Introduction
Welcome to the International Spy Museum, an independent nonprofit museum which documents the tradecraft, history, and contemporary role of espionage. It holds the largest collection of international espionage artifacts on public display, numbering nearly 1,000.Every nation considers intelligence essential to its national security. The Museum lifts the veil of secrecy on the hidden world of intelligence, exploring its successes and failures, challenges, and controversies.The Museum’s permanent exhibits are located on the 5th and 4th floors of the building. Timed general admission entry tickets are used for this main exhibit. Tickets may be purchased online or at the ticketing desk in the lobby. Please wait until your ticket’s listed entry time to begin your visit. Any special exhibits are located on the 3rd floor and require separate tickets.When your entry time arrives and you are ready begin your visit to the permanent exhibits, scan your ticket on the right-hand side of the ticket desk by the red carpet, and enter the line for the elevators up to the 5th floor.On the lobby level, a cloak room is available with racks for coats and free lockers secured by a keycode. The Spy Store is open for anyone to shop, and includes spy gear, mementos, refreshments, and more.Good luck, agent! And remember, all is not what it seems…
Using the App
In the lobby, a few large artifacts are on display. You can learn more about them before you go upstairs to the exhibits by clicking the pinpoint associated with them on the Lobby level of the “Overview” map in this app.The “Overview” map shows galleries and exhibits throughout the Museum. Select a pinpoint to bring up a photo or scroll through the photos at the bottom of the screen. Click on the photo to learn more. Use “Prev” or “Next” buttons to see other points on the overview map. Hit the downward caret button to return to the map. Change to a different floor by clicking on “Lobby” next to the layers icon at the top of the screen and selecting another floor.The next tab in the app, “Galleries,” allows you to select specific galleries and see a list of all stops within those galleries. Once you are in a gallery, you can select the map-and-pinpoint icon in the top right corner to view a detailed map of where all stops in a particular gallery are located. Various galleries and exhibits are color coded in the maps. (Please note that the detailed gallery maps are different than the overview map which you can access via the first tab at the bottom left of the app screen.)Some stops have audio voice recordings associated with them and all have written text and images. If you opt to listen to the audio, you may either listen through headphones or via your phone’s ear speaker.You can connect to WiFi network “SpyPublic” while in the building.If you are viewing via the web app, you may have an easier time if you download the app, available for free in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Amber Drone
Suspended from the ceiling hangs a spy in the sky: the Amber drone. It’s an example of the critical role and evolution of technology in the intelligence world. This 14-foot long aircraft with a 29 and a half foot-wingspan was designed in the 1980s and could fly nonstop for nearly two days in any weather. Its trailblazing approach transformed the way overhead intelligence is collected; it’s still the prototype for most modern drones.
Aston Martin DB5
It’s probably the most famous “spy car” ever made: a 1964 silver Aston Martin DB5. First driven by Bond in the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger, the car epitomizes the influence of popular culture in shaping views about spying.This particular DB5 was used on Goldfinger’s promotional tour, and it’s outfitted with a number of gadgets from the movie including hidden machine guns, tire slashers extending from the wheel axles, a rotating license plate in the front, and a bulletproof shield in the back. Roughly every 20 minutes, music plays and the car shows off its tricks.
Bushnell Turtle
Now here’s a very different type of transportation: a replica of America’s first ever combat submarine. This one-man, pedal-powered wooden submersible looks like two turtle shells put together—hence its name: the Turtle. It was designed by inventor David Bushnell for covert sabotage, and in 1776 during the American Revolution it embarked on its first mission. The pilot was to secretly pedal across New York Harbor and attach a bomb to a British warship. The plan might have worked if not for bad weather and a shortage of air inside the submarine.Just in front of the Turtle, a tree stands tall inside the atrium, and among its leafy branches is a figure of an early man. Clad in a loin cloth, he gazes into the distance—a lookout, trying to see what’s happening in the next valley. You might even call thisit man’s first surveillance operation.
Elevators
Once you have scanned your ticket, please continue to make your way through the ropes. In a moment, a staff member will send you up to the Briefing Center on the 5th floor to begin your visit and your Undercover Mission which will track your spy skills through the galleries.Guests are allowed to take photos and videos, but the flash must be turned off. Please remember there is no eating, drinking, or gum chewing allowed upstairs. Bottled water is allowed so that all guests stay hydrated.The main exhibit experience will be on two floors, the 5th and then the 4th. You can explore at your own pace, following the linear path of the exhibits. Most guests spend 2 1/2-3 hours in these permanent exhibits. The staff member here will direct you to an elevator to the 5th floor. Please do not jump in the elevators.The elevators have flashing lights. Please inform staff if you need an elevator without flashing lights.
Briefing Center
Welcome to the Briefing CenterHere you are welcome to begin your Undercover Mission and generate your personal cover identity. Undercover Mission is an optional activity, available only in English, giving you the opportunity to step into the shoes of a spy.If you would like to begin Undercover Mission, please walk towards an open screen on your right and tap the RFID card you have been issued below the screen to start setting up your secret identity. Once you have successfully checked in and received your code word, please standby for the theater doors to open. There is a timer next to the theater doors, counting down to the next briefing film.The briefing film is five minutes in length and features news footage, digital imagery, and shadowy dramatizations. It’s narrated by Morgan Freeman and contains soundbites and interview clips from experts in the field of intelligence. The briefing film is available only in English, with English captions.If you would like to skip Undercover Mission and the briefing film and go directly to the first exhibit, please walk back past the elevators, keeping the blue graphic wall on your right. You will see the logo for this app displayed on the wall adjacent to the blue graphic wall—walk towards the wall with the logo. The door on the right-hand side leads to the first gallery. You can see the correct door on the in-app map labeled as “Bypass Door.”If you choose to watch the briefing film, the doors on the other side of the theater will open into the first gallery after the film is complete. Look for the Undercover Mission wall logo to test your skills at any of the interactive stations spread throughout the galleries. Your performance will be tracked and before you leave you can discover your top spy skills and get a debrief on the results of your mission. You don’t have to complete all interactives to have a successful mission.When the theater doors open, please move to the end of the rows so everyone has a place to sit and please leave the front row open for those who need it. Enjoy the film and the Museum!
Bypass Door
To bypass Undercover Mission and the briefing film and go directly to the first exhibit, please use this door.
Gallery: Stealing Secrets
Welcome to the Museum’s galleries. The exhibits on this floor address what intelligence agencies do, following the “path of intelligence” in thematic—not chronological—order. The exhibits begin with collecting information, or Stealing Secrets, which is the name of the first gallery. It explores the people, gadgets, and technology involved in intelligence collection.
Exhibit: Spies and Spymasters
Eyes and ears are the oldest spy tools for intelligence gathered by human sources. It’s a difficult, delicate, and risky business that relies on people with skills, smarts, ingenuity, and a willingness to face danger.Meet some of them here—people from different places and times, with diverse talents ranging from deception to seduction,. Each display is its own theater-like set: a spotlight on a spy or intelligence officer. Within each set there are artifacts and objects of interest related to the individual spy and a video display. The videos are available in English only, with English captions.
Exhibit: Tools of The Trade
When spies need to plant a bug, secretly snap a photo, communicate covertly, or don a disguise, they turn to Technical Operations—Tech Ops. They are the officers who craft the tools of the spy trade and often do operations themselves. These inventors, engineers, scientists, computer whizzes, artists, and tinkerers fuse imagination and technical know-how to create the devices agents and handlers need to overcome challenges in the field. Some of their innovations even make their way into our daily lives. That cell phone in your hand? Some of its technology began as Tech Ops gadgetry. The gadgets in cases along the wall are organized into sections which address how these tools are used—covert communication, surveillance and countersurveillance, escape and evasion, disguise, clandestine photography, and secret entry.
10% Complete
Your Museum mission is approximately 10% complete.
Exhibit: Looking, Listening, Sensing
Some places are just too dangerous or remote to send in spies, and some information is beyond the reach of human senses. Scientists and engineers devise new ways to collect technical intelligence–such as intercepting messages, conducting overhead surveillance, or sniffing out secrets. Tools and technology evolve continually. So, too, does the ability of adversaries to thwart or outwit each new innovation.
Gallery: Making Sense of Secrets
Spy agencies collect information. But that doesn’t mean it’s useful—not yet. Codebreakers reveal hidden meanings. Analysts assess accuracy and make connections. They transform information into “intelligence”— something decision makers can use.
Exhibit: Code Making, Code Breaking
You can’t always stop someone from intercepting a secret message. But can you stop them from understanding it if they do? That’s the goal of codes and ciphers. From ancient devices to quantum computers, people have devised ingenious ways to hide the meaning in messages. Cryptologists, meanwhile, try to crack these puzzles. Their success or failure has reshaped battles and changed the course of history.
Exhibit: Analysis
In every century, leaders have attempted to divine the future. They’ve tried reading goat entrails, consulting crystal balls, studying astrology—but those methods proved less than reliable! Today, we know we can’t really predict the future. But good analysis can reduce uncertainty. That’s where intelligence analysts come in.Analysts comb through collected intel to find connections and patterns, sniff out deception, and offer context—all while avoiding mental traps that can skew the results. They divide challenges into three types: secret, puzzle, and mystery. Test your biases and tackle the task of analysis as you explore these types of problems.
35% complete
Your Museum mission is approximately 35% complete.
The Decision Room
Spies collect and analyze information. But deciding what action to take—if any—falls to intelligence “consumers” such as military commanders, diplomats, and even heads of state. Intel may come with recommendations or warnings, but there is rarely absolute certainty, and leaders often ask for additional information and analysis.Here in the Decision Room the process of “Red Teaming” is replicated to show how decision makers in the United States used intelligence to inform their choices in a 2011 operation that targeted the most wanted man on Earth: Osama bin Laden.In the center of the table is a recessed space that houses a white 3D model of Osama bin Laden’s compound. When elements of the compound are discussed in the interactive video, images are projected onto the corresponding parts of the model, making it resemble a holographic animation.This interactive video is available only in English.
Gallery: Covert Action
A dissident dies. Social media ignites protests. Is more going on than meets the eye?Probably not. But in rare circumstances, when diplomacy fails and sending troops is not an option, leaders may try to influence events using covert action. These age-old techniques—ranging from propaganda to assassination—are often dangerous and morally complex. There is a risk of unintended consequences (blowback) and success can be hard to measure. These special operations are meant to be secret, to protect the missions and so leaders can plausibly deny responsibility. But that’s not always the case.
Duct Crawl
Agents of all ages are invited to test their ability to evade detection in the duct crawl. Sneak in through the entrance to the left of the ninja case and stay as quiet as you can. You’re being watched from below, so avoid openings and don’t make a sound. This activity requires crawling in an enclosed space. Don’t try it if you have circulatory or respiratory problems, back or knee pain, or claustrophobia.
Hang Time
It is time to test your Spy strength! How long could you hang off the side of a building like a spy in a Hollywood movie?Line up along the black railing to wait your turn. To start: press the highest flashing button you can reach without going up on your tiptoes.Then wait behind the black bar as it lowers. Once it has stopped moving, grab on with both of your hands over the bar and facing forward. The clock will start soon. Try to hang on for a full minute!
Stasi Guys in Disguise
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Simon Menner discovered photographs in the former East German Ministry for State Security archives. The photographs show Stasi officers and employees wearing disguises, putting on glasses, hats, and fake beards. Some were seen using secret hand signals and gadgets. It was an astonishing top-secret manual of sorts for prospective agents of a now defunct state. Today, the sight of them is somewhat comical, but the dark history of this state-sponsored surveillance effort was no laughing matter.
Gallery: Spying that Shaped History
Welcome to the second floor of exhibits. Your Museum mission is approximately 50% complete.Upstairs, you discovered how spy agencies collect, analyze, and act on intelligence. The upcoming exhibits explore the question: Why Spy? Why do nations need intelligence and how have they used it, for good or for ill?Two galleries on this floor address this question. The first, Spying that Shaped History, presents a number of stories about how intelligence has influenced the world we live in today. The second, An Uncertain World, looks at how spy agencies respond to threats all nations face.
Spying Launched a Nation
1776. The situation looked dire for the 13 American colonies who had declared independence from Great Britain. With only a ragtag band of farmers, frontiersmen, and poorly prepared militias, the Americans faced the best trained, best equipped, and most powerful military on Earth. So what ultimately gave them the edge? Espionage!No one understood that better than General George Washington, America’s first spymaster. You might have seen the quote on the wall as you walked down the stairs from British Major George Beckwith: “Washington did not beat us militarily, he simply outspied us!” The bronze statue of Washington at the base of the stairs holds a letter authorizing Americans’ first spy network.The letter itself is on display in a glass case surrounded by video screens in the next room. Written in 1777, the letter offers Nathanial Sackett a monthly payment to spy for the Continental Army, plus more money “to pay those whom you may find necessary to imploy [sic] in the transaction of this business.” A year later, Washington replaced Sackett with 24-year-old Benjamin Tallmadge and assigned him to provide vital intel about Britain’s New York City base. The video depicts how Tallmadge’s spy ring operated: overhearing secrets in taverns or from British officers; sending messages in invisible ink or in code; delivering messages on horseback or via rowboat. The video is available only in English, with English captions.
Fateful Failures
Alerting leaders to imminent threats is a key role of intelligence agencies. But giving timely, accurate, and complete information and analysis is hard. All spy agencies sometimes fail.In 1941 and 2001, attacks on the US caught leaders off guard. Japan’s strike at Pearl Harbor and the September 11 terror attacks illustrate some of the many challenges intelligence analysts face in delivering clear warnings that leaders can act on—and show the consequences of getting it wrong.The displays here identify three parallel challenges analysts faced in providing warning: distinguishing significant signals from irrelevant noise, underestimating the enemy, and the failure of imagination. Each is illustrated using reproductions of annotated documents, messages, and images.In the failure of imagination section, for example, you can find out how the US dismissed the idea that shallow Pearl Harbor could be a target for a torpedo attack because American torpedoes couldn’t flatten out when they hit the water. The assumption was that Japanese torpedoes couldn’t either.There was a failure of imagination in the 9/11 case as well. On display is a copy of a memo from an FBI field office in Phoenix, Arizona. It outlines concerns about Middle Eastern men taking flying lessons. The memo reads: “these individuals will in the future be in a position to conduct terror activity against civil aviation targets.” Yet this memo, sent two months before the 9/11 attacks, failed to sound alarm bells. After all, a hijacked airplane had never been used as a weapon.Also on display are a boarding pass used by one of the terrorists on the highjacked flight from Boston, parts of a charred flight manual used by the terrorists found among the debris in New York, and a 2-foot length of extra wide metal strapping—a fragment of a plane from the World Trade Center crash.
Spying in WWII
Combat troops took center stage in World War II. Yet behind the scenes were other, shadowy warriors who helped shape outcomes on the battlefield.The displays in this room explore some of those spies—men and women, from all walks of life, who slipped behind enemy lines to organize resistance cells, sabotage operations, and uncover enemy plans.The glass cases on the left feature stories and artifacts about America’s first centralized intelligence agency, the OSS or Office of Strategic Services. It was established in 1942 to collect and analyze intelligence, and by 1944 some 13,000 Americans—a third of them women—worked for OSS across the globe, aiding Allied war efforts on and off the battlefield. On display are a pair of boots belonging to OSS chief William Donovan, nicknamed “Wild Bill.” Oscar-winning filmmaker John Ford and celebrity chef Julia Child also served with the OSS; on display are a golden Oscar statuette—Ford’s Academy Award for the 1942 film The Battle of Midway—and a reproduction of a typed ‘Restricted’ document which might well have been Julia Child’s first recipe: a shark repellent for the OSS. Also featured is James Bond author Ian Fleming, who worked for British intelligence during the war.The video on the other side of the room is about Operation Bodyguard, a deception operation to misinform the Nazis about the D-Day invasion in 1944. Using dummy armies, phone radio messages, fake news, and double agents, the Allies created the illusion of a massive troop build-up across the English Channel from Pas de Calais, the most obvious invasion site—180 miles (nearly 300 kilometers) away from the real invasion site at Normandy. The video is available only in English, with English captions.Artifacts on display related to Operation Bodyguard include a type of paratrooper dummy, nicknamed “Rupert”, used by the Allies to create further confusion about the site of the invasion and several patches for fake military units the US Army used to fool German spies.
Noor Inayat Khan
Her superiors expected little. Her assignment was one of the war’s most dangerous. Her chance of survival was poor. Yet for three months, Noor Inayat Khan single-handedly maintained communications between London and occupied Paris, helping 30 Allied airmen escape while she evaded capture. Trained by Britain’s Special Operations Executive, or SOE, she’d been dropped into German occupied France. Her codename: Madeleine. Her mission: maintain communications between London and the local resistance movement in France. Her life expectancy: six weeks—if she was lucky.But Khan was lucky—and incredibly brave. The pair of display cases on the left highlights her background. She was the sensitive and artistic daughter of an Indian Sufi spiritual leader who grew up in France. A black-and-white photo in the case on our left shows Khan as an earnest young woman playing the veena, an Indian stringed instrument.But when German troops swept across France in 1940, she and her family fled to Britain, where Khan was recruited by SOE. On display are a variety of tools used by SOE agents behind enemy lines, including a biscuit tin radio, a compass hidden in a shirt button, and a silk map.You can touch several other items along the back wall in this space that give you a sense of the danger Khan constantly faced: she had to be careful of the garments she wore, how she carried her heavy radio disguised as a suitcase, and even that she poured her tea in the French style instead of the British.Khan was eventually captured. She tried to escape—twice. The Nazis beat, starved, and tortured her for a year. At Dachau concentration camp, in 1944, a bullet ended her life. Her last word, reportedly, was a defiant “Liberté.”
Top Secret
Spy agencies need secrecy to operate effectively. A healthy democracy needs transparency. So, what’s the right balance between secrecy and openness? Who gets to decide? Explore those questions by looking at three stories: one about a secret that was kept and two about secrets revealed. The video explores all three. The video is available in English only, with English captions.The secret kept was codenamed VENONA: a US program, started in the 1940s, to decrypt messages sent by Soviet intelligence. VENONA revealed the identities of several Americans spying for the Soviets including Julius Rosenberg. But when Rosenberg, and his wife Ethel, went on trial for espionage in 1951 for stealing atomic secrets, VENONA was considered too valuable to reveal in court and prosecutors relied instead on witness testimony.Although Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted, and sentenced to death for their crime, many questioned their guilt—especially Ethel’s—and not just in the 1950s, but for decades afterwards. The display boxes to the left of the screen house artifacts that reflect this questioning. There’s a print of a line drawing by Pablo Picasso of the Rosenbergs, made to raise funds for their legal appeals, as well as two 1970s pins from the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case.If people had known about the secret of VENONA, would it have made a difference? Declassifying VENONA in 1995 revealed what the government had known in the 1950s: Julius was indisputably a Soviet spy. Yet it did notshow that he had passed atomic secrets—the crime for which he was convicted—or that Ethel had been involved in spying. In the display box to the immediate right of the screen are clippings and artifacts related to a story of secrets revealed: the case of Edward Snowden, a US government contractor who broke the law in 2013 by stealing and leaking to the press one and a half million classified documents. The files disclosed information about US surveillance programs such as PRISM, which harvested data from emails and social media.Snowden’s story arouses strong feelings on both sides—that’s reflected in some of the artifacts on display. There’s a black and white protest sign used at a 2013 rally inspired by Snowden’s revelations. It’s made to look like an open laptop computer displaying the phrase “Stop Mass Surveillance.” There are also two bumper stickers displaying a different attitude. One shows Uncle Sam pointing his finger, with the caption “Edward Snowden deserves NO pardon.” The other declares: “SNOWDEN TRAITOR.”The other secret revealed featured here, in the display case at the far right of the screen, is COINTELPRO. In the early 1970s, activists and journalists exposed a range of FBI and CIA activities against US citizens and foreign leaders that many found shocking and, arguably, illegal.These activities included the FBI’s counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO, which had started in the 1950s to fight Communism but grew to target people from civil rights leaders to anti-war protesters. On display is a reproduction of an FBI COINTELPRO document which instructs an FBI informant in Alabama to find “all derogatory information” available on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cyber: The New Battlefield
Our lives are migrating to the digital realm, opening a new battleground: cyber. Foes can steal information, disrupt systems, and carry out covert missions from across the globe—without risking lives. Cyber technology gives governments powerful new intelligence tools. It also empowers shadowy groups and individuals, requiring more sophisticated defenses. The display wall on the left discusses cyber covert action missions across the globe from sabotage to propaganda, economic interference to political meddling. Think of the advantages over more traditional covert operations: no need for spies on the ground; no risk of casualties; no costly equipment—and sometimes, a big impact.One example is the Stuxnet computer virus—generally accepted to be a joint US-Israel creation—which attacked Iranian nuclear facilities that were not connected to the internet in 2010. Programmers designed Stuxnet to infect computer equipment at outside companies working with Iran. The virus was then carried into Iranian plants—perhaps by a spy, perhaps by an unwitting scientist. The result? 25% of Iran’s uranium enrichment capability was destroyed. Stuxnet also programmed the Iranian computers to report that everything was running smoothly, hiding the attack. On display is a Siemens processor that is likely infected with the Stuxnet virus.Also on display further into the room is a computer server used as an access point in the first cyberattack on the US by a foreign power. Beginning as early as 1996, the assault—code-named Moonlight Maze—stole massive amounts of information about military technology from computers at the Pentagon, NASA, and the Department of Energy. A current Russian hacker group believed to have Kremlin ties still uses computer code from Moonlight Maze.The doorway leads to an immersive multimedia space, the Cyber Infinity room. A wall-sized video screen and a series of mirrors make it feel like you’re inside the limitless expanse of cyberspace, zipping across servers and circuit boards while cyber experts explain how cyber tactics are used and detected, and how they affect our world. The video is available only in English, with English captions.
License to Thrill
Most of us haven’t lived the life of a spy. For us, fiction fills in the gaps. Books, movies, TV, and games provide much of what we know—or thinkwe know—about spies and spying. They shape our opinions and expectations. Fiction doesn’t just influence popular ideas. Sometimes, it even inspires real spy agencies. Playing on the screen is a 30 min film that features real intelligence professionals talking about their favorite spy movies and shows—and how much they reflect the real world of spying. Interspersed with their comments are pop culture montages. The video is available only in English, with English captions.In the case by the entryway door there are examples of G-Men toys: cars, badges, and plastic sub-machines guns, all part of the popular interest in the FBI’s “Government Men” in the 1930s.The cases on the far side of the room display a variety of spy toys, among them: a Lego figure of Ethan Hunt from Mission: Impossible, a Get Smart paint-by-number kit, and a toy Aston Martin DB5 along with some props from the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die.Along the back wall, opposite the big screen, there are two “Atomic Countdown” interactives. Try a challenge ripped from the silver screen; each crate has a plexiglass top to reveal the workings of the “bomb” inside. If you can lift the detonator straight up without it touching the ring, we’ll all be saved. Take a deep breath, press the blue button to arm the device and then press the large red button to start the countdown. You’ll have mere seconds on the clock to slowly lift the detonator.
Cyber Games
Test your knowledge about the cyber world in two interactive games.In one game, Cyber Command, you’ll be put in the decision-making seat during a cyberattack on the nation’s financial sector. As a member of the government agency tasked with protecting the country against such threats, how will you proceed?In the other game, Cyber on Screen, you’ll need to figure out whether cyber scenarios from pop culture are realistic or just Hollywood fiction. The giant screen shows clips from a movie or TV show. But could it happen in real life? After you register your vote of fact or fiction on the touch screen, you’ll hear from cyber experts who explain why the clip is accurate, inaccurate, or somewhere in-between.The games are available only in English, with English captions for the video portion.
Who Would Have Guessed?
They seem like the most unlikely candidates for spies: the lady down the street, the businessman on the train, the celebrity you’ve seen on stage or screen. Look again…Each of the people featured in this display has a surprising spy story to tell. Most of them took advantage of an opportunity to defy expectations and stereotypes, using their gender, race, fame, or just plain everydayness to serve their country–or betray it.The display is organized in chronological order, featuring spies from the American Civil War to today. At left along the counter, for example, is Harriet Tubman, icon of the Underground Railroad—but also spy and military commander for the Union. Featured above is a childhood notebook used by Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew.In the World War II section, sheet music from entertainer and French intelligence agent Josephine Baker is featured alongside a medal and travel orders given to professional baseball player Moe Berg who went behind enemy lines to spy for the OSS.At top right of the display is the uniform jacket of Lieutenant General Mary Legere, the fourth female three-star general in the history of the US Army who served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence.
Gallery: An Uncertain World
Traitors. Foreign agents. Dissidents and domestic terrorists. All countries face internal threats, real and perceived. And no government will survive long if it doesn’t protect itself and its people against them. Spy agencies conduct counterintelligence to unearth and confront these threats at home.But how much protection is enough? How much is too much? The answer can be the difference between citizens living in security or living in an oppressive security state. Explore this uncertain world.
Spies and Spycatchers
When does disagreement veer into disloyalty? How do ambition and greed twist into betrayal? The people profiled here were in positions of trust and given access to their country’s deepest secrets. Their betrayals—gut-wrenching blows to those who knew and believed in them—were among the most damaging breaches in their nations’ histories.On the right stands FBI Special Agent Robert Hanssen. In the 1980s, his job was to search for Soviet spies. Instead, he was slipping them classified information—and continued to do so for more than 20 years. An arrogant man, Hanssen felt underappreciated by the FBI, but not by the Soviets (and later the Russians) who paid him at least $500,000 in cash.Several artifacts related to Hanssen are on display here, including his standard issue service pistol and his smaller, palm-sized Walther PPK—James Bond’s favorite gun. There are also the handcuffs the FBI used to arrest Hanssen in 2001, and the letter of apology he read aloud at his trial, admitting “I am shamed.”Further down the display case on our right stands Adolf Tolkachev, a Russian military engineer. Sick of what he saw as Soviet cruelty and hypocrisy, he offered to pass the CIA intel on Soviet stealth aviation and defense technology, saving the United States billions in research and development. For 8 years, Tolkachev handed over thousands of photographed documents—until the KGB arrested him in 1985. A year later, he was executed. On display are cameras and development equipment as well as a forged ID the CIA made for Tolkachev.Follow the wall to the left of the phone booth to meet Kim Philby, one of the famed Cambridge Five who spied for the Soviets because of their ideological belief in Communism. In 1934, he was recruited by Soviet intelligence and remained loyal for the next 54 years. Meanwhile, he was also recruited by MI6—the British Secret Service—who tasked him with countering Soviet espionage. When two fellow Cambridge spies fled to the USSR in 1951, Philby looked guilty by association. Yet it took 12 more years for MI6 to confront him—triggering his own escape.Philby lived out the rest of his life in Moscow. There are artifacts on display from that period, such as a framed photograph of Lenin and a tea samovar.Also on display is the mailbox which stood at 37th and R Streets in Washington, DC’s Georgetown neighborhood. CIA officer Aldrich Ames would make a small mark with chalk on it to signal to his Soviet handler that he had left information at their agreed-on dead drop location.As this exhibit shows, every spy agency conducts counterintelligence, including searching for spies in its ranks. Yet they also welcome turncoats from othercountries—a reminder that one nation’s traitor may be another nation’s hero.
Exhibit: Interrogation
This exhibit may not be suitable for young children. The long history of interrogation contains examples of harshness and cruelty. Displays contain images and stories that some visitors may find disturbing.How do you get information from someone who doesn’t want to give it? And how do you determine if the information is true?Since ancient times, interrogators have resorted to a variety of techniques: coercive and non-coercive, physical and psychological. Some of these have been deeply controversial. And there have always been questions about whether some techniques are effective, legal, and ethical. In recent decades, harsh methods used by the US against suspected terrorists have sparked fierce debate. Interrogation techniques remain a profoundly contentious issue.Along the wall to the left is a display outlining a broad history of interrogation techniques. Three tactile models of medieval torture devices are mounted on the wall: the thumb screw—used to crush a prisoner’s fingers by turning a screw to tighten a pair of metal plates; the heretic’s fork—which would be wedged between a prisoner’s breastbone and throat, painfully preventing sleeping or eating; and the iron maiden—a coffin-like box lined with sharp spikes.The use of such devices is a coercive interrogation, as are psychological techniques like sensory deprivation and sensory overload. Other techniques are classified as non-coercive interrogation, like rapport-based interrogations which seem more like friendly, open-ended chats.In the corner at the end of the wall, there’s an early lie detector—or polygraph machine—on display. Polygraphs measure and record physical changes associated with deception, such as blood pressure or pulse. The polygraph’s ability to detect lies is still debated.
Exhibit: Confronting Terror
For thousands of years, terrorists have targeted civilians. Some attacks are deadly. Others cause minimal damage. But the aim isn’t to win battles. It’s to sow fear.Preventing plots often relies on intelligence: collecting data, analyzing motives, taking action. When attacks do occur, fear may push governments to act, perhaps increasing surveillance or detaining suspects. However, both prevention and response can upset the delicate balance between protecting citizens and respecting their civil liberties.The exhibit covers the stories of three terrorist attacks: one where we live, one where we work, and one where we play. The stories of those attacks, and how spy agencies responded, are told within separate immersive environments which spill into the corridor.
Exhibit: Berlin, City of Spies
The Allies had won the war. But who would win the peace?After World War II, Western democracies and the Soviet Union faced off in a global struggle for dominance. Occupied Germany, split between them, embodied that rivalry—which played out with particular intensity in divided Berlin. A virtual island, isolated deep inside Communist East Germany, Berlin became a tinderbox, a treacherous labyrinth of espionage and intrigue between competing powers and ideologies.To prevent citizens from escaping to the West, East Germany built the Berlin Wall. It was two walls separated by a 160-yard strip of land—the “death strip.” The death strip contained hundreds of watchtowers, miles of anti-vehicle trenches, guard dogs runs, floodlights, and trip wire machine guns.To the right, see two segments of the actual wall. Once topped by asbestos pipe, they would have been almost impossible to scale. Unlike the Wall segments facing West Germany, these had no graffiti and were painted white to assist guards in seeing potential escapees.At the news stand to the left, front page stories tell of people who fled to the West from the East—ordinary citizens as well as some famous defectors, such as tennis star Martina Navratilova and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. Around 5,000 people successfully escaped across the Berlin Wall using tunnels, balloons, ropes, even a speeding train! They showed incredible resourcefulness, imagination, and courage.On the other side of the wall are exhibits about life and espionage in East Berlin, including a hotel room, an interrogation room, and an office.
Exhibit: The Spy Next Door
How well do you really know your neighbors—that nice, ordinary family next door? What if that family wasn’t so ordinary after all?In 2000, the FBI learned of 10 Russian agents operating undercover in the US. Some of them had been here for years. Their mission? Become American. Blend in.The Russian “illegals” weren’t only gathering information. Their primary assignment was to “spot and assess,” cultivate relationships, and look for recruits. To keep an eye on them, the FBI launched Operation Ghost Stories. For a decade or more, agents listened to their conversations, read their emails, and waited for the right moment to close in.The house on display is modeled on the New Jersey home of Richard and Cynthia Murphy. You can see them enjoying a picnic outside the real home in a photograph on display. He’s a stay-at-home dad for two young daughters. You might catch him sipping a beer while grilling hamburgers. Cynthia Murphy worked for a New York accounting firm. She loved baking cookies and puttering in the garden.But flip the panel with their picture, and the Murphys appear in a very different photo: mug shots of the unsmiling couple whose real names are Lydia and Vladimir Guryev. In 2010, the FBI raided their home and arrested them.The Guryevs used birth certificates from deceased US citizens Cynthia Hopkins and Richard Murphy to create their false identities. Those birth certificates are on display in the house, along with ID cards the Guryevs obtained using their false identities.Once settled in the United States, the Russian 10 used a range of covert communication techniques to keep in touch with Moscow, including secret writing, ciphers, and passwords. To the left, the second window display contains artifacts which reveal some of those techniques. There’s a black bound notebook, for example, found in the Murphys’ home. It looks ordinary, but its pages are steeped in a chemical compound used for invisible writing. If you sandwich a page between two regular sheets of paper and write a message on the top sheet, it will transfer invisibly to the bottom sheet.
Exhibit: Spying in the Marketplace
Do you ever look in the mirror? Sip tea from porcelain cups? Wear red? If so, you’re using things that once were precious trade secrets—and the targets of spies.Governments throughout history have stolen ideas, formulas, and technology to undercut rivals or “borrow” innovations. In today’s global market and digitally-linked world, economic espionage flourishes as never before. To protect themselves, countries hire private companies, strengthen laws, and use intelligence to catch spies in the act.This exhibit presents stories from ancient to modern times about products that have been the targets of economic espionage, including Chinese agricultural executives stealing corn seeds from a farmer’s field in Iowa in 2012, French intelligence bugging business class seats to eavesdrop on American tech executives in the 1980s, and a plan to steal the formula that makes Oreo cookie’s cream filling bright white in the 1990s.The first featured story, on the left, begins much earlier in the Republic of Venice, an economic and political superpower in the 15th and 16th centuries. Venetian silk weavers, glassmakers, and shipbuilders were the envy of the world. They also were forbidden to spill the secrets of their crafts or even leave town—sometimes on pain of death!Venice’s rulers knew that protecting the city’s power and status required protecting its trade secrets. They created one of the earliest and most effective intelligence systems: the Venetian Secret Service. Its strongest tool was internal surveillance, encouraging Venetians to spy on each other and report suspicious behavior.On display are mock-ups of Venetian mirrors, the skilled makers of which were not legally allowed to leave the republic, and of a stone Lion’s Mouth (Bocca di Leone in Italian) where citizens could deliver accusations as anonymous reports.
Debriefing
...and the world will never look the same.You’ve pulled back the curtain, revealing extraordinary events and remarkable people often hidden in plain sight. In this realm of secrets and shadows, where deceptions are broadcast and truths concealed, only one thing is certain: spying has shaped, and continues to shape, the world we live in.If you tried out Undercover Mission, the terminals here give you the results of your performance to see how you stack up against others.The stairs or elevator can take you down to the third floor—where you will find any current special exhibits. These exhibits require a separate ticket, which you may have already purchased or can be purchased at the door.Or take the stairs or elevator down to the Spy Store and exit to complete your visit.
The Spy Vault
The International Spy Museum’s collection, containing over 10,000 artifacts, illustrates the real-life stories of intelligence professionals and offers insight into the overall impact of spycraft on world history. This collection enhances the Museum’s dynamic interpretation of international espionage and supports ongoing research into the history and contemporary role of intelligence.
