The American Visionary Art Museum (pics below) is a wonderful museum featuring the works of self-taught and intuitive artists in the United States and beyond. It is such a unique and joyful space, and where many of us take our out-of-town visitors to experience something entirely different. The gift shop (“Sideshow”) comes highly rated by John Waters, Baltimore native and lover of all things Baltimore, who describes it as “the best museum gift shop you’ve ever been to in your life.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is also definitely worth checking out. The BMA has a terrific collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art, including the largest holding of Henri Matisse’s work. It also has a lovely sculpture garden and is home to Gertrude’s Chesapeake Kitchen (where quite a few prospective faculty members have had dinner during their campus visits!)
The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum and historic railway station exhibiting historic railroad equipment in downtown Baltimore (you can see the roundhouse on the left when you drive into Baltimore from 95). Another family-friendly museum for those Thomas-the-Train years, but also charming enough to hold the interest of adults as well.
For any fans of Gothic literature, visiting the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum is a must. This is where Poe lived with his aunt, grandmother and cousins from 1833-1835. This is also where he met his cousin, Virginia Eliza Clemm, who was 13 when they married in 1836. It was her untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of 24 that plunged Poe into depression and alcoholism, and was also the inspiration for one of his most famous poems:
“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee . . .” [Does this mean that Baltimore is this kingdom? We’d like to think so!]
The Jewish Museum of Baltimore is a space for all people to connect with Jewish life, history, culture, and art in Maryland. Included in the price of admission, the museum offers synagogue tours into two historic buildings, the Lloyd Street Synagogue and B’nai Israel Synagogue, for a close-up look into the history of Jewish Baltimore.
The Maryland Science Center is very family-friendly and a nice place to duck into if you are rambling around the Inner Harbor.
The National Aquarium, located in the Inner Harbor, is consistently listed as one of the nation’s top three aquariums. Another family-friendly destination, especially for the younger set. It is somewhat pricey but that can be offset if you buy a membership. Those of us who have (or had) young kids in Baltimore tend to rotate yearly between memberships at the aquarium, the B&O Railroad Museum, the Maryland Zoo, and the Port Discovery Children’s Museum.
The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum features more than 100 life-like figures of civil rights leaders, cultural icons and scenes from history like the full-scale model of a slave ship.
Just two blocks from the Inner Harbor, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture is the largest African American museum in Maryland, with a permanent collection that includes African artifacts, slavery documents, photography, and art.
Located in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, the Walters Art Museum includes five historic buildings and 36,000 art objects. Moving through the museum’s galleries, visitors encounter a stunning array of objects, from 19th-century paintings of French country and city life to Ethiopian icons, richly illuminated Qur’ans and Gospel books, ancient Roman sarcophagi, and images of the Buddha.