Top Twenty Best Museums

New York City, New York

World's largest art museum, housing more than two million works spanning 5,000 years of history, from Egyptian antiquities to European masterpieces and American art.

Washington, DC

Home to the Hope Diamond, a life-size African elephant, and one of the largest natural history collections in the world with over 145 million specimens.

Washington, DC

Displays the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer and the Apollo 11 command module, making it one of the most visited museums in the world dedicated to flight and space exploration.

Washington, DC

Free national art museum spanning the West and East Buildings, with works ranging from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas.

New York City, New York

Influential modern art museum home to Van Gogh's The Starry Night and Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, with a pioneering collection of design, photography, and film.

New York City, New York

Upper West Side museum famous for its dinosaur fossil halls, the Hayden Planetarium, and a life-size blue whale suspended in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.

Chicago, Illinois

Guarded by iconic bronze lions, this encyclopedic art museum holds one of the finest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world, including Grant Wood's American Gothic.

Los Angeles, California

Hilltop campus of modern architecture and sweeping gardens with free admission, showcasing European paintings, decorative arts, and panoramic views over Los Angeles.

Washington, DC

Smithsonian museum devoted to documenting African American life, history, and culture, housed in a striking bronze-latticed building on the National Mall.

New York City, New York

Twin reflecting pools mark the footprints of the Twin Towers, with an underground museum preserving artifacts and stories from the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Chicago, Illinois

Natural history museum famous for SUE, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, alongside vast anthropology and earth science exhibits.

Washington, DC

Preserves pieces of American heritage from the original Star-Spangled Banner to Dorothy's ruby slippers, chronicling the nation's cultural, political, and technological history.

Boston, Massachusetts

One of the largest and most comprehensive art museums in the country, with an encyclopedic collection spanning Egyptian artifacts, Impressionist masterpieces, and Art of the Americas.

San Francisco, California

All-in-one natural history museum, aquarium, planetarium, and rainforest dome topped with a living, undulating green roof in Golden Gate Park.

New York City, New York

Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling, cylindrical building houses a renowned collection of modern and contemporary art along Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile.

New York City, New York

Renzo Piano-designed museum at the base of the High Line dedicated exclusively to 20th and 21st century American art, from Edward Hopper to contemporary voices.

Los Angeles, California

The largest art museum in the western United States, famous for Chris Burden's glowing Urban Light sculpture and an encyclopedic collection spanning ancient to contemporary art.

Houston, Texas

One of the most visited natural science museums in the country, featuring dinosaur halls, a butterfly center, planetarium, and gem and mineral collections.

Bentonville, Arkansas

Moshe Safdie-designed museum set among wooded trails and reflecting pools, tracing American art history from Colonial times to today with free general admission.

Los Angeles, California

Contemporary art museum with a distinctive honeycomb "veil and vault" exterior, offering free admission to works by Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, and Kara Walker.