Massachusetts Museums

Massachusetts is the most populous state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The state is named after the Massachusett tribe, which once inhabited the east side of the area, and is one of the original thirteen states.

The capital of Massachusetts in Boston has over 80% of Massachusetts’s population living in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry.

Massachusetts is home to a large number of museums and historical sites. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the DeCordova contemporary art and sculpture museum and the Maria Mitchell Association are key attractions.

Historically themed museums and sites such as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, Boston’s Freedom Trail, and nearby Minute Man National Historical Park, preserve several sites important during the American Revolution.

The Black Heritage Trail in Boston, which includes essential African-American and abolitionist sites in Boston and the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, each showcase various periods of Massachusetts’s history.

Plimoth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village are two open-air or “living” museums in Massachusetts, recreating life as it was in the 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively. With this history and legacy, Massachusetts has some of the world’s great museums.

A Virtual Tour of the Museums in Massachusetts

Museums in Boston, Massachusetts

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Harvard Art Museums
Freedom Trail
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
USS Constitution
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard

Public Sculpture and Monuments in Massachusetts

“The Minute Man” by Daniel Chester French
“John Harvard” by Daniel Chester French

Museums in Massachusetts

Clark Art Institute
Addison Gallery of American Art
Norman Rockwell Museum
Museums in Boston, Massachusetts

Highlights Tour of the Museums in Massachusetts

Museums in Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is one of the largest museums in the United States.

It contains more than 450,000 works of art, the collection includes Egyptian Artifacts, French, Chinese, Japanese works, and 18th- and 19th-century American Art.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) is in Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

The museum displays an art collection of world importance, including significant examples of European, Asian, and American art, from paintings and sculptures to tapestries and decorative arts.

Harvard Art Museums

The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and combine three museums:

The Fogg Museum – established in 1895;
The Busch-Reisinger Museum – established in 1903, and
The Arthur M. Sackler Museum – established in 1985.

Freedom Trail

The “Freedom Trail” is a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) path through downtown Boston, that passes sixteen official locations that played a significant role in the history of the United States.

The trail is marked along the walking path by bricks and other signposts that starts at Boston Common and ends at the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum commemorates the 35th President of the United States (1961–1963).

The library and museum are part of the Presidential Library System, which is administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries.

The library is the official repository for original papers and correspondence of the Kennedy Administration.

In addition, the Library houses the published and unpublished materials, such as books and papers by and about Ernest Hemingway.

USS Constitution

The USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat.

Launched in 1797, her name “Constitution” was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by the USA Secretary of War in 1795 for the frigates that were being constructed.

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1866.

The Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with a strong focus on the Americas.

Museums in Williamstown

Clark Art Institute

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century.

Museums in Andover

Addison Gallery of American Art

The Addison Gallery of American Art is part of the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and collects American art.

The museum’s purpose is to acquire, preserve, and exhibit works of art for the education and enjoyment.

The museum’s founding collection included significant works by such prominent American artists as John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, John Twachtman, and James McNeill Whistler. Acquisitions and gifts have added significant works.

Also, Addison’s collection of 7,500 photographs spans the history of American photography.