Travel Tips – Museums
Niche Museums in New York City
PLEASE NOTE: Hours, schedules, fees, exhibitions, Museum closing days, websites, and holidays may change, so please call or check before going.
The Skyscraper Museum
Address: 39 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280
Contact: (212)968-1961 or info@skyscraper.orgBoasting as the world’s only museum devoted solely to the skyscraper, The Skyscraper Museum “celebrates the City’s rich architectural heritage and examines the historical forces and individuals that have shaped its successive skylines. Through exhibitions, programs and publications, the Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence.”
For more information on the museum, click here
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MOCCA)
Address: 594 Broadway, Suite 401, New York, NY 10012
Contact: (212)254-3511 or info@moccany.orgMOCCA’s mission is to promote the understanding and appreciation of comic and cartoon art. Every genre of the art is represented: animation, anime, cartoons, comic books, comic strips, gag cartoons, humorous illustration, illustration, political illustration, editorial cartoons, caricature, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and computer-generated art. Further, the museum’s rigid collection policy “ensures that the art collections are maintained in an environment of the highest integrity.”
For more information on the museum, click here
The National Museum Of The American Indian,
The George Gustav Heye Center
Address: One Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004
Contact: (212)514-3700 or NMAIweb@si.eduThe NMAI, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans. Established by an act of Congress in 1989, the museum works in collaboration with the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere to “protect and foster their cultures by reaffirming traditions and beliefs, encouraging contemporary artistic expression, and empowering the Indian voice.”
For more information on the museum, click here
The Museum At Fashion Institute Of Technology
Address: Seventh Avenue at 27 Street, New York, NY 10001-5992
Contact: (212)217-4558 or museuminfo@fitnyc.eduThe most fashionable museum in New York, The Museum at FIT is one of only a handful of museums in the world devoted to the art of fashion. Best known for its innovative, award-winning exhibitions, the museum also has one of the world’s most important collections of fashion and textiles, which it collects, conserves, documents, exhibits, and interprets for the purposes of education and inspiration.
For more information on the museum, click here
The Ukrainian Museum
Address: 222 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10003
Contact: (212)228-0110 or info@UkrainianMuseum.orgThis museum concerns itself with the Ukrainian experience, past and present. In the Museum the emphasis is on the cultural legacy of a people whose thousand year journey through history abounds with grand, dramatic, turbulent and exciting events, as well as extraordinary accomplishments and achievements.
For more information on the museum, click here
The Italian American Museum
Address: 155 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10013
Contact: (212) 965-9000 or info@italianamericanmuseum.orgThe Italian American Museum is dedicated to exploring the rich cultural heritage of Italy and Italian Americans by presenting the individual and collective struggles and achievements of Italians and their heirs to the American way of life.
For more information on the museum, click here
PLEASE NOTE: Hours, schedules, fees, exhibitions, Museum closing days, websites, and holidays may change, so please call or check before going.
Le Musée du Vin, The Wine Museum of Paris
In an ancient stone-and-clay quarry used by 15th Century monks as a wine cellar, the museum offers an introduction to the art of wine making, displaying various tools, beakers, cauldrons, and bottles in a series of exhibits. Take a wine-tasting class with one of their wine specialists or partake in one of their special events? Also in the sixteenth arrondissement.
Official Website
Le Musée de l’Eventail, The Fan Museum
More than 1,200 fans from the 18th century to the present, including a workroom complete with the workbenches used. Attend a presentation on how to make this old fashion accessory. See varied fan styles, from those designed for the aristocracy to those created by current fashion designers, e.g., Karl Lagerfeld.
Official Website
**Note: The official website has the wrong hours for the museum. The correct hours are Monday to Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Close by are the following museums:
Le Musée National Picasso, The National Picasso Museum, and The Carnavalet Museum as well as Le Musée Jean Moulin and Leclerc Memorial, The Liberation of Paris and France.
Le Musée-en-herbe, The Museum in Grass
A new museum in grass in the heart of Paris. How green can you be???
Official Website
Le Musée de la Poupée, The Doll Museum
Houses over 300 French dolls from the 19th Century to the present, exhibited in lively Parisian scenes. The Museum is close to The Pompidou center modern art museum, on the edge of the Marais district.
Official Website
Le Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet, The National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet
With one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia, this museum houses one of the finest collections of Asian art with some 3,000 pieces of the museum’s 45,000 works on display. In the sixteenth arrondissement.
Official Website
Le Musée Dapper, The Dapper Museum
An Artistic and Cultural Space for Africa, The Caribbean and Their Diasporas.
Official Website
Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, The Museum of Hunting and Nature
Houses a collection of weapons: crossbows, arquebuses, as well as many trophies of exotic animals, etc. Note the beautiful interior staircase, the museum includes paintings by Rubens, Brueghel de Velours, Desports, Chardin, Oudry.
Official Website
Le Musée des égouts de Paris, The Paris Sewers Museum
Sewers, Paris, what more can one say? You will see some of the 2,100 km (1,312 miles) of sewer tunnels, and perhaps the occasional rat. Think Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Misérables, and the musical that it inspired.
Official Website
Le Musée Baccarat, The Baccarat Museum
Crystal and art, crystal-as-art. The Museum presents masterpieces created for the universal exhibitions in which Baccarat obtained the highest distinctions, e.g., gold medals or Grand Prix. The crystal exhibition shows the technical and stylistic evolutions that made Baccarat’s reputation. The museum is located in one of the last Parisian nineteenth century “dépôts”.
Official Website
**Note: We would advise you to view the museum in Baccarat, France, 20 Rue Des Cristalleries, Tel: 33 3 83 76 61 37, instead.
Le Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires, The National Museum of Traditional and Popular Arts
Paying homage to French craftsmanship and traditions, including the developments in contemporary society. Complete with a documentation and research centre with library, archives, photo library, icon library and audio library.
Official Website
Le Musée Arménien de France, The Armenian Museum of France
This small museum traces approximately 3,000 years of Armenian history through art, documents, everyday domestic objects.
Official Website
Le Musée de la Poste, The Mail Museum
A five-story museum of postal history depicting international and French stamps, dating as far back as 1849, postal carriers’ uniforms and mailboxes, sorting and stamp-printing machines, and one of the balloons used to send mail out of Paris during the 1870 Prussian siege. Take an adventure and travel written communication through the ages.
Official Website
Le Musée des Arts de l’Ecriture et le Musée du Stylo, The Museum of Penmanship and Pens
Houses one of the world’s most important collection of writing utensils with pens dating back to the early 18th Century, as well as paper and calligraphy. Also in the sixteenth arrondissement, 3 Rue Guy de Maupassant.
**Note: Due to all of the pens being stolen from this museum, it is currently closed.
Le Musée Curie, Madame Curie’s Institute of Radium Museum
You can visit Marie Curie’s laboratory, which has been preserved. Get a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of this brilliant and famous family, with three Nobel prizes between them, Marie, Pierre, and their daughter Irène. In 1906, Marie Curie became the first woman ever to teach at La Sorbonne.
Official Website
Le Musée de la Musique, a part of the cultural complex of La Cité de la Musique, The Museum of Music
Paris’ The Cité de la Musique offers everyone access to culture through its concerts, museum and exhibitions and a huge media library, as well as educational and publishing activities aimed at both adults and children. The Museum houses some 800 musical instruments ranging from the Renaissance to the present, plus paintings, sculptures or works inspired by music. A 230 seat auditorium stages concerts and cultural events that highlight the richness of the collections.
Official Website
Le Musée de la Mode et du Costume de la Ville de Paris, The Museum of Fashion and Costume in Paris
Containing clothing and professional uniforms from 1735 to the present. Paris and fashion like bread and butter. Think about 90,000 items of clothing, among many pieces by the great couturiers and well-known fashion designers. Plus thousands of etchings, engravings, and fashion photographs, not to mention jewelery, canes, hats, fans, gloves, parasols and umbrellas. Housed in a beautiful Italian-style mansion.
Official Website
Other Niche Museums, Worldwide
PLEASE NOTE: Hours, schedules, fees, exhibitions, Museum closing days, websites, and holidays may change, so please call or check before going.
Italy:
Palazzo Colonna (site)
Casa Museo G. de Chirico (site)
The Keats-Shelley House (site)
The Small Museum Collections In Rome (site)
The Napoleonic Museum (site 1, site 2)
The National Gallery of Ancient Art (site)
United States:
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (site)
The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, in Albuquerque, New Mexico (site)
The Museum of the American Cocktail, in New Orleans, Louisiana, near the French Quarter (site)
The Hollywood History Museum, located in the world-famous historic Max Factor Building, in Los Angeles, CA (site)
The International Spy Museum, located in Washington, DC (site)
The Museum of the American Quilter’s Society (MAQS), located in Paducah, Kentucky (site)
The Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, Georgia, located in Jonesboro’s 1867 Historic Train Depot (site)
Canada:
The Canadian Railway Museum, located only 25 minutes from downtown Montreal in the municipalities of Saint-Constant and Delson (site)
England:
The Lawnmower Museum in Southport, Lancashire (site)
The Movieum, A London Movie Museum (site)
The Museum of Garden History in London (site)
Singapore:
The Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom Museum (site)
The Singapore Crocodilarium (site)
The Mandai Orchid Garden (site)
The Singapore Botanic Gardens (site)
The Singapore Zoological Gardens (site)
Belgium:
Autoworld, a huge collection of vintage cars, including local and international cars, is in Brussels. (site)
Germany:
World’s Largest Nut Cracker
Jürgen Löschner from Neuhausen (Germany) has collected more than 4,300 nut crackers from 28 countries. They are exhibited in his Nut Cracker Museum. He has also made the world’s biggest operating nut cracker. It is 5.87 m [6 yd 1 ft 3 in] tall and can crack even coconuts!
Some more information (in German) can be found at www.nussknackermuseum-neuhausen.de
India:
The Pondicherry Museum in Pondicherry (site)
The Aurodhan Gallery in Pondicherry (site)
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, (INTACH), with headquarters in New Delhi and a chapter in Pondicherry (site)
Croatia:
The Marton Museum, the first private museum to be founded in Croatia, is located in the town of Samobor, a 45 minute drive from Zagreb, the Capital. (site)
