By Candyce H. Stapen Washington, D.C., is not just any city. It's the nation's capital — and that makes all the difference. No other place will celebrate America's 250th anniversary quite like it will be celebrated here.

MALL ENTRANCE CLOSURE: Note: The museum’s Mall Entrance at Madison Drive, between 12th and 14th Streets, will remain closed due to building maintenance through Feb. 24. Visitors will be directed to the Constitution Ave. Entrance. For safety reasons, buses should still unload and pick up passengers on Madison Drive. Check the website for updates.

Florida A&M University is having its presence debuted at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

A White House official helping lead the Trump administration’s sweeping audit of the Smithsonian accused the institution’s Washington museums of putting too much focus on slavery. “The fact that our country was involved in slavery is awful.

The Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia is shedding wood flakes at the Smithsonian. Conservators race to preserve the 1776 Lake Champlain shipwreck.

WASHINGTON D.C., DC — High school history teacher Katharina Matro often pulls materials from the Smithsonian Institution website as she assembles her lessons. She trusts its materials, which don't require the same level of vetting as other online resources.

Many a socialite visited Ann Lowe’s Gowns, a salon on Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue, in the 1950s. The daughter and granddaughter of African American seamstresses, Lowe designed the wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Bouvier when she married John F. Kennedy in 1953.

Melania Trump offered some nonsensical context for the dress she wore to her husband’s second inauguration. During a ceremony in which her inaugural dress was donated to the Smithsonian, Melania, 55,