I’ll be That Guy and point out that the WWI Museum is in Kansas City, Missouri.
But if you ever do visit the museum, you’re more than welcome to drive a couple of miles to the west and visit Kansas as well.
Another shout-out for the Henry Ford Museum. Nothing against the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, which is also an amazing museum (the U-Boat exhibit is fantastic), but I did notice with a tiny bit of smugness the last time I was at TMoSaI that they only had tiny scale models of the enormous steam engines that used to power factories-- The Henry Ford has the real deal, with several examples featuring 2-story tall flywheels. To see these enormous steam engines and turbines at full scale in reality is a very visceral experience.
The Henry Ford also has a surprising amount of Presidential assassination-related items that you’d think would be in the Smithsonian-- the limo Kennedy was shot in, the limo Reagan was hustled into after he was shot, and the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot.
My vote is for the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City.
Amazing artifacts from the PreColumbus cultures present in Mexico. Just stunning.
A few more to add to my list:
The Elk City Museum Complex in Oklahoma, which includes a Route 66 Transportation Museum, a Ranch Museum, a Blacksmith Museum and an Old Town Museum that includes a surprisingly engrossing exhibit of the history of Rodeo Of Champions.
The Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean TX – more barbed wire than you can shake a stick at plus exhibits on local history and Texas Route 66 memorabilia.
James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg. Florida seems like an odd place to have a great museum full of western art, but the collection is as large and varied as you’ll see anywhere.
One ex-museum: the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation formerly located in the foothills of Portola Valley. It was a huge personal collection of tanks and armored vehicles that rivaled any I’ve seen. They were auctioned off when the owner died, most ended up in American Heritage Museum in Stow MA (I haven’t been but it’s definitely on my bucket list)
Also the Rosa Parks bus and an actual Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion house.
Sorry, couldn’t resist adding another plug for this kick-ass museum.
My favorites:
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart - A record of mechanical technology from the turn of the 19th century to the present. The presentation is awesome.
The USS Olympia in Philadelphia PA - An immersive experience in the age of steam. The presentation is minimal. Best for technology history geeks.
Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, Berlin NV - Remote, so rarely visited, the huge exposed fossils are unique.
I absolutely adore the Henry Ford Museum.
And also nearby is Greenfield Village.
Many of the ones in DC, particularly the Air and Space Museum and its outpost, the Udvar-Hazey Center.
Many of the ones in NYC, particularly the Museum of Natural History and the Cloisters.
A couple I don’t think have been mentioned yet: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Besides the beautiful building and collection, there’s the enduring mystery of what became of the stolen art, for which they’ve left empty frames on the walls.
And the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, RI. It’s been closed for renovation for some time, they currently have online exhibits only, but I had a chance to visit it before that. If you like artists like Maxfield Parrish or Norman Rockwell, it’s fantastic. Their art was probably better than you think. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I really loved it.
3 museums I enjoyed:.#1 Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Who wouldn’t want to look through a german periscope in a real U-Boat?
#2 Henry Ford museum
#3 Eisenhower museum in Salina Ks. This one has a big scale model of the artificial harbors built at Normandy on D-Day. If you want to get an appreciation for the planning that went into D-day this is amazing
Man, I forgot about this one! I visited there in 1976 as part of a college trip. It was excellent!
That’s actually in Abilene, KS, the location of Eisenhower’s boyhood home. Ike’s Presidential Library is also located there, as well as the gravesites of Ike, his wife Mamie, and their infant son. Well worth a stop if you’re passing by on I-70.
Well, my vote goes to the Horniman Museum in SE London. You can admire the Imperial War Museum (I do); and thoroughly enjoy Tate Britain (I do), but I love the Horniman. Maybe the best way to describe it is this: The Horniman sets out to be The Museum of Absolutely Everything in Great Detail - but space is limited; they still do the great detail bit, but on limited subjects.
When I went there there was an exhibition on Hair: Untold Stories. Take a look (sorry, this is the only way I could find to load the picture - you’ll have to click)::
In case you’re wondering, yes, that woman is wearing clothing made from her dog’s hair. There were dozens of pictures of dog owners in dog-hair clothing (with their dogs, naturally). I have no idea why anyone would be inspired to create that exhibit, but I’m profoundly glad they did. Sadly, the exhibit closed in 2022. But that’s the Horniman. It’s my friend.
j
I’ve been fairly recently, but I first went when it had just opened, and it was mostly old computers laying on tables. Which was fantastic. They yelled at me for touching, but I went “but I owned that one, and that one, and used that one also.” My favorite exhibits now are the PDP-1 (which I used for my assembler course at MIT) and the LGP-30. I learned to program on its successor, the LGP-21.
They had some that I recognized, too. My dad borrowed a Magnavox Odyssey from someone for a few weeks, and I used an Apple IIe in high school. I saw the PDP-1 at the museum, but it wasn’t turned on that day. I wonder if they’d like my HP-15 when I die (but not before).
In junior high, we had some teletype terminals that we could dial in to our school district’s mainframe. It just dawned on me that I have no idea what model of computer that actually was. I wonder if anyone at the school district would know.
Another top tier museum that is little known: The Museum of Musical Instrument in Phoenix, Arizona. Fascinating collection of over 6000 types of musical instruments from all over the world and covering quite a bit of time. There are even hands on displays and great information throughout the displays. I am not a musician in any way and found this a wonderful place to visit. Multicultural wonderfully informational… and very worth visiting!
Of the Cleveland museums, my favorite is still the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, but the art museum is also great.
For museums elsewhere, one that deserves to be a lot better-known is the Museum of the Rockies, in Bozeman, MT. It’s the T. rex capital of the world, with the museum staff being responsible for most of the T. rex finds, ever, and also has a very impressive collection of ceratopsians (triceratops and its kin). It also has a lot on the human history of the region.
In Vegas I really liked the Neon Museum. It’s not something I would have thought I would like but it was really well done. They rescued all the old signs from the casinos and other places. It gives you a view of old Vegas you wouldn’t have otherwise. I believe there are only guided tours allowed so you get the stories to go along with the artifacts.
I half expected the Mob Museum to be hokey and lame but it was very well done. It’s in what used to be the old city hall.
I was stationed in Mainz for a couple of years. Loved the city. The cathedral is great and feels really old even though it dates from right after 1945 for reasons. At least it looks like the old cathedral. I liked the Gutenberg museum but since I can’t read German it wasn’t great. Maybe in the decades since they have made accommodations for multiple languages.
The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art and the Rosicrucian (AMORC) Museum in San Jose.
This sounds like something I’d love, especially because neon seems to be going the way of the dinosaur due to energy/resource concerns.
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry
Field Museum (Chicago)
American Museum of Natural History (NYC)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)
Submarine Force Library and Museum (Groton CT)
Washington DC also has the Phillips collection (https://www.phillipscollection.org/) which has an great collection of Impressionist and American paintings, including Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir, that was featured in the movie Amalie.