Best Bets--Museums, Zoos, Galleries and Historic Sites To Visit With Kids

We hope that youngsters visiting the Wonder Rotunda will be inspired to learn more about what they have experienced here. Museums and visits to notable places can help nurture those interests and new found passions.  To read more about what makes Wonder Rotunda unique in the world of internet education, click this link.

As a convenience, we have assembled this listing of more than 175 well regarded museums, zoos, aquariums, historical sites, parks, factory tours and observatories to visit in the United States.

We will also be we reviewing museums, galleries and other notable places periodically in detail with a view toward recommending those which we think youngsters would especially enjoy.


Aquariums
Dolphin Research Center, Grassy Key, Florida
Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, Georgia
National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland
National Aquarium in Washington, D.C.
New England Aquarium, Boston, Massachusetts
Miami Seaquarium, Miami Florida
Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California
Mystic Aquarium, Mystic Connecticut
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, Dubuque, Iowa
New York Aquarium, Brooklyn, New York
Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, Illinois
Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Oregon Coast Aquarium, Newport, Oregon

Art Museums
American Folk Art Museum, NYC
American Craft Museum, NYC
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington DC
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, NYC
Guggenheim Museum, NYC
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
The Getty, Los Angeles
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Hirshorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
Whitney Museum of American Art

Factory Tours
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Crayola Crayon Factory, Easton PA
Jelly Belly Factory Tour, Fairfield, California
Herr’s Snack Factory Tour, Nottingham PA
Intel Museum, Santa Clara, CA
John Deere, Harvester Works, East Moline, IL
Louisville Slugger (Baseball Bats) Museum & Factory, Louisville, Kentucky
U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Washington DC
U.S. Mint, Denver, Colorado

Famous Homesteads
Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, NY
Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, Independence, Missouri
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Charlottesville VA
Jackson’s The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee
Lincoln Presidential Library & Home, Springfield, Illinois
Mark Twain Home & Museum, Hannibal, Missouri
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, Atlanta, Georgia
Thomas Edison National Historic Site, West Orange NJ
George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Virginia

Film and Television
American Museum of Moving Images, Astoria, NY
Museum of Radio & Television, NYC
Paramount Pictures, Hollywood, CA
Warner Brothers Studio, Burbank, CA
Sony Pictures, Culver City CA
NBC Studios, Burbank CA and Rockefeller Center, NYC

History Sites and Museums
Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia
Stockyards National Historic Site, Fort Worth, Texas
George Washington Carver National Historic Site, Diamond, MO
Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan
Ellis Island, NYC
Franklin Court, Philadelphia, PA
Historic Jamestowne, Virginia
Hoover Dam, Boulder City, Nevada
Independence Hall, Philadelphia PA
Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC
Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, PA
Library of Congress, Washington DC
Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
National Archives, Washington DC
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Rosa Parks Library and History Museum, Montgomery, Alabama
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne Vermont
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington DC
Spy Museum, Washington DC
Statue of Liberty, NYC
Newseum, Washington DC
U.S. Capitol Visitors Tour, Washington DC
U.S. Supreme Court, Washington DC
United Nations, NYC
Washington Monument, Washington DC
White House Visitors Tour, Washington DC
Valley Forge National Historic Park, PA

Parks, Monuments, Preserves & Gardens
Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Brooklyn NY
Big Sur (Point Lobos State Natural Reserve), CA
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Colonial National Historic Park (Jamestown, Yorktown), Virginia
Denali National Park, Alaska
Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado & Utah
Everglades National Park, Florida
Glacier National Park, Montana
Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee & North Carolina
Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Monument Valley, Arizona
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota
National Arboretum, Washington DC
Niagara Falls Reservation State Park, NY
Padre Island National Seashore, Texas
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Redwood National Park, California
Sequoia National Park, California
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Idaho & Montana
Yosemite National Park, California

Music and Performing Arts
Aspen Music Festival, Aspen CO
Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee
Delta Blues Museum, Memphis, Tennessee
Experience Music Project. Seattle, Washington
Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee
Grand Ole Opry House & Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
International Children’s Festival at Wolf Trap National Park, Vienna VA
Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio
Tanglewood Music Festival, Lenox, Massachusetts

Natural History
Dinosaur Valley, Glen Rose, Texas
La Brea Tar Pits & Page Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC
The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois
The American Museum of Natural History, NYC

Science and Industry
Boston Science Center, Massachusetts
California Science Center, Los Angeles
Discovery Place, Charlotte, North Carolina
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois
Exploratorium, San Francisco, California
Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts
Maryland Science Center, Baltimore
New York Hall of Science, Flushing,  NY
Sci-Port Discovery Center, Shreveport, Louisiana
Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul
St. Louis Science Center, Missouri
The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, California
Thomas Edison National Historic Site, West Orange NJ

Space, Astronomy, and Planetariums
Ames Research Center (NASA), Moffit Field, California
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois
Arecibo Radio Telescope Observatory, Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Griffith Observatory & Planetarium, Los Angeles, California
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona
Kennedy Space Center (NASA), Titusville, Florida
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchison, Kansas
Kitts Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona
Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Meteor Crater, Arizona
National Air and Space Museum, Washington
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, West Virginia
National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico
Rose Planetarium, Museum of Natural History, NYC
Palomar Observatory, San Diego, California
Space Center at Johnson Space Center (NASA), Houston, Texas
U.S. Space & Rocket Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville Alabama
Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin

Sports
Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY
Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio
International Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport RI
Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts

Transportation
Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, N.C.
National Air and Space Museum, Washington
Intrepid Sea, Air, Space Museum
National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg. PA

Zoos
Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, IL
Bronx Zoo, Bronx NY
Central Park Zoo, NYC
Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio
Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL
National Zoo, Washington DC
San Diego Zoo, CA
Zoo Atlanta, Georgia