5 Best Sights in Boston, Massachusetts

With nearly 2,000 artifacts and more than 10,000 archival records pertaining to the USS Constitution on display, exhibits spark excitement about maritime culture and naval service. All ages enjoy “All Hands on Deck: A Sailor’s Life in 1812,” complete with opportunities to scrub decks, scramble aloft to furl a sail, eat a meal of salted meat and ship’s biscuit, and crawl into a hammock. History buffs get a stem-to-stern look at the ship's history, from its creation to battles.

Formerly known as the Semitic Museum, this Harvard institution is an almost unknown gem, serving as an exhibit space for Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and ancient Near East artifacts and as a center for archaeological exploration. The museum's extensive temporary collections rotate, while more permanent exhibits include life-size casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing. Free lectures are held weekly, and the building also houses the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Although this small museum is only a few years old, the items it houses are not. Call ahead and schedule a private or small group tour for a peek at American currency that dates back as far as the colonial era; exhibits include money made in Boston, the United States, and other parts of the world. Informative and personalized tours are led by a coin and currency expert.

The Museum of African American History was established in 1964 to recognize Boston's African American community, from slavery through the abolitionist movement. The Abiel Smith School, the first public school in the nation built specifically for Black children, now serves as the museum's main building, filled with exhibits. Just around the corner, the African Meeting House was built in 1806 entirely by Black labor; in 1832, William Lloyd Garrison formed the New England Anti-Slavery Society here, and in 2011 the building completed a $9.5-million restoration.

With one of the world's outstanding anthropological collections, the Peabody Museum is among the oldest anthropology museums in the world. Its collections focus on Native American and Central and South American cultures and are comprised of more than 1.2 million objects. The Hall of the North American Indian is particularly outstanding, with art, textiles, and models of traditional dwellings from across the continent. The Mesoamerican room juxtaposes ancient relief carvings and weavings with contemporary works from the Maya and other peoples. Of special note is the museum's only surviving collection of objects acquired from Native American people during the Lewis and Clark expedition.