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Museums Off the Beaten Path

Jewelry, Civil War-Era Medicine, Jewish Vets Await the Intrepid Museum-Goer

Anxious to hide your rookie status on Capitol Hill? Relax — Roll Call has a way to put you on a par with even the longest-serving Members. You may not have heard of any of the following five museums, but suggest them to any visitor and you are sure to look like a Washington insider.

The Bead Museum

For a unique look into ancient and modern human civilizations, visitors should head to the Bead Museum near the National Archives. Founded in 1995 in conjunction with the Bead Society of Greater Washington, the museum displays an extensive collection of beads as a window into different cultures.

“Sometimes I get people who ask me, ‘What is this?’” said Victor Steele, operations manager of the Bead Museum. “Everything in here is a bead.”

Although the museum occupies only one room on the ground

floor of an office building, the space is packed with beads and resources sure to interest any bead enthusiast.

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