Museums

Local Museums

• Worcester Art Museum - Our city's own 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).
• Higgins Armory Museum - If you like knights and armor, this is the place to go, overlooking Greendale Mall in Worcester.

Museums Within a Day's Drive

• 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).
• Culinary Arts Museum - Located at Johnson & Wales Univeristy in Providence, RI (approximately 55 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).
• 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).
• Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center - Museum of native and natural history. Located in Mashantucket, CT (about 1.25 hours 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).
• 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).
• 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).
• New England Air Museum - Located in Windsor Locks, CT (approximately 1 hour 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". Located in Sturbridge, MA (approximately 35 minutes 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.
• 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).
• 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).
• U.S. Navy 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).
• Willard House & Clock Museum - Clocks in a historic 1718 workshop. Located in North Grafton, MA (about 16 minutes from Worcester, MA).

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

Page updated 2/10/10.