The Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum is a mindblowing experience.
They have a space shuttle. How much better does it get than that?
Jeez, I’ve never been to any of those…WAH!
I have, however, been to:
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, Winnipeg
National Museum of Ireland in Dublin
James Joyce Museum (also Dublin)
I have been to some of the cities you mentioned, but attending museums didn’t fit into my plans on those trips.
You really are in Winnipeg! I grew up in Brandon, so we were at the Museum of Man and Nature or the Planetarium at least 4 times a year. If you ever find yourself 200km due west from there, there’s the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, which was started by the father of a friend.
I still want to bring a copy of Patrick O’Brian and read it from the deck of the Nonsuch replica at the M of M & N next time I visit.
Sorry, Sidney, completely missed your reference to the UBC Museum of Anthro. I used to cycle there twice a week from my apartment on Cambie - I was working my way through the cabinets one drawer per visit. Still never saw it all…
American Museum of Natural History, NY is still my favorite.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Guggenheim Museum, NYC
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philly
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
I enjoyed the Colombian National Museum and the Museo Del Oro in Bogota.
Norton Simon keeps a low-profile. It doesn’t surprise me you missed it - heck, I lived in Old Town Pasadena for two years and I didn’t visit it til fairly late in my stay. Check it out next time you’re in L.A. Not a world-class museum by any means but a cut above the LACMA, MOCA, and Getty for sure. Website
Having grown up near New York, I’ve been to all the ones in NYC (and the ones in DC) on your list. I’ve always been partial to the American Museum of Natural History, which I used to make a pilgrimage to four times a year, at least. Its better, IMHO, than the Natural History museums in London, Washington DC, Chicago, and LA.
Two other museums that belong on your list, which is shy on General Science museums, are the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Ontario Science Center near Toronto.
The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., is a terrific museum.
Ditto the love for The Getty. I also don’t think I saw anyone mention the Dali Museum (St. Petersburg, FL). Actually, Florida has quite a few great museums but the Dali is my favorite.
I visited Los Angeles before the Getty was built; bits of the whole collection were sharing the Getty Villa with the antiquities. It’s a marble villa (mostly based on one in Pompeii), clinging to a hillside overlooking the Pacific. Housed in such a sumptuous building in a stunning location, the collection was almost secondary. Now, I’ll imagine the antiquities have room to breathe.
LACMA was half closed during our visit, because of funding problems. But I especially loved its Japanese Pavilion–because of the collection & the lovely setting. The Autry National Centerlooks at the Old West (& New West) in depth–from Native American artifacts through Hopalong Cassidy lunch boxes.
I’m not listing the great museums of Europe, etc.–because I haven’t been there. Of course they’re great. Until the Grand Tour, why not check out some options in handier locations?
Of course The Smithsonian Institution offers a banquet of US & worldwide arts, history & science. In a childhood visit, the Castle was still packed with exhibits–The Spirit of St Louis, The Wright Flyer & The Star Spangled Banner hovered over a veritable cabinet of curiosities. And the Natural History Museum was dark & scary; you proceeded over the creaky floors to look at cave man skulls & mummified Egyptian bulls displayed in wooden cases. Modern museology presents us with well lit rooms & chatty interactive displays–but a part of me still yearns for the old, creepy style. However, modernization brought us the National Air & Space Museum, plus smaller gems like the Freer Gallery–including Whistler’s Peacock Room.
The San Antonio Museum of Art is housed in a wonderful old brewery complex near downtown. The Latin American art collection ranges from Pre-Columbian to Modern, with a highly amusing detour into folk art. The Western Antiquities collection is first rate for this part of the country.
Houston has large, growing fine arts & natural history museums–but jewel in our crown is The Menil–with all those Surrealists.
Science and Industry, Chicago.
Smithsonian American History Museum, Washington.
Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington.
National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.
And the Spam Museum (you think I’m kidding? I’m not), Austin, Minnesota.
I just visited the Gardner in Boston last weekend for the first time. It is unlike any other museum, and hard to describe. Isabella Stewart Gardner simply collected pieces she loved, built a home for them, placed every little thing just so (with stipulations in her will that they not be rearranged), and left it for us to enjoy. Anyone named Isabella has free admission for life. The courtyard is breathtaking, but it is the overwhelming sense of the woman who created the collection that impressed me more than any single piece of art within.
L’Orangerie, in Paris, is a must for anyone who likes Monet.
It wasn’t a bad idea Sydney! This is fun!
The one you have listed that I would most like to visit is The Hermitage.
Another vote for should have listed 
are - my favourite National Portrait Gallery & V&A, London.
Too small for inclusion but I really love them & remember them more clearly than my visits to larger art galleries - an art gallery in Winterthur, Switzerland & one in Fredricton, Canada. The names have gone out of my head, but I can check my diary if anyones interested.
The museum/exhibition at Waitangi is very moving for New Zealanders. I like the Auckland War Memorial Museum & the Dunedin Art Gallery.
As said before, you mention the huge museums in Madrid and Paris; but the Reina Sofia and Mudee d’Orsay are much better (in my opinion).
Best! Museum! Ever!
Hear, hear!
Also—although it’s not of the caliber of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, but what is?—the Hiller Aviation Museum is a dear old favorite of mine.