Taking a road trip in the lower 48, or traveling to Alaska or Hawaii? You might want to check out these Google maps for each state that plot museums from Art to Zoos. Click on the state link below that you are interested in and zoom into the area that interests you.
The source is the Institute of Museum and Library Services. While I’m posting these now, you may notice some out of state locations. These were a result of sorting the spreadsheet by latitude and longitude. Over the next little while, I’ll make the effort to improve the lat/long entries and add lat/long where there was none before to improve the results. Your experience will still often show the street address (when provided).
One further note, I’ve added a separate “layer” that you can check or uncheck for Historical Society or Preservation centers. Often, towns each have their own that may also have a museum and you’ll find, there are a lot of them. Don’t miss the smaller museums. They are treasures and some of our favorite places to stop.
Chat with docents. They are charming, passionate people. We’ve talked to retired pilots at air museums and local volunteers who all have wonderful personal stories as well as details about the history around them.
Happy trails!
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington D.C.
- Washington State
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Feel free to download the original U.S. museums lists and the user guide. There are 3 spreadsheets: one for Art, Botanical, Children’s, History, Natural History, Aquariums, Wildlife Centers and Zoos; then there is one for General and uncateorgized museums (lots of those). Finally, there is a list of Historical Society and Preservation Centers (a very long list of those).
U.S. Museum Data File Documentation and User’s Guide
U.S. Art, Botanical, Children’s, History, Natural History, Aquariums, Wildlife Center and Zoos