Mammoth metros like New York City and Boston are known for their museums, from The MoMA and The Met to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. But visitors are missing out if they stop only at these famous sites.
Thanks to its centuries of recorded history, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country have a dizzying number of museums worth visiting, with focuses ranging from world-renowned art to local history and culture. To fascinate any group, take them to a stop on this eclectic list of lesser-visited — but no less fascinating — museums.
Plimoth Patuxet Museums
Plymouth, Massachusetts
In 1620, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Harbor after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It carried 102 pilgrims that fled England seeking religious liberty. That makes where they settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the oldest town in New England and one of the oldest in the U.S. The history of the pilgrims, from their fraught journey across the Atlantic to the signing of the Mayflower Compact and their relationship with Indigenous tribes, is commemorated at Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Founded in 1947, the museum has grown to include an English village set in 1627 and a Patuxet Homesite, where visitors can learn about the Indigenous people who populated the area prior to the pilgrims’ arrival. There’s also the Plimoth Grist Mill and the Mayflower II, a replica of the ship, both of which visitors can tour.
Groups can explore the museums to see re-enactments of daily life in the 17th century among the pilgrims and Indigenous people. They can listen to talks about or watch re-enactments of the daily lives and histories of the pilgrims. The museum also offers the option for groups to enjoy a family-style meal consisting of food the pilgrims or Indigenous people ate. For supplemental education, a set of 14 short films in a series called “The Light Here Kindled” is available to watch prior to their visit.
“One of the reasons we’re so popular with faith-based travel groups is the amount of scholarship and research we’ve done,” said Richard Pickering, deputy executive director and senior historian at Plimoth Patuxet Museums. “The representation of the faith experience is very accurate to that of the 1620s. For a lot of people, they’re just beginning to learn about the challenging experience of Christianity during that time.”
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Chantilly, Virginia
To skip the crowds at D.C. museums, groups can head to the second location of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, which can be found at the Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. Known as the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, it opened in 2003 and sees an average of 1.2 million visitors each year. The center features more than 3,000 artifacts on display, including more than 200 aircraft and a large military history collection. It’s also home to some of the museum’s larger and more significant artifacts, such as the SR-71 Blackbird, Space Shuttle Discovery and the Air France Concorde. Free guided tours of the center are a must, thanks to its experienced volunteer docents.
“Many of them have a lot of experience with the artifacts, sometimes even the exact artifact on display,” said Holly Williamson, public affairs specialist at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. “Two of them flew the SR-71 Blackbird. One was an engineer for NASA, and there are former flight instructors and medevac helicopter pilots. They bring their personal knowledge and combine it with our collection, and the stories we have make for a really great tour.”
In addition to guided tours, the center offers free admission and bus parking. Its IMAX theater offers group discounts for groups larger than 10, and the center’s on-site restaurant, Shake Shack, accepts group vouchers. Student groups can take advantage of the classroom lab spaces for a hands-on activity, lecture or demonstration. The center also hosts annual activities, such as an outdoor aviation show that takes place the day before Father’s Day. Groups should call in advance to schedule guided tours or to reserve classroom spaces.
airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-center
The Met Cloisters
New York City
While technically a branch of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met Cloisters are at a different location than the famed Fifth Avenue museum. The Cloisters can be found in Upper Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River from Fort Tryon Park. The Cloisters, the surrounding land and 40 pieces of medieval art from his personal collection were gifted to the museum by John D. Rockefeller in the 1920s.
A cloister refers to a covered walkway and open courtyard; The Met Cloisters contain five of these medieval structures, which consist of parts of European monasteries that were deconstructed and reconstructed in Manhattan. These cloisters act as walkways from one museum building to another and provide more architectural context to the museum’s subject matter. They also enclose the museum’s three beautiful gardens, each of which feature plant life reminiscent of a European garden in the Middle Ages.
The museum is the only one in the country dedicated exclusively to the art and architecture of Medieval Europe. Highlights of the collection include a prayer book owned by the queen of France, stained glass windows from an Austrian castle’s chapel, the Mérode Altarpiece and the Unicorn Tapestries. Sculptures, tapestry, metalwork and other mediums used during the Middle Ages in Europe are featured throughout.
Groups larger than 10 can schedule a tour at The Met Cloisters with advanced reservations. They can opt for a guided tour or self-guided audio tour of the museum. Trie Café is open from April to October and lets museum guests enjoy outdoor scenery with casual fare. Groups can round out their visit with a trip to the museum shop.
The Mark Twain House and Museum
Hartford, Connecticut
Renowned for his lasting impact on American literature, Mark Twain wrote some of the most well-known novels of the 19th century. Works like “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” transformed the zeitgeist with their use of satire and social commentary. But the author behind these works is equally worthy of note; after all, many people don’t know that Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens. To discover more about this talented writer, groups can head to The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Construction of the author’s former home was completed in 1874 for Clemens, his wife and their three daughters.
Now a museum, the American High Gothic-style home celebrated its 150th year throughout 2024. The three-story home is furnished in a style similar to that of the Clemens family. Also on the property are beautiful grounds and a visitor center and museum building. Up to 14 people at a time can be taken into the home for a guided tour. Larger groups can be divided up and go in shifts to tour the home, explore the museum grounds and see exhibits and a documentary film on Clemens’s life. If they desire, groups can enjoy a catered meal at the museum or picnic on the grounds.
“The Mark Twain House is a beautiful building, and the story of Mark Twain’s life is fascinating,” said Rebecca Floyd, director of interpretation at The Mark Twain House and Museum. “A lot of people have no idea about the intricacies of his life and how important his family was to him.”
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne, Vermont
Just outside of Burlington, Vermont, groups will find the Shelburne Museum, an institution dedicated to collecting and displaying art, architecture and Americana. Founded in 1947 and opened in 1952, it’s Vermont’s largest museum and the largest art and history museum in northern New England. It’s open May through October and features holiday light events on select dates November through early January. The 39-acre campus features 39 buildings, many of which are historic structures that were relocated to the campus and are artifacts in and of themselves. It also has 22 gardens and a sidewheel steamboat, Ticonderoga.
Among its collections are Impressionist paintings by greats such as Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. It also has works by American artists like Andrew Wyeth and Martin Johnson Heade. That’s in addition to an eclectic collection of sculptures, toys, horse-drawn vehicles, duck decoys, textiles, firearms and folk art.
Groups can meander through the massive campus at their leisure to see the artifacts of greatest interest to them. Or they can stroll the gardens and see the distinct buildings, such as the historic general store, schoolhouse, lighthouse, round barn and the Ticonderoga steamboat.