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Springfield Museums

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Springfield Museums Review

One of the most ambitious cultural venues in New England, this complex includes five impressive facilities, all for one ticket:

The Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, the most modest of the group, presents changing exhibits drawn from its collections of furniture, silver, industrial objects, autos, and firearms; its main draw is the in-depth genealogical library, where folks from all over the world come to research their family trees.

The must-see George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum houses a fascinating private art collection that includes 19th-century American paintings by Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt. A Japanese antiquities room is filled with armor, textiles, and porcelain, as well as carved jade and rock-crystal snuff bottles.

The Museum of Fine Arts has paintings by Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Winslow Homer, and J. Alden Weir, as well as 18th-century American paintings and contemporary works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank Stella, and George Bellows. Rotating exhibits are open throughout the year.

The Springfield Science Museum has an Exploration Center of touchable displays, the oldest operating planetarium in the United States, an extensive collection of stuffed and mounted animals, dinosaur exhibits, and the African Hall, through which you can take an interactive tour of that continent's flora and fauna.

The Museum of Springfield History opened in 2009 and tells the story of the town's manufacturing heritage. (Springfield was home to the former Indian Motorcycle Company, and the museum has a rich collection of Indian bikes and memorabilia.)

Also on the grounds is the free Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, an installation of five bronze statues depicting scenes from Theodore Geisel's famously whimsical children's books. Born in Springfield in 1904, Geisel was inspired by the animals at Forest Park Zoo, where his father served as director. The statues include a 4-foot Lorax, a giant "Horton Court" featuring the elephant and Things 1 and 2, Giesel at his desk, and a 10-foot-high book inscribed with the entire text of Oh the Places You'll Go!

    Contact Information

  • Address: 220 State St., at Chestnut St., Springfield, MA, 01103 | Map It
  • Phone: 413/263-6800
  • Cost: $12.50
  • Hours: Museums Tue.--Sat. 10--5, Sun 11--5. Springfield History Library Archives Tues.--Fri. 11--4. Outdoor Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden daily 9--5
  • Website: www.springfieldmuseums.org
  • Location: Springfield
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    Springfield Museums Review

    If the Quadrangle was in New York City, it would be called the "most culturally significant museum grouping in the world." Springfield, Massachusetts, is one of the United States' most cultured mid-sized cities with its museum grouping, Olmsted park, andSt. Gaudens outdoor statues. These elements overwhelmed me on my visit here-- I expected little and got A LOT.
    In truth, only four of these five museums are 'world-class.." The G.W. Smith museum, the Quadrangle's first edifice, is a collection of curios that you'd expect in some strange old man's house -- busts, Japanese Armor, and the largest collection of Chinese cloisonné outside of China! Strange tastes, strange place, but very fun.

    The other four museums are homeruns. The Art Museum, in particular, features important works by Impressionists, Renaissance painters, (with a particularly robust collection of Dutch Masters,) an modern art. This is the best art museum I have ever seen in a city with less than 300,000 people. No question about it.

    There's also a Science museum that features the United States' first planetarium, which was impressive.Later that night, they were having a Pink Floyd at the planetarium show.

    My favorite museums (I'm a geographical and topographical zealot) were the excellent Connecticut River Valley Museum, and the Museum of Springfield. It turns out that Springfield is a fascinating city -- it invented the motorcycle, the gasoline-powered car, commercial radio, UHF TV, American English dictionaries, even dog shows! And the proof is all right there. The Conn Valley Museum is a bit more Museum-ish, tracing the evolution of America's first --and still--Great River. It chronicles, for example, the rivalry between Springfield and Hartford, and now how the two cities are working together as the Knowledge Corridor. (This museum also got my psyched to visit Hartford -- the next stop on my itinerary.)

    by PomonaSage, 5/24/11

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