If you’re planning a Boston vacation and want to visit one or two Boston museums while you’re here, you’re going to have a tough choice. With over 60 museums in or near the city, and plenty more in surrounding areas, how do you possibly choose?
One way to begin to make a choice is to decide what type of Boston museum you’d like to visit. Here’s a quick overview of the 5 major types of museums that you’ll find here, and a couple of options for each category:
1. Art museums – Name a type or period of art, and you’ll probably find at least one Boston art museum with a stellar collection. The biggest and most comprehensive of all of the Boston art museums is the Museum of Fine Arts. You’ll find outstanding collections from around the world covering many centuries, periods, and styles. The amazing mummies in the Egyptian collection are among the most popular – but that’s just the beginning of what you’ll discover at the MFA. For much more focused exhibits, visit the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, where you’ll find terrific collections of African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latin, and Afro-American paintings, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts.
2. Sports museums – Do you think that “museum” = “art” = “boring”? Boston’s sports museums will change your thinking. The New England Sports Museum at Banknorth Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, is filled with memorabilia and tributes to the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Revolution, and Patriots fans. Speaking of the Patriots, you may want to head south of the city to Patriot Place, where you’ll find a shrine – I mean, museum – to football in the Hall at Patriot Place.
3. History museums – As you might expect in a city with such a strong historical past, Boston is filled with history museums of various types. Kids and military history buffs love the Freedom Trail site, the USS Constitution and nearby Naval history museum in Charlestown, where both admission and guided tours of the ship are free. For a totally different type of experience, tour the Nichols House Museum on Beacon Hill. The 1804 townhouse designed by famed Boston architect Charles Bulfinch was home to peace activist and landscape gardener Rose Standish Nichols until 1960.
4. Science and Technology museums – Among the many options that you’ll find in Boston are the very well-known Museum of Science and the lesser-known but equally interesting MIT Museum, with an emphasis on technology. For something different, visit the Lars Andserson Auto Museum in Brookline, where you can also ice skate during the winter.
5. Children’s museums – Last but not least, these are some of the most loved and most visited museums in the city. Within Boston, the Boston Children’s Museum is by far the most popular. To the west of the city, in Acton, the Children’s Discovery Museum is filled with interactive exhibits.
That’s a quick survey – but most categories have many more options. Whatever you choose, you’re sure to have a great time, see interesting things, and almost certainly learn something new.
