Opened in 2018 by the Equal Justice Initiative, this unflinching and uncompromising museum tackles the history and legacy of slavery and racial discrimination head-on. The Legacy Museum is located on the site of one of the country’s most prominent slave markets and also includes the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, where sculptures and columns represent lynching victims. A sobering experience, and an essential one.
Alaska has some world-class art and history museums, yet sometimes it’s the smaller, niche places that are the most fascinating. This tiny museum in Wasilla, housed in a log cabin, is all about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a long-distance mushing event first held in 1967 as a way to commemorate the role sled dogs have played in the state’s history. The Iditarod HQ’s museum has displays of photos, trophies and other memorabilia, and offers dog cart rides in summer.
This hugely popular museum is dedicated to kids, from babies up to adults who enjoy being transported back to childhood. The 300-plus exhibits are all about interaction, engagement and sparking imaginations of all ages. There’s the Texture Café, with different fabrics and materials to give a sensory experience, structures to climb up and around, a “forest” of foam noodles, and art studios. Throw in an area dedicated to den building and a food market for kids’ role play – and it’s pretty much the dream.
Opened as a non-profit in 2006 by David Bogle, a member of the Cherokee Nation, The Museum of Native American History showcases the lives of the First Americans through exhibits on history, art and culture. The sweeping collection, with more than 10,000 artefacts, includes a woolly mammoth skeleton, tools dating from up to 12,000 years BC, and a range of pre-Columbian artwork and sculptures. There are also regular events, hands-on classes and cultural celebrations held at the museum, while the gift shop has a beautiful range of crafts and clothing.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is that it hasn’t existed for decades – instead, the much-anticipated shrine to Hollywood and motion pictures opened in September 2021. It was worth the wait, because this is a shiny, all-singing, all-dancing celebration of the industry LA is most famous for. Exhibits include storyboards, filming equipment, props and costume pieces (including Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz). It’s all housed in the landmark 1930s Saban Building, designed by Renzo Piano.
The exterior alone is a work of art: Denver Art Museum is housed in a sleek, steely structure that juts off at different angles and pierces the skyline like a sculpture. The interior galleries – expanded with the Martin Building, a tower linked to the jagged-edge Hamilton Building – are even more impressive. Tens of thousands of pieces include permanent collections of pre-Columbian art, design through the ages, and modern and contemporary artworks.
One of America’s top tier universities is also home to some incredible museums, including the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (currently closed for renovation, set to open in 2024) and the Yale University Art Gallery. The latter, founded in 1832, is the oldest university art museum in the country, and is home to around 300,000 pieces spanning history. Highlights include ancient Greek pottery, early Renaissance masterpieces and First Steps, a 1943 painting by Pablo Picasso.
The Johnson Victrola Museum is dedicated to the history of recorded sound and music. This fascinating museum was named in honour of Dover-born inventor Eldridge Reeves Johnson, who co-founded record company Victor Talking Machine Co. – with its famous “His Master’s Voice” logo – in 1901. Exhibits celebrate his legacy and delve into the beginnings of the recorded music industry, with a room filled with likenesses of Nipper, the iconic terrier featured in the logo, an undoubted highlight.
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in 2016 and its shimmering bronze exterior has already become a recognisable landmark in DC. The Smithsonian museum is solely dedicated to the documentation of African American life, history and culture, with more than 40,000 objects including iron shackles used on slave ships, the dress Rosa Parks was sewing the day she refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and outfits worn by Black icons.
Upscale Winter Park, just outside Orlando, feels a world away from the theme parks and beaches usually associated with Florida, and this museum – surrounded by boutiques and smaller galleries – is a real find. The Morse Museum has an impressive array of American artworks including pottery and late 19th-century paintings. It’s most famous, though, for housing the world’s largest collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, with gorgeous stained glass, jewellery, leaded-glass lamps and pottery.
The Prohibition Era continues to fascinate more than a century since the booze-banning law was passed, though Savannah’s American Prohibition Museum was the first institution dedicated to that history when it opened in 2017. The exhibits focus on the temperance movement that led to Prohibition, the effect the ban had on the country and, of course, the many ways people continued to drink alcohol. Visits usually finish in the speakeasy-style bar, which serves classic 1920s cocktails.
This sweeping museum showcases and celebrates the rich and varied culture, history and heritage of Hawaii. Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 and its more than 25 million pieces create a fascinating picture of the state’s cultural and natural history. There are collections of fossils and skeletons, exhibitions about dinosaurs, archaeological displays and, in Hawaiian Hall, displays on gods, beliefs, and the importance of people’s connection to the land.
Museums don’t come much more niche than the Idaho Potato Museum, which is pretty much a must-visit for anyone in the vicinity of Blackfoot. Housed in an old rail depot, the museum pays homage to the state’s famously delicious potatoes (Idaho claims to grow the best in the world). Its collection is small but fascinating, mashing up potato facts and history with memorabilia including an impressive Mr. Potato Head collection. There’s an onsite café serving (yep) potato-based dishes, and a giant spud (aka a brilliant photo opportunity) out front.
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest art museums in the country. It’s also among the biggest and most impressive, housing pieces so iconic that seeing them in the flesh (or canvas) makes you catch your breath. Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks and Grant Wood’s much-reproduced American Gothic are among the standout artworks, though there are beauties at every turn. The building itself, flanked by two bronze lions, is equally worthy of attention.
The central focus of Newfields, which has a range of gardens and smaller buildings, the Indianapolis Museum of Art houses a world-class array of artworks spanning eras and movements, with pieces by Rembrandt, Turner, Picasso, Hopper and Lichtenstein on display. Its newest addition is The Lume (until 28 May 2023), which uses HD projectors to turn famous works of art into 3D masterpieces flooding every inch of gallery space from floor to ceiling.
Railway buffs – and most children – will adore this museum in downtown Council Bluffs. The exterior is wonderfully elegant, with the museum inside the Beaux Arts-style building that housed the city’s Carnegie Free Public Library and located by the Missouri River. Highlights include old timetables, uniforms and replicas of carriages that you can explore inside and out.
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The location couldn’t be more apt: Kansas Aviation Museum is located at the old Wichita Municipal Airport terminal, in operation from 1935 to 1954. The Art Deco–style terminal and its history are covered by the museum, though the highlights are, of course, the range of colourful and historic aircraft. This is the sort of museum that fascinates all ages, with an array of military and civilian planes such as a Boeing 727 and a B-52D.
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Kentucky claims to be the birthplace of bluegrass, a musical style named after Bill Monroe’s 1940s band, The Blue Grass Boys. So it’s fitting that this monument to the musical genre is located here, by the Ohio River and just a few miles from where Monroe lived. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum combines interactive exhibits with concerts and jam sessions to immerse visitors in the music and its roots, with a Hall of Fame celebrating those who have contributed to the genre.
The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, which opened in 2021, brings together centuries of fascinating stories under one roof. Its collection of more than 4,000 exhibits including letters, photos and religious relics delves into the lives of Jewish people and communities in America’s South, touching on periods of history including the Civil War, Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement. The gift shop is stocked with products crafted by Southern Jewish makers.
With a collection of more than 18,000 artworks including pieces by Andy Warhol, Winslow Homer and Claude Monet, the Portland Museum of Art claims it would take 10 years and constant gallery rotations for every item to be displayed. It’s also pretty impossible to view everything that is on the walls in a single visit, especially when you throw in temporary exhibitions and the free sculpture park. The latter is a highlight and particularly popular with families, with the green space dotted with striking sculptures.
The Mermaid Museum is believed to be the first dedicated to these mythical marine creatures, and it’s as curious and curio-filled as one might expect. Opened in 2021, the museum has taken over Berlin's historic Odd Fellows building. This in itself is a delight, with intricate ceiling reliefs and red-brick façade. It’s the wonderfully weird exhibits inside, however, that make this place such a joy. There’s a taxidermy Fiji mermaid (a monkey combined with a fish), plus other trinkets, artworks and information on the legends and lore surrounding mermaids.
Part of Science Park, which spans the Charles River, Boston’s Museum of Science combines interactive exhibits with an indoor zoo. What more could kids – and adults, for that matter – ask for? The website claims it’s the most visited cultural institution in New England, and its blend of education and fun is a winner. Visitors can (safely) experience the power of lightning in the Theatre of Electricity, and peek at animals such as cotton-top tamarins and red-bellied cooters (turtles) that are part of the museum’s species conservation programme.
Some of the world’s catchiest tunes were recorded at Motown’s original studios, which now house this homage to Berry Gordy’s label. The Motown Museum has exhibits that trace the story of “Hitsville USA” from its founding in 1959 to its heyday as a hit machine and career rocket-launcher for the likes of Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder. Visitors can explore the “Still Going On” outdoor exhibit, celebrating Gaye’s album, What’s Going On?
Yes, that’s right – a museum dedicated to everyone’s favourite (maybe) canned meat. The Spam Museum is as delightfully niche and quirky as you’d expect. The wartime favourite was invented in Minnesota in 1937, so the museum’s presence here isn’t entirely random. Inside, visitors can browse virtual marketplaces, learn about the canned meat’s significance in various places and cultures, and find out what their height is in stacked Spam cans.
The country’s first state-funded Civil Rights museum opened in late 2017 and fixes an unflinching eye on Mississippi’s most shameful history. The heart-stopping exhibits include the doors of Bryant Grocery, where 14-year-old Emmett Till was falsely accused of wolf-whistling a white shopkeeper in August 1955, leading to his brutal murder. The eight galleries encircle a central space, This Little Light of Mine, where a sculpture glows brighter and the music grows louder in correlation with the number of people gathering there.
The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum was the first library and museum created under the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act and recently underwent a major £24 million ($33m) renovation to completely overhaul the space. The museum now has impressive interactive exhibits telling Truman’s story from growing up in Independence to holding the world’s most powerful role. Among items on display is a series of photographs of Truman when he served in the First World War.
A room-dominating T-rex skeleton is the highlight of the Museum of the Rockies, which has an impressive selection of other dinosaur fossils and bones on display. It isn’t all about prehistoric creatures, however. The natural history museum and research facility also has cultural and archaeological exhibits, planetarium shows and galleries dedicated to Yellowstone Country.
Housed in the city’s elegant old Union Station building, The Durham Museum focuses on the history of the western region with exhibits on art, culture, industry and science. The Smithsonian affiliate has links with the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the Field Museum, so its collection is pretty impressive. The eclectic items on display include a restored 1940s streetcar, model trains, a recreated prairie village, a replica grocery store and vintage cookery books.
One of Las Vegas’ most unique attractions is both a graveyard for old neon signs – and the place where they are brought, beautifully, back to life. The Neon Museum rescues pieces from motels, hotels, restaurants and bars and restores them to their former glory. The display in the outdoor boneyard, where paths weave between piles of letters and images, is fascinating in daylight but is even more spectacular at night, when signs including the guitar from the Hard Rock Hotel glow against the dark sky.
This seasonal museum, open between June and October, is actually a series of historic houses dotted around a 10-acre campus. The focus at Strawbery Banke Museum is the evolution of a neighbourhood over 300-plus years of history. It explores this through exhibits in dozens of buildings on their original foundations and housing displays of archaeological items, crafts, historical records and diaries. Costumed role-players stroll the grounds, ready to share stories and answer questions.
The Harriet Tubman Museum is dedicated to the Underground Railroad’s most famous “conductor”, who escaped slavery and helped others flee via a network of trails and safe houses. Tubman worked as a cook in Cape May in the 1850s and used her wages to help fund her abolition efforts, and this centre tells the story of her time in the town and her broader legacy.
The International UFO Museum attracts hordes of UFO and paranormal enthusiasts each year. The museum examines theories around the so-called Roswell Incident in 1947, when (officially) a US Army Air Forces high-altitude balloon crashed near the town, sparking suspicions of alien activity and government cover-ups. It also looks at other unexplained phenomenon such as crop circles and UFO sightings, Area 51, ancient astronauts and abductions.
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Two million pieces fill the galleries at this revered fine art museum, the country’s largest. A New York City institution, the Met opened in 1870 and attracts visitors near and far with exhibitions featuring artworks from around the world. Highlights in the permanent collection include paintings by Dutch masters and a dazzling display of art from Japan’s Edo period.
From a lounge filled with displays of ancient art to a crowdsourced project to create a crochet coral reef, the North Carolina Museum of Art is certainly eclectic. The Raleigh museum’s permanent collections include Egyptian funerary art, sculptures and ceramics from ancient Greece and Rome, and American artworks from the 18th century onwards. There’s also a vast Museum Park with huge sculptures integrated into the landscape.
The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (AKA the Three Affiliated Tribes) live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, and this museum offers insights into their lives, rich culture and history. Visitors will find living history programmes, interactive exhibits and precious artefacts, all piecing together stories about these indigenous peoples. In the future, there will also be special events offering the chance to taste traditional meals prepared onsite, and an amphitheatre with outdoor seating.
Nothing signifies success quite like being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, whose exhibits celebrate those who’ve had an important impact on how the musical genre has developed through the decades. There are hundreds of names here, from rock ’n’ roll legends like Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Joan Baez and Alice Cooper to a special roster of “early influencers” that includes Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday and Robert Johnson.
The FAM First Americans Museum tells American history from the perspective of Oklahoma’s 39 distinct tribal nations. The state’s name comes from the Choctaw words “Okla” and “Homma”, meaning “Red People”, and most of the groups moved here from their homelands across the US. A Tribal Nations Gallery tells the tribes’ collective stories together with a Smithsonian Gallery filled with objects loaned from the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. There’s also a shop with jewellery, artwork and clothing crafted by Oklahoma Native artists.
From a buttercup-yellow US Coast Guard helicopter to the Hughes H-4 Hercules, a prototype completed too late for use in the Second World War, the range of aircraft on display at The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is pretty much guaranteed to have kids and adults wide-eyed and open-mouthed. There are more than 50 military and civilian aircraft and spacecraft, alongside exhibits that celebrate the science, innovation and human endeavour behind the aviation industry.
This weird and wonderful collection of medical anomalies isn’t for the squeamish but, for those who can stomach a little gore, the Mütter Museum is one of the most fascinating museums around. Founded in 1858, it’s named after Thomas Dent Mütter, a physician and professor who bequeathed his entire teaching collection of more than 1,700 objects and specimens to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Today’s collection of more than 25,000 pieces includes a cabinet of swallowed objects discovered by X-rays, slides of Albert Einstein’s brain and a “wall of skulls”.
Founded in 1877, this inspiring museum is affiliated with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and has an incredible array of diverse artworks spanning thousands of years. The collection of more than 100,000 pieces includes ancient sculptures, fine-art paintings, decorative arts, furniture and textiles. The museum has an admirable community spirit, too, hosting regular events and workshops and engaging with local artists.
OK, first things first: the Gullah Museum is tiny. Exhibits are displayed inside a dinky blue cabin surrounded by woodland on Hilton Head Island. But this small package crams in some important history – that of the Gullah Geechee people, descended from Africans enslaved on barrier-island plantations. The appointment-only museum showcases their art, music, food and language. It’s part of a heritage corridor linking coastal communities from North Carolina to Florida, encouraging visitors to meet Gullah Geechee people and learn about their culture and history.
The Mammoth Site & Museum in Hot Springs offer a rare opportunity to explore and observe an active paleontological excavation site. It’s an educational resource, research facility and fascinating museum rolled into one. The focal point of the self-guided tour is the site of a sinkhole that entrapped more than 60 mammoths, several camels and a short-faced bear. Skeletons, fossils and photographs from excavations are displayed inside the museum, giving an insight into the Ice Age.
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Nashville's hotly anticipated National Museum of African American Music finally opened its doors in early 2021. It’s the first major museum dedicated to celebrating the far-reaching musical contributions of African Americans across different musical genres from blues and jazz to hip hop and pop. Visits begin in Roots Theater, where an immersive introductory film chronicles history and musical traditions from the era of slavery to the Harlem Renaissance. Then a series of galleries traces the heritage of different genres and pays homage to pioneers from gospel singers to musical superstars.
Austin is perhaps the least surprising place to find a museum dedicated to all things “weird” and quirky. Tucked behind Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts, the Museum of the Weird proudly calls itself “America’s strangest attraction”, and who are we to argue? It’s stuffed with curios in the style of an old-fashioned American dime museum, with a mix of real and “fake” displays. Exhibits include shrunken heads, giant lizards and a “feejee” or Fiji mermaid – a taxidermy monkey and fish sewn together.
Part of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City’s Natural History Museum has around 1.6 million objects from dinosaur skeletons to a gallery of gemstones. Visitors should allow time to browse the shop, with all kinds of intricately crafted decorative items and jewellery, or come for the regular weekend Indian Art Market. The Rio Tinto Center, its home since 2011, is a real beauty too: a dark wood and glass structure that complements and also looks particularly striking against the hills that rise behind.
This hands-on museum is a delight for kids, who can make noise (or music), mess around with puzzles, blow giant bubbles and aid scientific investigations in the Science Discovery Lab. The Montshire Museum of Science is an inside and out experience, with outdoor exhibits across the 100-acre site and nature trails along the Connecticut River.
The Udvar-Hazy Center is an annexe of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, located (appropriately) just south of Washington Dulles Airport. It makes for an equally fun and fascinating visit, with an immersive IMAX theatre, flight simulators and, of course, military and civilian aircraft on display. The Restoration Hangar, where visitors can watch specialists reconstruct and preserve aircraft and other artefacts, is another highlight. Don't miss the futuristic Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (pictured).
The Museum of Pop Culture (or MoPOP) is a beautifully bold and crazily colourful temple housing contemporary popular culture, from movies to music. The architecture, all curved and crumpled steel, reflects the shiny displays inside. Founded in 2000 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, it’s a blend of the futuristic and the retro, with screen props and costumes (you can see Michael Myers' mask from Halloween and Gizmo from Gremlins), musical instruments, and science fiction sets and gadgets.
A sign on the window of this museum in the small town of Point Pleasant states that it’s the “world’s only” Mothman Museum. We have no reason to disbelieve it, especially given the rather niche nature of this quirky spot. It’s devoted to a local legend dating back to 1966 when residents reported strange lights, men in black and a black-winged, ruby-eyed creature now known as Mothman. It tells the story through press clippings, reports of sightings and memorabilia, with a fun store selling Mothman merchandise too.
The Milwaukee Art Museum houses one of the largest collections of works by Wisconsin native Georgia O'Keeffe, an American modernist known for bold paintings of blooms, New Mexico landscapes and New York City skyscrapers. The building itself is worthy of attention, too, with three separate buildings including, most notably, the Quadracci Pavilion. The structure has a movable, wing-like brise soleil (an architectural feature that reduces heat gain by deflecting sunlight), opening up to a total wingspan of 217 feet (66m) during the day and enfolding the building at night.
Part of the Centre of the West, which brings together five museums including the Plains Indian Museum and Whitney Western Art Museum, the Buffalo Bill Museum focuses on William Frederick Cody and other Wild West legends including Annie Oakley. Exhibits include possessions of the soldier, hunter and showman better known as Buffalo Bill, show props including wagons and a stagecoach, and a gallery of photos and paintings relating to the characters and the legends surrounding them.