Heart of a 26-year-old man, perforated by a bullet, New York, 1937
New York City Medical Examiner's Collection
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.

You've been to DC, seen the major sights and are ready for more.

How about some of the hidden, quirky places that give the city a little extra flavor?

Get up close and personal with the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The anatomy exhibit includes remains of Lincoln (a skull fragment and hair), John Wilkes Booth and James A. Garfield, as well as other preserved organs and bones.

For the full gross-out effect, spend time in the "Human Body, Human Being" exhibit. Visitors can see an elephantiasis-infected leg, compare the lungs of a smoker and a coal miner, and see a hairball that was removed from the stomach of a 12-year-old compulsive hair chewer. 

An interesting exhibit on battlefield surgery traces how far medicine has come, with displays of bandages, surgical sets and prosthetic limbs through the ages. Walking away, you are certainly glad to not be a wounded soldier during the Civil War -- ouch!

German Enigma Machine
Wikimedia Commons

Are you the next James Bond? Find out while visiting the National Cryptologic Museum, run by the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland. This small museum -- the only one officially run by the Intelligence community --  houses thousands of artifacts and shows of they were used to break codes, uncover spies and keep America safe. An extensive library, open to public viewing by appointment, is a valuable resource with both paper and oral histories.

Exhibits cover cryptology from the American Civil War through the present, including how the German Enigma machine was cracked and a hands-on demonstration where visitors can make (and break) their own codes. There's also a section on the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case and how they were revealed as undercover agents.

Tours can be arranged and cover a range of subject matters, depending on interest; before you leave, take a virtual tour of the gallery.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

A career in law enforcement could be waiting for you at the DEA Museum & Visitor Center near Pentagon City, Virginia. The Drug Enforcement Administration-run museum hosts three permanent exhibits: a modern history of illegal drugs in America, "Good Medicine, Bad Behavior: Drug Diversion in America" and a traveling exhibition about the damaging effects of drugs.

"Target America," based in Washington but sometimes traveling around the country, educates visitors on the journey drugs take from production to dealing, including all the steps in-between. Exhibits include an old-time drug store, model crack house and an 1800s opium den.

The entire museum is hands-on and interactive, as well as educational. A trip to the DEA gift shop reveals everything from pens and rulers to cuff links and watches. Each spring and fall, a lecture series brings law enforcement officers, DEA officials and authors to the museum.