6. International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C.

Image Credit

It would seem that it may be a particularly appropriate time to talk about a spy museum, and especially so when it is located in Washington, D.C. Although the days of poison-tipped umbrellas and pen guns may be over, they are certainly not forgotten. At the forefront of the effort to preserve the memory of various cloak-and-dagger gadgets of the past, the International Spy Museum boasts an impressive collection of clever and perhaps not-so-clever inventions that were once used by the world’s spies. The digital age has brought us an era of more mundane and much less risky spying activities thanks to agencies like the NSA of GCHQ who can simply vacuum up personal telephone and e-mail communications for later analysis or peer down from an orbiting satellite to ogle topless sunbathers out by the pool. James Bond would most definitely not be proud.