Does The Jeffersonian Institute From Bones Exist In Real Life?

Though it concluded in 2017, “Bones” remains a notable part of procedural history due to its combination of enjoyable characters and dark humor with gruesome crimes that involve things like severed heads and a glowing skeleton. The series’ central setting, the Medico-Legal Lab of the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C., is a perfect example of this duality. On one hand, it’s a notable hub for the characters’ various entertaining interactions. On the other, it’s the location of some seriously grim research and action even before the “Bones” season 12 lab explosion that wrecks the facility. 

With the time “Bones” devotes to the lab and the Jeffersonian, it may be tempting to find out what the place is like in real life. Unfortunately, this can be hard, because the Jeffersonian Institute doesn’t actually exist. Its in-universe address — 1 Jeffersonian Circle, Washington, D.C., 2001 — is also fictional. The closest thing to a real Jeffersonian Circle is actually Jefferson’s Circle, a group of donors who support the maintenance of the University of Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson founded. 

As fictional as the Jeffersionian Institute on “Bones” is, it does have a couple of real-life inspirations. The exterior shots are actually of two different buildings in Los Angeles: the California Science Center’s Wallis Annenberg Building and the Natural History Museum. As for the sets of the fictional Jeffersonian seen on the show, their home was also in Los Angeles — the Fox Studio Lot in Century City, to be exact. In an interview with TV Insider, “Bones” production designer Valdar Wilt described the Medico-Legal Lab set as follows:  

“The lab set is a great space for bringing in very large pieces. We’ve had a 60-foot tree on the platform as well as cars, vans, other enormous props. The set just works so well and it’s really held up.”

Conceptually speaking, the closest real-life equivalent to the fictional, multidisciplinary Washington D.C. institute is none other than the famous Smithsonian Institution, which just so happens to have a long tradition of helping the FBI with forensic anthropology research. The Medico-Legal Lab is effectively the “Bones” version of the Smithsonian’s Division of Physical Anthropology. 

“Bones” isn’t the Smithsonian’s only brush with pop culture, as it happens. The institute is a go-to location for many Washington-themed episodes of famous TV shows and also appears in several movies, even getting name-checked in the title of Ben Stiller’s 2009 comedy “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” The Smithsonian’s collections also house notable pop culture artifacts like Leonard Nimoy’s Spock ears.