Young or old, there is always something fascinating about a museum. From exploring ancient exhibits to examining fine art, education can be enjoyable by living out a fantasy, myth or inspiration. From miniature doll houses at the Museum of Science and Industry to life-sized dinosaur skeletons at the History Museum, enjoy, learn and marvel through wondrous museum culture. From war museums to maritime museums, any sort of specialized interest can be found across the globe. Take a look at the top must see museums in the US.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMa)- New York City
Considered by many to have the best collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world, MoMA's holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to approximately 22,000 films and 4 million film stills including important pieces like "Starry Night" (Vincent Van Gogh), "Campbell's Soup Cans" (Andy Warhol ) and "Water Lilies" (Claude Monet). A must-see stop for a trip to New York, the permanent collections of print, film and sculptures are a highlight of any city trip. With ever-rotating exhibits of digital media, contemporary art and traveling worldly artists, be sure to check what's on the calendar before planning your trip to fuel your creativity.
The Smithsonian, the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH)- Washington DC
Opened in 1910, the green-domed National History museum on the National Mall was among the first Smithsonian building constructed exclusively to house the national collections and research facilities. The main building contains 1.5 million square feet of space and altogether the Museum is the size of 18 football fields. Housing more than 126 million natural science specimens and cultural artifacts, the collections include 30 million insects; 4½ million plants; 7 million fish; and 2 million cultural artifacts, including 400,000 photographs housed in the National Anthropological Archives.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)- New York City
One of the world's largest and finest art museums, The Met's collections include more than two million works of art spanning five thousand years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. Founded in 1870, nearly five million people visit the Museum each year at its Central Park location.
Museum of Flight- Seattle
One of the nation's premier aviation museums, the Museum of Flight is one of the largest air and space museums in the world, attracting more than 400,000 visitors annually. The Museum's collection includes more than 150 historically significant air- and spacecraft, as well as the Red Barn®--the original manufacturing facility of The Boeing Co. Home to America's First jet Air Force One, the very first 747, the original 737, a Boeing 727, the sleek Concorde, and a Lockheed Super-G Constellation, engage in a number of flight simulations to test your piloting skills.
J. Paul Getty Museum- Los Angeles
With two locations, the Getty Villa in Malibu and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the J. Paul Getty Museum serves a wide variety of audiences through its expanded range of exhibitions and programming in the visual arts. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles houses European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and European and American photographs. The Villa houses approximately 44,000 works of art from the Museum's extensive collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, of which over 1,200 are on view.
Shedd Aquarium- Chicago
One of the world's largest oceanariums and aquariums, get eye-to-eye with a dolphin, meet a penguin on a stroll to the South Pole and immersed yourself in an Amazon flooded forest. Beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Shedd aquarium houses nearly 22,000 aquatic animals representing some 1,500 species of fishes, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, birds and mammals from waters around the world. Regularly voted one of Chicago's best tourist attractions, the Shedd's biggest draw are their daily aquatic shows.
