# The best museums in Washington, D.C. that aren't Smithsonian

Beyond the Mall's free giants: the Phillips, the Holocaust Museum, Planet Word and more, according to locals and travel writers.

- 55 votes · 13 items
- Mar 25, 2026 · N. Green
- https://even.best/en/l/2439/the-best-museums-in-washington-d-c-that-aren-t-smithsonian

## Top 13

1. **United States Holocaust Memorial Museum** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — The permanent exhibition, open since 1993.
2. **The Phillips Collection** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — America's first modern art museum, with Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party.
3. **International Spy Museum** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Gadgets and spycraft at L'Enfant Plaza.
4. **Planet Word** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Interactive museum of language in the Franklin School.
5. **National Gallery of Art** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Free, federal and not Smithsonian: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci.
6. **National Building Museum** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Architecture shows in a vast columned hall.
7. **Dumbarton Oaks** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Byzantine and pre-Columbian art and terraced gardens.
8. **Ford's Theatre** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Where Lincoln was shot, with museum and Petersen House.
9. **Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Marjorie Merriweather Post's Fabergé and gardens.
10. **National Museum of Women in the Arts** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Art by women from the Renaissance on.
11. **Museum of the Bible** (1 · ▲3 ▼2) — Six floors near the Mall with a rooftop garden.
12. **Folger Shakespeare Library** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — The world's largest Shakespeare collection.
13. **Kreeger Museum** (0 · ▲2 ▼2) — Impressionists in a Philip Johnson house.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.