I stumbled on two excellent temporary exhibits while in Washington today. The first is at the Natural History Museum. It details the forensics of the earliest settlers of the Va. Company. Those of you interested in the early colonial period will be pleased to see bones and artifacts you've read about. There is a complete reconstruction of a co. captain, complete with a reproduction leading staff modeled on one found with his remains. there's an excavated baskethilt sword as well. great stuff.

The other exhibit is at the east wing of the National Gallery of Art http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/pastranainfo.shtm
These tapestries are incredible resources for students of arms and armour. these are huge and literally wall-to-wall with depictions of late 15th c. arms and armour. There's
a nice catalog ($75 there, $50 at Amazon) but it doesn't compare to standing there looking at the figures in the tapestries.

If you're here anyway, walk down the street to the Museum of the American
Indian, with its nice collection of colonial-era swords.

all are free!

I was in DC all week, I just arrived back in FL today, wish I saw this earlier! Also of interest if you're willing to make the trip in the DC area... I visited my alma mater on Tuesday and gave the wife a tour of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. They have a wonderful museum on campus of US Naval History and have a surprising number of swords and weapons from American Revolutionary War era and beyond. They also had a very interesting cuirass that was believed to have belonged to John Paul Jones (not the brilliant musician from Led Zeppelin :) ) I took some shots with my cell phone, unfortunately it was rainy in Annapolis that day and I left my real camera in the car. It's only about 1 hr east of DC if you can provide your own transportation. It's located inside Preble Hall on the yard itself. Not quite in DC, but worth the trip if you have any interest in early US Naval arms.

Two places in DC are folks don't think about are the Society of Cincinattus (officers of the Revolutionary war) which hosts great presentations and the Masonic Washington Monument in Alexandria also has a really neat collection

Unfortunately I just left DC yesterday, so can't see this stuff, but already posted my thoughts on the National Geographic Museum Anglo Saxon hoard here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=23830