10 best free museums in the U.S.

The Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore
For: fabulous impressionist art and more

The Baltimore Museum of Art, one of America’s best museums, offers visitors a hefty 90,000 works of art, including the largest collection of Matisse paintings in the world — and you can see it all without spending a penny. Admire masterpieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and many others. Then check out the museum’s fine collection of decorative arts. Perhaps best for last, explore the museum’s extensive sculpture gardens, a century’s worth of creativity. The museum’s lovely restaurant, Gertrude’s, offers fine outdoor dining overlooking the sculpture garden in summer.

(Photo: Baltimore Museum of Art)

The Getty Center
Los Angeles
For: art, architecture and garden lovers

The wildly wealthy J. Paul Getty gave a great gift to the people of Los Angeles with the exquisite Getty Center. The building itself is a work of art, the surrounding gardens are lovely, the views over Los Angeles go on forever, and the art is fine. Highlights to see for free include Rembrandt’s The Abduction of Europa; Van Gogh’s Irises; and Monet’s Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning. Admission is free, but you will have to pay $15 to park. The Getty Center’s restaurant is good, too (reserve in advance). Want more? The Getty Villa in Malibu is also free, with an advance time-entry ticket.

(Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust)

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Chicago
For: anyone who cares about social justice

The newly renovated Jane Addams Hull-House Museum clearly shows what one determined woman can accomplish. The permanent exhibit “Re-Defining Democracy: Jane Addams and the Hull-House Settlement” takes visitors into the previously not shown second floor of Hull-House, including Addams’ bedroom complete with family photos, a diary, and Addams’ Nobel Peace Prize. Also visit the Arts and Crafts-style Resident’s Dining Hall. An excellent exhibit relates stories of immigrant families who were helped at Hull-House. Visit on your own, or take a guided tour Wednesdays and Sundays at 1 p.m. Admission is free, but a small donation is welcome.

(Photo: Chicago Architecture Today / Flickr)

The Museum at FIT
New York City
For: anyone who wears clothes

Let’s face it: Everybody is interested in clothes. That’s why more than 100,000 people every year head to Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology to visit the Museum at FIT. Continually changing exhibitions focus on both the style and the historical significance of fashion. Its three large galleries have held such exhibitions as “The Corset: Fashioning the Body,” “Shoe Obsession” and “Gothic Dark Glamour.” The museum’s second-floor Fashion and Textile History Gallery rotates some 200 items from its permanent collection. Gallery FIT showcases current student and faculty work. Go for a lecture or guided tour.

(Photo: Smiljana Peros)

Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum
Washington
For: future pilots and astronauts and everyone else

When it comes to free museums, the Smithsonian Institution’s vast complex is way in the lead. See as many as you can, but if you must pick one, go for the National Air and Space Museum, which grabs more tourists (8.2 million in 2012) than any of the other superb Smithsonian museums. Go to the main site on Washington’s National Mall to touch a moon rock and see the Wright Brothers’ first airplane, the plane Amelia Earhart piloted across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo 11 command module. Want more? A second location near Dulles Airport displays huge planes and spacecraft.

(Photo: Alonso Javier Torres / Flickr)

Sony Wonder Technology Lab
New York City
For: kids and grownups who want to play with cutting-edge technology

The Sony Wonder Technology Lab, a four-story museum for kids (including grown-up kids), is all about cutting-edge interactive technology. Each visitor creates a digital identity and sets out to explore. At the Signal Station, they can learn how blocks of color (pixels) become digital pictures. In Virtual Surgery, they can “perform” open heart surgery, and they can program a robot’s behavior in the Robot Zone. The Animation Studio lets visitors choose one of three tracks to create a character or a computer-generated world. In the Music Mixer, folks put their own spin on a classic song by Alicia Keys.

(Photo: The Sony Wonder Technology Lab)

The USS Constitution
Boston
For: A kid-friendly tour of “Old Ironsides,” the ship that never lost a battle

In the beginning, America’s Navy consisted of six frigates, or warships. One of them, the USS Constitution, commonly and lovingly known as “Old Ironsides,” went to sea against marauding Barbary pirates and later did valiant service in the War of 1812 — and never lost a single battle. Its performance in that war thrilled Americans, who were delighted to see “their” ship attack and destroy four British warships. Visitors today can happily soak up all that history, as told by guides who are regular Navy personnel. Enjoy the tour, but also pause to take in the glorious 21st-century Boston skyline.

(Photo: Loco Steve / Flickr)

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
Santa Fe, N.M.
For: interesting changing exhibits, good storytelling, and more

Santa Fe is packed with powerful museums, but most charge admission. The exception — perched on Museum Hill, just outside of town — is the richly rewarding Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, always free and well worth a visit. Step inside the handsome hogan-shaped structure to view century-old Native Navajo baskets and pottery as well as contemporary paintings by Navajo artists. Exhibits change frequently, so there is always something new to see. Don’t miss the Case Trading Post, packed with interesting American Indian ware, and try to catch a storytelling session by Joe Hayes.

(Photo: Mike Fisher / Flickr)

Forest Lawn Museum
Glendale, Calif.
For: fine art and a stroll through a pastoral cemetery setting

Forest Lawn, the granddaddy of Hollywood cemeteries and final home to many a movie star (maps available), combines a bit of glitz with sophisticated touches at its Glendale location just northeast of Hollywood. Don’t miss the stained glass rendering of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper on display every half hour from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum’s fine art exhibits can range from Henri Matisse and Winslow Homer to the lovely William Bouguereau painting Song of Angels. Step outside the museum to see a drop-dead accurate copy of Michelangelo’s Statue of David in all his glory.

(Photo: Forest Lawn Memorial Parks & Mortuaries)

Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum
Fort Peck, Mont.
For: dinosaur-loving kids and dam fans

Walk into the main gallery of this fabulous, free and fun (kids love it) museum and you will be greeted by a life-sized — we’re talking enormous — model of Peck’s Rex, a truly mammoth-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex found in the area in 1997. An additional skeleton cast of the dinosaur clearly shows its epic size, and other local dinosaur finds are detailed. The museum’s two large aquariums give a good glimpse of the fish in Fort Peck Lake and the river that feeds it. While there, stroll the three-mile nature trail (bring binoculars to ogle the birds). Grown-up kids will also enjoy touring the Fort Peck Dam and Powerhouses.

(Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers)