One place, that we enjoy visiting in Washington DC is The National Museum of American History collects and preserves more than 3 million artifacts, all true national treasures, from the original Star-Spangled Banner and Abraham Lincoln's top hat to Dizzy Gillespie's angled trumpet and Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Their collections form a fascinating mosaic of American life and comprise the greatest single collection of American history. Their exhibitions explore major themes in American history and culture, from the War of Independence to the present day. It is definitely worth a visit next time you are Washington DC, our nation's capital.  
 
Francis Scott Key's 1814 poem "The Star-Spangled Banner" epitomizes the Americana nostalgia.

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,   
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?   
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,   
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;   
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;   
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave   
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?   
   
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,   
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,   
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?   
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,   
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;   
‘Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!   
   
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore   
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion   
A home and a country should leave us no more?   
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,   
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave;   
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave   
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!   
   
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!   
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land,   
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.   
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just.