As a News Nerd, there’s no other museum I needed to visit on my recent Washington, DC trip more than The Newseum.

I’m actually surprised how many people haven’t heard of it before…because it’s awesome!

It’s me at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

I grabbed my news junkie and reporter friend Jackie and we hit the museum bright and early, beating most of the crowds.

Basically, this is a huge building telling the history of news, back from the pre-printing press all the way to the twitter of today.  There are a lot of amazing exhibits, like “Every Four Years: Presidential Campaigns and the Press.”  This exhibit showcased how the news follows the elections, and also showed some interesting things from the reporters/photographer perspective that people may not often think about.  Like this:

Newseum Election Display

This is a plastic bin filled with hotel keys.  What you may not realize is that these are keys from a CNN cameraman collected from 1,208 hotel rooms while on the presidential campaign trail from 1996 to 2008.  I’m glad I’m not the only one who saves these things!

Election and Saturday Night Live

Of course, a salute to Saturday Night Live that has historically helped in electing a president.  Including these gems:

The Palin & Clinton SNL suits (and glasses) as worn by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live on display at The Newseum.

There’s a lot of special exhibits which are amazing.  There’s almost a part two of the FBI Headquarters tour I got to go on the day before.  The FBI exhibit here is pretty hardcore.

G-Men and Journalists exhibit at The Newseum in Washington, DC.

It features engines from the planes used on September 11th, items from the Waco standoff as well as the actual house from the Unabomber.  It’s pretty amazing, and all told from the angle of press coverage.

Newseum September 11 exhibit

There are also a lot of interactive elements throughout the area.  The most popular, the ‘Be A Reporter’ exhibit.  I thought it would be funny if my reporter friend tried:

Jackie wants to Be a Reporter at the Newseum.

It’s a pretty cool area where a lot of different people can pick a type of news and read from a teleprompter.

You can be a reporter at The Newseum.

And let’s not forget the gift shop.  Two gift shops actually!  There are a lot of great things to buy – but this shirt might just say it all:

News Junkie Shirt