Specialty Museums in the US

spncity said:
Forum member clobber recommended www.RoadTrippers.com in response to my question last year about how to know about interesting things to see when traveling.

There is a free version and a subscription version. There is also an app but I find it easiest to use on a laptop. It lets you select various categories/interests and then shows choices along your travel route. You can find interesting museums and attractions along the way, as well as other categories which you are free to specify.

Thanks to this app we had a great visit at the "All Things Oz" museum in Chittenango, NY. The free hour-long personal tour (by appointment) was entertaining and educational.

Also found and visited thanks to RoadTrippers: Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum and It's A Wonderful Life movie museum and the town and bridge that inspired the movie set.

These aren't big places but they were interesting and I doubt we'd have known about them any other way.
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This reminded me of a website that I like to check on when traveling: https://www.atlasobscura.com/

It brings up significant, interesting and sometimes quirky points of interest... & is worldwide.

As an example: the Mapparium in Boston was not something we'd know about otherwise https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mapparium
 
13 Presidential libraries, with upcoming Obama library. I would visit all of them someday.
 
On the west coast, the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook Oregon. It's set in a WW2 blimp hanger and has some great airplanes and other. Also, check out the free tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and there is a neat little local history museum just off the town square.

Tillamook Air Museum


And the US Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville NC is another great place to visit if you're in the area.
https://www.asomf.org/
 
In Dallas, Texas:

1) The Sixth Floor Museum is all about the Kennedy assassination.
2) The Perot Museum is a science museum aimed at kids, but great for adults, too.
3) The Frontiers of Flight and Cavanaugh Flight Museums are not in the same league as National Air and Space or Dayton, but worth a visit if you in the area.

-- Doug
 
In chandler arizona is The Bashas western art collection. I think its wonderfull and it is free
 
Lane Motor Museum in Nashville https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/
Great micro car museum plus lots of other interesting forms of transportation, I have been twice and planning another trip next year. There are a few other things to see as long as your in Nashville for Lane. Even the hard core old car person will find many cars they have never seen or heard of before.

Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas https://cosmo.org/ was amazed to fine this fine rocket and space museum in Kansas. We always ask locals what they recommend we see when traveling. We were eating at the Longbranch in Dodge City where they have family style seating and we asked the couple we were eating with and their freshly graduated form high school immediately said we had to go see the Cosmosphere. We were not disappointed.

So many great museums.
 
gerntz said:
Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody WY. 5 separate museums in one.
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Yes! If you love the West, you'll love this museum----truly top notch.

And although not a "museum" as such, a tour of the antebellum homes in Natchez, Mississippi is a superb historical experience. Among the plantation homes that you will want to tour are Stanton Hall, Longwood, Magnolia and Auburn.
 
Army Ordnance Museum: Army Ordnance Museum

Tanks and AA guns galore including some really rare German stuff from WWII. Right now it's at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (have to get a base pass to get in), but it looks like it's moving to Fort Lee, VA, at some point.
 
For art lovers, I recommend these two little gems:

The Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston https://www.gardnermuseum.org/ This Edwardian socialite inherited 6 million from her father back when that was a seriously lot of money. Her husband didn't need the money so he told her to spend it as she pleased. She bought art. Cherry-picking through Europe and the East, she assembled an astonishing collection and built a charming mansion to house it all.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas https://crystalbridges.org/ This Midwestern jewel houses a wonderful collection of paintings, sculpture, mixed media and is in a gorgeous Ozark setting. It's the museum Walmart built and it's FREE!
 
CardsFan said:
In the St. Louis area there are a few:

3. City Museum: Caveat, I have not been there, but I her it is great for kids.
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City Museum is fun for us big kids too. :LOL: We went with our teen and had a great time.
 
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MichaelB said:
Visiting museums is always at the top of our list when traveling around the US, and most of the bigger cities have "general culture" museums. We've seen some specialty museums, however, that were really nice and easily among the most enjoyable activities of our domestic travel. Two examples are the Museum of Flight in Seattle and the National Automobile Museum in Reno. We especially enjoyed the Museum of Flight, even though we are not particularly interested in airplanes. The volunteers working there were clearly enthused, committed and quite proud of the facility, far more than any other we've seen, and we found their enthusiasm contagious - and the collection of exhibits is amazing.

What other specialty museums across the US stand out as "highly recommended"?
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Ringling Bros Museum in Sarasota. Very cool. And some days they offer free and Sr Discounts.
 
I also toured a Federal Reserve bank once and learned some things. I can't recall which city I was in at the time though. I know I was with friends wandering in some downtown when we stumbled across it.

If you are into trains, I would recommend Friends of the 261 we have a small museum in Minneapolis but it is not well advertised. Google will give the address.

Of course, being a veteran, I enjoy touring the big ships. Oahu Pearl Harbor, San Diego, San Franciso have some on display....not so much a museum but a tour that if you get the guides...is very cool.
 
kgtest said:
Ringling Bros Museum in Sarasota. Very cool. And some days they offer free and Sr Discounts.
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Circus fans will love Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis. (original home of the Ringling Brothers). It features an hourlong circus performance daily during its summer hours, along with a vast collection of circus wagons and other memorabilia.

Circuses are becoming a thing of the past, so this museum may offer many people a last glimpse of a dying performance art form.
 
Mr._Graybeard said:
Circus fans will love Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis. (original home of the Ringling Brothers). It features an hourlong circus performance daily during its summer hours, along with a vast collection of circus wagons and other memorabilia.

Circuses are becoming a thing of the past, so this museum may offer many people a last glimpse of a dying performance art form.
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Good call! I'm glad you mentioned this one as well! I couldn't remember the name of it but knew it was in Wisconsin somewhere. I plan to hit this museum up the next time I am near Madison.
 
If you are coming through Atlanta:

1. National Center for Civil and Human Rights https://www.civilandhumanrights.org/

2. Atlanta History Center https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/ Includes the beautiful Swan Coach House if you like architecture

3. Michael C Carlos Museum at Emory https://carlos.emory.edu/ Nice collection of ancient artifacts from Egypt, Greece and Rome

4. Center for Puppetry Arts (houses the Jim Henson collection) Home

5. Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Japanese Garden https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/ - personally, I would add all the presidential libraries to your list. We really enjoyed the George W Bush museum at SMU, and the JFK library in Boston. Interesting perspectives on the issues from the time.

6. Delta Flight Museum https://www.deltamuseum.org/home

7. Robert C Williams Museum of Papermaking at Georgia Tech
Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking | Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking | Georgia Tech - it sounds odd, but its free and surprisingly interesting

8. World of Coca Cola https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/ Not that interesting in itself, but the area where you can taste coke products by country is pretty interesting. Tastes are definitely unique across regions.

9. High Museum of Art https://high.org/

10. Atlanta Botanical Gardens - not a museum, but has some permanent Chihuly Glass that's beautiful. Adjacent to our large city park (Piedmont Park) and the Beltline, which is a walking/biking path that will eventually circle the city and has lots of art installations as well as cafes and bars. You can rent bikes at the park.

There are also museums for Chick Fil A and Waffle House., though I haven’t been to either. Fernbank and Tellus are both nice science museums, but there are better science museums in NY and DC.

There is a City Pass that includes Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, CNN Studio Tours, a choice between the Zoo Atlanta OR National Center for Civil and Human Rights and a choice between the Fernbank Museum of Natural History OR Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame. The Aquarium is definitely worth a visit, and the Aquarium, World of Coke, CNN and Human Rights museum are all surrounding Centennial Olympic Park so it’s easy to make a day of it.

There are a number of things related to MLK, but I have always found it a bit of a let down. Not nearly good enough as a tribute to this important Atlanta native. That said, there is a worthwhile walking tour, which helps tell the story rather than you just staring at the outside of buildings that played some role in his life.
 
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kgtest said:
I also toured a Federal Reserve bank once and learned some things. I can't recall which city I was in at the time though. I know I was with friends wandering in some downtown when we stumbled across it.
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You can tour the Fed in Midtown Atlanta. It's a short but interesting tour, and you get a little bag of shredded money. :)
 
Rock River Thresheree

An annual event on Labor Day.... Go to the main website for full info, but this almost 2 hour YouTube Video, gives a great overview. You can skim it to get an idea of how big this event ireally is... A exhibition of Midwest Farmer Pride. The show also includes an antique auto exhibition, and an almost endless field of early gasoline and kerosene motor.s and farm equipment.
We used to go every year, and I can't ever remember being bored. Hundreds and hundreds of tractors and pieces of farm equipment, going back 100+ years.

Enjoy.
 
kgtest said:
Good call! I'm glad you mentioned this one as well! I couldn't remember the name of it but knew it was in Wisconsin somewhere. I plan to hit this museum up the next time I am near Madison.
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The museum holds a circus parade through downtown every July. It used to be a huge summer event in Milwaukee, but the old movers and shakers who promoted it are gone now. Ernie Borgnine was the star clown, year after year.
 
kgtest said:
Of course, being a veteran, I enjoy touring the big ships. Oahu Pearl Harbor, San Diego, San Franciso have some on display....not so much a museum but a tour that if you get the guides...is very cool.
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Other locations with warships I can think of are in:
Intrepid Air and Space Museum, New York City
Mobile, AL
Charleston, SC
Fall River, MA
 
kgtest said:
Ringling Bros Museum in Sarasota. Very cool. And some days they offer free and Sr Discounts.
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+1 The Museum includes a Circus Museum that is very interesting; Ca'd'Zan, the Ringling's mansion on beautiful Sarasota Bay; and the Ringling Museum of Art.

The Ringling Museum of Art is free on Mondays:
Free Mondays
Every Monday the Museum of Art, including special exhibition galleries are free to the public. Regular admission pricing applies if you wish to visit the Circus Museum or Ca’d’Zan.
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