Alex WildWhat’s your favorite museum, and why? Can be big, small, esoteric, national, public, private, anything.
JJ Litke@alexwild I used to love taking my daughter (back when she was little) to Texas Memorial Museum. Planning to go after the reopening in the fall.
griff ferrell :firefish:@alexwild
The Putnam museum in Davenport, Iowa. Why? My first live model art class
I felt so grown up, was 19 or so
The Putnam museum in Davenport, Iowa. Why? My first live model art class
I felt so grown up, was 19 or so
@alexwild
National Air and Space museum in DC. Close. Second because, airplanes - space
National Air and Space museum in DC. Close. Second because, airplanes - space
DJ Deep House Arrest@alexwild National Gallery of Art in DC. I was a copyist there. Some of the best and most important art in the world, free admission. The people's art collection.
Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra@alexwild Los Angeles Natural history museum. First place I saw dinosaur bones, an oarfish, etc. lots of fond kid memories.
Mike Johnson@alexwild The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits! Was my favorite as a kid & it's RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TAR PITS. Love the smell.
Sheril Kirshenbaum@alexwild The American Museum of Natural History 🦕
In 2001, I got to work there as an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates). Best. Job. Ever.
I’d arrive before the museum opened & walk through the still dark exhibits. One night, my cohort slept over (before Night at the Museum was a thing).
For me, AMNH will always be a magical place.
Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱
Antonio Páez 🇲🇽🇨🇦El Prado, too.
C.J.H.3 💀🪿🥚🐐@alexwild the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. It's a medical history museum with crazy things like drawers and drawers of weird items doctors have pulled out of people. On display are the joined livers of the original "Siamese Twins" brothers. Just a bizarre and utterly fascinating museum.
Bob Davidson@alexwild
The World Famous cigarette pack and tiny liquor bottle collection in Boise. Never knew there were so many!
The World Famous cigarette pack and tiny liquor bottle collection in Boise. Never knew there were so many!
Seriously, what is good is the geology museum at Montana School of Mines in Butte, MT (the Silicon Valley of the late 19th century). And, for dinos, the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT. Both are small but Smithsonian quality displays.
Also, the cigarette museum in Boise!
DaevClarke@alexwild Tough question. The Mütter museum in Philly. The American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore. Sadly, I would say the American Dime Museum but the original closed and I haven’t been to the new incarnation in Georgia.
Kevin Bowrin ☕@alexwild Gotta be the MFA Boston. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/503178/endlessly-repeating-twentieth-century-modernism is a highlight.
Eric R. Scott@alexwild went to the insectarium in Montreal recently and it was excellent!
Rich Stein (he/him)@alexwild Sir John Soane's Museum 🇬🇧
https://www.soane.org/collections
&
Phila's Mütter Museum, now sadly mired in controversy. I met Oliver Sacks there. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/26/mutter-museum-controversy-philadelphia/
I always thought it was cool that the intellectual curiosity of individuals led them to create such fascinating spaces. One can take a more current view & read a lot of imperialism, colonialism, etc. into the picture, but at the time, collecting was knowledge creation (albeit inconsiderate).
Collections
Sir John Soane’s Museum is a national museum, displaying the extraordinary collections amassed by renowned British architect Sir John Soane, including antiquities, furniture, sculptures, architectural models and drawings, and paintings including work by Hogarth, Turner and Canaletto. Spanning continents and millennia, many objects are on permanent display. Others, including 30,000 architectural drawings, can be seen by appointment at the Research Library. You can also browse the Museum’s collections of thousands of objects online, or explore our spaces in 3D with Explore Soane.
@alexwild Best kid museums: Academy of Natural Sciences https://ansp.org/ and Franklin Institute https://www.fi.edu/en Dinosaur fossils and spectacular insect and seashell collections at the former — and a pickled coelacanth, the living fossil! — and crazy, wild mechanical stuff (the steam locomotive, pendulum and planetarium are always big hits) at the latter.
@alexwild Not trying to be Philly-centric, but they are winners.
Angus MacPhersonThe Ontario Science Centre. Legitimately groundbreaking interactive museum. Stunning building.
Though I also love a good university natural history museum. The Redpath at McGill is great.
Dr Micha Campbell@alexwild the James Cook Museum, in Cooktown, Australia. The musem is an old convent, and houses one of the anchors that Cook dumped after he hit Endeavour Reef while sailing up the Australian east coast (the crew repaired the Endeavour on Guugu Yimithirr country, where we now call Cooktown). The museum is ok (a bit colonial, to be expected), but holds special memories for me because my dad did a lot of carpentry there and I had essentially free rein to scamper about as a kid 💚
My Florida Native Garden@alexwild
Mayan World Museum in Mérida, Yucatán, México.
You get transported to the pre-Hispanic time and see how the Mayan civilization worked at all levels: trade, agriculture, society, family, culture, even entertainment. It’s fascinating and very enlightening!
Mayan World Museum in Mérida, Yucatán, México.
You get transported to the pre-Hispanic time and see how the Mayan civilization worked at all levels: trade, agriculture, society, family, culture, even entertainment. It’s fascinating and very enlightening!
Coach Pāṇini ®@alexwild the Newseum was the best.
Was.
Jeri Dansky@paninid Totally agree with you on that. It was my favorite place in DC when I visited, which was before they moved to the new building.
Nick Barber@alexwild Cleveland Museum of Natural History — like a lot of folks here, it’s my favorite because it’s the museum that made me love science as a kid. Hours spent in the halls, classes and field trips. Can’t wait to visit when their renovations are done.
Jill@alexwild Femme Fatale - Curiosities and Apothecary in Newport Oregon because they have Victorian poison bottles ☠️
llewelly@alexwild
since I don't travel, and I've spent my whole adult life without a car, and I'm so poor that museum fees are actually a lot for me, I haven't been to many museums, so I'll just list most of the museums I've been to:
California Academy of Sciences in SF
Museum of Modern Art in SF
Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey
Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake
Christopher Moore@alexwild
- LA Natural History Museum b/c it was formative for me when I was young
- La Brea Tar Pits b/c it’s just so dang cool
- Field Museum b/c it’s scale
- Geology museum on UNR’s campus b/c it was a nice and easy place to escape and admire the collection
- Cleveland Museum of Art b/c it was free, public-centered, and has a nice collection
- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum b/c everything about the desert is amazing
- LA Natural History Museum b/c it was formative for me when I was young
- La Brea Tar Pits b/c it’s just so dang cool
- Field Museum b/c it’s scale
- Geology museum on UNR’s campus b/c it was a nice and easy place to escape and admire the collection
- Cleveland Museum of Art b/c it was free, public-centered, and has a nice collection
- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum b/c everything about the desert is amazing
Alexander KarnThe People’s History Museum (Manchester, UK). A story of struggle, passion, and unflagging devotion to justice. History from below.
Sjaak K. 🇳🇱🇪🇺🍋@alexwild
Kröller Müller, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
The sculpture garden is like a large playground, the van Gogh collection may be the finest anywhere, and the impressionist collection is just great. And all this in the middle of National Park de Hoge Veluwe.
Kröller Müller, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
The sculpture garden is like a large playground, the van Gogh collection may be the finest anywhere, and the impressionist collection is just great. And all this in the middle of National Park de Hoge Veluwe.
MeasuringBehavior@alexwild The Kröller Müller museum (Otterloo, the Netherlands); not only an amazing painting and sculpture collection, but set in a beautiful landscape in a national park.
https://krollermuller.nl/en
https://krollermuller.nl/en
Alan Wolf@alexwild I’m going to cheat and say the Smithsonian, because it is hard to pick a favorite. I interned in the NMNH as an undergraduate and at the time, my badge got me into any of the buildings before they opened to the public. I had behind the scenes tours at most of the museums, including the National Zoo where I was able to feed one of the great pandas and see one of the first Komodo dragons in captivity before it went on exhibit.
Trojan Duck@alexwild Any transit museum, the London Transport Museum in particular.
Liana Brooks@alexwild Chicago Field Museum has my heart because it was the one I went to as a kid. I found a really cool little dinosaur museum along a river in the Pyeongtaek area last year, and that was enchanting. A fun surprise. I 'm excited to go to Questacon in Canberra later this year, but I'm not sure I have a favorite. Museums are just fun to explore.
Sean Gillies@alexwild I have fond memories of the dinos at the U. of Utah's Natural History Museum at its original location on President's Circle. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_Museum_of_Utah
Mark Maguire@alexwild The first museum that really grabbed my attention was the Natural History Museum in London - I was about 11. In 2008 I visited the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis. It’s a great example of how a museum can be about one thing but also have another context - in this case the Civil Rights era and the development of Black music. It really impacted me. Plus we left with some great CDs.
@MarkMaguire I think often about how the history of American music is largely the history of black Americans. I took a Jazz History class in college and it was basically a crash course in civil rights with a nice soundtrack.
Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)@alexwild The Ontario Science Centre. I understand it's a bit run-down now, but it was a marvel of my childhood and a joy the times I have returned since.
olena@alexwild National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Nothing beats seeing IRL things from your textbooks
Relle@alexwild the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen has a riveting collection of Greek and Roman sculptures, mixed with post impressionist and Danish Golden age art set in a beautiful old building. Was quite surprised and enchanted by their displays.
christoph_STCmicrobeblog@alexwild
spent a whole day there once copying one picasso painting...
spent a whole day there once copying one picasso painting...
Barry Goldman@alexwild well... grew up with the big two in manhattan.
but the one at cornell U. was a nice size and at the top u got nice view of the lake.
Magnus@alexwild The maritime museum in Nice. Marvellous view of the Mediterranean and nice paintings and models. But it's closed down.
The museum of antiquity in Lund, Sweden. Pleasant setting and good selection of works. But it's closed down.
The museum of art nouveau furniture in Gourdon. Very representative. But it's closed down.
The marine biology station Eduardo Mondlane outside Maputo. Nice integration with the surroundings. I haven't been there for forty years. Hope it's still there.
GMButler@alexwild I like the Museum of Zoology at Cambridge. Trays of beetles collected by Darwin are especially fun. Plus, Dr. Turner (insect curator) is just totally amazing!!
Domino Joyce@alexwild Tring museum, UK. Spent hours there as a kid staring at all the animals, and being baffled by the dressed up fleas. Loved opening the doors to the insect displays all around the edge, the huge spider crab and the hummingbirds. It’s small but packed with great stuff. It gets very busy now. Have taken my kids when I can https://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/tring.html
Cyn@alexwild The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Az holds a special place in my heart. Great exhibits of the greats instruments like Johnny Cash, John Lennons Imagine piano, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many more from around the world. They were also Hosting a Stradivarius exhibit during that visit. These instruments were in environmentally regulated cases and they each had videos of the individual instruments being played. Beautiful!
derek@alexwild Do Botanical Gardens count? Because so far (I haven't seen a few of the other "Big Ones" like Atlanta or Missouri) Chicago's Botanical Gardens is one of the top in the world for my money. Combine that with downtown's Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and Adler Planetarium and Chicago has got it all going on for nerds.
Mike Pingleton 🐸🍩@alexwild American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City. That was a pleasant surprise!
Claymore@alexwild The National Museum of Military History here in Johannesburg. Some rare aircraft and vehicles, and great displays.
@alexwild Hard to choose, but I'll go with Musée Mécanique in San Francisco. It's a wonderful quirky place (and a labor of love) which brings back happy memories from childhood and playing with such things at the penny arcade at Euclid Beach when visiting my grandparents.
https://museemecanique.com/story
Marence@alexwild
Two come to mind immediately, and they are opposite ends of the museum spectrum. First, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Free, world-class, big & clean. Second, House on the Rock. Not free, cramped, stuffed full of weird niche stuff and not really a museum.
Two come to mind immediately, and they are opposite ends of the museum spectrum. First, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Free, world-class, big & clean. Second, House on the Rock. Not free, cramped, stuffed full of weird niche stuff and not really a museum.
TheAnymouseProphet@alexwild Now if you mean art museum (I assumed you meant Natural History), Crocker Museum of Modern Art in Sacramento.
You can't do it in a day, it takes at least two to really take it all in, but it's walking distance to hotels and Amtrak and I think Greyhound.
Robert K@alexwild the car museum in Reno because I was able to take pictures like this below and the cars were fun to see. I also love the Getty.
Myrmecofourmis@alexwild I won't give the name but there is this small town museum somewhere in France where stuffed mammals have been amazingly mismatched with their glass eyes. The museum is really nice and informative, and a bit hilarious.