The 51 Best Museums in the United States
The best United States museums spotlight the ever-growing plethora of reasons to love our patchwork nation. For starters, whether you're cruising down a scenic 32-mile stretch of a highway that doubles as a sculpture park, or beholding a two and a half billion year-old rock record, these destinations are easily some of the most beautiful places in America. And it doesn't hurt that many sit at the doorstep of our majestic national parks, or within some of our finest metropolises. If you're looking for a cerebral, creative, fun-for-all-ages way to tour through the nation's best cities and most charming towns, plan your journey by roadtripping your way through our picks of the best United States museums, with a selection for each state plus Washington, DC. These picks are sorted in alphabetical order by home state for ease of perusal.
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Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Birmingham has arrived. Again. It’s a destination—for historic architecture, old theaters, James Beard award-winning Southern food. And one of the best samples of the local culture is the city’s Museum of Art. The museum is home to over 24,000 pieces from American, Indigenous, Pre-Colombian, Asian, African, and European cultures. While you could stick to the classics here—the museum has a fine collection of Renaissance and Academic art—we recommend stretching your legs out in the Charles W. Ireland Sculpture Garden. In an effort to make art more accessible to the blind and vision impaired, the garden features several sculptures meant to be touched.
- Chuck Choi/ Courtesy Anchorage Museum
Anchorage Museum, Alaska
If you’ve come to Alaska knowing nothing about the 49th state, the Anchorage Museum is a good place to start. Exhibits distill the historical, cultural, political, social, and artistic elements that have gone into making the Last Frontier what it is. The flagship exhibition is in the Alaska Exhibition, which houses more than 600 Alaska Native pieces, ranging from Tlingit war helmets to Iñupiaq feast bowls. Be sure to check out the Art of the North galleries—with paintings, photography, sculptures, video, and more aimed at offering a glimpse into what life in the international north has been like throughout time.
Musical Instrument Museum, Arizona
This expansive museum in the desert right off of the North Phoenix highway is a paean to world music. Inside the Musical Instrument Museum's tall sandstone walls, 8,000-plus instruments from some 200 countries await, all packed into galleries forking from a central corridor. As you stroll through wearing headphones, you hear the sounds of the instruments you pass. Videos play, too, showing how people play instruments in their countries of origin. Other highlights: The museum has rooms for kids, displays instruments actually played by artists like Johnny Cash, and hosts concerts.
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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas
Bentonville probably isn’t the next Chelsea, but art-lovers have had new reason to visit Northwest Arkansas since the 2011 opening of the blockbuster Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, bankrolled by billionaire Alice Walton and stocked with works from names like Thomas Hart Benton, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol. Chicago’s Wheeler Kearns Architects transformed this former Kraft cheese factory into a multi-functional venue that caters to the visual, performing, and even culinary arts. Some 24,000 square feet are earmarked for galleries, and the campus is engulfed in 120 acres of Ozarks forest. Just stopping by? Peruse the Kusama garden on the Orchard Trail which is totally free to view.
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The Getty Center, California
The Getty has established itself as the nexus of Los Angeles art, and its palatial grounds reflect that. Perched atop a hill in the Brentwood neighborhood of West Los Angeles (with 360-degree views), the Richard Meier architected space is a perfect union of medieval castle and rigorous academia. Floating bridges connect marble buildings, and you're never too far from a burbling fountain. And of course, the garden, built by legendary Southern Californian artist Robert Irwin, is a magical place to reset once you've had art overload. The museum's collection is vaunted. In fact, few collections in the world match up to the mix of ancient and modern. Seeking 2,500-year-old Etruscan statues? Van Gogh's Irises? Delicate and rare illuminated manuscripts? 20th century photography from the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Walker Evans? The Getty has it all.
- Richard M Wicker/Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Colorado
While families come here regularly to keep the kiddos happy, this Denver museum is best known for its blockbuster exhibitions that drive traffic. You can expect ticketed and timed temporary exhibitions that showcase everything from the treasures of China to the culture of Cuba; past hits include the Dead Sea Scrolls (like, the actual scrolls). The permanent collection, much like the space, is varied and massive: There's a giant dinosaur skeleton that rises high above in the main lobby, and you can learn all you want about outer space and the human body.
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Mark Twain House, Connecticut
The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, is where the plucky humorist and his family lived from 1874 to 1891, a time Twain would later call the happiest and most productive years of his life. The Victorian Gothic abode was built to the exact specifications of Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Clemens, and his wife, Livy; upon its completion, the author remarked that “It is a home—and the word never had so much meaning before.” Throughout the year the museum presents an array of talks and exhibits, including “Presidential Mark Twain,” a collection of the many comments (good and bad) Twain made about various presidents (and what they said about him).
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Hagley Museum, Delaware
Sitting on the banks of Brandywine Creek, Hagley was initially established in 1802 as a gunpowder works by E. I. du Pont. The museum today reflects these roots as an early institution of American industry. The collection includes letters, records, and artifacts that paint a portrait of the intersection between technology and business. Don't miss the Nation of Inventors exhibit, or the Powder Yard outside.
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Kennedy Space Center, Florida
The Kennedy Space Center was most famously the launch pad for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969. Today the complex welcomes around 1.5 million visitors a year, and encompasses more than 130 square miles. One of the main draws here is the actual space shuttle, the Atlantis orbiter, which goes hand-in-hand with the Shuttle Launch Experience, an immersive simulator. It’s a comprehensive space experience, with real-life artifacts and spacecraft mixed in with impressive multimedia presentations.
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The World of Coca-Cola, Georgia
Coca-Cola was invented in downtown Atlanta by pharmacist John S. Pemberton in 1886, and this is the brand's temple—a 92,000-square-foot interactive museum that's drawn more than 25 million caffeine-seeking visitors since 1990. Its most memorable elements? In the 4-D Theater, you’ll feel like you’re riding through a Coke-themed world, with fizzy bubbles popping against your skin; you can also test your strength on an old-fashioned manual bottling machine (tougher than it sounds—it takes more than 700 pounds of pressure to cap one bottle). And, of course, there's a tasting room where you can try more than 100 Coca-Cola sodas from around the world.
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- Courtesy Bailey House Museum
The Bailey House Museum, Hawaii
The Bailey House Museum, a small lava rock and Koa wood home, has seen many lives. Built in 1833 as a mission, it served as a female seminary, then a private home, and then a base during World War II. Today, the museum houses Maui's largest collection of Hawaiian artifacts. There's history throughout every inch, from the well-worn doorways to the creaky floors, all of which recall a time before Maui became known as a tony resort town.
Discovery Center of Idaho
This museum is dedicated to inspiring the new generation in STEM, and frankly, the exhibits here are fun enough to get even the most curmudgeonly among us excited. Exhibits include the World's Largest Dinosaurs; Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission; and the Classics Collection which preserves some of the most popular exhibits the Idaho museum has shown in the past.
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The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, Illinois
A comprehensive science and technology museum housed in a building constructed for the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park takes up 14 acres and tends to draw families. Participation sells most of the exhibits here. For example, there's an authentic World War II submarine to crawl through, a coal shaft to ride down, and John Deere tractors to climb on. Science exhibits cover everything from human biology to storms and space travel (the actual Apollo 8 module is here). There's also an IMAX theater, with a separate entrance and shifting shows that play in repertoire.
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The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indiana
Set in a building reminiscent of Southwest pueblos, the Eiteljorg Museum features a rich permanent collection of Native American art that includes pottery, textiles, jewelry, and contemporary multimedia installations. Visitors can also admire the oversized paintings of landscapes, cowboys, and other scenes from the American West.
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- Courtesy the Des Moines Art Center
Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Iowa
For a city chockablock with public art offerings from names like Keith Haring and Willem de Kooning, why is Des Moines still so underrated as a serious art city? One of the people leading the charge to amplify the scene is Liz Lidgett, founder of art advisory firm Adore Your Walls, which has commissioned pieces throughout the city. Lidgett praises that the Pappajohn Sculpture Park put Des Moines's art scene, "on an international level when it opened in 2009 as part of the Des Moines Art Center. In just a few blocks you’ll see 28 different works by artists like Keith Haring, Louise Bourgeois, Mark di Suvero, and Jaume Plensa.”
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Union Station, Kansas
In addition to being one of the most beautiful train stations in the country after a complete restoration of its full Beaux Arts glory, Union Station in Kansas City is the place to be, even if you're skipping the rail. The most recent additions to the station include: a permanent rail history exhibit, a planetarium, a science center for kids, and movie theater. Be sure to look up in the main hall to catch a glimpse of the three 3,500-pound chandeliers hanging overhead.
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Kentucky Derby Museum
Unlike our cousins across the pond, Americans don’t have quite so many opportunities to sport enormous, ornate hats. That’s why the Kentucky Derby isn’t just a horse race—it’s a one-of-a-kind fashion show with millinery at the forefront. Between juleps, see the Derby Museum which houses over 170 bourbons and 20,000 artifacts related to the races and hosts exclusive tours of Churchill Downs.
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The National WWII Museum, Louisiana
The National WWII Museum is a world-class history museum—a sprawling complex of modern buildings in the Warehouse District that receives thousands of visitors every day who want to hear "the story of the war that changed the world." Doing so is no easy task, but through large narrative exhibits that include detailed, personal accounts from eyewitnesses, the museum manages to do just that. Every conceivable medium is used: film, immersive exhibits, large-scale reconstructions, and first-person oral histories among them. Expect to walk—a lot—given how spread out exhibits are, but the museum is sensitive to the relatively mature age of its visitors and rest stops and benches are plentiful. A short visit isn't ideal given the scale of the topic at hand, but if you’re really pushed, you could tailor your visit to just see a specific interest, or go straight for the movie presentation.
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The Portland Observatory, Maine
This 1807 building far more than lives up to the hype; once you set foot inside, you begin to realize it's more than just a great view. It's a significant piece of Portland history. The octagonal, lighthouse-shaped building was used by former sea captain Lemuel Moody to monitor the harbor and let ship owners that their vessels had arrived. These days, it's America’s last remaining maritime signal tower, and a symbol of the city itself.
- Iwan Baan/Courtesy Glenstone Museum
Glenstone, Maryland
Thrills ran through the local art world last year when Glenstone reopened its doors to the public after a massive expansion. After all, this isn’t just a museum—it’s an experience. Set on 300 acres just outside of the city, Glenstone blends art, architecture, and landscape design in a way that encourages visitors to turn off the noise of the digital world and connect with what’s in front of you. You’ll see works by major names in conceptual and modern art such as Marcel Duchamp, Yayoi Kusama, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol and sculptures by the likes of Jeff Koons seamlessly fit into the rolling hills of the property.
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- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts
The MFA’s vast collection of art and artifacts is exceptional by any standard. The museum houses one of the best collections of Korean and Japanese art in the country, the only permanent exhibition space for ancient coins in the United States, one of the world’s largest holdings of ancient Egyptian treasures, and a broad, comprehensive collection of work by John Singer Sargent. The museum’s claims to fame are so varied, in fact, you could spend weeks documenting its exceptionality. Whatever you take in during your visit, don’t miss the Claude Monet gallery in the European Wing, reinstalled in 2016 with one of the greatest caches of the Impressionist’s work outside of France, or the impressive Arts of Islamic Cultures Gallery, whose summer 2019 reinstallation was developed in collaboration with local Muslim groups. All said and done, the MFA is the crown jewel of Boston's art scene.
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Motown Museum, Michigan
Motown is to Detroit what wind is to Chicago. Rather than focusing on just one musician or band, this musician pays loving tribute to Berry Gordy and Motown Records. You can stand in Studio A, where artists like Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, and Marvin Gaye recorded their hits, and in the apartment where Gordy and his family lived upstairs when they first started out. It’s not unusual to break out into song on the tour, so make sure you’re warmed up.
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- Courtesy Paisley Park/NPG Records
Paisley Park, Minnesota
For all those seeking to pay tribute to the High Priest of Pop, look no further than Paisley Park, Prince's former home-cum-museum. Rooms like his former office freeze the past with a trove of unfinished projects and ongoing preoccupations. He’d been working on a Purple Rain remaster. He’d been reading a stack of books: an Oxford Bible; Egypt: Gods, Myths and Religion; In Praise of Black Women: African Queens. The Purple Rain Room, once a choreography studio, feels like a womb. A projection of purple water ripples on the walls. In the center, cordoned off by a low wall, is a simple set-up of some of Prince’s most iconic Purple Rain items: his bike, his purple jacket, the white Cloud guitar; his Oscar, his script, the little lavender piano he danced on.
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Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson sheds light on the state's history, ranging from prehistoric times to the modern age. The museum's primary focus is the Civil Rights Movement, though, displaying objects like the mug shots of every freedom rider who was arrested in Mississippi, and monoliths engraved with the names of known lynching victims.
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City Museum, Missouri
For those who prefer wandering to chasing landmarks, City Museum ($20 tickets), a quirky, multi-faceted collection of objects and installations housed in a rehabilitated shoe warehouse, is famously known to be map-free. Guests of all ages are encouraged to explore at their whimsy, whether that’s in front of vintage arcade games or observing a collection of antique home goods or preserved insects. Adults can visit on Fridays until midnight, when in-the-known creatives flock to the cavernous museum for cocktails, art, and a totally transportive ambiance.
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Museum of Great Northern Plains, Montana
Staring out into the golden fields of Montana's Great Northern Plains is a bit like standing before the ocean—humbling, contemplative, overwhelming. This museum in Fort Benton is a great place to start to take it all in, as it “documents the last one hundred years of life on the vast Montana plains.” From stepping into the shoes of the early homesteaders of the American West to playing house in a 1960's domicile to standing face to face with a bison (without having to face their horns), you could make a whole day out of this Montana museum.
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Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska
Rising some 800 feet about the North Platte River, Scotts Bluff once served as a beacon for emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail. The towering landmark—and surrounding 3,000 acres—now make up the Scotts Bluff National Monument, a protected area of vast plains, prairie dogs, and actual covered wagons. You can also view the William Henry Jackson Collection during your visit, the namesake of which is perhaps best known as the first photographer to document Yellowstone's beauty.
- Courtesy Mob Museum
Mob Museum, Nevada
This downtown Las Vegas museum showcases the history of organized crime in the United States. The building is housed in the 1933 U.S. Post Office and Courthouse that held some of the most important and defining trials in the world of organized crime–including the famous 1950 Kefauver hearings. Visitors can walk the same halls as federal investigators, informants, and mobsters once did as they wander the collection, which includes weapons, memorabilia from law enforcement and crime bosses, films from court hearings, and even part of a wall from the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre (complete with bullet holes and blood stains). The museum’s speakeasy and distillery are worth a visit, and you can order cocktails that contain the house-distilled moonshine—which is even sold locally in some liquor shops. In fact, you can even take a special distillery tour and sample a variety of distilled spirits.
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- Courtesy McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, New Hampshire
Reach for the stars at Concord’s McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. The name Christa McAuliffe is legendary in New Hampshire: the 37-year-old teacher from Concord was aboard the doomed 1986 mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. In 1990, this space center—dedicated not only to McAuliffe, but also to astronaut Alan Shepard, a New Hampshire native—opened to the public. The museum offers educational experience for kids and adults alike, and features a state-of-the-art planetarium with rotating shows.
- Courtesy Paul Seibert
Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, New Jersey
One of the most quintessential New York City experiences is actually located in Jersey City, and you access transit via Battery Park at the bottom of Manhattan. It's from here that you board the ferry—either the Miss Jersey or the Miss Liberty—that will deliver you to Ellis Island and the National Immigration Museum. That this boat ride also takes you not only past but up to the the Statue of Liberty herself, with the $25 cost of your ticket covering a visit to the monument as well as the museum, is merely icing atop what is on its own one of the city's best museums. With excellent restoration work, a fantastic photography collection, and eager park rangers giving free guided tours every hour about the immigration process that occurred here between 1892 and 1954, it's an experience as informative as it is beautiful.
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- New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary
New Mexico Museum of Art-Vladem contemporary
In the heart of the Railyard District, the new Vladem Contemporary Art Museum, is a key addition to what’s quickly being hailed as Santa Fe’s premiere arts district. Already home to the edgy SITE Santa FE, there are several local galleries and two film venues (one of which belongs to Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin). Also: New Mexican resident Judy Chicago displayed two drawings and an augmented reality (AR) project. Outside, a breezeway houses Albuquerque-born Leo Villareal’s "Astral Array,” a permanent LED light (running 24/7) installation generating patterns that recall cloud formations and other far-out celestial wonders. A nod to Villareal’s work, the gift shop sells a small collection of table lamps, alongside unique glass, pottery and coffee table tomes.
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American Museum of Natural History, New York
Truly one of the world's great natural history museums, the American Museum of Natural History spans four city blocks just across from Central Park. All aspects of the natural world are represented here, from a vast collection of taxidermy mammals, to depictions of the life of Native American tribes, to an entire hall dedicated to marine life—including a life-size model of a blue whale. The crown jewel is the dinosaur floor, with an imposing Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that dominates the room. The newest attraction comes in the form of the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, which opened in May of 2023 and, among many other things, boasts a comprehensive insectarium and vivarium. Breathtaking architecture from New York-based Jeanne Gang doesn't hurt, either—the cavernous lobby brings to mind the underground fortresses of Dune, and are thoughtfully designed so that there are no dead ends. Just as with knowledge itself, the possibilities here are endless.
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Levine Museum of the New South, North Carolina
After the Civil War, Charlotte was one of the first places to embrace the New South. This museum, housed fittingly in a modern building, tells the story of the city's—and region's—history, and as you walk through the permanent exhibits, the city grows around you. Try to arrange a visit when there's a rotating exhibit on display. Common areas can get busy, so come in the morning just after the museum opens.
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Enchanted Highway, North Dakota
Street art has another meaning in North Dakota, where 32 miles of otherwise unremarkable highway has become an art gallery. Driving The Enchanted Highway, from the town of Regent to just east of Dickinson, means spotting a collection of the world’s largest scrap metal sculptures, by local artist Gary Greff. The many roadside artworks date back to 1991, with more still in progress.
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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ohio
Why choose just one? If you can’t be limited to a single musical act or genre, get your fix by going big. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, boasts encyclopedic exhibits not just about musicians but producers, songwriters, and other behind-the-scenes stars: this year’s inductees included Linda Ronstadt, Nirvana, and The Beatles’ late manager Brian Epstein. The only problem is that your eyes may open to so many new bands that you’ll wind up lugging a huge pile of gift shop CDs back home with you.
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The First Americans Museum, Oklahoma
A total of 39 tribal nations are headquartered in Oklahoma—which gets its name from two Choctaw words “okla” and “humma” meaning honored people. And the First Americans Museum (FAM) is dedicated to telling their and other tribes' stories. The highly interactive FAM museum had been many years in the making, and initial exhibitions share the history of all 39 tribes in Oklahoma today through sight, sound, and touch. The museum features a gallery with a selection of works from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, commissioned pieces from Indigenous artisans throughout the museum, a restaurant focusing on Native-inspired cuisine, and a museum store featuring items from First American artists and companies. Visitors to the museum will learn about and see the history of First Americans, from pre-European contact to forced removal to present-day, when tribal nations are regaining sovereignty and the right to self-governance.
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- Courtesy Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OSMI)
Perfect for the young and young-at-heart, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a magnificent museum that will keep the whole family entertained for days. The sprawling riverfront complex, just south of the Hawthorne Bridge in the Inner Eastside Industrial District, is home to five halls crammed with more than 200 interactive natural-science and technology exhibits and labs, a motion simulator, the Kendall Planetarium, the state’s most technologically advanced four-story-screen movie theater, and special seasonal exhibits like "The Discovery of King Tut." Weekends, especially those that fall during particularly popular special exhibits, can be a madhouse, but it’s all part of the fun, and the exhibits are spread out enough that they don't feel claustrophobic.
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Penn Museum, Pennsylvania
A hidden gem nestled within the University City neighborhood on the University of Pennsylvania campus, the Penn Museum is dedicated to anthropology and archaeology. The collection is comprised of art and artifacts largely discovered by the University's own archaeologists and researchers in the 19th and early-20th centuries. Galleries are organized by geography and culture, and include China and Japan, The Middle East, Egypt, Mexico and Central America, Native Americans, Ancient Rome and Greece, and Ancient Israel. The collection is massive—you could definitely spend hours here, but if you want a quick hit, don't miss the sphinx (the largest in the Western hemisphere).
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The Breakers, Rhode Island
“Newport, with its ocean and its palaces, was the Queen of the Watering Places,” wrote the historian Cleveland Amory in The Last Resorts, his definitive 1952 account of American society's leisure capitals. But by then the city's star had begun to fade, and in midcentury more than a few of Newport's cottages, hugely expensive to maintain, were slated to be demolished to make space for parking lots. Thanks to the work of Duke and the Preservation Society of Newport County, most were saved, with some—like The Breakers, one of the city's most popular attractions—becoming house museums, often with audio guides that catalog both the perverse excesses and the real artistry involved in erecting and maintaining these extravagant jewel boxes. Those many tours are some of the best things to do in Newport today.
- Courtesy The Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina
The Charleston Museum, South Carolina
As museums go, there’s nothing stuffy or old-school about this one, even though it just celebrated its 252nd year of existence. The formidable modern structure houses relics from Charleston’s past, and weaves a story from the 18th century to the present. Visitors wander through history, both cultural and natural, listening to recordings by locals. It’s a great place to ground yourself, and to catch your breath in the museum’s restful inner courtyard.
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The Journey Museum and Learning Center, South Dakota
Exactly what journey should a visitor expect to take at this Rapid City museum? The entire site is designed as a tour through time of the Black Hills, from the first Native American creation stories told about the region to the area's 19th century pioneers. Start with the Geology Gallery, which places the whole two and a half billion year-old rock record before viewers and end with Black Hills Forests Then and Now, which follows the region's forests over the span of 11,000 years.
- Courtesy Jefferson Street Sound Museum
Jefferson Street Sound Museum, Tennessee
A small house-turned-museum on one of Nashville’s most historic streets, the Jefferson Street Sound Museum sort of looks and feels like you're in someone’s house with their chock-full music collection… because it sort of is. Lorenzo Washington took over the former home and converted two stories into a museum with exhibits based largely around his own collection of artifacts. This museum is oft-overlooked by visitors to Nashville, perhaps because it's small and it is only open one day a week (otherwise, you can come by appointment). But just walking in the front door makes you feel like an insider privy to the secrets of Jefferson Street’s musical legacy. Much of the signage is handwritten, and going through with Washington as guide is really the only way to understand what’s what. Items on display include many, many autographed photos, instruments, costumes, sheet music, and playbills. The emphasis is on Nashville’s Black music scene from 1940 to 1970, from Jimi Hendrix to Marion James.
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Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas
The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth offers a first-rate art experience without the crowds of people you might find in New York City or even Dallas. It's rather incredible how many residents have yet to make it here to see the sculptures, prints, and photographs on display. The atmosphere makes for a very zen art experience. Whether you have 30 minutes or three days, even experiencing just a slice of the museum can be memorable and worthwhile.
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The Moab Museum, Utah
Moab is the kind of place you head to when you want to get away from it all—after miles of driving down narrow roads and curving around rolling hills, grand arched rocks and spires of stone begin to pop up along the desert vista, contrasting against the expansive blue sky. The city's namesake museum reflects these surreal surroundings by coloring them with the history and culture of Utah's first inhabitants, the geology of the Moab Valley, uranium mining, and more. Younger visitors will have a blast at the museum's 3D theater, 5D paleoaquarium that brings life to the valley's marine past, and playground dotted with “dig out” areas filled with T-Rex teeth and more prehistoric treasures.
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Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Vermont
If you're looking for the perfect weekend in Vermont, start by grabbing a stack of pancakes at Up for Breakfast, then make your way to Hildene, the historic Lincoln family home, originally owned by Robert Todd Lincoln and now a museum. You can take a tour of the massive house, still filled with original furniture, and the grounds, which have spectacular gardens and equally beautiful mountain views. There's also walking trails, an agricultural center with baby goats—we repeat, baby goats—and a market where you can buy anything from homemade jam to museum memorabilia.
- Courtesy National Sporting Library & Museum
The National Sporting Library & Museum, Virginia
Fans of quirky sites will relish in the curiosity of the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg. A must-visit for any outdoorsman or horse lover, the museum was founded in 1954 with the mission of “preserving, promoting, and sharing the literature, art, and culture of equestrian, angling, and field sports.” The collection is small but tight, and ranges from rare photographs to works on canvas and sculpture, spanning centuries. Most of the special exhibitions are focused on horses and equestrian sports (you are in hunt country, after all). The museum hosts unique special events, including a rollicking polo classic each September.
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- Photo by Brady Harvey
Museum of Pop Culture, Washington
The collections inside this Frank Gehry-designed building focus on the most impactful moments in popular culture, including science fiction, rock music, and many others across the pop culture spectrum, with innovative exhibits and interactive installations bringing it all to life. If you can, try to check out one of the programs or workshops, like the Music and Gender Conference, the Mini Maker Faire, or the BYO-sleeping bag Campout Cinema.
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National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
The National Museum of American History's brief is all-encompassing: tell the story of America using a collection of more than 1.8 million historical objects. For a quick jaunt through the highlights, the museum suggests seeing the original Star-Spangled Banner, the lunch counter from Greensboro's famous sit-in during the Civil Rights movement, Dorothy's ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” Julia Child's exact kitchen, and Michelle Obama's inauguration dress in "The First Ladies" exhibit. Most exhibits are ongoing, but recent special exhibits include "Road Warriors/Guerreros de la carretera."
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The Greenbrier, West Virginia
Set on 11,000 acres in the Allegheny Mountains, this resort was founded in 1778 as a cottage community but today offers falconry, kayaking, golf, and a casino. In 1958, the resort became home to a nuclear fallout shelter meant to house the US Congress in case of an emergency, and nowadays visitors can book a 90-minute tour through its corridors and chambers.
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Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
The lakefront Milwaukee Art Museum is a vision in and of itself. The gleaming white Santiago Calatrava structure, with dramatic wings and stunning dorsal fin, hints at the talent within the quiet galleries inside. With a collection of over 25,000 works, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest museums in the country. The galleries feature everything from folk art to contemporary American, across all disciplines like prints, sculptures, and paintings. Wisconsin native Georgia O'Keefe features prominently—the museum owns much of her work—alongside European artists Gustave Caillebotte, Claude Monet, and Joan Miró.
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- Courtesy Don King’s Western Museum
Don King Museum, Wyoming
Associate editor Charlie Hobbs raves about the eccentric ode to the West that is the Don King Museum, "You have to walk through King’s Saddlery tack shop to access the vast hoard of Old West artifacts that is The Don King Museum. Such an entrypoint has anthropological value of its own, as you pass supplies that modern ranchers use to work the surrounding land." A treasure trove of western paraphernalia awaits in the second building, a warehouse that smells of soft leather, brimming with fine burnished saddles in technicolor finishes. This palatial monument to leather craftsmanship gives way to more densely-populated rooms of curiosities—expect to see taxidermied jackalopes and two-headed calves, and a wall of cow skulls—as well as some tributes to Plains Indian heritage, the highlight being a delicate photogravure portrait of Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud.