Museums 118
Art, history, science, railroad and children's museums.
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Fort Bedford Museum
A replica log blockhouse built in 1958 holds artifacts of the 1758 fort and life along the Forbes Road, from muskets to an 1814 Conestoga wagon.
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Fort Pitt Museum
Inside a reconstructed bastion of the 1760s fort at the Point, exhibits tell the story of the French and Indian War and the struggle for the forks of the Ohio.
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Franklin Institute
Philadelphia's landmark science museum, home of the giant walk-through heart and the Fels Planetarium.
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Glencairn Museum
Built for the Pitcairn family as a castle-like Romanesque-style home, now a museum of religious art and artifacts from ancient Egypt to medieval Europe, next to the cathedral the family also built.
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Heinz History Center
Western Pennsylvania history in a former ice warehouse in the Strip District, with sets from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and a sports museum full of local legends.
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Hershey's Chocolate World
A whimsical ride through a simulated chocolate factory, make-your-own candy bar sessions, tastings and an enormous candy shop make the chocolate maker's visitor center a sweet family stop.
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Historic Fallsington
A village in Lower Bucks County that grew up around its Quaker meetinghouses, with buildings spanning three centuries.
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Independence Seaport Museum
Philadelphia's maritime museum on Penn's Landing, with the cruiser Olympia and the World War II submarine Becuna to explore.
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James A. Michener Art Museum
Pennsylvania Impressionist landscapes and other art of the Bucks County region, in a museum built inside the walls of the old county jail.
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Jimmy Stewart Museum
The actor's hometown museum, with posters, costumes and personal mementos tracing his life from local hardware-store son to Hollywood star and wartime bomber pilot.
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Johnstown Flood Museum
The story of the 1889 flood that killed more than 2,200 people, told in a former Carnegie library with an Oscar-winning documentary and an animated relief map.
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Little League Museum
Beside the stadiums where the Little League World Series is played each August, this museum covers the history of youth baseball with interactive exhibits and memorabilia.
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Main Line Art Center
A community art center founded in 1937, with changing gallery exhibitions of contemporary work and studio classes for artists of all ages and abilities.
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Mattress Factory
Room-size art installations you walk into, including permanent works by James Turrell and Yayoi Kusama, in former factory buildings on the North Side.
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Mercer Museum
Henry Mercer's six-story concrete castle, packed with tools of early American trades, with a whaleboat, wagons and carriages hanging in its soaring central court.
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Mid-Atlantic Air Museum
Volunteers restore and display vintage military and civilian aircraft at this airport museum, whose hangars hold rarities such as a World War II P-61 Black Widow night fighter.
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Moravian Pottery and Tile Works
Henry Mercer's Spanish Mission-style concrete tile factory, where artisans still make handmade tiles using his Arts and Crafts designs and methods.
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Museum of the American Revolution
The story of the Revolution told through objects such as George Washington's own field tent, a short walk from Independence Hall.
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Mütter Museum
The College of Physicians' famous museum of medical history, with anatomical specimens, antique instruments and curiosities.
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National Civil War Museum
Set in Reservoir Park, this museum tells the whole story of the Civil War, from its causes to its aftermath, through artifacts, letters and dioramas that give both Union and Confederate perspectives.
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National Constitution Center
A museum devoted to the U.S. Constitution on Independence Mall, with a stirring theater show and a hall of life-size bronze statues of the signers.
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National Liberty Museum
Glass art and stories of heroes celebrate freedom in this museum, crowned by Dale Chihuly's towering red 'Flame of Liberty' sculpture.
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National Museum of Industrial History
A Smithsonian affiliate in a former Bethlehem Steel building, telling the story of American industry.
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National Toy Train Museum
The Train Collectors Association's museum, packed with toy trains from the 1800s to today and big operating layouts where push buttons set tiny scenes in motion.
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No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum
Ride a mine car deep into an anthracite mine worked from 1855 to 1972, then explore a museum of mining life in the old wash shanty.
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Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad
Excursion trains roll down the valley where the oil business began, through Oil Creek State Park between Titusville and Rynd Farm.
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Old Jail Museum
The 1871 county jail where several accused Molly Maguires were hanged, with dungeon cells and a mysterious handprint on the wall of Cell 17.
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Palmer Museum of Art
Penn State's art museum, which moved in 2024 into a striking new building in the arboretum, with galleries spanning American, European, Asian and contemporary art.
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Penn Museum
The University of Pennsylvania's archaeology and anthropology museum, with a colossal Egyptian sphinx and treasures from the royal tombs of Ur.
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Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Founded in 1805 as America's first art museum and school, showing American paintings and sculpture in Frank Furness's flamboyant 1876 building.
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Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum
The story of the immigrants who mined anthracite coal and worked in the region's mills and factories, from church and home to company store, in McDade Park.
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Pennsylvania Military Museum
Exhibits on the state's soldiers from colonial times onward center on the 28th Infantry Division Shrine, with a walk-through World War I trench scene.
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Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
Ride restored streetcars along a country line and tour barns full of trolleys from across Pennsylvania and beyond, including a New Orleans car from the famed Desire line.
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Philadelphia Museum of Art
Climb the famous Rocky Steps to a vast temple of art, with masterpieces from Van Gogh's Sunflowers to Duchamp, a medieval cloister and a Japanese teahouse inside.
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Philadelphia's Magic Gardens
Isaiah Zagar's mosaic labyrinth of tiles, mirrors, bottles and found objects, covering a block on South Street.
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Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine
Ride an open mine car 1,800 feet into the side of a mountain, then take a narrow-gauge steam train past strip mines and a bootleg coal hole.
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Please Touch Museum
A children's museum built for play, inside Memorial Hall from the 1876 Centennial Exposition, with hands-on exhibits, a Wonderland maze and a restored antique carousel.
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Print Center
Founded in 1915, this gallery champions contemporary prints and photography, with changing exhibitions and a long-running international competition.
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Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
More than 100 historic locomotives and railcars, many gleaming under one vast roof, trace the story of railroading in Pennsylvania, across the road from a working steam railroad.
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Railroaders Memorial Museum
The story of the workers who built and ran the Pennsylvania Railroad's great shops here, told in the former master mechanics building; the museum also runs the Horseshoe Curve visitor center.
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Rosenbach Museum & Library
Two townhouses filled with rare books and manuscripts, including James Joyce's handwritten Ulysses and Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula.
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Seminary Ridge Museum
This seminary building served as a Union lookout and field hospital on the battle's first day; today it's a museum of that fighting and its wounded, with guided climbs into the historic cupola.
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Sigal Museum
The Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society's museum of local history in downtown Easton, across the river from Phillipsburg.
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Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum
Built to honor Civil War veterans, this grand Beaux-Arts memorial hall now salutes all branches of the military, with artifacts from the Civil War to recent conflicts.
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Strasburg Rail Road
Chartered in 1832, this short line still pulls passengers behind steam locomotives through Amish farmland, in open cars, a dining car or a plush first-class parlor car.
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The Hershey Story
Hands-on exhibits trace Milton Hershey's life and the company town he built, and a chocolate lab lets visitors make their own treats and taste chocolates from around the world.
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Tyler Arboretum
One of the oldest arboretums in the Northeast, with venerable trees, wildflower meadows and miles of woodland trails.
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Wagner Free Institute of Science
Fossils, minerals and mounted animals in original cherry cases fill this Victorian natural history museum, preserved almost unchanged inside its 1865 hall.
