10451 Best Sights in USA

These two buildings provide a look at a crucial period in the nation's history. The museum (a good place to start) has elaborate permanent exhibitions on the Civil War era. The "world's largest collection of Confederate memorabilia" includes such artifacts as the sword Robert E. Lee wore to the surrender at Appomattox. Next door, the "White House" has in fact always been painted gray. Made of brick in 1818, the building was stuccoed to give the appearance of large stone blocks. Preservationists have painstakingly re-created the interior as it was during the Civil War, when Jefferson Davis lived in the house.

The exterior of this 1887 Orthodox synagogue-turned-museum (and community space), the first synagogue to be built by the many Eastern European Jews who settled in the Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is a striking mix of Romanesque, Gothic, and Moorish motifs. Inside are an exceptional hand-carved ark of mahogany and walnut (used to hold Torah scrolls), a sculptured wooden balcony, jewel-tone stained-glass windows, vibrantly painted and stenciled walls, and an enormous brass chandelier. Daily tours are included in the price of admission (check the website for times), and begin downstairs where interactive \"touch tables\" teach all ages about Eldridge Street, the Lower East Side, and the Jewish immigrant experience. The crowning piece of the building's decades-long restoration is a stained-glass window by artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans, which weighs 6,000 pounds and has more than 1,200 pieces of glass.

This stunning destination for the international wood-art community cultivates and promotes education and creative expression of the form. Rebranded in 2023 to include the word \"museum\" in its name, this space features a two-floor, light-filled museum showcasing more than a thousand beautiful pieces of artwork all made from wood. The gift shop is stocked with gorgeous handmade works, some by accomplished artists whose works are on display, including those who are a part of the organization's annual Windgate Wood Arts Residency Program (WARP).

The Museum of African American History was established in 1964. Today, exhibits across one floor of the Abiel Smith School building (the first public school in the nation built specifically for Black children) recognize Boston's African American community, from slavery through the abolitionist movement. Visitors can also take National Park Service guided tours of the adjacent African Meeting House, built in 1806. It was from this church in 1832 that William Lloyd Garrison formed the New England Anti-Slavery Society.

When the island abolished slavery in 1773, Nantucket became a destination for free blacks and escaping slaves. The African Meeting House was built in the 1820s as a schoolhouse, and it functioned as such until 1846, when the island's schools were integrated. A complete restoration has returned the site to its authentic 19th-century appearance. Next door is the late-18th-century Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham house, originally purchased by Seneca Boston, a former slave and weaver, and purchased by Florence Higginbotham in 1920. The museum offers a free self-guided Nantucket Black Heritage Trail map that includes 10 sites around the island. 

On a 20-acre site the museum exhibits some of the machines that helped develop Alaska, from dogsleds to jet aircraft and everything in between. The Don Sheldon Building houses aviation artifacts as well as antique autos, trains, and photographic displays. There is also a snowmachine (Alaskan for snowmobile) exhibit.

This behemoth museum's displays range from expansive collections of Cuban and American art to Coca-Cola and Americana items. Other highlights include a rare Napoleonic exhibit and a complete (and eye-popping) skeleton of a giant ground sloth that's 130,000 years old. Kids love the Charles and Linda Williams Children's Museum, which features interactive science, engineering, and physics exhibits; a nature preserve with ½ mile of boardwalks and nature trails; and a state-of-the-art planetarium with daily shows. Florida art dating back to the 18th century is featured in the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, a freestanding, 26,000-square-foot Florida Cracker–style addition. Artists represented include John James Audubon, Thomas Hart Benton, and N.C. Wyeth.

Housed in a glass-and-glazed-terra-cotta building on the rim of Columbus Circle, the museum is an epicenter of experimental and innovative craft, art, and design, with a focus on contemporary jewelry, glass, ceramic, fiber, wood, and mixed-media works. Pieces are human scale, with many neatly housed in display cases rather than hanging on walls. Exhibitions offer new ways of thinking, experiencing, and telling stories about art and design. Recent special exhibitions included \"Barbie: A Cultural Icon,\" a hugely popular exploration of the doll's history and impact on fashion and popular culture. The gift shop has an excellent selection of MAD merch, housewares, jewelry, and other artful items. Free docent-led tours are offered Friday to Sunday at 11:30 and 2:30. The top floor houses Robert at MAD, a full-service restaurant with glorious views of Central Park through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Bordering the Stetson University campus, the museum's main hub houses five galleries that display rotating exhibits and a permanent collection that includes ceramics, watercolor, mixed media, and photography, including a haunting portrait by photographer Jack Mitchell of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken just weeks before Lennon's death. Another satellite downtown location, just a mile away, has three more galleries and the museum store.

This museum at Robins Air Force Base has an extraordinary collection of 85 vintage aircraft and missiles, including a MiG, an SR-71 (Blackbird), a U-2, and assorted other flying machines from past campaigns. For a small fee, you can also take a ride on a virtual reality simulator as you navigate through outer space. The 51-acre campus also includes the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.

This museum captures and tells the stories of Boulder's intriguing history and people. Inspiration abounds, from the rotating exhibits to dynamic guest speakers. The permanent Boulder Experience gallery showcases Boulder's past, and the ever-changing exhibits feature different treasures from the museum's collection of more than 44,000 historical artifacts that are preserved in a private warehouse off-site. Beyond history and art, the Museum of Boulder is also home to the kid-friendly Playzeum and the techy Google Garage, where children can create and experiment.

The curtain lifted on the new Museum of Broadway in 2022, in its prime location next door to Broadway’s oldest venue, the Lyceum Theatre. Inside you’ll find three stories filled with 300 years of Broadway history, from early New York theater through vaudeville through daring, unforgettable 20th-century productions. The stage is set with a short film, with the next acts spotlighting hundreds of individual musicals and plays—and the people who make them. Expect to be dazzled by costumes, props, sketches, rare photos, videos, and groundbreaking moments from beloved shows, including West Side Story, Oklahoma!, The Wiz, Hair, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Cabaret, and many more. The museum is very photo-friendly, so be ready to drop yourself into sets and strike the poses of your favorite characters. As you explore from the top to bottom floors (all of which are accessible), leave a good 20 minutes for one of the last exhibits, “The Making of a Broadway Show,” to learn about all the departments buzzing behind the scenes of each production, like song- and playwriting, set design, lighting and sound design, music, and the brilliantly talented pros who make Broadway shine.

Formerly the Oyster and Maritime Museum, the Museum of Chincoteague Island chronicles the local oyster trade with displays of mostly homemade tools; elaborate, hand-carved decoys; marine specimens; a diorama; and audio recordings based on museum records.

Founded in 1980, MOCA is dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of the Chinese people and their descendants in the United States. The current building, near the boundary between Chinatown and Little Italy (many would say it's in Little Italy), was designed by Maya Lin, architect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. MOCA's core exhibition on Chinese American history, With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America, includes artworks, personal and domestic artifacts, historical documentation, and films. Chinese laundry tools, a traditional general store, and antique business signs are some of the unique objects on display. Rotating exhibitions are held in another gallery. MOCA also sponsors workshops, neighborhood walking tours, lectures, and family events.

Introduce yourself to life behind bars at the Museum of Colorado Prisons, which formerly housed the Women's State Correctional Facility and where many of the exhibits are housed in cells. The museum exhaustively documents prison life in Colorado through old photos, including images of prison gang tattoos and women wardens through the years, newspaper accounts, and inmates' confiscated weapons and contraband. The gas chamber sits in the courtyard, where visitors can sometimes hear the voices of inmates in the working men's prison next door. While an important window into prison life, past and present, the museum can be disturbing for young kids and those with loved ones in the prison system.

Although the collection here includes artists from around the world, more than 300 Georgia artists are represented in the space, which is housed in an arts center. More than 1,000 paintings, sculptures, and other works are part of the permanent collection.

"Contemporary" is generally defined here as work made in the past two or three decades. Curators constantly seek out new talent and underappreciated established photographers, which means that there are artists here you probably won't see elsewhere. Rotating exhibits have included explorations of infrastructure, crime, and American identity.

Right at home in this once-industrial neighborhood now bursting with creative energy, this small museum mounts temporary art and design exhibitions, rather than keeping a permanent collection. The focus might be rugs, metalwork, furniture, or jewelry, though it might also be sustainable architecture, the connection of scent and objects, or very on-trend subjects like robots. The beautifully curated shop is perfect for unique souvenirs and imagination-spurring items for the home office.

MODA is the only museum in the Southeast devoted exclusively to design mounts exhibits on fashion, graphics, architecture, furniture, and product design. The eco-friendly building is located just across the street from the High Museum of Art.

There are dozens of interactive exhibits here to entertain children—and adults—through the wonders of science and Florida's delicate ecosystem. The state-of-the-art 7D theater takes guests on a virtual tour of aviation technology, while the EcoDiscovery Center comes with an Everglades Airboat Adventure ride, resident otters, and an interactive Florida storm center. The 300-seat AutoNation IMAX theater is part of the complex and shows mainstream and educational films, some in 3D, on the biggest screen in South Florida with a rare high-tech laser projection system.

This unique museum on the southern edge of Old Salem showcases the furniture, painting, ceramics, and metalware used in the area through 1820. The bookstore carries hard-to-find books on Southern culture and history.

A gorgeous, Mediterranean-revival structure houses outstanding collections of Asian, African, Native American, European, and American art. Although American artists such as Hassam, O'Keeffe, Bellows, and Morisot are represented, the museum is known more for its pieces by French artists, including Cézanne, Monet, Rodin, Gauguin, and Renoir. In addition, photography exhibits draw from a permanent collection of more than 14,000 works. Docents give narrated gallery tours, and you can grab lunch at a café that has a beautiful bay view.

Remarkable for the completeness of its enormous collection, the MFAH is housed in a complicated series of wings and galleries, many designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. When the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the work of famed Spanish architect Rafael Maneo, it doubled the museum's size. Renaissance and 18th-century art is particularly well represented, and there's a fine selection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works. You'll also find an ample survey of Asian, Pre-Columbian, Oceanic, and African art, and an impressive collection of modernist paintings, prints, and sculpture. The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden displays 19th- and 20th-century sculptures by Rodin, Matisse, Giacometti, and Stella in an outdoor space designed by Isamu Noguchi.

Boeing, the world's largest builder of aircraft, was founded in Seattle in 1916. This facility at Boeing Field, between Downtown and Sea-Tac airport, houses one of the city's best museums, and it's especially fun for kids, who can climb in many of the aircraft and pretend to fly, make flight-related crafts, or attend special programs. The Red Barn, Boeing's original airplane factory, houses an exhibit on the history of flight. The Great Gallery, a dramatic structure designed by Ibsen Nelson, contains more than three dozen vintage airplanes. The Personal Courage Wing showcases World War I and World War II fighter planes, and the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery is home to the NASA Full Fuselage Space Shuttle Trainer.

At this branch of Seattle's Museum of Flight, vintage planes are restored by a volunteer staff that simply loves bringing vintage aircraft back to life. You can wander among the mix of delicate and behemoth planes on a leisurely, self-guided tour at Paine Field.

Inside the Empire Stores building is this small, family-friendly museum that does a deep dive into the food and drinks that tantalize our taste buds and appease our appetites. Going beyond what we see served at the dining table, the rotating interactive exhibitions here explore the science, culture, history, and communities behind the scenes of our meals. 

This museum on the university campus of South Dakota Mines has a fine collection of fossilized bones from giant dinosaurs. It also contains extensive collections of agates, fossilized cycads, rocks, gems, and minerals. Younger travelers love the hands-on Kids' Zone exhibits. Shop for a sparkly treasure in the gift shop.

Located in the Lake Union Park's converted Naval Reserve Building, the 20,000-square-foot MOHAI offers visitors an in-depth slice of regional history with a permanent collection featuring more than 100,000 objects ranging from vintage souvenirs to everyday household items. Permanent exhibitions include the Center for Innovation, which showcases Seattle's role as a place where invention and entrepreneurship flourish; the exhibit is supported by a $10 million gift from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon (which has its corporate headquarters a few blocks away). Special temporary exhibitions examine everything from chocolate to stories of Jewish merchants in Washington State.