Museums

Museums in Massachusetts

• American Heritage Museum - This museum focuses on military history and equipment, displaying such artifacts as tanks and a fighter jet. Located in Hudson, MA (approximately 25 minutes from Worcester, MA).
• American Textile History Museum - The museum had a program for Textile Merit Badge (Boy Scouts) and several Cub Scout electives. It closed on January 1, 2016. It was located in Lowell, MA.
• Battleship Cove - The museum includes the battleship USS Massachusetts and several other vessels. This museum features excellent exhibits detailing life and work aboard the vessels. Located in Fall River, MA (approximately one hour from Worcester, MA).
• Bay State Model Railroad Museum - This museum features model trains of several scales. Located in Roslindale, MA (just under one hour from Worcester, MA).
• Cape Cod Maritime Museum - This museum features schimshaw, boat shops and "light boats". Located in Hyannis, MA.
• Fort Devens Museum - dedicated to informing the public about the roles of Camp Devens, Fort Devens, and the present Devens Reserve Forces Training Area in ensuring the military preparedness of the nation. Located in Devens, MA (approximately 30 minutes from Worcester, MA).
• Fruitlands Museum - Native American Gallery, Art Gallery, Farmhouse and Shaker Office, all in historic, preserved building in a country setting. Located in Harvard, MA (approximately 30 minutes from Worcester, MA).
• Higgins Armory Museum - After 83 years, Higgins Armory Museum officially closed its doors on December 31, 2013. Yhe museum's core collection was transferred to the Worcester Art Museum.
• MASS MoCA - Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Located in North Adams, MA.
• Mayflower II - Visit a re-creation of the original Mayflower ship. Located in Plymouth, MA (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - The largest and most prestigious art museum in our region. Located in Boston, MA (about one hour from Worcester, MA).
• Museum of Russian Icons - The collection includes about 370 Russian icons, the largest collection of its kind in North America. Located in Clinton, MA (about 25 minutes from Worcester, MA).
• National Plastics Center & Museum - This museum was located in Leominster, MA. It closed in November 2008.
• New Bedford Whaling Museum - Located in New Bedford, MA (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Normal Rockwell Museum - Located in Stockbridge, MA (approximately 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA). The museum offers specific merit badge programs for Scouts.
• Old Sturbridge Village - claming to be "the largest outdoor history museum in the Northeast". Merit badge programs include Metalwork and Pottery. Located in Sturbridge, MA (approximately 35 minutes from Worcester, MA).
• Peabody Essex Museum - This is a museum of art and culture located in Salem, MA (approximately 1 hour from Worcester, MA).
• Peabody Museum of Archaelogy and Ethnology - learn about anthropology at this museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA (approximately 1 hour from Worcester, MA).
• Plimoth Plantation - The museum re-enacts native Wampanoag and Colonial English men and women living their lives, as if it were the 1620s. Located in Plymouth, MA (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Plumbing Museum - Located in Worcester until February 2008, this museum illustrating the history of plumbing re-opened in Watertown, MA (about 50 minutes from Worcester) in Fall 2008.
• Sam Slater Experience - Showing the history of the American Industrial Revolution and its people, in Webster, MA.
• Springfield Armory National Historic Site - Commemorating the nation's first armory in Springfield, MA.
• Springfield Museums - Four museums in Springfield, MA (just under one hour from Worcester, MA).
• USS Salem - The museum features the USS Salem, a heavy cruiser. Located in Quincy, MA (approximately one hour from Worcester, MA).
• Willard House & Clock Museum - Clocks in a historic 1718 workshop. Located in North Grafton, MA (about 16 minutes from Worcester, MA).
• Waters Farm - Historic homestead on 120 acres, including a blacksmith shop, sugar house and other period outbuildings. Located in Sutton, MA (about 16 minutes from Worcester, MA). Visited by Troop 101.
• Worcester Art Museum (WAM) - Our city's own art museum, right in Worcester, has some very good collections, as well as a Discovery Gallery for participation in art. Free admission 10AM-12PM on Saturdays (as recently as 4/27/08).
• Worcester Historical Museum

Museums in Rhode Island

• Culinary Arts Museum - Located at Johnson & Wales Univeristy in Providence, RI (approximately 55 minutes from Worcester, MA).

Museums in New Hampshire

• Aviation Museum of New Hampshire - Located in Londonderry, NH.
• Children's Museum of New Hampshire - Located in Dover, NH (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Currier Museum of Art - Located in Manchester, NH.
• Lawrence L. Lee Scouting Museum - home to "an exceedingly large collection of Boy Scout memorabilia and an exceptional Scouting Library". Located in Manchester, NH (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Millyard Museum - Covers the history of Manchester's people and chronicles a textile company. Located in Manchester, NH (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Robert Frost Farm - A home to poet Robert Frost. Located in Derry, NH.

Museums in Connecticut

• Danbury Railway Museum - Railroad history, tours, train rides and a collection of original and restored rolling stock. Located in Danbury, CT.
• Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum - museum of dinosaur tracks, located in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.
• Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center - Museum of native and natural history. Located in Mashantucket, CT (about 1.25 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Mystic Seaport - The seaport features tall ships, historic buildings, exhibits, and a preservation shipyard. Located in Mystic, CT (about 1.5 hours from Worcester, MA).
• New England Air Museum - Located in Windsor Locks, CT (approximately 1 hour from Worcester, MA). An aviation merit badge workshop is offered on a scheduled basis.
• Submarine Force Museum - Home of the USS Nautilus and submarine-related historic artifacts. Located in Groton, CT (about 1 hour 20 minutes from Worcester, MA).

Museums in Vermont

• Shelburne Museum - describing itself as " one of the nation's finest, most diverse, and unconventional museums of art and Americana". Located in Shelburne, VT (approximately 4 hours from Worcester, MA).

Museums in Maine

• Maine Maritme Museum - Located in Bath, ME (approximately 2.75 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Owls Head Transportation Museum - Located in Owls Head, ME (approximately 4 hours from Worcester, MA).
• Washburn-Norlands Living History Center - emulating life on a Maine farm in the 1800s. Located in Livermore, ME (approximately 3.25 hours from Worcester, MA).

Museum in New York

• Museum of American Armor - This museum offers an extensive collection of armor. Among its most unusual features is the "Armor Experience", and immersion program. Located in Old Bethpage, NY.

Related

You may want to look at our list of Science Centers as well.

People interested in art may want to visit Artsy, an on-line collection of images of art and information about artists, including Norman Rockwell (one painting shown).

Find Your Park - Enables searching the hundreds of parks in the National Park Service. Some of these are museums. Nearly all offer a Junior Ranger program that adds some fun and focus to the visit.

Page updated 9/13/24 J. Froimson