What are your favorite museums?

#43

I live in the Cincinnati, Ohio area and for aircraft fans nothing beats the Dayton Air Force Museum about 45 minutes north of the city. On site are aircraft from the beginning of flight up to the bombers, fighters and drone aircraft of today and most are touchable.

When traveling abroad I have visited the Musee D’orsay in Paris a number of times for their remarkable sculptures and paintings. I also agree with Josh that the Musee des Arts et Metiers is a must for engineers and tech geeks like myself.

I intend to investigate some of the other Paris museums mentioned by responders and appreciate their suggestions.

#44

Note: as a new user, I can only do a few links at a time. So my list is spread over a few replies. (Sorry!) Links embedded.

Leaving the big ones aside, here are my favourites:

Science:
Vienna Pathology Museum (Vienna, Austria) Amazing collection of wax models and preserved specimens

Other:

Levon’s Devine Underground (Yerevan, Armenia) Discovered this one through AO. Note exactly a museum, but a very interesting testament to the human spirit.

#45

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Cars:

Honda Museum (Motegi, Japan) Also displays the history of the Honda robots, including an adorable display by Asimo

The Royal Automobile Museum (Amman, Jordan) This is the private collection of the late King of Jordan. It is very impressive.

I haven’t included things like the Porsche and Mercedes Benz museums, which were excellent.

#46

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Communism:
Stalin’s Undeground Printing Press (Tbilisi, Georgia) This is not really a Museum as such, rather, it is still the functioning HQ for the communist party of Georgia. You have to make a donation to the party to enter.

The Charm of the PRL (Life Under Communism Museum) (Warsaw, Poland) A small museum, but it was great. A collection of artifacts from Communist life.

#47

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Communism (continued)

Museum of Communism (Prague, Czech Republic)

Propaganda Poster Museum (Shanghai, China) Interesting collection of posters.

The Stalin Museum in Gori is also good, but I enjoyed the above museums more. Also, the staff at the Stalin Museum were infuriating and we were charged twice for our tickets.

#48

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Art:

Parajanov Museum (Yerevan, Armenia) This is more “outsider art”, so if you don’t really enjoy art of this nature, you might not like this museum as much. It was probably my highlight of Yerevan though.

Hakone Open Air Museum (Hakone, Japan) Largest collection of Henry Moore works outside of Europe and also includes a large Picasso pavilion. Not to mention, it’s just a beautiful garden as well.

Kathe Kollwitz Museum (Berlin, Germany) I’m a huge fan of Kollwitz and the art of the German expressionists. So this is a must for me.

White Rabbit Gallery (Sydney, Australia)A great contemporary Chinese art gallery.

Museum of Old and New Art (Hobart, Australia) By far and away my favourite gallery/museum in Australia.

Military/espionage:

Chinese Aviation Museum (Beijing, China) This is the biggest aircraft museum I have been to (and I’ve been to a considerable number). The signs are misleading though, with a lot of propaganda.

Royal Tank Museum (Amman, Jordan) Again, one of the best military museums I’ve been to. A comprehensive collection of tanks, including a model designs by Da Vinci.

International Spy Museum (Washington D.C.)

#49

This list is amazing, Emily! Thanks for taking the time to post (even through the new user restrictions)! The propaganda poster museum looks especially fascinating.

#50

Some of the most memorable museums I visited while I was traveling across Europe a few years back were in Brussels. Quite interesting since I only had less than 24 hours there.

  1. The Musical Instrument Museum
    The building itself already looks fascinating from the outside.
  2. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
  3. The Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art
#51

Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in Florida was such a trip visiting it as a kid.

#52

I love this thread! Thanks for sharing your lists!
Since I’m a sociologist of science located in Switzerland, most of my favourite museums deal with the history of science, technology, industry in Europe.
My favourites are mostly hunting and natural history museums full of daxidermy animals (the creepier the better), but also all kind of small “special museums”, no matter whether they are related to sewing machines, chemistry or artificial fruit.

If you want you can check my marked places on google-maps, that is updated almost on a dailly base: https://goo.gl/maps/MCkiEM7fjwF2

Some of my all time favourites (that are also on A.O.) are:
“Museum of fishing and hunting” Munich
“Museo della Frutta” (Torino)(sheer beauty)
“Gewerbemuseum” Winterthur (CH) (a large collection of materials and artificial colors and dyes)
“Pharmaziehistorisches Museum” der Universität Basel
“Hessisches Landesmuseum” (Darmstadt) (the zoological part)
“Bird Hall of Bamberg Natural History Museum”
“Tropenmuseum” Amsterdam
“Boerhaave Museum” Leiden
“Micropia” Amsterdam

#53

One of the more unexpected but wonderful museums we found is the Gustavianum Museum in Uppsala, Sweden. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gustavianum-museum
Weirdly eclectic with a creepy anatomical theater and a whole exhibit of Egyptian artifacts. There’s a large curiosity cabinet that is pretty amazing! We spent hours here.

#54

Oh wow. Not only do I love discovering things in the Atlas database (which I still do, even after more than five years working here), that operating theater looks incredible!

#55

This is an awesome list! Thank you for sharing!

#56

isla negra in chile. the famed poet pablo neruda and his wife are buried there, but the exceptional collection of wooden carved boat prows and shells from his time abroad as an overseas diplomat makes for an amazing roam around the rooms where he used to draw inspiration. there’s also a huge glass bottle collection. although there are three pablo neruda houses in chile to visit, this remains my all time favorite, decades later!

#57

So many but amongst my favourites are the archaeological museums in Naples and Pula and Museum of Naiive Art in Zagreb. The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb is unique. The Medieval Crime and Justice Museum in Rothenberg, Germany, was compelling. Liked the Louvre but not the crowds! Several in Venice are lovely. Really liked the Slovenia Alpine Museum.

My museum tastes are usually lesser known and unique except many in Rome including Borghese, Capitoline and Etruscan museums. The war museum in Dubrovnik was incredibly moving.