# Which of these museums have you visited? Do you have a favorite?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 24, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200 "2010-01-24T05:00:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/1 "2010-01-24T05:00:54Z")
Which of these museums have you visited? Public poll, multiple choices are allowed.
The first six are ranked in order of the number of visitors for 2008. [CBC.](http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2009/03/31/most-visited.html)
If you like, tell us about your favorite museum (even if it’s not listed), either as a kid or as an adult.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/2 "2010-01-24T05:19:19Z")
Chicago seems to be POINTEDLY ignored. :mad:
Field Museum of Natural History, home of Sue, the most complete tyrannosaur.
Museum of Science and Industry, home of U-505, which I was not hired to move to her new digs. If you don’t flinch when the boss suggests that 60 years of corrosion might cause her to collapse under her own weight you might get the job. I flinched.
Chicago Art Institute, home of Seurat’s masterpiece, [A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte). He understood where printing was heading and, without realizing it, the future that gave you the monitor you are looking at.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/3 "2010-01-24T05:24:43Z")
A few California art museums worthy of mention: The Getty, The Huntington, and the de Young.
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### Author:  [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/4 "2010-01-24T05:27:56Z")
I’ve visited MoMA’s gift shop many times. It’s the same thing as the real musuem, just about $30 cheaper.
I really enjoyed the Sci-Fi museum in Seattle, but for the love of Og stay away from the Experience Music musuem attached to it, unless you happen to be the world’s biggest Jimi Hendrix fan.
Also a huge fan of Boston’s Science Musuem. Great place for both kids and adults, on whole different levels.
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### Author:  [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/5 "2010-01-24T05:32:29Z")
Of the museums that made the list, I had the most fun in the Louvre. We spent days in there. It was fairly uncrowded, and all of those back stairways and winding passages made it seem like we really were exploring the hidden treasures of the castle.
Other favorite museums that didn’t make the poll:
The Freer Gallery, DC
The Phillips Collection, DC
Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
SFMOMA
de Young, SF
Art Institute of Chicago
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver
Galleria Borghese, Rome
Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence
Musee d’Orsay, Paris
Yeah, I love MoMA’s catalog. 😛
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/6 "2010-01-24T05:37:43Z")
I did the three-cities-in-ten-days tour of Europe in high school. I wish I’d had the time to really explore both the Louvre and the British Museum enough to do them justice. Of all the old stuff I saw on that trip, the exhibit that had the most effect on me personally was The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, but for sheer scope you can’t beat the British Museum. Da Vinci’s notebooks are way cooler than the Mona Lisa.
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### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/7 "2010-01-24T05:46:28Z")
I’m a bit of a museum geek. I always check out the museums whenever I go somewhere. I used to be a dinosaur docent at the Field Museum, which got me free entrance to all of the Chicago museums. It was _awesome_. Anyway, museums I particularly like that have yet to be mentioned:
The National Anthropology Museum, Mexico City
The Hagia Sofia, Istanbul (it’s officially a museum!)
The Archaeology Museum, Istanbul
Goreme Open Air Museum, Goreme, Turkey
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
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### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/8 "2010-01-24T05:49:03Z")
BTW, **fusoya** , my dad’s been to the Experience Music Project like three times, and he lives in California. He LOVES it. Of course, he is the world’s biggest Jimi Hendrix fan, so there you go.
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### Author:  [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/9 "2010-01-24T06:12:30Z")
Of the ones listed, I’d have to settle on the Uffizi.
Ones not listed that I really like:
Musee d’Orsay, Paris
Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/10 "2010-01-24T06:49:28Z")
Not listed:
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
And these in Paris:
Musee d’Orsay
Musee Picaso
Musee Rodin
Also:
The Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming
And my hometown museums in Fort Worth:
Kimball
Amon Carter
The Modern
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### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/11 "2010-01-24T07:17:05Z")
I fondly remember going to the Chicago museums while growing up, but have been to no others.
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### Author:  [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/12 "2010-01-24T07:17:21Z")
I forgot to mention that the most interesting special exhibit that I’ve seen in the past year was the [Dale Chihuly](http://www.chihuly.com/) exhibit at the de Young. His work is probably fairly well-known now that he has a permanent piece on the ceiling at the Bellagio, but in case he’s unfamiliar to some, Chihuly is a glass sculptor who makes some traditional forms and some quite fanciful or unusual, often large, forms. Here’s the [schedule](http://www.chihuly.com/schedule.html) for current and upcoming exhibitions of his work. If you can catch it, you won’t be disappointed.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/13 "2010-01-24T07:40:46Z")
I’ve been to about 2/3 of those listed. But you left out my favorite museum, Paris’ _Musée d’Orsay._
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/14 "2010-01-24T08:04:30Z")
Where’s the love for the [Peabody](http://www.peabody.yale.edu/)? I’ve visited a couple of times as a kid, on family trips. If I ever go travelling, just for the sake of travelling, I’m going to spend a MONTH up there, and it’s all going to be at the Peabody, and I suspect that I will still miss some stuff.
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### Author:  [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/15 "2010-01-24T08:44:20Z")
Apparently I’m some kind of Idjit, all the museum’s that I go to are full of motorcycles and/or cars, I’ve been to:
Barber Motorsports museum (Leeds, Alabama)
National Motorcycle museum (Birmingham, England)
National Motorcycle museum (Anamosa, Iowa)
Lone Star Motorcycle museum (Vanderpool, Texas)
London Motorcycle museum (London, England)
Allen Motorcycle museum (London, England)
RAF museum (Herndon?, middle of nowhere, England)
BMW museum (Munich, Germany)
And too many small, private museums/shows/rallies to count.
My “Culture” generally has wheels.
Unclviny
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### Author:  [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/16 "2010-01-24T08:49:04Z")
> [@blondebear](#):
>
> A few California art museums worthy of mention: **The Getty** , The Huntington, and the de Young.
The Getty was the reason I also selected _"Sidney, you forgot \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ "_
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/17 "2010-01-24T13:08:22Z")
My favourite is the British Museum.
Ones not listed that should be (that I’ve been to)
Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
National Portrait Gallery, London
Science Museum, London
Natural History Museum, London.
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/18 "2010-01-24T13:32:52Z")
I consider myself a real connoisseur of museum gift shops, and let me tell you the trifecta of museum shopping is in Madrid. Between the Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Palacio Real, you will be in museum retail heaven.
I would list the Reina Sofia as one of my favorite museums that didn’t make the poll. Also, the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY. It’s not only my hometown pick, it ranks up there with the Getty and MOMA for early 20th century collections in the U.S.
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### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/19 "2010-01-24T13:49:33Z")
> [@delphica](#):
>
> I consider myself a real connoisseur of museum gift shops, and let me tell you the trifecta of museum shopping is in Madrid. Between the Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Palacio Real, you will be in museum retail heaven.
>
> I would list the Reina Sofia as one of my favorite museums that didn’t make the poll. Also, the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY. It’s not only my hometown pick, it ranks up there with the Getty and MOMA for early 20th century collections in the U.S.
I came in to mention the Albright-Knox and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Both very good museums, the DIA with a little more range and focus, obviously.
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-museums-have-you-visited-do-you-have-a-favorite/526200/20 "2010-01-24T14:07:03Z")
Hello, Cleveland Museum of Art!
Hello, Frick!
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