One of my favorite museums is the Ulster Museum in Belfast: part history museum, part natural history museum, tiny bit art museum, all in one building and entirely free. It's probably not the best museum in Europe, as much as I love it, but I bring it up because the basement of the Ulster Museum is devoted to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. There aren't any artifacts in this exhibit, a purposeful choice. At first I was skeptical - museums are supposed to have artifacts, right?

But you walk through it, reading this plain gray text printed on these plain white walls; a few black-and-white photographs are printed on the walls, blown up. If you've been going through the exhibits in order, you've seen the foundation for the Troubles being laid, decade by decade, and then you get to this part and you see its conclusion, the riots and bombings and IRA splinter groups laid in front of you one by one. And I think the plain text, the plainness of the white walls and the simplicity of the exhibit, gives the viewer a chance to consider the events anew, to take everything in. And then at the end there's some paper and pencils and you can write your thoughts. It's this quiet, introspective space, encouraging you to take a moment or two and reflect on the enormity of this very loud history. Not just in the museum, but in Belfast itself.

So there are no artifacts, yet it's an incredibly powerful, thoughtful space. It's in Belfast, the heart of the Troubles (well, not to exclude Derry), it understands its place, and it isn't arguing for anything more. It doesn't need artifacts. I think shoving things in there would only distract you from the introspection that the exhibit is going for. What artifacts it needs are elsewhere in the museum, part and parcel of the long and complicated history that led to the Troubles, the confluences of people and events and ideas that made them happen.

I think an exhibit that knows what it wants to say, and knows how to say it, is a successful one: one that makes its viewers think, consider something anew, see something in a different way than before. And for that reason, I think the Ulster Museum will always be one of my favorites (that, and Belfast is one of my favorite cities).

Also, if I could design any exhibit or any museum I wanted, it would be a women's history museum. I don't know what I would put in it, but it would have more than dresses and shoes.

If you're into military stuff, nothing beats the Imperial War Museum in London. Of course, if you make it to London, the British Museum is amazing.

The American History Museum (Smithsonian) in Washington DC is incredible. They just spent several years remodeling it and it is chockerbock full of really interesting historical items (the piece of gold that started the gold rush, Lincoln's hat, etc).

The museum is really accessible to people of all ages and there are lots of plaques to read if you want more detail on items. While I was there, they also had lots of staff around to answer questions.

The best put-together museum I've ever visited was Washington D.C.'s Holocaust Museum. The walkthrough is organized to take you through the entire ordeal--starting with the rise of ending of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party, moves through the increasingly strict restrictions passed by the Nazis, including artifacts from each. The place is packed with artifacts and it's organized so well. Some of the stuff they have there is truly horrifying--they have one room that just has piles and piles of probably thousands of shoes, all stolen from Jews entering camps. Be warned, there's some pretty powerful videos of medical experiments and stuff, but those are all behind child-protection walls so they're easier to avoid.

I'm just sad the Propaganda exhibit is gone now. I'm sure whatever they replaced it with is just as great.

My favourite thing I visited the first time I went to Paris as an adult and could choose my own schedule (yay) was the War Museum 'Musée de l'Armé' everyone raves about the Louvre, which of course is a must, but parts of it feel very stuffy and one hardly gets to see some of the works because of the vast crowds. By contrast the War Museum was bursting at the seems with interesting artefacts, with a lot of effort put in to contextualising them and making the experience coherent, yet it was quiet enough that one got to spend time properly appreciating each section.

In London there is the Wellcome Collection, which focuses primarily on the history of medical science, so a great place to take any kids or big kids who want to be entertained by gore. As well as their amazing permanent collections they also have regular talks and lectures, reach out programmes and art exhibitions. Last time I visited we found there was an exhibition of 'outsider art' which was very good indeed and a series of activities on the olfactory system, which meant I got a chance to smell some chloroform, which it turns out is really fun so long as you don't over do it!

When I visited Switzerland as a child we visited an art gallery which featured the works of very dangerous criminals, still lives by serial killers and the like, and a museum that had a lot of comic taxidermy, frogs riding squirrels to battle and the like. I can't recall the name of either but they're both somewhere near lake Geneva IIRC. These aren't strictly historical, but they are a good way to get reluctant people interested in the idea of visiting Museums because they focus on the unusual and morbid. Following the 'horrible histories' model of using gross, creepy and scary stuff to entice..

In Milan, Italy the Museums around Sforza Castle are a must, their highlight is their original Leonardo Da Vinci Manuscripts. They are cosy enough that one can have a good natter with a knowledgeable member of Staff about an object.

In Rome the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna is a must. Again not strictly historical in focus, but full of art and pop culture history. Not just because it's quite good, but because it's set in the Borghese gardens which are absolutely paradisical and which you can spend days exploring, there's a Zoo, Villas preserved as though the occupants of centuries past were still living there and beautiful scenery for miles around. The high parts will provide you some of the best views of Rome.

I'm not a historian but have travelled a good amount and for me the Victoria and Albert in London takes the cake. Place is amazing.

I'd argue the Deutches Museum in Munich is fantastic although it's focus is technical, it's often about the history of technology as much as the technology.

So stuff like an exhibit on the history of mining methods, from fire based methods of pre-history, to the evolution of what we know as a mine. They have a wonderful series of large exhibits such as a full scale fishing boat from the sail era, to experimental Nazi rocket planes.

The best I've been to was the Museum of London. It is dedicated to the city itself and takes you on a chronological journey from paleolithic times to modern. What makes is rather special is that it shows you stuff found in the city. So it does not have the "best" Roman statue, it has Roman villa and camp things actually found in the city. And you can look out a window at the Roman wall of the city. Sort of the right size focus to make it really work.

Id like to add the German History museum in Berlin. It stars with Rome and goes to the fall of the Berlin wall. I took me four visits to make it to the end.

But i cant think if anything that beats the British Museum.

There's a Bronze Age site near Peterborough in the UK called Flag Fen that I always recommend to people as one of the best archaeological sites I've ever visited. I think it's well known in British archaeological circles; I found out about it when I did an A-Level in archaeology at school but I don't think the majority of the general public know about it and I really think they should. English Heritage describes it as 'unique for its scale, completeness, longevity and complexity'.

The site is made up of a few areas, there's a reconstructed bronze age village, a visitor centre with helpful volunteers, and a walking tour if I remember, but the real jewel in the crown is the 'ritual causeway'. Basically, the ground level in this part of England used to be a lot lower than it is now and the land would often become submerged under water for long periods of time. It's believed that a bridge was constructed to link higher parts of the land together when this happened, leaving an island in the middle which was supposedly used for religious ceremonies. They've found a large amount of artefacts in the area suggesting that people travelled there to leave offerings, but it may have also been used for practical purposes.

From their website: 'Visit the only place in the UK where original Bronze Age remains can be seen in situ, the incredibly preserved timbers of a monumental engineering achievement. Excavations on the site revealed details of a wooden platform and post alignment that stretch for nearly a kilometre across the fen. These were built up between 1350 and 950BC and are of great national and international significance. Due to the waterlogged nature of the fens, this unique monument has been remarkably preserved. It is believed that the post alignment consists of 60,000 vertical timber and 250,000 horizontal pieces of wood, spanning the wet and marshy fen to meet a droveway on dry ground at each end. All the pieces of wood had been worked and shaped with tools.'

I must say that personally I found it more interesting and impressive than Stonehenge. Obviously Stonehenge is older and more visible but the scale of Flag Fen and the fact that I'd never heard of it before was what impressed me. There is a building where a small part of the bridge has been excavated for viewing which is kept wet to preserve it, but I'm just fascinated by the fact that the rest of it is still underground and that there's still speculation about the purpose of the bridge.

Peterborough is only an hour or so north of London on the train and is a great historic cathedral city in itself, so it's certainly worth a visit. When I spoke to a volunteer at the centre he expressed concern at the limited funding they receive, and there are also concerns about the land drying out due to the growth of the city - I think it would be great if more people knew about it. Places like the British Museum and the Louvre are of course outstanding in their international breadth but Flag Fen is a real piece of English local history and that's what makes it special to me.

English Heritage has the best page with a history, details of its excavation and listing, sources, and a map: http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1406460

Their website, with recommendations for further reading on the history page: http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/museums-and-heritage/flag-fen/

The wikipedia page is also informative and has a picture of the exposed bridge in the preservation hall: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Fen

I really like the World War 2 museum in New Orleans, although lately I've been bothered by some of their "interactive" new exhibits. There's nothing wrong with wanting to capture the feeling of being in a different place and time, but the last time I was there I went to FINAL MISSION: THE USS TANG EXPERIENCE, and I was thrown off by how Disney it all was.

You line up in a queue outside the building and are led into a segment of a mock-up submarine with a bunch of stations that represent different functions of the ship, and everyone lines up in front of a console. (I was a radar operator!) The "experience" starts and it's more or less a ride- the chamber fills with smoke and shakes, you do basically a minigame version of the job your console represents while the submarine "sinks" around you. The whole ride lasts about ten minutes.

And this is all based on a true story. I don't understand the thought process behind developing this kind of historical exhibit- what kind of emotions are meant to be evoked by this, and does the format lend itself to impacting those emotions?

Oregon Historical Society, gotten a lot out of a little. Current exhibit is based on American history and it's stunning.

Edit; Sorry just ran through the question quickly. U/tumble-weeds has a good answer, its a combination of original pieces and displays from George Washington and Jefferson to Jack Ruby and John F. Kennedy that gives a snapshot of the moment in time.

Stunning artifacts because it has Jack Ruby's wallet and its contents, which included his liquor license for his club, and the camera that has the famous film of Oswald being shot. And well displayed collection. So both stunning

The Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL is awesome. They recently revamped it and it is incredible. The whole complex is basically a walk-through Lincoln's life, starting from his cabin in Indiana, to his assassination. You literally walk-through his life in amazing exhibits.

Also not far away is his law office while in Springfield, his family home in Springfield, and his tomb. All of these are also great. Walking through his home is really something.

Then, on top of this, less than 10-20 minutes away is New Salem, IL (where Lincoln lived in his 20s). They've structured this to be like it was when Lincoln lived there, so you can see that part of his life.

The whole place is a must see for anyone interested in Lincoln or American history. I would be surprised to find anyone interested in history at all to not be fascinated by this place.

The Henry Ford strikes me as a place that fits this list. I feel divided often when I leave because Greenfield Village is such a testament to Henry Ford's hubris. But the concentration of historic landmarks related to Ford, Edison and the Wrights and then the other various buildings he relocated to Dearborn, MI (Greenfield Village) is unrivaled as far as I know. The museum's collection of historic vehicles isn't just Mustangs and Lincolns. The Rosa Parks bus, the Kennedy limo, and so many more pieces of their collection are well presented and add dimension to what could just be a car museum.

I went to the museum at the bank of England during a London visit a few years ago. I went there totally by chance, but I liked it very much.

Very small museum about the history of banking in general and of course the Bank itself. I liked it.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/pages/museum/default.aspx

Another, actually fairly sizable museum which is perhaps not that known is the Emigration Museum in Hamburg.

http://www.ballinstadt.net/BallinStadt_emigration_museum_Hamburg/Welcome.html

It covers the european emigration to the US from Hamburg. A very large number of europeans went to the USA on HAPAG-LLoyds steamers out of Hamburg during the 1800s and it tells their story along with a fair bit about the shipping companies that made it possible.

The museum is housed in a rebuilt emigrant "hostel" where people used to wait for the ship to America.

I have two:

First is definitely the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It's not well labeled, and when it is labeled, it's rarely in English, but it has some of the most amazing treasures from Egypt and the Arabic world from prehistory to the middle ages (mostly Pharaonic Egypt, of course), all well presented.

Second is probably the Louvre. Of course, it's primarily an art museum, but they have huge Egyptian, Babylonia, Greek and Roman sections. It does kind of make you sad that a lot of it was stolen by Napoleon.

The Sir John Soane Museum in London is one of the best small museums I've ever been to. Though it's been renovated (electric lights and modern plumbing) and restored over the years, it's basically the same as it was in 1837 when Soane died. Another favorite of mine is the Museum of London, which confines itself to the history of the city and its environs. Neither of these are what I call photograph-on-the-wall-with-text museums; they both are predominantly artifacts.

Museum of the Confederacy, downtown Richmond VA. It shows how much inventive skill was on the rebel side, something us lifelong Yankees never hear about.

Hampton Roads was the Silicon Valley of the Civil War. The development of practical submarine warfare, the discovery and mapping of ocean currents...and that if the Civil War had been more naval, the Union would have had a much harder time.

I haven't had the chance yet to experience any museums outside the US, but my favorite is the Civil Rights Museum in downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

I think the Civil Rights Era of US History is a tough nut to crack for a museum as there are very different threads going in all directions and it's not entirely MLK did this and then MLK did that (although that's a huge thread). This one instead focuses on what they know best which is Birmingham. The opening piece is you sit down and watch a brief video that kind of sets things up for you with recorder first hand narrative and then the screen lifts and the theater you were sitting in now opens up into the museum with just two water fountains in front of you. One says "Whites Only" and looks like something you'd see in a nice public park. The other says "Coloreds Only" and looks like a plain iron pipe sticking out of the ground with a spicket on the end as if it belonged on a farm instead of a park. And then it dawns on you. That second fountain was designed, built, and intended to be used by animals not people. And then the second bomb drops on you...they thought they were sub-human.

The rest of the museum is great and nothing is ever thrown right in your face but you get a feeling of tension everywhere at the exhibits. When you see one of the buses that stopped in Mississippi (I think) and it's covered in dents, burn marks, etc. you get a small inkling of uneasiness that the riders probably felt when they pulled into the bus station and were surrounded by an angry mob of whites.

I can't recall all of the other exhibits but one of the last pieces has always stuck with me. It's a video from the time of an elderly white woman saying something along the lines of "When I was a little girl they laughed and sang songs in the street and were happy and now they're just angry and sad all the time." It's comical to a degree but very eye-opening after you've gone through the entire museum.

You can also take a walking audio tour outside and see all of the churches that were attacked, bombed, or served a strategic meeting points.

All-in-all you see how the "Magic City" earned the distinction of "Tragic City" and turned from Birmingham to "Bombingham."

One more to add: The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. It's Philly's hidden gem. It has huge collections from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia, and America, covering all sorts of time periods. The building itself is pretty amazing, too.

The series of Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C. has a collection that has got to be one of the (if not the) largest collections of all things history. Not to mention the beauty of the museums themselves. The Air and Space Museum there has been a personally favorite since I saw it for the first time at 10 years old.

The biggest impact a history museum has had on me was visiting Yūshūkan, next to the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo. While I don't believe this to be a greatly constructed museum, the content itself was astonishing, due to the explicitly anti-Western approach it takes to reporting on global events and the avenue it gave to me in understanding the mindset of Imperial Japan. I believe this to have been the first time I saw in a real way a different perspective to mine regarding the events of history, and true exposure of the impact misinformation can provide. The only downside to this trip (it was part of a longer trip exploring the whole of Japan) was that for some stupid reason I did not bother visiting Hiroshima, which would've made a fascinating juxtaposition.

The rugby meseum in New Zealand in Manuatu.

Smaller but lots of condensed information instead of longer with lots if big words.

Practical things for kids

If anyone's ever in Iceland, the National Museum of Iceland (Þjóðminjasafn Íslands) is an incredible look into Icelandic, Viking, and Saga history. The main exhibition is staged chronologically, from the settlement of Iceland around the 9th century through the present day. There are thousands of artifacts and it's very comprehensive. It is super dense, so be prepared, but very thorough.

My other recommendation would be The Settlement Exhibition, Reykjavík 871±2 (Minjasafn Reykjavíkur) in central Reykjavík. It's a great example of using multimedia technology in a history exhibit. It's underground, at the site of a viking longhouse, and encircling the whole room is a digital rendering of what Reykjavík might have looked like around 870 (confusing, so here's a photo--viking longhouse is not pictured). The multimedia work is beautiful and really brings the site to life. There are also places to explore digital 3D models of the longhouse, virtual tours, etc.

Both of these museums are relatively small (Settlement much more so) and I think they're doing amazing things! The Settlement Exhibition is part of a city program that runs three museums, this one, Árbæjarsafn (an open air museum where you can experience Iceland though the ages-- like a living history park, also great), and the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, which I highly recommend but mostly has contemporary work on display (though you can ask and they will gladly show you any of their 6 million historical photographs of Iceland).

So if I could curate a history museum or exhibition, I would probably focus on the history of photography. Maybe I'd like to curate something that focused on bringing together art and history exhibits, which I think a photography museum could do very well.

Great question, and I love the responses as well :)

I love the Pitt Rivers in Oxford. It's a depressing testament to the British Imperial ability to loot the living daylights out of the rest of the world... but it's still fantastic. The shrunken heads are amazing.

One that had a lasting effect on me is the Vasa Museet in Stockholm.

The Vasa was a 64-gun Swedish warship which sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628 (in itself a great tale of bureaucracy gone wrong), and was almost perfectly preserved in the local lagoon, before being salvaged in 1961 and painstakingly conserved. The museum was built in the 80s specifically to house it.

Aside from the incredibly intact nature of the ship (which is monstrously huge), and the very sensitive way they've done repairs (additions are in a lighter wood to make it clear what is original), the main reason this museum resonates is because of all the surrounding exhibits.

They reconstruct the era perfectly - the social context, the political and military state of the time, and the engineering from forest to ship that went into the creation of this thing. What was brought across spectacularly well was the horrific nature of the seafarer's life during such a time of conflict.

I think that it is very interesting to see a museum so centred around one singular object with a very short life, and as such has the freedom to explore one very specific moment in time to an immense level of detail, as well as the meta-history of how the conservation was carried out and where the records and details of the period come from.

Highly recommended.

Both Te Papa in Wellington and the Auckland Museums are great if you wish to learn about New Zealand history. Te Papa is very touristy but they only ask for a donation, whereas the Auckland Museum however costs twenty five dollars (20USD) or if you are a NZ resident it is free although I think the want donations.

I stopped by Auckland's Maritime Museum because it was all that was open on a Sunday morning. I came away thoroughly pleased with experience. The collection focuses on the technology and simple history of shipbuilding and usage from Polynesian explorers to Americas Cup racing. It's presented by historical era in a way that shows how New Zealand's culture continues to be impacted it's relationship with the sea.

The Chicago Field Museum picked up sponsorship of the brain scoop in addition to it's own YouTube presence. It's got my vote for best outreach program.

I have a fascination with historical figures whose actions or attitudes don't fit within their cultural boundaries but who ultimately alter the course of their culture - people like Ataturk, Genghis Khan, and Crazy Horse. I have no idea how I could present that in a way that made sense to a museum goer but that would be my museum.

The Newseum in Washington D.C. is really quite great.

Includes a permanent exhibit that features "5 centuries of news history", the most comprehensive collection of Pulitzer Prize Photography, and a lot of other great exhibits.

Bletchley Park / The National Museum of Computing (UK) for me.

Days of interesting content (different to what youd see anywhere else) and a veritable army of volunteers in both who are super friendly and eager to tell you about anything and everything.

I've been to many of the museums mentioned thus far (I mention that just for context because my "vote" is not one limited by geography), and I was blown away by a recent visit to a history museum...the Minnesota History Center.

I am 38 and thoroughly enjoyed it, and have thought back to my experience in several of the vastly different exhibits numerous times in the months since my visit, but what I think speaks more to the excellence of the museum is that my 9yo and 5yo kids enjoyed it as much as I did.

There were numerous exhibits that put the visitor inside an experience in a vivid (multi-media, multi-sensory) way, like the WWII bomber that visitors enter & "ride" to Normandy (with seats rattling beneath you, the smoke of the bombs visible through the windows), listening to (real) audio of men who were part of that battle talking about how & why they enlisted & what they thought as they flew toward battle.

There was also a house to explore that showed how life had changed for the families that lived there through various waves of immigration to the US--and visitors got to touch/open/explore just about everything--the drawers in the Victorian parlor, the lunch boxes sent with the factory workers, etc. (again, with numerous opportunities to hear actual people from various periods talk about their experiences).

And an "iron mine" we donned hard hats to enter before loading explosives into bore holes & detonating. And a malt shop where we served sodas. And a munitions factory line where we could assemble weaponry and compare our times. And areas with employees on hand who helped us make sense of the tools we could pick up and experiment with to understand how the local people used them to gather & prepare wild rice.

Honestly--I could go on and on. Any ONE of the exhibits would have been world-class (and not all because of interactive elements), but there were seriously more than a dozen that were simply amazing. So if you're ever in Minneapolis/St. Paul...

For someone interested in the Eastern Front of WW2, the German-Russian Museum in Berlin was amazing. They even have T34 tanks and Katyusha rockets in the garden. They also have the room where the surrender of Nazi Germany to the USSR was signed.

How has no one said the National Archaeological Museum in Athens!?

Granted, it says archaeology and not history, but we aren't talking about paleolithic artifacts here. If you're at all interested in Greece from oral history to the medieval, you owe it yourself to see it when in Athens.

My personal favorite thus far is the Midway Musuem in San Diego. It's an old Musuem on an aircraft carrier. It's huge and I have not finished it but such a jaw dropping experience to see an aircraft carrier in person. Tons of planes on top, a lot of great veteren volunteers who served on the ship when it was cruising the world so it's such a personal experience for them to tell you how it runs and some of it's missions. A must see if you're in San Diego

Imperial War Museum in London. I was only 12 years when I went there but it blew my mind! Its also a large part of the reason why I want to be a historian.

As far as the best building for a history museum, the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC is beautifully designed. The building is designed with elements from Southwestern cultures and the landscaping is designed with elements that are important to various Native American cultures.

If you visit, I'd also recommend the cafe inside the museum. The food there is from several different regions in the Americas and the menu changes seasonally.

The British Museum is the best museum I've been to, it's got such a brilliant and varied collection - the Elgin Marbles, Rosetta Stone, the frieze from the temple of Apollo at Bassae, bits of the Erectheum, the Younger Memnon, Benin Bronzes, an Easter Island head, the Cyrus Cylinder, Ginger the Mummy...

In terms of small museums, the Civic Museum in Como, Italy, is great as well. Only about seven euros to get in, and it covers the history of the town from prehistory to WW2. There's even some Greek vases there and Egyptian mummies.

The Watson-Curtze Mansion was the one field trip I used to look forward to in grade school. It is a late 1800's mansion left to the City of Erie in the early 1940's to use as a museum. I used to love going because of the planetarium, but the older I get the more I appreciate the architecture, and the history of the area where the house is located.

Edit* This is not the "biggest or Best", it's just a small museum in my home town, I noticed almost all national museum's listed and decided to list something more modest.

I used to work with the Heard Museum in Phoenix. If you're into Native American history, it's the best in the world.

Of course museums like the Smithsonian, the British Museum, Les Invalides, etc. are sort of must-sees if you like history, but I've always felt like I learned the most about an area by going to a local historical society museum. They're everywhere, so whenever you go on vacation, just look up when the local society is open and go check it out. Here in Fresno, for example, there's a historical society for the High Sierras. They operate a working steam mule for cutting logs, and have a old train caboose they've been restoring that, hey, you can show up and volunteer on!

The Clovis Historical Society here has parts of the log flume that would carry timber from the Sierras down to the Fresno area. The flume that ran from Hume Lake to Sanger was the longest in the world at the time. It not only carried timber and water down, but people of questionable sanity could actually pay money to ride it. Imagine Splash Mountain but 73 miles long.

The San Francisco Maritime Museum and San Diego Maritime Museum are both great places to visit if you like wooden ships and the Age of Sail. They each have one of the only remaining old ferries from the Bay Area, and lots of other neat ships, too. The Star of India, the Surprise (the ship used in Master and Commander - fully functional, which volunteers take out once a month or so - learn to work the ropes!), an old Soviet submarine, an Alaskan Timber Ferry, the first boat sailed across the Pacific solo, and so forth. Neat stuff.

In South Carolina, I spent some time with the Sumter Historical Society folks. Got to see a bunch of historic buildings, including a rammed earth manor that has been inhabited by the same family for centuries, the house of the wealthiest black slaveowner prior to the Civil War, got to crawl through the raised floorspaces with a historian specializing in architecture, and so forth.

So yeah. Local history museums. There's so much much more to our past than what can fit into a textbook.

The most immersive museum I've ever been to by far is Alcatraz. Ok, it's not a resource for serious academia, but the narration provided by the former inmates and guards really makes the place come alive and it's really well done.

As for others, Cambridge has a plethora of small, university owned museums with bizarre opening hours. My favourites include:

The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology http://maa.cam.ac.uk/maa/

and near enough opposite, with a huge whale skeleton suspended above it is The Museum of Zoology, currently closed for refurb until 2016.

http://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/

Both have an astounding array of exhibits and if you're lucky you can get shown backstage.

Another astounding place is the Jagellion University Museum on Cracow, where you can see Copernicus' original astronomical instruments.

http://www.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/uniwersytet/muzea/collegium-maius

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g274772-d276732-r147857501-Jagiellonian_University_Collegium_Maius-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Po.html

Deserves a mention.

The Vasa Museum, Stockholm

The Vasa is the only preserved seventeenth-century ship in the world, and a unique art treasure. More than 95 percent of the ship is original, and it is decorated with hundreds of carved sculptures.

The 69 meter-long warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in the middle of Stockholm in 1628, and was salvaged 333 years later in 1961. For nearly half a century the ship has been slowly, deliberately and painstakingly restored to a state approaching its original glory. The three masts on the roof outside the specially built museum show the height of the ship's original masts.

Today the Vasa Museum is the most visited museum in Scandinavia, with over one million visitors a year. There are ten different exhibitions around the ship to tell about life on board the ship. The film about the Vasa is shown in 13 different languages. In addition there is a well-stocked shop and a pleasant restaurant. Tours of the museum take place every day. Free admission for children up to 18 years.

http://www.visitstockholm.com/en/To-Do/Attractions/the-vasa-museum/142 http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/

Pittsburgh's Heinz Regional History Center is very good--whether on not you're from Pittsburgh.

Some of my favorite history museums, Eli Whitney Museum, http://www.eliwhitney.org/ Yuma Territorial Prison, http://www.pr.state.az.us/parks/yute/index.html Centro Cultual Espana http://www.ccemx.org/ Hiroshima Memorial Peace Museum, http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html Museum of Tolerance (Mexico City), http://www.myt.org.mx/

History is fluid, all of the above museums acknowledge that our interpretation of history is constantly changing. With an understanding the fluid nature of history, you can make history come alive for visitors, allowing visitors to make the content their own.

I've been at the 1st WW museum in Ypres,Belgium twice when I was in my mid teens. Also visited the cemetaries around the area. I remember it all left a huge impression on me.

I also went to the open air museum in Arnhem , Netherlands. It has a lot of WW2 vehicles which is really cool, also planes etc. Don't think I learned alot there but I was young back the so I really enjoyed seeing the vehicles but I remember their jewish segment really was graphic, informative and once again impressive, especially on a 12 year old.

The best war museum I've ever been to was the War Museum in Budapest. It cost myself and my friends about €1.40 and we were in there for nearly 4 and half hours. It is staggeringly big (and there was a considerable amount of it closed off for refurbishment). It really paints an extraordinarily rich tapestry of Hungary's turbulent past. Also of note in the city are the disturbing artillery pieces on top of Buda aiming down on Pest placed there after the uprising in the 50's.

The Israel Museum is good mostly because of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts. The stuff there can really blow you away--they've got artifacts from pretty much all of Jewish history.

But there's something a little less museum-y that I think is really cool. During the 1948 War of Independence, one of the major battlegrounds was the road to Jerusalem. The Jews in the city were essentially besieged for much of the war, and a tremendous amount of Israeli manpower was spent trying to resupply them, including battles to secure roads, convoys through hostile territory, and building new roads.

Anyway, when the war was over and actual road infastructure built, rusted out trucks from the war were left in the median of the highway to Jerusalem. It's not really a museum, but a really interesting way of presenting artifacts from the not-so-distant past.

I really enjoy the Hong Kong History Museum, and always recommend it to guests.

It is broadly chronological, from geological past through to the 1997 handover to China. Several big, 1:1 dioramas of old Hong Kong life, that have mostly disappeared, and some good info on the expansion, trade and opium wars that made Hong Kong what it is today. Coupled with the Maritime Museum across the harbour, it is a solid day's worth of historical activity.

It is also free on Tuesdays and 10HKD the rest of the time. And does some great special exhibits - currently has one on photographs of Hong Kong through time, including the Japanese invasion and other interesting periods.

Well, there's no definitive list of "good history museums" so I'll just talk about a few of my personal favorites (so there'll be a bit of an emphasis on my interests). The British Museum is fantastic because it covers so much of history. Naturally an empire so large the sun never set would be able to acquire a large variety of items from all over the globe. They have artifacts from the neolithic age all the way to the modern age. (I don't think they have any paleolithic, but I may be wrong)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a beautiful collection. The art is some of the best preserved I've seen at a museum. They have this one statue in particular that I can just stare at for hours. It's this amazingly done kouros from Greek's archaic period and wow. It's so great. There's another statue in there from the Sumerian city of Lagash during a period when most of Sumeria had been conquered by the Akkadians and it's also just spectacular. In perfect shape. The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC is a museum with a different feeling than the others. It's centered around 1 event (no surprise there) and it really gives you a full educational run through of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is, like the Holocaust Museum, centered around 1 event. There are replicas of the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima and artifacts surviving the explosion. There is a central goal of the museum, to get people to think about the horrors of war and the ideals of peace. Which, honestly, is a pretty good slant to have if you're going to have a central theme for a museum.
I've heard fantastic things about the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unfortunately I've never had the opportunity to go there.

Also, there was a museum I used to go to all the time when I was a kid in Belgium that had a bunch of military equipment from Belgium's history, so a lot of medieval stuff through 1800s weaponry up through WW1 and WW2. I haven't been back in over a decade, does anyone know what that museum is named?

Has anyone been to the National Palace Museum in Taiwan? I heard it is full of all the best treasures that the Forbidden City had and is better than anything in all of China.

The Montreal Art Museum is by far the most fun I've ever had in a museum. They have such a great selection of art from ancient cultures, whether it be Greek busts or sarcophagi or Sumerian effigy statues.

As a New Yorker there are a few here I could recommend. Obviously there's the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History. The MET has an amazing collection of artifacts from really any part of the world/any time in history and I'm sure is matched by few, if any, in scope and scale in the Western Hemispshere. The Natural History Museum is also really interesting and well done.

Two a little bit more niche ones. The Museum of the History of the City of New York is a large, in depth history city from when Manhattan was all forest through 9/11. Then there's the museum at Ellis Island. I think this is a mustsee for any American but is also great for non-Americans. It has great history, full examination rooms, artifacts and the log books but can also be very personal too because it gets you thinking about American identity and could possibly even be part of your family's history.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is very good. I think it's best visited on your own and ideally when there are not too many people there, and when you have a lot of time. It has both sections that really "get" to you, that convey a small part of the horror of the holocaust, and also portrays the history of Jews in Germany from the early beginnings to a few decades ago. It has both informative texts, pictures, and artifacts, and hands-on stations that make you engage with the material. I think it's a very good museum for all age groups.

I have two favorites, both in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has some really great collections. I'm most partial to their architectural installations- the 13th century French cloister, the 12th century portal from the Abbey Church of Saint-Laurent, their gorgeous period rooms. It's famous for the Rocky steps but there are some great galleries inside.

My other favorite is the Rosenbach Library and Museum. It's small, with only three galleries (one of which is dedicated to Maurice Sendak, whose works are a major part of their collection), but the stuff they have in their collections are fantastic. Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula and the original manuscript for Ulysses, among others. And as for public outreach, they do hands-on tours where you get to get up close and personal with the materials. I haven't done one yet, but I've heard great things about them. Apparently the Rosenbach brothers were big on having their collections accessible to the general public. They just became part of the Free Library of Philadelphia so hopefully they continue with that mission.

So. Come to Philly.

Edit: I've focused on the literary aspects of the Rosenbach, but they do have actual artifacts in their collections- they just so happen to have some incredible literary materials too.

Not my field, but I have to give a shout out here to one of the best, weirdest museums I've ever been to from my own hometown in the Philadelphia suburbs. The Mercer Museum is, in the most literal sense, a museum filled with junk. Specifically, a museum filled with the sort of junk you might have found at a yard sale in the early-mid 20th century. As any ethnographer/anthropologist would know immediately upon entering this place, it is a gold mine of true artifacts from everyday life in the late 19th/early 20th century. It's arranged inside a stately old mansion in the middle of a small suburban town (next to an art museum that used to be a prison, natch). For me, the coup de grace is the glass-encased novelty 20 oz. McDonald's soda cup ca. 1997 they have in front of the exit, but I'm sure others go crazy over the fin-de-siecle field ploughs and whatnot.