Best History Museums in the USA
19 history museums • Updated August 2026
The best history museums in the USA for a family day out. We have rounded up 19 history museums, from American Museum of Natural History to family favorites across California, ranked by what actually matters with kids: age suitability, ticket value and how easy they are to get to. Compare the top five below, then browse every history museum by state. Need a different angle? Try our other things to do in the USA.
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History Museums in the USA: what to expect
the USA has 19 history museums we would happily take our own kids to. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is the one most families start with. Holographic theater and original artifacts trace Lincoln from a log-cabin boyhood to the White House and the Civil War. American Museum of Natural History is the other name that comes up again and again. Forty-five exhibition halls of dinosaurs, a blue whale and the cosmos, right beside Central Park, one of the world's great natural-history museums. Battleship USS Iowa Museum rounds out the pick of the bunch. Climb six decks of a historic battleship at the Port of LA to see its bridge, guns, and missiles up close. Also worth your time: Bullock Texas State History Museum, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Madame Tussauds New York and Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Published prices run from $8 at City Island Nautical Museum & Seaside Day up to $37 at American Museum of Natural History. 8 of the 19 listed here quote a starting price. The others vary by season or by what you add on, so check before you travel. Age guidance is worth reading first at USS Lexington Museum (ages 12 and up ).
The history museums on this page are spread across California (7), New York (6), Illinois (4) and Texas (2), so it is easy to pair two into one trip.
All history museums
19 history museums across the USA
History Museums
Bullock Texas State History Museum
Austin, Texas
The official state history museum brings the Story of Texas to life across galleries, an IMAX, and the Texas Spirit Theater.
History Museums
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Chicago, Illinois
Live animals, conservation science, and 167 years of connecting Chicago to nature.
History Museums
Madame Tussauds New York
Manhattan, New York
Pose with 200-plus lifelike wax stars, from Taylor Swift to the Ghostbusters, in Times Square.
History Museums
Battleship USS Iowa Museum
Los Angeles, California
Climb six decks of a historic battleship at the Port of LA to see its bridge, guns, and missiles up close.
History Museums
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Los Angeles, California
Come face to face with multiple T. rex skeletons and life-sized dinosaur puppets in LA.
History Museums
USS Lexington Museum
Corpus Christi, Texas
Board 'The Blue Ghost,' a real WWII aircraft carrier moored in Corpus Christi Bay.
History Museums
La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
Los Angeles, California
Watch paleontologists pull saber-toothed cats from bubbling asphalt in the middle of LA.
History Museums
New York Transit Museum
Brooklyn, New York
Climb aboard vintage subway cars inside a real decommissioned 1936 station in Brooklyn.
History Museums
American Museum of Natural History
Manhattan, New York
Forty-five exhibition halls of dinosaurs, a blue whale and the cosmos, right beside Central Park, one of the world's great natural-history museums.
History Museums
Illinois Railway Museum
Union, Illinois
Don't just look at the trains, climb aboard and ride restored steam, diesel, and electric cars at America's largest railway museum.
History Museums
USS Midway Museum
San Diego, California
Walk the decks of a storied aircraft carrier packed with real planes in San Diego Bay.
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Museum of the Moving Image
Queens, New York
Go behind the scenes of film and TV, from script to screen, in Astoria.
History Museums
City Island Nautical Museum & Seaside Day
The Bronx, New York
Discover City Island's seafaring past, from oyster boomtown to a century of boat building, in a small weekend museum.
History Museums
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Springfield, Illinois
Holographic theater and original artifacts trace Lincoln from a log-cabin boyhood to the White House and the Civil War.
History Museums
Queens County Farm Museum
Queens, New York
Working farmland dating to 1697, the city's longest continually farmed site.
History Museums
Naper Settlement
Naperville, Illinois
Walk through 13 acres of restored 19th-century buildings where Naperville's history comes alive.
History Museums
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Santa Barbara, California
Explore a canyon-set natural history museum that runs from dinosaur bones to the night sky.
History Museums
The Walt Disney Family Museum
San Francisco, California
Trace the life of Walt Disney himself, from humble beginnings to Disneyland.
History Museums
Petersen Automotive Museum
Los Angeles, California
From classic cars to Hollywood movie machines, an LA shrine to the automobile.