonian

The following post is an excerpt from my book:  Chief Customer Officer 2.0 . Below, I share a “My Rock, My Story” snippet – which is one of many featured throughout the book. These stories come from CCOs who have faced numerous challenges, yet persevered in pushing their metaphorical “rock up the hill” by uniting their leadership teams, working through challenges, and ultimately achieving success in doing so.

In this “My Rock, My Story,” Samir Bitar , Director of the Office of Visitor Services at the Smithsonian Institution , shares how he and his team built the organization’s first customer journey map in order to create a unified understanding of the visitor experience across its many museums and affiliates around the world.

In addition to illuminating the visitor experience, the process of creating the journey map through a workshop allowed leaders and staff across the Smithsonian Institution to understand the importance of Samir’s role, and why focusing on the individual visitor’s experience is key to growth and improvement. As you read, think about what journey mapping might look like in your organization.

I actually interviewed Samir Bitar on my podcast, The Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show , and we talked about his individual journey in this CCO-like role. He shared a lot of great advice and practical takeaways; I encourage you to listen!

Samir Bitar is responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of the Smithsonian’s inaugural visitor experience strategy, which addresses all visitor touch points across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, galleries, and a national zoo.

Build a Customer Journey Map to Make CX Tangible to Leadership and Staff

Samir: The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, nine research centers, and affiliates around the world. Each year we welcome over 30 million visits across our museums. To grasp the totality of the experiences as well as catch important nuances, and begin to build a case for support, I needed to visually depict the experiences of our visitors at our museums. I needed a visitor journey map.

We got started by having a two-day journey-mapping workshop wherein we recorded the end-to-end experiences of Smithsonian visitors. Through the workshop we produced a deceptively simple map that illustrates the before, during, and after visit to the Smithsonian campus and unites us in delivering a “one Smithsonian” experience. As part of this work we established four personas so we could story-tell how the experience of visiting would be different for different types of visitors. These stories make the work we are doing real and personal. The four personas we created are a Spanish-speaking family, a European empty nester couple, a millennial male visiting from New York City, and 12-year-old Elaine on a school trip.

Use Your Customer Journey Map to Clarify the CCO Role and Drive Improvement

Out of this workshop we created a first draft of our visitor journey. It was the first time many of my colleagues had ever seen anything like it. It was mind opening. Journey mapping has organically defined and helped people see what my job is, the role and relevance of my office across the Smithsonian, and offers a punch list of specific tasks that need to be addressed in order to improve the visitor’s experience.

Journey mapping has organically defined and helped people see what my job is, the role and relevance of my office across the organization. It offers a punch list of specific tasks that need to be addressed in order to improve the #CX. Click To Tweet

With the journey map I now have a powerful tool that helps visualize the visitor experience. With the visitor perspective in hand my next step was to understand the perspectives of internal stakeholders, including museum executives, department directors, and front-line staff, including volunteers. Over the course of four months I worked to understand what is unique about the visitor experience at each of the 19 museums and the National Zoo. Out of this, we began building a list of what works and what does not at each location and are now putting into place our fist batch of improvements.

With Samir’s experience in mind, think about the relevance and need for a customer journey map at your organization. Many of the experts I speak with share that developing or improving the customer journey became a large bulk of their CX work. Ultimately, it becomes one of their main tools for understanding how everyone’s work affects one another, what the customer pain points are, and how that can be assuaged. Maybe it’s time to reassess your current customer journey; there’s always improvements to be made.

So, let’s tie journey mapping back to the heart of the 2 nd competency in my  5 Core Competency framework, ‘Align Around Experience.’ By putting the customer’s experience at the center of all decision-making, we earn the right to continue serving our customers and to grow our businesses in turn.

When you’re ready to start journey mapping, here are some tips for success:

• Keep it simple. I recommend starting by mapping a single customer journey, naming the stages of the journey in simple language from the customer’s point of view, and building consensus on the stages across your company’s leadership. Keep it simple. I recommend starting by mapping a single #customerjourney, naming the stages of the journey in simple language from the customer’s point of view, and building consensus on the stages across your company’s leadership. #CX Click To Tweet
• Use your journey map as your go-to diagnostic tool; issues as diverse as customer growth and employee needs should be addressed from the perspective of the customer journey stage. Use your journey map as your go-to diagnostic tool; issues as diverse as customer growth and employee needs should be addressed from the perspective of the customer journey stage. #CX Click To Tweet
• Revisit your journey map frequently; it will be your ultimate guide to continually making customer-centric decisions that lead to growth. Revisit your journey map frequently; it will be your ultimate guide to continually making customer-centric decisions that lead to growth. #CX Click To Tweet

When it’s done well, journey mapping is an enlightening, game-changing process. Tell me about your journey mapping experience in the comments! What kinds of changes has journey mapping sparked in your company? Are you in a CCO-related role? Download the pdf below to cross-reference your job description to ensure you’re doing the most you can to earn customer-driven growth!

• Align Around Experience

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Today is your last chance to enroll in the data visualization academy. this is where you totally change how you think about data., free class october 6: ✨ which viz is it ✨.

Journey maps are some of the most bad-ass visuals I know about. With origins in customer experience and human-centered design, a journey map shows how a client moves through your organization.

Seeing the actual journey a customer takes can be eye-opening for people on staff who only work on one small part of a project. Journey maps can show areas of strength and weakness. They depict the customer’s path.

There are a couple of different contexts for using journey maps, but I find them best used when you’re trying to explore and better understand something that is vague, open-ended, and specific to people’s unique experiences. In both the business and nonprofit industries, it’s easy to be out of touch with your customer.

You build a product or design a program meant to meet demand and need, but are you?  Boat loads of stats can be run on product sales, program metrics, and even survey data, but at the end of the day, we often fall short from getting a true understanding of the people we are trying to serve and what it is like in their shoes.

This is where qualitative methods, specifically journey maps come in handy. In journey mapping, you are essentially mapping a customer or client’s journey through your organization. Every single touchpoint with your organization has an impact on customer’s interest, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Journey maps combine the powerful use of both storytelling and visualization. This process gives power to your customer and clients to create a shared vision and at the end of the day leads to stakeholders and organizations learning more about the experiences of their consumers.

When the Smithsonian Office of Visitor Services mapped out their customer experience with a journey map, they were able to identify pain points for first-time visitors, such as inadequate signage and confusing entry logistics. Samir Bitar, past Director, used this journey map to get support from decision-makers to initiate necessary changes, eventually leading to the acclaimed Trip Planner.

Listen here to an interview with Samir to get the scoop on how this whole thing went down.

You don’t need the resources of the Smithsonian behind you to make your own journey map. It is just that building one requires collecting data in a very specific manner. This is one of the few qualitative examples that is both a visual and data collection method rolled into one.

I partnered on a journey map project with a good friend and colleague of mine from a local non-profit agency that works to empower young women of color in middle and high school. We got a group of stakeholders from her organization’s leadership together for the journey mapping session. Together, they worked to build a shared understanding of their client’s journeys.

To start, each person in the room brainstormed touchpoints along the journey. Each touchpoint was written on a sticky note. As a group, we then organized the touchpoints along a continuum or journey, starting with things like initiatives they have to build awareness for their program and their formal intake process.

Touchpoint by touchpoint, they began rating each one based on their understanding of their client’s experience. Each touchpoint got a rating of 1-5, with 1 meaning that touchpoint needs a lot of work and 5 meaning they rock it. Imagine the 5-point scale is on the y-axis and the touchpoints arranged along the continuum according to their rating.

At the end of the session, we had a visual starting to show the peaks of successes and valleys of opportunities for improvement.

Now, to be true to the journey map process, you do not have to move the visual beyond this point.  Your organization’s commitment to the process, budget, and time will all factor into how much effort you put into formalizing the collective journey. If you do choose to formalize the visual, all you need is PowerPoint and some time to insert boxes, lines, and text.

Before the journey map was visualized, staff had a hard time thinking through all the touchpoints their participants experienced from the program, let alone being able to rate them on how well the program was managing and executing the different components.

After looking at the visualized map, it became clear that touchpoints with the lower ratings actually happened more at the beginning of programming.

When looking further, they realized that some of the lower rating items were actually easy fixes. They could easily assign an intern to create a community referral packet that gives staff resources on how to refer participants to other community resources when they need it – things like mental health services, food banks, etc.

Going forward, staff plan to use this journey map to help in their strategic planning process. For example, if they want to focus on long-term engagement for participants, they can see that the touchpoints in that section were rated pretty low and they will need more program staff and resources dedicated to improving that part of their programming.

Overall, the process helped them identify how to use resources more effectively. They found that time-intensive and resource-dependent activities were being executed really well, but that they simply lacked some of the capacity to strengthen things they felt they weren’t doing so well.

This helped them identify gaps in staff time, professional development and training, and the need to make space for more roles.

Journey maps are so cool. I have even more ideas for graphing qualitative data, too. Download my Qualitative Chart Chooser.

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Smithsonian Museums Maps and Directions

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These maps serve as a guide to show the locations of the  Smithsonian Museums  in Washington, DC. Although most of the museums are located on the  National Mall  from 3rd to 14th Streets between Constitution and Independence Avenues, several of them are scattered in other parts of the city.

The National Mall

This map shows the locations of the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall. The National Museum of African American History , the National Museum of American History , and the National Museum of Natural History are located on the north side of the National Mall, between Madison Dr. NW and Constitution Avenue. The Smithsonian Castle , the Sackler Freer Gallery , the National Museum of African Art , the Hirshhorn Museum , the Air and Space Museum , and the National Museum of the American Indian are located on the south side between Jefferson Dr. SW and Independence Avenue SW. 

American Art Museums Map

The Renwick Gallery is located at 70 9th St. NW, Washington, DC , just north of the White House . The  National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum are located at 8th and F Streets NW., Washington, DC in the Penn Quarter neighborhood near the Verizon Center. 

National Postal Museum Map

The National Postal Museum is located at 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, DC next to Union Station .

Udvar Hazy Center Map

The Udvar-Hazy Center is located near Dulles International Airport at 14390 Air & Space Museum Pkwy, Chantilly, VA.

Directions: Take VA-267 W toward Dulles Airport , Exit 9A for VA-28 S, merge onto Virginia 28 S, Take the Air and Space Museum Pkwy W exit.

There is no direct Metro service to the Udvar-Hazy Center. You may take a combination of MetroRail and/or MetroBus .

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Washington, D.C. National Mall Maps and Information

Dulles International Airport Guide

Union Station Map and Directions: Washington DC

Guide to Public Transportation in Washington, D.C.

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See our hours and admission information and safety protocols to plan your visit. Timed-entry passes are required at several locations.

Your 2024 smithsonian pocket guide, amazing things happen here.

From our museums in Washington, DC and New York City, to our traveling exhibitions in venues closer to home, to our website and mobile apps, you will always find something worthwhile to discover and enjoy. This 2024 pocket guide offers a small sample of the thousands of things to see and do at the Smithsonian this year, all made possible thanks to the support of people like you.

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Tap to zoom, smithsonian museums located on or near the national mall in washington, dc, located elsewhere in washington, dc, and virginia, located in new york city, featured exhibitions.

In its new pose devouring a Triceratops, the Nation's T. rex is the centerpiece of the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time .

The david h. koch hall of fossils - deep time.

June 8, 2019 - Permanent, National Museum of Natural History The new David H. Koch Hall of Fossils showcases the museum's unrivaled collection of 46 million fossils re-positioned in new, dramatic, more scientifically-accurate positions, and presents the most up-to-date scientific research on how life on Earth has evolved. Find out more » Take me there »

Freedom papers and handmade tin carrying box belonging to Joseph Trammell, 1852. Gift of Elaine E. Thompson

Slavery and freedom.

September 24, 2016 - Permanent, National Museum of African American History and Culture As the centerpiece of the museum, this exhibition explores the complex story of slavery and freedom, a story standing at the core of our national experience. Find out more » Take me there »

Photo: Joel Barlow

Many voices, one nation the great leap of faith.

Summer 2017 - Permanent, National Museum of American History At the heart of this nation lies a great search for balance between unity and pluralism. Many Voices: One Nation presents the five-hundred-year journey of how many distinct peoples and cultures met, mingled and created the culture of the United States. Find out more » Take me there »

Photo: Indian Chief motorcycle on loan from the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Birmingham, Alabama. Photos by Matailong Du for the National Museum of the American Indian

January 18, 2018 – 2027, National Museum of the American Indian American Indian represent less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet names and images of Indians are everywhere: military weapons, town names, advertising and that holiday in November. American invites visitors to take a closer look, and to ask why. Find out more » Take me there »

Julie Packard by Hope Gangloff. Acrylic on Canvas, 2019. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; funded by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Board of Trustees. Copyright Hope Gangloff

Star power: photographs from hollywood’s golden era by george hurrell.

March 1, 2024 - January 5, 2025, National Portrait Gallery Widely regarded as the preeminent Hollywood portrait photographer of the 1930s and 1940s, George Hurrell (1904-1992) created definitive, timeless images of many of the most glamorous figures of filmdom’s golden era. Hurrell began his Hollywood career in 1930 as a photographer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio (founded in 1924) that claimed to have “more stars than there are in heaven.” With a keen eye for lighting effects and artful posing, he developed a style of presentation that magnified the stars and influenced popular standards of glamour. Advancing rapidly to become MGM’s in-house portraitist, he produced memorable images of film royalty, from Greta and Clark Gable to Spencer Tracy and Joan Crawford. He established his own studio on Sunset Boulevard in 1933, where he continued to photograph actors for MGM as well as those under contract with other major studios. After closing his studio in 1938, Hurrell concluded the decade as the head of photography for Warner Bros. Selected from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection by senior curator of photographs Ann Shumard, this exhibition features golden-era portraits that reveal Hurrell’s skill in shaping the images of Hollywood’s brightest stars. Find out more » Take me there »

William H. Johnson, Crispus Attucks, ca. 1945, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1983.95.53

Fighters for freedom: william h. johnson and the struggle for social justice.

March 8, 2024 - September 8, 2024, Smithsonian American Art Museum William H. Johnson painted the Fighters for Freedom series in the mid-1940s as a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international heads of state working to bring peace to the world. The exhibition Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson and the Struggle for Social Justice is drawn entirely from the collection of more than 1,000 works by William H. Johnson given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by the Harmon Foundation in 1967 and reminds us that individual achievement and commitment to social justice are at the heart of the American story. Find out more » Take me there »

Artist and art professor Lois Mailou Jones (19051998) in her classroom at Howard University (c. 1930s), where she taught and mentored students for nearly 50 years. Credit: Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Bold and beautiful vision: a century of black arts education in washington, dc, 19002000.

March 23, 2024 March 2, 2025, Anacostia Community Museum Outside the spotlight of the nation’s major museums and galleries, and in a longtime segregated school system, African American artist-educators in twentieth-century Washington, D.C., achieved the extraordinary. Unified not by a singular aesthetic vision but by a bold and deeply held commitment to inspiring a love of the arts in young people, these artists shared their gifts with their students in the face of the seemingly insurmountable challenges of underfunding, overcrowding, and being overlooked. Some of the country’s most gifted artists taught and were taught in Washington’s educational institutions, from small community centers to university classrooms. They included such visionaries whose names are today both well-known and not-so-well-known: Elizabeth Catlett, Alma Thomas, James A. Porter, Loïs Mailou Jones, David Driskell, Hilda Wilkinson Brown, Thomas Hunster, and Georgette Seabrooke Powell, to name only a few. This exhibition traces the story of the teachers and students who made Washington, D.C., a truly unparalleled center for Black arts education. A Bold and Beautiful Vision features captivating original artworks, rare video footage, and awe-inspiring artistic artifacts, like Alma Thomas’s paintbrushes and watercolor paint set, an early 20th-century lifelike marionette that William Buckner made with his local high school students, original Elizabeth Catlett prints that once hung in the halls of her Washington high school, and Sam Gilliam artwork from the period when he was teaching at McKinley Technical High School. Come see the artwork and hear the voices of the African American artist-educators who enriched the lives of many generations of Washington’s young people and who—along with their students—produced work admired by audiences across the globe. Find out more » Take me there »

Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints

March 23, 2024 - October 6, 2024, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Throughout Japanese cultural history, the boundary between the real world and the world of supernatural beings has been remarkably porous. Certain sites, states of mind, or periods in the lunar cycle made humans particularly vulnerable to ghostly intervention. The Edo period (1603-1868) was a crucial stage in the development and solidification of ideas about the supernatural. Many of the beliefs that gained currency at this time are still held as conventional wisdom in Japan today. Supernatural entities came to life especially during noh and kabuki theater performances. Explore—if you dare—the roles that ghosts and spirits play in the retelling of Japanese legends and real events. Staging the Supernatural brings together a collection of vibrant, colorful woodblock prints and illustrated books depicting the specters that haunt these two theatrical traditions. Find out more » Take me there »

CLOSING SOON

Lily Hope, Memorial Beats , 2021, thigh-spun merino and cedar bark with copper, headphones, and audio files, 16 x 4 x 10 in., The Hope Family Trust. Photo by Sydney Akagi

Sharing honors and burdens: renwick invitational 2023.

May 26, 2023 - March 31, 2024, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum The Renwick Invitational 2023 features artists Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiat), Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy), and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe). Together, these artists present a fresh and nuanced vision of Native American art. The artists were selected for their work that expresses the honors and burdens that Native artists balance as they carry forward their cultural traditions. These artists highlight principles of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility through their work that addresses themes of environmentalism, displacement, and cultural connectedness. Find out more » Take me there »

Little Richard. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. G. Marshall Wilson (1905-1998). Little Richard praying on the steps of a church. Brooklyn, New York, New York, 1957

Spirit in the dark: religion in black music, activism, and popular culture.

November 18, 2022 - April 7, 2024 , National Museum of African American History and Culture Spirit in the Dark examines Black religious life through a selection of photographs from the Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony , Jet , and Negro Digest . The images in the exhibition spotlight noteworthy individuals—including religious and political leaders, musicians, authors, athletes, activists, and educators—and uplift objects from the museum’s collection, many on display for the first time. Together they reflect diverse aspects of the Black religious experience and testify to the role religion has played in the struggle for human dignity and social equality. Find out more » Take me there »

Frederick Douglass by an unidentified artist. Oil on canvas, 1845. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

One life: frederick douglass.

June 16, 2023 - April 21, 2024, National Portrait Gallery One Life: Frederick Douglass illuminates the legacy of one of the 19th century’s most influential writers, speakers and intellectuals through prints, photographs, and ephemera. After escaping slavery in 1838, Douglass published three autobiographies and a novella, delivered thousands of speeches, and edited the longest continually running Black newspaper of the 19th century. Always a radical activist, Douglass devoted his life to abolitionism and “all rights for all.” A political insider and policy influencer during the Civil War, he befriended and advised President Lincoln. Crucially, Douglass changed traditional rules of representation by explaining how “true art” (as opposed to insidious caricatures) could be an engine of social change. Find out more » Take me there »

Left to right: Ritual wine pouring vessel (gong) with masks (taotie), dragons, and real animals, Anyang or middle Yangzi region, ca. 1100 B.C., bronze, Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer, F1961.33ab; Ritual wine-pouring vessel (gong) with masks (taotie) and dragons, middle or late Anyang period, ca. 1100 B.C., bronze, Gift of Arthur M. Sackler, S1987.279ab; Ritual wine-pouring vessel (gong) with masks (taotie), dragons, and real animals, middle Anyang period, ca. 11501100 B.C., bronze, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1939.53ab (National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Anyang: china's ancient city of kings.

February 25, 2023 - April 28, 2024 , Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Anyang: China’s Ancient City of Kings is the first major exhibition in the United States dedicated to Anyang, the capital of China’s Shang dynasty (occupied ca. 1250 BCE-ca. 1050 BCE). The source of China’s earliest surviving written records and the birthplace of Chinese archaeology, Anyang holds a special connection with the National Museum of Asian Art. In 1929, one year after Academia Sinica began archaeological work at the Bronze Age site, Li Chi assumed leadership of the excavations. At the time, he was also a staff member of the Freer Gallery of Art (192530). To promote archaeological practice in China, the Freer supported Li Chi and his first two seasons of work at Anyang. This collaboration, predicated on the advancement of scientific knowledge and the protection of cultural patrimony, marks an important chapter in the history of Sino-American relations. Anyang: China’s Ancient City of Kings features over two hundred remarkable artifacts—including jade ornaments, ceremonial weapons, ritual bronze vessels, bells, and chariot fittings—drawn exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection. Explore the early development of Chinese writing, enduring ritual practices, innovations in weaponry and warfare, advances in design and manufacturing, and the highly personal spaces of tombs, including objects chosen for the afterlife. The exhibition includes a series of digital activations developed in partnership with award-winning production studio UNIT9 that allows visitors to dive deeper into the life of the city. Find out more » Take me there »

WHERE TO EAT

Mitsitam Café

National Museum of the American Indian This cafe features Native foods found throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso America and the Great Plains. Find out more » Take me there »

Sweet Home Café

National Museum of African American History and Culture Sweet Home Café showcases the rich culture and history of the African American people with traditional, authentic offerings as well as present-day food traditions. * Access to the museum is limited and entry pass may be required Find out more » Take me there »

Castle Café

Smithsonian Castle An assortment of fresh baked goods, gelato and fresh fruit makes the Castle Café the perfect place for a quick snack. The café also offers a seasonal selection of sandwiches, salads, and soups. Find out more » Take me there »

Dolcezza at the Hirshhorn

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden Located in the courtyard of the museum, Dolcezza offers locally sourced and handcrafted gelato, specialty espresso drinks, and gourmet pastries in a stunning contemporary setting designed by world-renowned artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. Find out more » Take me there »

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

Dancers in a field for the Farm Art D'Tour in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Courtesy Wormfarm Institute.

Spark places of innovation.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, Kentucky March 2, 2024 - March 30, 2024 The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem solvers. Sometimes we invent. More often, we innovate, introducing a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking. Rural Americans are creating new products, processes and experiences that change local life and sometimes reach far beyond. Yet, invention and innovation truly flourishes in some places and not others. Why? Spark! Places of Innovation will be the springboard for diverse local programming in the humanities, sciences, and arts. Visitors will be inspired to learn about innovation has shaped their own communities and how they may be innovators themselves. This exhibition will be an opportunity for community members to come together in conversation around their community’s history, present, and future with innovation. Find out more » See tour schedule »

US Department of the Interior/Bureau of Reclamation

Buffalo County Historical Society, Kearney, Nebraska March 2, 2024 - May 12, 2024 Water/Ways dives into water—an essential component of life on our planet, environmentally, culturally, and historically. In societies across the globe, water serves as a source of peace and contemplation. Many faiths revere water as a sacred symbol. Authors and artists are inspired by the complex character of water—a substance that is seemingly soft and graceful, and yet a powerful and nearly unstoppable force. Water also plays a practical role in American society. The availability of water affected settlement and migration patterns. Access to water and control of water resources have long been a central part of political and economic planning. Human creativity and resourcefulness provide new ways of protecting water resources and renewing respect for the natural environment. Find out more » See tour schedule »

Downtown Lanesboro, Minnesota - photo by Heather Shelton

Crossroads: change in rural america.

Yampa-Egeria Historical Society, Yampa, Colorado

March 11, 2024 - April 20, 2024 In 1900, about 40% of Americans lived in rural areas, By 2010, less than 18% of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. In just over a century, massive economic and social changes moved millions of Americans into urban areas. Yet, only 10% of the U.S. landmass is considered urban. Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred. Find out more » See tour schedule »

X-ray Vision: Fish Inside Out

University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska

March 12, 2024 - May 12, 2024 The Smithsonian’s National Collection of Fishes is the largest and most diverse collection of its kind, with an estimated four million individual fish specimens representing more than 70 percent of the world’s fish species. Encompassing males, females, juveniles, larvae, and even eggs, these specimens serve as a historical record of fish biodiversity and a working reference library for scientists around the world. The exhibition includes the digital files for 40 dramatic digital prints, which are paired with illustrated labels that explore the scientific, environmental, and photographic relevance of each specimen. Interpretive panels describe how the study of fish skeletons, fin spines, and teeth helps scientists differentiate one species from another and examine fish anatomy and evolutionary development. Other panels document the process of scientific digital image preparation and explore the critical role of such collection data in understanding the long-term effects of climate and planetary change on diverse species. Find out more » See tour schedule »

ONLINE RESOURCES

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Download Washington, D.C., area Museum Map (PDF) »

Ten Smithsonian museums are located around the perimeter of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., from 3rd to 15th Streets between Constitution and Independence Avenues, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km). Four additional Smithsonian museums are located within a mile and a half (2.4 km) of the National Mall, and three other Smithsonian museums are in surrounding neighborhoods accessible by public transportation.

Download our  Accessibility Map (PDF)  for accessible entrances, parking, and more.

Congress established two new museums in 2020. Visit the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum websites to learn more.

Floor Plans

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A Michigan Hunter Thought He Killed a Large Coyote. It Turned Out to Be an Endangered Gray Wolf

Wildlife officials believe the animal was likely the first gray wolf spotted in the southern Lower Peninsula in 100 years

Daily Correspondent

In January, a hunter shot and killed what he thought was a large coyote in southwest Michigan. Now, however, genetic testing has revealed that the animal was actually an endangered gray wolf—the first member of the species spotted in the region in at least a century, reports MLive.com ’s Brad Devereaux.

It’s not clear how or why the animal ended up so far south. Michigan does have an established gray wolf ( Canis lupus ) population, but the creatures are located hundreds of miles away on the state’s Upper Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula are separated by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, with only the Mackinac Bridge connecting them.

Wildlife officials are still scratching their heads about the wolf’s presence in Calhoun County, which is located about 115 miles west of Detroit. But they say they have no reason to believe that gray wolves are establishing a population on the Lower Peninsula.

“How did it get here?” Brian Roell, a biologist and large carnivore specialist for Michigan's Department of Natural Resources (DNR), tells MLive.com, adding that the interloper was likely “just a one-off kind of thing.”

Wolves are occasionally spotted in the northern Lower Peninsula—including most recently in 2014, when biologists with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians saw a wolf on a trail camera and later confirmed its presence by analyzing DNA from its scat. But the animals haven’t been seen in the southern Lower Peninsula “since the likely extirpation of wolves from the state in the early part of the 20th century,” per a statement from the DNR.

GPS collars have shown that wolves sometimes travel thousands of miles, roaming far outside their home territory.

"They don't have a map," says Shawn Riley, an emeritus professor of fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University, to the Detroit News ’ Carol Thompson and Charles E. Ramirez. "They're just following their senses, so they can end up in all kinds of situations."

The wolf may have walked to the southern Lower Peninsula on its own. But it’s also possible that “it had some help getting there,” Roell tells the Detroit News .

Meanwhile, the hunter’s killing of the animal is under investigation. Gray wolves are protected throughout most of the United States, including in Michigan, under the Endangered Species Act. The federal law prohibits the “ taking ” of protected wildlife, an umbrella term that includes killing, capturing, harassing, shooting, wounding and other types of conduct that might harm the animal.

Investigators are looking into the circumstances surrounding the gray wolf’s death. The hunter was accompanied by a guide on a legal coyote hunt at the time of the incident, and he reported the kill to wildlife officials.

DNR staffers analyzed and weighed the animal’s carcass. The creature was much larger than a coyote: It weighed 84 pounds, whereas coyotes typically weigh between 25 and 40 pounds, per the statement. Genetic testing also confirmed it to be a gray wolf.

To the untrained eye, coyotes and wolves look a lot alike. However, coyotes typically have slimmer builds , narrower snouts and smaller paws than wolves; their ears also seem proportionately larger and pointier.

In addition to these distinguishing physical characteristics, coyotes are more widespread and can live in a wide array of different habitats. They’re much more likely to be seen in areas occupied by humans, whereas wolves typically try to steer clear of human activity.

An estimated 631 wolves live on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to the latest count . A small population is also making a comeback at nearby Isle Royale National Park, an archipelago in northwestern Lake Superior.

Wolves used to roam freely throughout Michigan. However, after the arrival of European settlers, their numbers began to dwindle because of hunting and habitat destruction, according to the International Wolf Center . A bounty was established in 1838 and, by 1910, gray wolves had disappeared from the Lower Peninsula.

In the Upper Peninsula, meanwhile, gray wolf numbers also declined—dropping to as low as one individual in 1959. The state repealed the bounty in 1960 and, five years later, “granted the wolf full protection by law,” according to the International Wolf Center. The animals received federal protection in 1974.

Wolves have been reintroduced in several states and regions in recent decades, including Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and, more recently, Colorado in December 2023 . Their reintroduction is often controversial, pitting ranchers against conservationists.

More broadly, the federal protection of gray wolves has also been a source of debate. In late 2020 , gray wolves were taken off the federal endangered list. Fifteen months later, in February 2022, they were re-listed in most of the lower 48 states.

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Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.