10451 Best Sights in USA

Opened in late 2024, this whimsical entrée into the Seaport District has locals and visitors alike licking their lips. Check out 14 immersive, interactive exhibitions across two floors inspired by the eponymous dessert, including a sprinkle pool, a carnival, and the Hall of Freezers. It should go without saying that there are samples of the real thing—as many as you can eat, in fact.

Founded in 1901, the Society of Illustrators holds many events and programs at this former town house--turned-museum. There are eclectic exhibitions on comics, science fiction, fashion, animation and 3-D, and historic illustrations from the permanent collection of 2,500 pieces, including the holdings of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA). In addition, there are lectures, costumed sketch nights and more. On the third floor, order a drink from the 128 Bar, which sports Norman Rockwell's \"The Dover Coach,\" a large-scale oil painting for the Saturday Evening Post that was donated by the illustrator himself.

Located in the cluster of museums at Museum Hill, this interactive, multimedia exhibition tells the story of Native American history in the Southwest, merging contemporary Native American experience with historical accounts and artifacts. The collection includes some of New Mexico's oldest works of art: pottery vessels, fine stone and silver jewelry, intricate textiles, and other arts and crafts created by Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache artisans. Changing exhibitions feature arts and traditions of historic and contemporary Native Americans. while the long-standing Here, Now and Always exhibition shares glimpses into the lives and culture of area tribes. You can also see art demonstrations and a video about the life and work of Pueblo potter Maria Martinez.

The 1935 stone-and-log building, which resembles a pueblo, is almost as interesting as the Native American artifacts and exhibits inside. Baskets, kachinas, pottery, rugs, and beadwork make up the collection, which represents Indigenous cultures from the pre-Columbian period to the present.

In a granite, 85-foot-tall hexagon at the southern end of Battery Park City, this museum aims to educate visitors on the \"broad tapestry of Jewish life in the 20th and 21st centuries—before, during, and after the Holocaust.\" Architects Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo designed the six-sided museum to be symbolic of the Star of David, and its three floors of exhibits demonstrate the dynamism of Jewish culture. Visitors enter through a gallery that provides context for the early-20th-century artifacts on the first floor: an elaborate screen hand-painted for the fall harvest festival of Sukkoth, tools used by Jewish tradesmen, and wedding invitations. Other exhibits present the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism and the ravages of the Holocaust. Signs of hope are also on display, including a trumpet that Louis Bannet, “the Dutch Louis Armstrong,” played for three years in the Auschwitz-Birkenau inmate orchestra. The third floor covers postwar Jewish life. The museum's east wing has a theater, memorial garden, library, galleries, and café. A free audio guide, with narration by Meryl Streep and Itzhak Perlman, is available at the admissions desk.

Take an interactive journey through 100 years of popular music with displays of more than 500 vintage instruments and samples of memorable tunes from the past century. Hands-on activities include playing a digital piano, drums, guitar, and more.

The restored 1762 Brick Market building houses the Museum of Newport History, which explores the city's social and economic influences. Antiques such as the printing press of James Franklin (Ben's brother) inspire the imagination. Designed by Peter Harrison, who was responsible as well for Touro Synagogue and the Redwood Library, this early commercial building also served as a theater and a town hall. Today, besides the museum exhibits, there's a very nice gift shop that serves as a departure point for guided walking tours of Newport.

This institution, founded in 1928, is respected worldwide for its research and for its collections centering on the natural and cultural history of the Colorado Plateau. Among the permanent exhibitions are an extensive collection of Navajo rugs and a Hopi kiva (men's ceremonial chamber).

A gallery devoted to area geology is usually a hit with children: it includes a life-size model dilophosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that once roamed northern Arizona. Outdoors a life-zone exhibit shows the changing vegetation from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the highest peak in Flagstaff. A nature trail, open only in summer, heads down across a small stream into a canyon and up into an aspen grove. Also in summer the museum hosts exhibits and the works of Native American artists, whose wares are sold in the well-stocked museum gift shop.

The Veterans Memorial Building, a handsome 1927 Classical Revival structure designed by a local architectural firm, houses this engaging museum of contemporary art. The focus is on works by artists from San Jose north to Oregon.

This striking, modern building contains some 2,500 works produced by regional creative minds past and present, including painters, sculptors, photographers, and other artists. Soaring spaces, circular exhibit rooms, a glass gallery, and a broad spiral staircase add to the free-form feeling of the displays. There's a small but impressive gallery shop.

This museum elegantly displays an eclectic collection of everything from arrowheads to a fire truck. The upstairs of this restored county courthouse holds the largest privately owned collection of working cowboy artifacts in the world. Bill Mackin, one of the leading traders in cowboy collectibles, has spent a lifetime gathering guns, bits, saddles, bootjacks, holsters, and spurs of all descriptions.

World-renowned photographers such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Edward Weston are represented in this museum's permanent collection, which includes everything from 19th-century daguerreotypes to contemporary photojournalism prints. In addition to selections from its own collection, the museum hosts excellent traveling exhibits. Photos rotate frequently, so call ahead if you're interested in something specific to find out if it is currently on display. MOPA is also known for its film screenings. Check the website for upcoming showings.

The history of the sport of kings is displayed in a time line here, with other exhibits focusing on polo ponies, star players, trophies, and a look at how mallets are made. It provides a great introduction to the surprisingly exciting, hoof-pounding sport that is played live on Sunday from January to April in nearby Wellington.

MOSH, as it's known locally, is home to the Bryan-Gooding Planetarium, one of the largest single-lens planetariums in the United States, where the resolution of the shows (an additional $6) is significantly sharper than that of the biggest HDTV on the market. The planetarium also presents 3D laser shows to accompany its ever-popular Cosmic Concerts ($12).

MOSH itself has a variety of interactive exhibits and programs that include Health in Motion: Discover What Moves You, where you'll gain a better understanding of your body in motion, as well as health and nutrition; JEA Powerplay: Understanding our Energy Choices, where you can energize the future city of MOSHtopia as you learn about the science of energy and alternative power sources; the Florida Naturalist's Center, where you can interact with northeast Florida wildlife; and the Currents of Time, where you navigate 12,000 years of northeast Florida history. Atlantic Tails: Coastal Creatures of Northeast Florida has a life-size sculpture of a right whale and an intertidal touch tank. Nationally acclaimed traveling exhibits are also featured.  Before visiting, be sure to purchase your timed-entry tickets online.

At this state-of-the-art facility near the University of South Florida's main campus, you learn about weather, anatomy, flight, space, and more by seeing and by doing. Explore a lunar colony in Mission: Moonbase, a NASA-funded exhibit. Challenge yourself on the multilevel, 36-foot-high Sky Trail ropes course. Discover innovative technologies not yet on the market at ConnectUs, or get creative in the Idea Zone makers space. The virtual-reality simulator lets you experience everything from spacewalks to run-ins with prehistoric creatures, and the 23-seat Saunders Planetarium has daily shows featuring astronomy experts.

Walk through replicas of the human heart and brain; crawl, jump, and slide through the five-floor Science Playhouse; and learn about cave formations exploring the Discovery Cave. The MOST, as it's called, is a hands-on science museum built to entertain and educate. It occupies a former armory and includes an IMAX theater.

The provocative collection at this 14,000-square-foot museum features artwork as well as intriguing ephemera like vintage pornographic photos and condom tins, S&M paraphernalia, antimasturbation devices from the 1800s, and explicit film clips. Interactive exhibits include the multifloor \"Super Funland: Journey into the Erotic Carnival.\" Titillating special exhibitions have probed such topics as desire on the Internet, the sex lives of animals, and erotic content in the media. Although the subject matter is given serious curatorial treatment, the museum experience is geared to fun and the gift shop is full of fun sexual kitsch. Only patrons over 21 are admitted, and the museum is open late—until midnight on Friday and Saturday and 10 pm on other evenings—which makes it a great date night venue.

Located at the entrance of Museum Hill, this adobe museum occupies a classically Southwestern former home designed in 1930 by acclaimed regional architect John Gaw Meem. The Spanish Colonial Art Society formed in Santa Fe in 1925 to preserve traditional Spanish-colonial art and culture, and the museum, which sits next to the Museum of International Folk Art and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture complex, displays the fruits of the society's labor: one of the most comprehensive collections of Spanish-colonial art in the world. The objects here, dating from the 16th century to the present, include retablos, elaborate santos, tinwork, straw appliqué, furniture, ceramics, and ironwork. The contemporary collection of works by New Mexico Hispanic artists helps put all this history into regional context. The museum also hosts national traveling shows and its gift shop features artwork from participants in Santa Fe's yearly Spanish Market.

Dedicated to the influence that people of African descent have had in places all over the world, MoAD focuses on temporary exhibits in its four galleries over three floors. With floor-to-ceiling windows onto Mission Street, the museum fits perfectly into the cultural scene of Yerba Buena and is well worth a 30-minute foray. Most striking is its front window centerpiece: a three-story mosaic, made from thousands of photographs, that forms the image of a young girl's face. Walk up the stairs inside the museum to view the mosaic photographs up close—Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are there, along with everyday folks—but the best view is from across Mission Street.

The world's only museum dedicated solely to the American Arts and Crafts movement, which saw a range of beautiful yet functional works created in the United States between 1890 and 1930, was funded by a local philanthropist and collector. Displays in the 137,000 square feet of gallery space feature everything from architecture and furniture to prints, photographs, and paintings.

The building is a masterpiece, too, with a grand atrium, skylights, and the drama of a central spiral staircase. In addition to a reference library and a theater, the museum also has a gift shop, a graphic studio, an upscale café, a children’s gallery, and green space.

Seven floors encompassing more than 430,000 square feet are all dedicated to the history, narrative, and impact of the Bible on the world. The IllumiNations exhibit displays Bibles in more than 2,000 languages, and visitors can touch, read, and explore them and other illuminated manuscripts. The museum includes exhibits focused on modern films, speakers, fashion, and technology to tell the story of the Bible's continuing influence today. Here you can also see the papyrus featuring early copies of the New Testament, biblically inspired designer clothing, and even Elvis Presley's Bible. Stop by the Manna restaurant for biblically themed foods and other Mediterranean-inspired meals.

The city's present, past, and future are explored through visually engaging exhibits on subjects such as architecture, fashion, history, pop culture, and politics in a Georgian Colonial Revival building, designed for the museum in the 1930s, along 5th Avenue's Museum Mile. The award-winning, ongoing exhibition New York at Its Core explores the sweeping and diverse facets of the city's 400-year history through artifacts, photographs, archival film, and interactive digital experiences. Timescapes, a 28-minute innovative media projection, illustrates New York's physical expansion and population changes (free headsets available with translations in French, Spanish, and Mandarin), or Activist New York, an ongoing exploration of the city's history of social activism. You also can find New York–centric lectures, films, family programming, and self-guided and curated tours here. The on-site Chalsty's Café serves sweet treats, savory snacks, breakfast, and lunch, and the Museum Shop is a great place to pick up a Big Apple souvenir. After your visit, cross the street and stroll through the Vanderbilt Gate to enter the Conservatory Garden, one of Central Park's gems.

Experience the natural history of New York State through exhibits called "Beneath an Ancient Sea," "Where Dinosaurs Walked," and "A World Carved by Ice." Whale and mastodon skeletons, along with audiovisual theater presentations, help prepare museumgoers for hands-on labs featuring fossils, dinosaurs, and ice. The on-site Paleontological Research Institution runs the museum.

At this Collier County museum, you can learn about early Native Americans, pioneers, entrepreneurs, and anglers who played pivotal roles in southwest Florida development. Exhibits of artifacts and photographs, as well as a short film, detail the tremendous feat of building the Tamiami Trail across mosquito-ridden, gator-infested Everglades wetlands. Permanent displays and monthly shows rotate works by local and regional artists in the Pauline Reeves Gallery. The small museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is housed in the 1927 Laundry Building, which was once used for washing linens from the Rod & Gun Club until it closed during World War II.

Fur trappers were the first non-Native Americans to live in these parts year-round, arriving in the early 19th century when the area was the center of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. The museum celebrates that trapper history, with guns, traps, clothing, and beaver pelts from that time period. In the early summer the museum features living-history demonstrations, children's events, and lectures. In July it hosts reenactment of the Green River Rendezvous, when mountain men, Native Americans, and others got together to barter and socialize.

Run by a retired archaeologist, the museum depicts life in Colorado from the late 1800s to the 1940s. It features roughly 500,000 artifacts and 23 buildings, including a schoolhouse, church, carriage works, and jail cell, as well as homesteads and teepee replicas.

This historic ranger station housed soldiers from 1908 to 1918. The six-room log building is now an engaging museum where you can watch a movie telling the history of the National Park Service and visit with the retired rangers who volunteer here. Other exhibits relate to Army service in Yellowstone and early park rangers.

Montana's official agriculture museum, the Museum of the Northern Great Plains tells the story of three generations of farmers from 1908 until 1980. The 30,000 square feet of exhibition space hold a village of businesses from the homestead era and a library. On display are the Smithsonian Hornaday bison, specimens taken from the Montana plains when it seemed likely that the species faced extinction. In 1886 the six buffalo were stuffed, then exhibited in the Smithsonian for more than 70 years before being returned to their native state.

Founded in 1941, this museum houses an impressive collection of Northern Plains Tribal peoples including Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Assiniboine, Arapaho, Shoshone, Nez Perce, Flathead, Chippewa, and Cree. Exhibits include historic clothing, horse gear, weapons, household implements, baby carriers, and traditional toys. Arts and crafts exhibitions provide an opportunity to purchase art that supports contemporary Native American artists and craftspeople.