6 Unique and Unexpected Museums To Visit Around the U.S. 

Museums take on many shapes and forms throughout the globe. Some are downright tiny — no more than a humble shed — while others cover thousands of square feet and exhibit centuries’ worth of history. In the United States, there’s a museum for just about every interest, and some contain collections that provoke fascination and wonder like few other cultural attractions can. Here are six of the most unique and unexpected museums to visit from coast to coast. 

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – Boston, Massachusetts

Born in 1840, enigmatic socialite Isabella Stewart Gardner built up a personal collection of thousands of artworks during her lifetime. Her collection grew to include paintings, sculptures, textiles, manuscripts, photographs, artifacts, and letters from all over the world, so she built a mansion in Boston’s Back Bay Fens to house it all. Her four-story brick and stucco palazzo was inspired by Venice and embellished with original Roman, Gothic, and Renaissance architectural elements. Inside, the collection is both eclectic (see: a 17th-century silver ostrich from Germany) and world-class, with masterpieces by Botticelli, Raphael, and Matisse, among many others.

Gardner moved into the fourth floor when construction finished in 1901; the rest opened to the public as a museum in 1903. And the mansion — grand but intimate, surrounding a courtyard lush with palms — is just as she left it, as Gardner stipulated that nothing be rearranged or sold. But as sensational as the collection is, the Gardner may be most famous for an unsolved 1990 art heist that robbed the museum of priceless artwork, including pieces by Degas and Rembrandt.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures – Los Angeles, California

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021, over budget and behind schedule, but the 300,000-square-foot museum was worth the wait. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the striking institution encompasses two movie theaters flanking seven floors of exhibition space — the world’s largest museum dedicated to the art and science of moviemaking. 

The permanent collection includes cinematic treasures such as Rosebud, the sled from Citizen Kane; the only surviving full-size shark model from Jaws; the Mount Rushmore backdrop from North by Northwest; and costumes, set pieces, and ephemera from The Wizard of Oz, Black Panther, Star Wars, and everything in between.

Aside from preserving and celebrating these classic artifacts, the museum also intends to inspire dialogue about the future. The collection highlights filmmakers with diverse backgrounds and lesser-known movies — for example, an inaugural exhibit juxtaposed the canonical Citizen Kane with Real Women Have Curves, a landmark (if rarely seen) 2002 coming-of-age film hailed for its nuanced portrayal of Mexican American heritage.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art – Bentonville, Arkansas

“Walmart” and “fine art” aren’t typically associated, but big-box heiress Alice Walton has founded a stunning museum dedicated to American art — and it’s free to the public. Situated on 120 forested acres in Bentonville, Arkansas (where the retailer is headquartered), the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art was built in 2011 and designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie. 

The museum contains a world-class collection of American art, from colonial to contemporary, including masterworks by Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffe, and many more. In addition to Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection, the museum frequently hosts exhibitions which bring in rarely seen works from private collections, as well as loans from other institutions around the world.

The site also contains Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed Usonian House, which was dismantled and moved from its original flood-threatened New Jersey location and reconstructed on the museum’s campus. And surrounding the museum are five miles of pristine trails that are open to the public for walking and bicycling. 

Storm King Art Center – New Windsor, New York

Storm King Art Center is only about an hour north of Manhattan, but it might as well be worlds away. Spanning 500 acres of rolling hills, woodlands, and grassy meadows, this bucolic outdoor sculpture garden is home to more than 100 monumental pieces by superstar sculptors from Alexander Calder to Maya Lin, Donald Judd, Richard Serra, Roy Lichtenstein, and Louise Bourgeois. 

Metal manufacturing moguls Ralph Ogden and H. Peter Stern purchased this Hudson Valley estate in 1959, intending to open a small museum dedicated to Hudson River School artists inside the property’s chateau. Storm King — named for the nearby mountain — opened in 1960, displaying works on paper, but Ogden shifted gears a few years later with a series of sculptures by Dan Smith. He thought the large-scale forms would work better against Storm King’s evolving outdoor landscape — which now features one of the largest collections of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the country. 

The Neon Museum – Las Vegas, Nevada

What began as a graveyard for Sin City’s retired neon signage is now the Neon Museum, spanning two acres in the city’s downtown area. The so-called “Neon Boneyard” features more than 200 neon pieces from past and present Vegas properties, including Caesars Palace, the Moulin Rouge, the Golden Nugget, and even Aladdin’s lamp from the long-gone Aladdin Casino. The iconic signs tell the story of Las Vegas’ rise, fall, and transformation from camp and kitsch into the sprawling and modern tourist mecca it is today. 

The museum’s guided tour begins at the former La Concha Motel lobby — designed by Paul Revere Williams, it was saved from demolition and relocated to serve as the museum’s visitors center. Back in the boneyard, you’ll take a trip back to the golden age of Vegas, with nine immaculately restored signs plus dozens of others in various states of disrepair. Salt Lake City-based sign producer Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) has maintained this glittering resting place for Vegas’ neon markers since 1996.

Andy Warhol Museum – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

After groundbreaking artist Andy Warhol passed away in 1987, his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, honored him with North America’s largest museum dedicated to a single artist. The 88,000-square-foot space first popped up over a century ago as a distribution hub for milling and mining equipment. Following a major renovation, the Andy Warhol Museum debuted in style in May 1994 with a 24-hour party and more than 25,000 attendees during its opening weekend. 

Start on the top floor — the chronology of Warhol’s life and work unfolds as you descend. Throughout 17 galleries, you’ll encounter many of the pop art pioneer’s most renowned pieces, including paintings of Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, and silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Jackie Kennedy. Outside, even the parking attendant booth replicates a Warhol Brillo Box. In all, you’ll leave with a much greater understanding of Warhol’s life and work — the full collection includes approximately 60 feature films, 100 sculptures, 200 screen tests, 900 paintings, 1,000 prints, 4,000 photographs, and 4,000 videos.