Must-see museums in Boston
According to paradisdachat, there really are enough museums in Boston. The following shouldn’t be missing if you’re interested in the history of the big city and the United States in general. But also art lovers will definitely get their money’s worth here. An overview of the most famous.
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston: The 450,000 exhibits in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston attract around one million visitors every year. Works by Jackson Pollock and Frida Kahlo are exhibited there. In addition, every first Friday of the month from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., it is possible to marvel at the exhibits in the MFA for 25 US dollars and enjoy cocktails, tapas and music. An experience for almost all the senses.
- Mapparium: That Mapparium in the Mary Baker Eddy Library is absolutely worth seeing and a little different from other museums. Here you cross a bridge inside a globe and see the earth from the inside. The countries are shown as they were in 1935. A special highlight is the acoustics. If you stand in the center of the globe, your own voice can be heard in surround sound. The proportions are different than expected and correct some perceptions of relative size. The Mapparium is open from Tuesday to Sunday between 10:00 and 16:00. Tours run every 20 minutes.
- Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum: The museum dedicated to world famous Boston Tea Party is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Every second and fourth Friday of the month there is also the “Tavern Night”, during which you can enjoy authentic music, singing and dancing. The museum itself brings visitors back to the year 1773. They walk through restored ships, marvel at holographic exhibits and can also throw a few boxes of tea overboard. The award-winning documentary “Let it begin here” is also well worth seeing.
- Paul Revere House: That Paul Revere House, which was built around 1680, is the oldest building in the city. Here lived the man who was put into his mouth with the phrase “The British are coming”. The house can be visited. A self-guided tour is offered that teaches about the historical facts.
- Museum of Bad Art: Not the fine arts but rather the opposite is the theme of this museum, which is located in the basement of the Sommerville Theater. The collection of works of bad art includes 700 works by different artists, around twenty of which are exhibited at the same time. Entry into the Museum of Bad Art is free. Access is always possible when the cinema is also open.
- MIT Museum: Technology fans get their money’s worth in the MIT Museum. Over a million exhibits are here at Massachusetts Institute of Technology gathered and the collection is constantly expanding. The interactive exhibitions in the museum are a real highlight. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum of Technology is open Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. From September to June, admission is free on the last Sunday of the month.
- John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum & Library: The striking building houses numerous exhibits and information about the presidency of John F. Kennedy. You can find out more about the Kennedy-Nixon debate, the space program, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the election campaign and the family members of the president.
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston: The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum in the South Boston Seaport District devoted to contemporary art.
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: That Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the museum of the American art collector and patron of the same name. The private museum now houses over 2,500 exhibits from Europe, Asia and America. The museum attracted media attention, among other things, through an art theft in 1990 when several masterpieces were stolen from the collection. These included the masterpiece “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by Rembrandt and other masterpieces by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet and Flinck.
- Museum of Science (MoS): The MoS is located in the Science Park on the Charles River and has 700 interactive exhibits as well as daily live presentations, a planetarium, an indoor zoo and an IMAX cinema. Imax cinema is unique in its form in New England. Because it is the only one that has a screen in the form of a dome to offer.
Boston for nature lovers
- Franklin Park Zoo: The Franklin Park Zoo opened in 1912 and extends over 290,000 square meters, housing over 220 different animal species. The zoo is divided into different areas. The Tropical Forest, for example, which is home to gorillas, is very well known. There is an area for animals from Australia, several for African animals and the Bird’s World with countless species of birds. Butterfly Landing, the butterfly tent with over 1,000 animals, opened in 1997.
- Arnold Arboretum: The botanical garden is located in the Arborway and is particularly worth a visit in spring and summer when many plants are in full bloom.
- Harvard Museum of Natural History: The natural history museum is a fascinating place in itself and is definitely worth a visit not only because of its “Glass Flowers”. The 4,300 plant models made of glass were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka between 1887 and 1936 and are uniquely beautiful. The special thing about these plants made of glass is the fact that in the 19th century only paper mache and wax were available for models. The founder of the museum, George Lincoln Goodale, wanted real-life exhibits. So father and son Blaschka, who came from a long dynasty of glassblowers, came up with the idea of creating 847 species with remarkably accurate structures from glass. In 2016, the entire collection was cleaned and the showcases revised.
- Mount Auburn Cemetry: The Mount Auburn Cemetry is not only a botanical garden but also a cemetery. Here in this cemetery you can stroll undisturbed and in peace on foot through the landscape and let the beautiful plants take their effect.
- Watch whales: It is a very special experience to watch whales live, which you probably only knew from films before. Whale watching tours are offered by the Boston Harbor Cruises offered. The trip by catamaran to Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary takes about three to four hours and is rewarded with an unforgettable view of humpback whales, fin whales, minke whales, pilot whales and right whales. And if you’re lucky, you can even see dolphins.
- New England Aquarium: That New England Aquarium is definitely one of the city’s main attractions. The aquarium has existed since 1969 and is home to over 20,000 animals. In addition to a large ocean basin, fish from the Amazon, penguins, sea lions and other animals can also be admired there.
