How many museums have you visited? What were they about, and how was the experience?

I remember when I was a kid, I’ve been to so many museums that I’ve lost track. Most of them were history/science museums (and planetariums). I want to see the bodies exhibit (we were supposed to go last year in forensics class, but it was canceled) and the Smithsonian would be nice. My all time favorite is the Met.

@Michael_Huntington What’s Met?

Been to more museums than I can count. Egyptian Museum in Cairo is astonishing.
National Portrait Gallery in Wash DC. is great.
Louvre is always amazing.
The Atom Bomb museum in Las Vegas is very cool.
The Patton museum in KY is great too. Lots of tanks. Makes me feel at home.

Seems like thousands ( since I’m older than dirt ). First one I can remember is Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County at USC.

@Symbeline The metropolitan museum of art.

I’ve lost track, too. I do want to take a week and go to DC to see the Smithsonian.

My favourite has to be The Geffrye in Shoreditch.

Countless, throughout my life. I love museums, even teensy local hodge-podge kind.

The most unusual museum I have been to was the Witch Museum in Salem Mass. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose CA was also different. I love all the art museums in New York City, especially the Met and the MoMA. And I have been lucky enough to go to all of the Smithsonian Museums on the Mall in DC.

When I was a child living in Panama, my family had a picnic by the US Army Canal Zone Natural History Museum. They had a boa constrictor that was asleep, with a couple of chickens in the cage. After the picnic, as we were leaving, we went back through the museum. The chickens were gone, and the boa had a couple of lumps.

Too many to count. Strung out from Berlin to Alaska. When I take a trip museums are always near the top of the to do list.

My favorites so far are the Smithsonian and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

@zenvelo That Salem museum sounds pretty intriguing. What was that like?

Many. I love museums: it’s where I am most likely to go when I travel. Forget shopping and show me the museums.

Most frequently visited: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I went there first as a seven-year-old and have returned countless times over the years. Even though I’ve been in California for more than 30 years, I still get there more often than any other. If I could visit no other museum for the rest of my life, I’d be satisfied with that one.

But—there have been many other art museums, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, London, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam.

In addition, there have been museums of science (Boston), natural history (Cambridge), and anthropology (Mexico City), and numerous small single-focus museums such as one in California’s Gold Country and another atop the old silver mines at Virginia City, a museum of precision machines in Vermont, a museum to great Scots writers in Edinburgh, and Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam. These many small museums in all kinds of places are beyond counting.

@Jeruba I’m curious, that Scots writers museum, do you remember if they had anything about Irvine Welsh? (Trainspotting) ((unless it was about older writers rather than recent ones?))

No. In a little close off the High Street, it was devoted to the three big ones: Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

I love museums. I have been to far too many to count, starting when I was a child, and then taking my children and my grandchildren, plus taking myself when ever I get a chance.

I would love to spend a month in Washington DC to visit the Smithsonian.

@Symbeline It was about the Salem Witch Trials, mostly.More about what they believed about witches in the 1690’s, and how they saw witchcraft in any unusual event. Worth going to if you are in the area, not worth a special trip.

Art museums are my favorite, and really old churches like the ones in Europe. Though, Europe should pretty much count as a museum.. But the parts in museums with mannequins and stuffed animals portraying various creatures in their natural habitat or bits of history because no matter how many times you see it, it’s the same and all that’s different is you and the stories you put to it. For instance, one exhibit at my local museum is a leopard attacking a man riding a camel, the camel is killed, but the man shoots it. And at first I thought it was just cool since I was only about eight, but the last time I saw it, I devised this adventure story about a man who’s an unfortunate lover traveling to a faraway city to find his lost lover, risking everything with the woman he intends to marry for she’s engaged to someone else (it’s more of an affair), only visiting his city on business. But he’s attacked and injured and has to limp through the safari, barely alive with only his clothes on his back to her. When he finds her, it’s too late, but she nurses him back to health, claiming to not know the man on the verge of death.

Auschwitz was in a class all by itself and had a lasting impact like no other “museum” ever has since.

Mt. Vernon, Monticello, Williamsburg I will always remember how they brought our nations history to life for me.

Smithsonian was amazing…but living in Chicago with the Museum of Science and Industry, Art Institute, Field Museum and Adler Planetarium, I am fortunate to say I can’t pick a favorite!

Having grown up just outside DC, museums of all types were the focus of many a field trip. All of the Smithsonian sub-categories, definitely. Probably just about every museum in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

I most love art museums, though. Being surrounded by beauty, in a cool, quiet atmosphere… just seems to inspire contemplation.

I was lucky to grow up in the Los Angeles area so like @augustlan museums were pretty regular field trips for me. I have been to LACMA several times, the La Brea Tar Pits museum, even the cheesy Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in San Francisco. My favorite is either the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the children’s museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.

I remember a museum about film and tv ( I don’t remember what it was called), but it had a badass arcade. There were some game consoles, old arcade machines, and some PCs.

My favorites are the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay in Paris. With the Tate (London) a close second.

In the US….It would have to be the AIC in Chicago.

My favorite: USS Missouri
It’s an actual battleship that was used during WWII. The Japanese signed the surrender peace treaty there.

My second favorite: Royal Museum in Victoria, BC
Lots of fascinating historical artifacts as well as animal specimens.

Washington DC has the Smithsonian museums, which take at least 4 days to go thru if you are just glancing. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is my favorite. They have the Wright Bros. plane, Chuck Yeager’s X1, several Mercury capsules, and a space shuttle. DC is also the home of the Holocost Museum, which is a must see.

The American Natural History Museum, located in Manhattan, holds a special warm and fuzzy place in my heart. And a permanent place in my psyche, I have reoccurring dreams about this museum. I love the Natural History Museum, I mean it’s classic. It even has a life size model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.

Wow, a personal attack right from the get go! What the hell’s that all about?
Yeah, i’ve visited a handful, mostly local museums. Beamish being the most interesting of a pretty exclusive bunch.

It’s great to hear that you have a passion for museums. To me, a museum is a collection of short stories about events in history…every piece has it’s own story.

Like several here, there are too many museums to mention that I’ve had the opportunity to visit. One of the museums that hasn’t been mentioned that is a ‘must see’ if you like art is The Vatican.

@Neizvestnaya I agree…some of the smaller ones are just as moving.
@augustlan Have you had to go to The Phillips Collection and Hillwood Estate Museum in Washington DC?
@filmfann There is another Air & Space Museum location just outside of DC. We went there a few years ago, and it’s worth seeing if you haven’t already.

I love museums. The ones I remember the most are The Natural History museum in London, The Science museum in London, the theatre museum in London, the Imperial War museum in London and the The “Leonardo da Vinci” Science and Technology museum in Milan, Italy. My favourite was probably the Natural History museum.

@Pied_Pfeffer Oh I’d love to see that. The actual Vatican. I didn’t know people could just go there and check it out.

@Symbeline There is an admission fee and notoriously long lines to get in. We booked a tour that bypassed the line and offered guides that spoke specific languages.

@Pied_Pfeffer It’s been a long time since I went on a field trip, so I can’t remember for sure. The Phillips Collection looks familiar, so I probably did go there, but Hillwood isn’t ringing any bells. One of my absolute favorite places we ever went was The Torpedo Factory. It’s like a museum/gallery/studio space, combined. A place where you could see all kinds of art and the artists at work, too. It was fascinating, and I’d love to visit again.

@Symbeline a lot of stuff is free to get in there, too, like Saint Peter’s Square and Basilica, the architecture is absolutely gorgeous, the history of that alone should constitute as a museum. A lot of other churches and Piazzas in Rome are like that, too, like Santa Maria della Vittoria and Piazza del Popolo
@Pied_Pfeffer did you get to see the Galleria Borghese, by any chance?

@Pied_Pfeffer Saw them both. The one outside DC is the one with the Shuttle.