Dupont Circle: Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe

by Kelly Amabile on

While I’ve got D.C. on my mind, it’s best I mention one of the coolest bookstores in town: Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe is probably the first indy bookstore I’ve been to where the cafe is bigger than the bookstore. Actually, the first time I visited this Dupont Circle landmark, it was a dark summer evening and we sat outside and had dinner on the restaurant side. I didn’t even know there was a bookstore on the other side.

This could mean that some folks who enter from the bookstore side are so immersed in their browsing that they don’t notice the cafe in the back…doubtful, but I guess still a possibility?! The point is, my dear readers, that regardless of which side you enter from, be sure to partake in both halves of this wonderful bookstore cafe, which recently celebrated 30 years in the biz.

Besides the bookshop and cafe, there is an adjoining bar and live music performances. I’ve heard great things about their Sunday brunch, and I can report that the generous serving of cinnamon ice cream is worth the trip alone. Do you need any more reasons to visit?

Art & Architecture at D.C.’s Charles Sumner School

by Kelly Amabile on

Directly across the street from the headquarters of National Geographic at the corner of 17th and M Streets in downtown D.C. is a historic museum and art space worth checking out if you happen to be in that part of town. I’m guessing it may get overlooked a lot — at first glance, I thought it was a church, and almost walked by without stopping.

Named for the abolitionist senator from Massachusetts, The Charles Sumner School was designed by influential German architect and education advocate Adolf Cluss, who immigrated to the US in 1848. The building, one of Cluss’ famous model schools, was originally opened in 1872 and served as the first permanent school for African American children in Washington, D.C. It was restored in the mid-1980’s and currently houses the official Archives of the D.C. Public Schools.

It’s definitely possible to walk by this place and miss it. But a colorful banner displayed outside caught my eye, so I stepped inside for a look:

There are currently two globally-focused art exhibits on display at the museum. The first is Friends Forever Zimbabwe, a collection of stone pieces by master sculptors from the African nation. This sales exhibition features and promotes the work of 17 artists, including 1st generation artist Edward Chiwawa and 3rd generation sculptor Ennica Mukomberanwa.

This traveling show has been reproduced several times in cities across the globe over the past few years. Each time a group of selected sculptures are ready for shipment, they are first put up as an outdoor exhibition at Friends Forever’s headquarter in Ruwa, east of Harare, Zimbabwe. This current exhibit runs through June 30.

The second exhibit is a sprawling collection of work by Nilo M. Santiago, a former Air Force illustrator and Philippine native who immigrated to the US in 1964. Santiago’s work fills two rooms and a wide hallway on the second floor of the museum. As the official artist of the United States Air Force, Nilo painted aviation arts, murals, portraits and anything else Air Force related. He is a member of the American Society of Aviation Artists (who knew such a thing existed?)

Santiago earned a fine arts degree from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and eventually found work in the US as a designer. In 1976 he began work for the Air Force, and stayed with them until his retirement in 2003 (except for an 8-year stint at the Navy.) Over 200 of his paintings are in the Air Force Art Collection, on display at the Pentagon and military bases around the world.

Several of Santiago’s collections are influenced by Japanese and Chinese art forms, and there is also a series called “My Philippines” inspired by a return trip he took to Manila after 37 years in the US. The Sumner Museum’s colorful retrospective of oils, watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings by this award winning artist is sponsored by the Philippine Embassy and will be on display through July 23.

A third exhibit on display until the end of June is titled “Center of Attention”, and features the photography of Eduardo Gyles.

The Charles Sumner Museum is open to the public free of charge Monday-Saturday, 10:00am to 5:00pm; the archives are open by appointment only to researchers, scholars and students from Tuesday through Saturday 9:00am to 3:30pm (202-442-6046). The closest Metro stop is Farragut North and Dupont Circle is also only a short walk away.

Interested in Air Traffic Control? Watch this.

by Justin Glow on


There are roughly 15,000 air-traffic controllers orchestrating over 55,000 commercial flights per day in the U.S. alone. It’s no wonder the position is called “the most stressful job in the world,” where “one mistake — one slip of the tongue — can lead to disaster.” Check out the short documentary above, which interviews air traffic controllers in Washington Dulles International Airport, “the second busiest trans-Atlantic gateway on the Eastern Seaboard,” scheduling roughly one take-off or landing per minute.

Interested in becoming an air traffic controller? Read this. [via]

National Geographic Society: Museum at Explorers Hall

by Kelly Amabile on

Another cool thing to do at the headquarters of National Geographic is to visit the Museum at Explorers Hall, which offers free admission to a variety of rotating exhibits throughout the year.

Currently showing is Maps: Tools for Adventure, produced by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis in collaboration with National Geographic. It’s a super cool interactive exhibit for explorers of all ages, but of course, kids will especially love it.

The exhibit features a variety of hands-on games and displays all about maps and the people who use them. There are special presentations about mapping basics, how maps are made and how they have been used by different folks throughout the years, like this one about pilot Amelia Earhart:

Other adventurous explorers featured in the exhibit include a wildlife biologist, Hawaiian wayfinder, shipwreck explorer, Egyptian archaeologist and several NASA scientists. Kids have to hit a GPS button to begin each video presentation. And as they move through the different presentations, children and adults learn about the latest mapping technologies and see how the use of maps has evolved from the days of Lewis & Clark to modern time:

There’s a fun companion website to the exhibit, as well as a geographic education awareness website called My Wonderful World that parents, teachers and kids can use to learn even more. The actual Maps exhibit at Explorers Hall runs through the end of July. (It moves on to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry in November.)

Two other exhibits at the National Geographic headquarters — photo presentations on Uganda and Chad — will be on display through September. Be sure to navigate yourself to Explorers Hall sometime soon. All you need is a good map:

National Geographic Society: Library Resources

by Kelly Amabile on

On the first floor of one of the main buildings that make up National Geographic’s Headquarters is an impressive library whose primary purpose is to provide National Geographic staff with the resources and information they need to do their jobs. For example, the team that creates the annual Geography Bee questions uses this library frequently.

What many folks may not know, however, is that members of the public are welcome to make an appointment to visit the library with their own specific research needs. This service could be particularly useful for travel writers looking to access National Geographic’s extensive archives. Or a traveler gearing up for a big trip might enjoy an hour or two of digging through the library’s special guidebooks room. Take a look at this place, packed wall-to-wall with every guidebook imaginable:

There are complete collections of Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Thomas Cook, Insight, Eyewitness, Time Out, Bradt, Odyssey, Fodors, Moon and Rick Steves guides. And I’m sure there are more…this is just what I was able to notice in my few moments thumbing through the colorful shelves:

The NGS Library Collections contain over 50,000 books, 200 journal titles and six million documents, manuscripts and personal papers in the archives. In addition to stacks of books about every corner of the globe, there are sections that cover topics like geology, agricultural economics, sea voyages, costumes, recreation, aeronautics and raising animals.

The staff librarians are very friendly. I spoke to at least five of them in my short visit, and all were very willing to help and answer my questions. Of course, I had to ask them to tell me about some of the most challenging research requests they have ever received — One librarian shared a story about an obscure request she got from some folks at National Geographic Television who were trying to verify the existence of a transgender religious sect in Kashmir. Just a typical day on the job for a NGS librarian!

If you’d like to take advantage of National Geographic’s library resources, there are two things you can do before even making a visit. Be sure to access their online databases to do preliminary research about a topic or location of interest:

Let’s say you are planning a trip to India. You can first search the Publications Index to see which National Geographic magazines, newsletters, books, etc. have made mention of the country. Next, you can search the Library Catalog, to see which resources (published by NGS and others) are actually on the shelves at the library.

As another of the staff librarians explained to me, folks should be able to find many of these resources in their own public libraries, but possibly not as comprehensive or conveniently gathered as the all-in-one collection located at the NGS stacks. Definitely check out the online resources and consider making an appointment to visit if you have a specific travel-related topic to research.