Through interactive exhibits with state-of-the-art audiovisual effects, film, and hands-on components, the International Spy Museum traces the evolution of espionage through the people who practiced the profession and provides a context for guests to interpret the role intelligence plays in current events. The Museum's permanent exhibition presents the tradecraft of espionage and showcases the ingenuity and imagination of real-life spies and spymasters.
Guests adopt a cover, break codes, identify disguised spies, and become the subjects of covert surveillance throughout their visit. Through these interactive experiences and immersive environments, the Museum examines actual events, reveals true stories, and presents hundreds of authentic tools of the spy trade.
Lobby
The Museum's lobby introduces themes guests encounter and sets an overall tone of intrigue and mystery. Video monitors provide a silent overview, featuring artifacts, people and stories highlighted in the Museum.
The permanent exhibition includes the following guest experiences:
Orientation
The International Spy Museum experience begins with an orientation about the motivations, tools and techniques of real-life spies.
Covers and Legends
A large photomural of a foreign checkpoint and guard greet Museum guests as they enter Covers & Legends. After answering questions on a touch screen, Guests are challenged to adopt a cover identity, memorize specific details about it, and learn first hand the importance of keeping one's "cover." Artifacts and examples of identification-related documents typically used by spies are on display, while an audio/visual presentation details the importance of learning and keeping a cover.
Briefing Room
An introductory film about the world of espionage plays in a theater evocative of an intelligence agency briefing room. Addressing common preconceptions and misconceptions guests may have from pop culture and current affairs, the film focuses on the realities spies face every day.
School for Spies
An orientation to spycraft is provided in Tricks of the Trade which describes skills essential to espionage work and explores various motivations that lead people into the profession. How spies are recruited, trained, and areas of espionage expertise are examined. Over 200 artifacts illustrate technical aspects of spycraft. Interactive exhibits test the ability of guests to maintain their cover identity and other skills including observation and analysis, threat analysis, overhead surveillance, audio surveillance, disguise and identification, and clandestine photography. Artifacts in this section include a Czech "Through the Wall" Camera, Steineck ABC Wristwatch, East German Secret Writing Detection Kit, CIA Disguise Kit, and a KGB Coat with Buttonhole Camera.
History of Espionage
The Museum experience continues with a series of intimate galleries that trace the history of espionage and transport guests to another time and place.
The Secret History of History
Through books, reproduced graphics and artifacts, The Red Terror explores the institutionalization of spying in the early years of the Soviet Union and Balloons, Birds and Battlefields tracks the rise of espionage technology, such as spy photography. Sisterhood of Spies reveals the role that women have played in espionage, highlighting the legendary, yet unsuccessful, Mata Hari, as well as lesser-known, but more accomplished female spies. Other well-known historical figures are revealed as spymasters, such as the father of American intelligence, George Washington, and the father of the British Secret Service, author Daniel Defoe.
Spies Among Us
This section examines espionage through World War II, highlighting real-life spy stories. Breaking the Code includes interactive activities and exhibits about the Enigma cipher machine; the Navajo Codetalkers, whose native language provided an unbreakable code for the Allied Forces during World War II; and the very beginnings of computer technology. Infamy details the intelligence blunders surrounding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; Disinformation describes the use of propaganda throughout the war; Behind Enemy Lines reveals sabotage and subversion techniques used during the French Resistance; Bodyguard of Lies recounts the role of Allied intelligence in successful D-Day deceptions; and Atomic Spies highlights the American development and subsequent loss of the secrets of the atomic bomb. Star Power features singer Josephine Baker, who worked for the French Resistance; chef Julia Child, who processed classified documents for the OSS; director John Ford, who served as Field Photo Chief for the OSS; and actress Marlene Dietrich, who recorded pop songs for the OSS that were broadcast to German soldiers as American propaganda.
War of the Spies
The Cold War, a period characterized by mistrust and suspicion, is explored in this section. The City of Spies, post-war Berlin, is used as the backdrop for extensive exhibits detailing the Berlin Tunnel, a massive CIA and British wiretap of communication lines between East Berlin's Soviet military headquarters and Moscow; and the Stasi, the most efficient and pervasive internal security force in the world. Spies in the Skies traces the development of sophisticated espionage technologies including spy planes, satellites, and microtechnology advancements related to listening and tracking devices. The impact of Cold War espionage on popular culture and vice versa is explored in Spy Games using consumer products, games, and film to illustrate public fascination and obsession with espionage during this time period. War of the Spies closes the 20th century with the stories of real-life spies whose clandestine skills were no match for the spyhunters on their trail in The Wilderness of Mirrors. These expert spies include Aldrich Ames, John Walker, Anthony Blunt, and Robert Philip Hanssen.
The 21st Century
The challenges facing intelligence professionals world-wide in the 21st century are addressed in the Museum's final film, Ground Truth.
Guests exit into the 5,000 square foot Museum Store featuring a diverse selection of merchandise that reflects the tradecraft and history of espionage as well as the popular interpretations of that profession.
Throughout the Museum Store, educational information furthers the experience of the permanent exhibition. Monitors show clips of vintage and contemporary broadcast news footage, television programs and Hollywood films. Graphic panels create subtle illusions as portraits of spies change mysteriously to reveal their other identities on a Museum Store wall.
Those with a growing hunger for more than espionage will find dining opportunities at the Spy City Cafe or at Zola, restaurants located on site.
