Museums in United States

The United States is home to some of the world's most-visited and most generously endowed museums, many of them offering free admission. Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Institution operates 21 museums and galleries — all free — including the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art ranks among the world's top three encyclopedic museums, while MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney define modern and contemporary art. Chicago's Art Institute, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art each hold collections that rival European counterparts. Beyond art, the country excels in science (Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences), natural history (American Museum of Natural History, Field Museum) and memorial museums (9/11 Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

Key institutions: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Smithsonian Museums (Washington D.C.), Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA (New York), Getty Center (Los Angeles)

Top 50 Museums in United States

All museums by city