The Must-Visit Museum in Every State

In the 1950s, renowned rocket expert Wernher von Braun established a technology center in Huntsville and then suggested that a museum be created there. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center, home to one of the world’s largest collections of space memorabilia, opened in 1970. More than 650,000 people visit annually.

The Anchorage Museum in Anchorage, Alaska showcases a vast array of educational exhibits and projects, like its polar lab, which brings together thought leaders to discuss the present and future of the North and the Arctic. One highlight is the museum’s commitment to recognizing and honoring the land, culture, and language of the Dena’ina people on whose land the museum is built.

One of the newer institutions on this list, the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix opened in 2010 and is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world. The museum opened with a global vision, focusing on musical instruments played all over the world and has more than 8,000 instruments from 200 countries.

Founded by philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton, the museum in Bentonville has as its mission to acknowledge the American spirit in a place that combines art and nature. Pavilions housing galleries are perched on areas around spring-fed ponds. One unique attraction: A 1954-vintage Frank Lloyd Wright house, dismantled at its original site in New Jersey and reassembled on the grounds.

The Getty Center is one of Los Angeles’ cultural jewels and is the campus of the Getty Museum located in Brentwood. Open every day except Tuesday, with free admission, it includes works by such art icons as Van Gogh, Monet, and Cezanne. The building itself is an architectural wonder, designed by Richard Meier.

Colorado’s history was helped shaped by the railroad which is illustrated in this non-profit museum dedicated entirely to railroads. Located in Golden, west of Denver, the museum was founded to preserve Colorado’s railroad history. The main building, completed in 1959, is a replica of a 19th-century railroad depot. A 15-acre railyard contains dozens of historic locomotives, passenger trains, and freight cars.

This Mystic, Connecticut museum was founded in 1929 and is the largest maritime museum in the United States. Home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including America’s oldest commercial ship and the last wooden whaleship in the world, it was one of the first living history museums in the country. Included on the museum’s 19 acres is a recreated 19th-century coastal village and a working shipyard.

Once the country estate of the du Pont family, the museum in the Brandywine Valley contains 90,000 objects made or used in America since 1640, which is one of the richest collections of Americana in the country. The 60-acre garden is among the most beautiful in the United States.

As singular as the famed Catalan artist it’s named after, the Dali­ Museum opened in St. Petersburg in 2011. The surrealism-inspired museum structure is a work of art in itself,  with its unique, bulbous architecture that houses the works of the mustachioed master. The museum first opened in 1982, heralding a cultural surge in the Tampa Bay area.

The world’s most famous soft drink was founded in Atlanta and is home to the only museum that pays homage to the beverage. The current complex opened in 2007, relocating from the original that was founded in 1990 in the shopping district Underground Atlanta. You can trace the history of Coca-Cola, check out its more famous commercials, and sample drink variations on the beverage’s theme from all over the world.

Bishop Museum, founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in honor of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, is not only the largest museum in the state but is also designated the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Located in Honolulu’s historic Kalihi, it houses Hawaiian artifacts, documents, and photographs about Hawai’i and other Pacific island cultures.

Author and speaker Don Aslett, who is considered a cleaning expert, founded the museum in Pocatello, Idaho, whose mission is to impart the value of cleanliness and to expand the idea of cleanliness beyond homes and into minds and language. The museum has been deemed a low-maintenance building as well as being environmentally friendly. Worth a look is the vacuum collection, featuring the Daniel Hess Carpet Sweeper from the 1860s which is the world’s first vacuum cleaner.

The Art Institute of Chicago is one of America’s great cultural institutions. It is one of the largest and oldest art museums in the country that houses the largest Impressionist collection outside of Paris and contains well-known contemporary works such as Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.”

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, founded in 1925, is the largest children’s museum in the world with 500,000 square feet of exhibits and activities. It recently added a 7.5-acre outdoor health and fitness area that encourages participation in sports. The indoor section features the National Art Museum of Sport along with the World of Sport and History of Hoops.

The Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs holds artifacts, photographs, documents, and equipment from the construction of the transcontinental railroad, which the Union Pacific company helped build. The Beaux Arts-style building was originally the Council Bluffs Carnegie Free Public Library and was established with the help of philanthropist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.

This world history museum was founded in 2001 in Wichita by Dr. Jon and Lorna Kardatzke.  The Museum of World Treasures runs the gamut of world history and isn’t dedicated to one specific era. Among the exhibits are dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, the experiences of the Conquistadors, and the horror of the battlefields of the two World Wars.

Designated the Official Baseball Bat of Major League Baseball, the Louisville Slugger has been in production since 1884. At the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, in, fittingly, Louisville, you can see how the famed clubs are made. Besides viewing the bats once held by Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Johnny Bench, and Derek Jeter, you can stand in the batter’s box and experience what it’s like to face a 90-mph fastball.

The Higgins boats that brought troops ashore on D-Day were developed in New Orleans, which is also the home of The National WWII Museum. Visitors get a comprehensive overview of how the war was fought, the industrial mobilization that led to victory, and poignant personal stories of those who lived through history’s worst conflict.

Visitors to the Maine Maritime Museum, which was formerly known as the Bath Marine Museum, on the Kennebec River in Bath can view modern-day shipbuilding techniques, see a restored 1906 schooner, get a guided tour of the historic Percy & Small Shipyard, and see a blacksmith plying his trade. The Portland Harbor Museum merged with the Maine Maritime Museum in 2010, adding to the museum’s collection.

Located on the south side of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the American Visionary Art Museum is a repository for the works of self-taught and intuitive artists. It has been designated by Congress as America’s National Museum for visionary art and rather than have staff curators, they have guests for its various shows and exhibitions.

Each summer they host an outdoor family film series, known as “Flicks on the Hill,” and their annual Kinetic Sculpture Race, taking place in late May, is a race with human-powered amphibious all-terrain artwork.

The Museum of Fine Arts is Boston’s oldest and largest museum. This museum was founded in 1870 and is the 20th largest museum in the world, housing more than 8,000 paintings and almost 500,000 works of art, from artifacts of ancient Egypt to its well-known Impressionist collection. It was originally located in Copley Square but is now in the Fenway-Kenmore area.

The Henry Ford, also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, was built in 1929 in Dearborn and was the educational vision of the auto mogul who put America on the road. He built two facilities in Dearborn – one to tell the story of America’s technological genius and the other to demonstrate how objects are made and used. His was among the first institutions to offer hands-on museum experiences.

The collection contains various artifacts throughout history. Some of these are JFK’s presidential limousine, Abraham Lincoln’s chair from the Ford Theater, the Rosa Parks bus, and Thomas Edison’s lab.

One of the largest museums in the United States with more than 90,000 works of art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a free museum operated for the benefit of the general public. The museum recently announced it will exhibit five works by Vincent Van Gogh. More than 500,000 people visit the museum yearly.

The Delta Blues Museum is known as the birthplace of the blues, and that music genre that is uniquely American is honored at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. Founded in 1979, the state’s oldest music museum is dedicated to collecting and preserving the blues genre, as well as providing awareness and public access to this type of music.

It is located at the recently renovated Yazoo and Mississippi River Valley Railroad Depot, and houses photos, artifacts, and instruments related to the blues.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the cultural pride of Kansas City, not only houses 40,000 pieces of art but is known for its extensive collection of Asian art. Opened in 1933, it is known for its Bloch Galleries, featuring Impressionist art, photography, and Native American and Egyptian art, and was once listed on Time Magazine’s 10 Best (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels (the museum came in at number one). One of the museum’s beloved installations is “Shuttlecocks” (shown above).

Located in Bozeman, the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is known for its Paleontology collections, specifically dinosaur fossils, including a T. rex skeleton. The museum is home to the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the United States.

Once known as the known as the Durham Western Heritage Museum, the Durham Museum is housed in Omaha’s former Union Station, an Art Deco treasure that is a National Historic Landmark. It features traveling exhibits with history and cultural themes. The museum is home to the Byron Reed Collection, considered by experts to be one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century.

Created by the team that developed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. the Mob Museum muscled into Las Vegas in 2012 and became a hit. It is officially known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement and tells the story of organized crime in America and its effect on the nation.

This science and educational establishment is an observatory intended to measure the often extreme weather conditions on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. Located in North Conway, visitors can learn the science of meteorology at the Mount Washington Observatory Weather Discovery Center.

In 1934, the observatory recorded the record for the fastest wind gust ever on Earth at 231 miles per hour, a record that stood for 62 years. Before the National Weather Service was established, the first regular meteorological observations were conducted by the United States Army Signal Corps on Mount Washington.

New Jersey: Liberty Science Center

This interactive science center is located in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, just beyond the gaze of the Statue of Liberty. The building is a 300,000-square-foot learning center that houses 12 exhibition halls. The Liberty Science Center was once the largest planetarium in the world and is the state’s first major science museum.

Founded by philanthropists Anne Windfohr Marion and John L. Marion, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe is named after the American woman who influenced American art in the 20th century. O’Keeffe came to New Mexico in the late 1920s, and the state’s landscapes as well as Native American culture shaped her technique.

This New York City landmark is listed on the U.S. Register of National Historic Places and is one of the world’s foremost scientific and cultural institutions. For generations, the American Museum of Natural History has been an essential destination for school trips. Since it was founded in 1869, it has promoted its mission to discover, interpret, and disseminate information about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.

This Raleigh museum was founded in 1947 and was the country’s first major museum collection to be funded and formed by the state legislature. The museum features the People’s Collection, which is art owned by the citizens of North Carolina as well as featuring art from the Italian Renaissance, Egyptian funerary works, and American paintings and sculptures from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Located on the North Dakota state capitol grounds in Bismarck, the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum tells the history and heritage of North Dakota through artifacts and specimens, high-tech displays, and interactive exhibits. It has been touted as the “Smithsonian on the plains” and is home to a rare, mummified Edmontosaurus, a genus of duck-billed dinosaur.

Established in 1993 by the founder of Atlantic Records and designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, the pyramid-shaped Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland captures the energy, turbulence, and passion of the music form. The 150,000-square-foot museum features seven floors, four theaters for films, and ever-changing exhibits. There are 351 inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since it opened in 1995.

This Oklahoma City museum is an homage to the history and culture of the American West, it includes works by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as sculptor James Earle Fraser’s famous work “The End of the Trail.” It houses more than 28,000 Native American and Western works of art and artifacts. More than 10 million people have dusted off their boots and other footwear to visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum since it opened in 1955.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a nationally known science center providing science learning to audiences. Located in Portland, its programs promote an innovative and sustainable society. It is also home to the USS Blueback, the submarine that was featured in the “Hunt for Red October” and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This Philadelphia museum’s landmark building houses van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and the only dedicated Rodin Museum outside France. It also was featured in the famous scene in the movie “Rocky” where the underdog prizefighter runs up the steps of the museum and holds up his hands in triumph.

A statue of Rocky stands next to the museum. The museum also features several exhibitions each year, as well as touring exhibitions in conjunction with other museums throughout the world.

This museum is integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design and was established in 1877 in Providence. The Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design has more than 100,000 objects, including paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, costumes, furniture, and other works of art from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Asia, and the Americas, as well as contemporary art.

Formerly called the Gibbes Art Gallery, this museum opened in 1905, with the help of benefactor James Gibbes. According to the museum’s website, the Gibbes Museum of Art has 10,000 objects that “collect, conserve, and interpret an American fine arts collection with a Charleston perspective.” The museum is known for its collection of 18th- through early 20th-century paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures.

While working on a housing development in 1974, workers near Hot Springs in the Black Hills uncovered what turned out to be South Dakota’s greatest fossil find, the remains of a mammoth, with tusks seven feet long. The site was preserved and today it is the world’s largest mammoth exhibit and a world-renowned research center for Pleistocene studies. To date, they have unearthed more than 60 mammoths as well as more than 80 Late Ice Age animals.

It only makes sense that Nashville would be the home of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. One of the world’s largest museums dedicated solely to preserving American country music, it houses more than 2.5 million artifacts, with two floors of gallery space featuring permanent- and limited-engagement exhibits. The first members inducted were Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose, and Hank Williams in 1961.

The Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center and an affiliate of the Smithsonian, the Space Center Houston opened in 1992 and has become one of Houston’s top attractions. The center has had over 22 million visitors and hosts nearly 1.25 million visitors annually in its 250,000-square-foot educational complex.

Amateur and professional paleontologists flock to the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, which enjoys a reputation as a respected state museum of natural history. The museum highlights the Western United States, from Utah to the geological region located between the Rocky Mountain Front on the east and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada on the west.

Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home, is the historic home of Robert Lincoln, the President, and Mary Todd Lincoln’s only child to see adulthood. It remained in the Lincoln family until 1978, when Robert’s granddaughter passed away, allowing the Friends of Hildene to purchase and restore the property.

The 412-acre Manchester estate has formal gardens, an observatory, a restored 1903 wooden Pullman palace railcar, a cheesemaking facility, and a teaching greenhouse, and is almost completely furnished with original Lincoln artifacts.

Williamsburg, Virginia was one of the first planned cities in America and it’s reflected all around the city. Carriage rides, the tweet of fifes, the beating of drums, and people dressed in period garb let you know you are in Colonial Williamsburg. Stories of free people and slaves are woven together to bring the 18th-century life to life.

The Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP, near Seattle’s famed Space Needle, contains many of the world’s most famous pop-culture artifacts. Among them are science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s typewriter and the staff of Ra from the Steven Spielberg film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The museum is big on hands-on experiences, such as testing your DJ skills in its Sound Lab.

This nationally accredited museum is the largest in the state, with a permanent art collection of more than 16,000 objects, nine exhibition galleries, an interactive education gallery, and an art-reference library of over 26,000 volumes. The Huntington Museum of Art was originally known as the Huntington Galleries but was renamed in 1987.

The Harley-Davidson Museum’s website considers a visit to the museum a “journey from outsider to icon.” Once associated with youthful rebellion, the motorcycle is now considered a symbol of freedom. Motorcycles and memorabilia of various vintages are found on two floors of exhibits. You can encounter the motorcycle’s journey in the Menomonee Valley, an industrial region of Milwaukee where the museum is located.

Founded in 1917 and originally known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody has strived to keep the American Western experience alive. The center is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and includes five separate museums under one roof. Besides history and myths about the West, visitors can appreciate Native American culture and the nature and science of the region.