WASHINGTON, 15 June — Never seen a lipstick pistol or an Enigma cipher machine? Well, now you can. The International Spy Museum opens in Washington, DC, on July 19, and is the first museum of its kind dedicated to espionage. Its purpose is to provide a global perspective on the “invisible” profession that has shaped history and continues to have significant impact on world events.
Created in 1996, the museum highlights the lives of real-life spies through the largest collection of international espionage artifacts ever placed on public display, many which have never been seen before.
The International Spy Museum’s permanent exhibition will present espionage though the stories of individuals and their missions, tools and techniques. It will combine artifacts created by or for intelligence services around the world with state-of the-art exhibit designs, audio-visual programs, and computer interactives.
The museum is both serious and whimsical in its presentation of objects, some of which include: — Objects created by, or for, international intelligence services such a cipher machines, counterfeit money, disguised weapons, miniature cameras, and the concealment devices for weapons, radio transmitters and receivers, and dead drops. Several of these objects are related to specific espionage cases and/or historic figures such as John Walker (the KGB’s most important spy in the US in the 1970s), Mata Hari and George Washington.
— Photography of historic documentation obtained by intelligence officers including KBG photographs of the equipment and belongings found in the wreckage of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spyplane when it was shot down over Soviet territory in 1960.
— Archival films such as OSS and C-130 training films from World War II.
— Historic photographs of captured spies, spy tools in use, and dead drop sites utilized in various countries.
— Popular culture items inspired from movies, radio and television programs, and other fictitious portrayals of espionage including the toys and games modeled after Mission Impossible, Get Smart and The Avengers, as well as the Aston Martin DB5 seen in the James Bond movie, Goldfinger. (To enter the building car had to be lifted through a second-story window.)
Visitors are also encouraged to interact at the museum. In a gallery called “Covers and Legends,” a large photo-mural of a foreign checkpoint and guard stands at the entrance, and visitors will be able to adopt a cover, break codes, identify disguised spies, and become the subjects of covert surveillance throughout their visit.
More about the museum can be found at: www.spymuseum.org.
