Well, the Franklin Institute was my favorite growing up - we had annual memberships, I took some Saturday morning science classes there, my father did some research in the library. I particularly liked the massive HO scale model railroad they had (long, long gone). I was very disappointed when I went with my kids that they had replaced the big Zeiss planetarium projector (that looked like a giant insect) with a modern projector - I could never convince myself that I was sitting under a starry sky the was I could with the old projector and its pinpoint stars on a field of blackness.
Two of my other favorites also have multiple mentions - the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix and the Musee Marmatton in Paris.
Not sure if it counts for this thread since it is primarily and archeological site with a museum attached: The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Xian, China. Everyone has seen pictures of the famous terracotta warriors and possibly has seen a traveling exhibition. There is nothing like seeing the thousands of statues in situ:
The Heard Museum in Phoenix has a fantastic collection of Native American art (mainly from the Southwest). It also has a heartbreaking exhibit on the “Indian Schools” set up in the late 19th century and run into the latter half of the 20th century to kill off Native culture by assimilation of the children.
The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya has probably my favorite collection anywhere - Romanesque frescos from churches in the Pyranees dating from the 11th through the 13th centuries. They were remove from the walls of the isolated and in some cases crumbling churches and remounted in the museum on surfaces whose topology matches that of the original location.
They did a travelling exhibit at some point. I saw it at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. It had some exhibits on various ways to calculate longitude, reproductions of H1, H2, and H3, and a dial and case from I think) one of Harrison’s later chronometers. It was fascinating.
If I do ever get to London, the Royal Observatory is on my list of places to visit.
Mentions of pop culture reminded me of another museum I really enjoyed:
I went for the Jim Henson exhibit, but the whole place is really great. And I found it funny that you could look at a Kermit the Frog puppet that was used on Sesame Street, then turn around and walk just a few paces across the hall and be face-to-face with the satanic Linda Blair puppet from The Exorcist.
I’ve been fascinated with the terra cotta warriors ever since the original National Geographic issue came to our house. I did see the exhibit when it came to Philly.
It may be valid but that’s not the way I would use in situ. I always think of the term as meaning it’s exactly how it was found. From the recent documentary on the subject I learned there has only been one figure found intact. All the others were in pieces and reconstructed.
Bumping to say thanks again. I did that one, and another Vasa puzzle which I found during my search. I found the one in the museum also, but that was less interesting.
It also led me to a site with 12 million (that’s right, million) puzzles available.
I’ll mention what I think is my favorite museum PIECE.
At the St. Louis Art Museum (which I doubt has a collection that anyone particularly envies, but never mind that) they display an unfinished piece from [some artist of some time period - definitely before c. 1880). Being unfinished, the bottom half is just outline/sketches, the top is finished (I assume - the artist wasn’t there for me to ask). Anyway, the subject is three females, presumably the artist’s daughters. One looks like she’s 18/19, one looks like she’s 13/14, the other a preteen. Anyway, the 13/14-year-old is giving the artist a look that I’m sure every father of every girl that age, who has ever lived, has probably seen far too often. I can’t describe the look but if you’re a parent you’ve seen it.
Further, the girls aren’t dressed in their finery, as you’d expect of a painting of the upper classes. Nor are they dressed in peasant clothes, as they’d be depicted if the painter were painting lower class girls. They were dressed in … well I don’t know what, not being a fashion historian. Whatever they’d wear around the house on a Saturday, I guess? Like kind of tunic-looking garments, for lack of a better choice of words.
Anyway, I like the piece because it’s so REAL. It’s like the artist is taking me to a real moment in his life that isn’t sugar-coated or intended to represent the best of his subjects. It’s them, as they are (or were) on that day when he had a hankering to paint them, and he was telling the viewer “here are my daughters, deal with it.”
All of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Galleries of Art. It is simply astounding that you can just walk in and meander as you see fit.
I remember when I first started traveling how jarring it was that you had to pay in other museums (I understand why), but there is something profound about being able just to wander in on your lunch hour. It somehow seems to fulfill an unspoken promise.
I spent a month at Fort Eustis in Virginia. It’s a great area for museums and historical sites. I decided to check out The Mariners Museum without looking into it at all. I had no idea they had brought up large pieces of the USS Monitor including the turret and the artifacts and conservation efforts were on display. It was very nicely done.
