Museums, Anyone?

Philly's the place:

Phildelphia Museum of Art
Rodin Museum of Philadelphia
Franklin Institute Science Museum
Academy of Natural Sciences
The National Constitution Center

and bunches more. Do I love this town, or what?

Philly Travel Link

 

Columbus,Ohio has an art museum, and COSI (Center of Science and Industry) as well as several History museums in the general area.

 

We got a fire extinguisher museum down on L Street. There's an old crash dummy wearing firefighters gear and holding a smoke detector.

 

Our little town is building a Gold Museum. We are sitting on the largest gold vein left in the United States but it's so spread out that mining it would cost more than the gold's worth. Villa Rica means 'City of Gold'.

 

Been wanting to check out Peterson's Automotive Museum but have never gotten around to it!

The Aerospace Museum down in San Diego was my hands-down favorite as a kid! Played a big part in choosing the profession I am now in!

 

what is it that draws you to a museum?

 

As far as art musuems go, it would be a good mix of old and new, but without too heavy a concentration of realist art such as portraits, etc. Those did take talent and work to create, but I find looking at too many of them boring after a while. I guess I get that from my art major daughter.

I will agree that Washington, D.C. is great. Love the National Gallery. And of course, New York. The Metropolitian Museum of Art is great, too. Would like to get up there to see the Museum of Modern Art in its new home.

 

Last Precinct Police Museum - The Last Precinct Police Museum features over 10,000 artifacts, including police cars, motorcycles, uniforms, weapons, badges symbolizing 150 years of American police history, foreign police and Hollywood memorabilia from around the world. 15677 Highway 62 West, Eureka Springs in Arkansas!

Been their several times. They have more CA patrol cars the the CHP museum has in theirs! A father and son own it. The father who is Chaplain James Post of "In Cold Blood" fame is a very kind and loving gentleman who will talk your ear off in a good way! He loves people! If you go tell them the Singing Cop sent you!

 

I recommend:

DC: Holocaust Museum

Charlotte: Discovery Place--I don't guess it is a museum, though.

Kansas City--where that boat sunk in the river downtown.

 

Eureka Springs, Arkansas: Bible Museum on the grounds of the Great Passion Play.

Branson, Missouri: War Memorial Museum.

 

I loved the Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL.

 

THE Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Is there a need for any other museum?

 

Being able to be that close to something you are interested in or simply that happened a while back.

You can go and see and sometimes even physically touch a piece of history. Instead of imagining or simply reading, hearing, and trying to imagine what your grandmother's gramma cooked with, you can see what it looked like.
You can look at a piece of art and see the mindset of the painter in that general time period, or find little clues as to what was going on at the time that may have been lost otherwise. For example, a number of artists who painted within a 10 year time period may have included children who were holding a doll made out of such and such material, and suddenly you know what the popular toy was for little girls in that time period. Or you can tell what kind of foods were in abundance among the rich or poor.
You can see old books, view the text. You can walk into a recreation of a room in a middle class home long ago.

Who wouldn't love a museum?

Gina

 

Some memorable visits:

In Chicago:

Museum of Science & Industry
Field Museum of Natural History
Shedd Aquarium (recently expanded)
The Art Institute of Chicago (many famous paintings; incredible Impressionist galleries)

In New York:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Modern Art (the "MoMA")
Guggenheim Museum

In Wash. D.C.:

The entire Smithsonian complex, esp. Air & Space

In London:

The British Museum (unbelievable collection)
The Science Museum
The Tower of London complex
The National Gallery
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The Imperial War Museum (the definitive museum for WWI and WWII buffs)
The Tate Gallery (new location- the building itself is fascinating)
Westminster Abbey (itself a museum)
(And so many more....)

In Paris:

The Louvre (in a word: remarkable)
Musee d'Orsay

In Jerusalem:

The Shrine of The Book (Dead Sea Scrolls)
Yad Vashem (the Jewish museum of the Holocaust. Very moving.)

In St. Petersberg:

The State Hermitage Museum (Russian art & history galore)

In Tokyo:

Tokyo National Museum

In Reykjavik:

The National Museum of Iceland

HERE in Minneapolis:

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

 

The Lincoln Museum in Ft. Wayne, Indiana is pretty cool. (if you're a Lincoln fan or not)