Fridays and Sundays 11 AM and 1 PM Tours Offered for On-Site Purchase
WASHINGTON – January 10, 2025 – The International Spy Museum (SPY) today announces new guided public tours for its visitors through its volunteer docent program, The Honorable William H. Webster Docent Corps. On Fridays and Sundays at 11 AM and 1 PM, volunteer docents will lead visitors through a special one-hour long highlights tour of the permanent exhibit and will answer questions about the material.
Spy Museum Tour Guide Joel Weber shares the fascinating story of the Glomar Explorer. Photo Credit: Emily Rens for the International Spy Museum.
Tours will be first-come, first-served, and are only available for purchase day-of, in-person. The maximum group size of a tour will be up to 10 attendees to ensure a premium experience. To purchase a tour ticket, attendees must also purchase a general admission ticket. The tour add-on costs $10 per attendee.
The inaugural class of volunteer docents have been handpicked by the SPY team for their ability to bring the Museum to life for visitors and share their passion for the material. Webster Docents represent a range of ages and backgrounds and include active and retired intelligence, military, and government professionals; scholars; longtime SPY members and volunteers; and recent graduates. Over the course of ten weeks, docents have studied closely with SPY educators, curators, and historians to dive deeply into the Museum content. They will take their learnings on SPY’s Guinness World Record-winning collection and develop their own specialized tours to share the stories.
“Debuting the new Webster Docent Corps is a significant achievement for the Spy Museum, allowing us to make this nonprofit institution even more accessible to the public, expand our educational impact, and invite our volunteer community to grow and thrive,” shared Kevin Place, Museum Interpretation Manger. “Our docents are exceptionally passionate and curious-minded and serve as the perfect gateway for a visitor to begin their journey into this complex, enthralling, and ever-changing material.”
Due to higher-than-expected demand from interested volunteers, the International Spy Museum has already begun planning for its next cohort of Webster Docents. Interested parties can apply on the Spy Museum website in February 2025 with the expectation that chosen individuals begin their official training this spring.
The Docent Corps is named in honor of the International Spy Museum’s founding board member, Judge William H. Webster, the only person ever to serve as both Director of Central Intelligence and Director of the FBI.
Attendees must be at least 16 years old to participate.
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About the International Spy Museum
The International Spy Museum, an independent nonprofit organization, is the only public museum in the United States to lift the veil on the tradecraft, history, and contemporary role of espionage and intelligence from a global perspective. The Museum’s mission is to create compelling exhibitions and other learning experiences that shed light on the shadow world of espionage and intelligence, educating and challenging each of us to engage critically with the complex world around us. The Museum's collection chronicles the history of espionage, from its inception to the modern-day challenges facing intelligence professionals worldwide in the 21st century. The original Spy Museum opened in 2002. Its new, expanded building and all-new exhibitions opened in May 2019 to much acclaim.
For more information, please visit spymuseum.org.