Don't Miss These Great Museums
Don’t Miss These Great Museums
Our region is chock full of historical sites and museums, some you may know, others you may not have heard about. We have compiled a list of some of the most interesting museums that you may have missed.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center | This is a companion facility to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the Washington Mall. It is located in Chantilly, Virginia near Washington Dulles International Airport. Their extraordinary collection includes the 1903 Wright Flyer, Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega 5B, a supersonic Concorde, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, and the Space Shuttle Discovery. There is also a working Restoration Hangar, and lots of Flight Simulators.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts | The VMFA has a diverse permanent collection. It was opened in 1936 in Richmond, Virginia as one of the first museums in the South to be run using state funds. The museum is noted for its Art Nouveau, Art Deco, contemporary and modern American artwork, and its prominent Himalayan, South Asian, and African collections. Check for their exhibition schedule to plan your visit.
Military Aviation Museum | This museum is located in rural Virginia Beach, south of the resort area. It houses one of the largest private collections of World War I and World War II military aircraft in the world. Most of the museum’s planes are airworthy and are flown at the museum during their flight demonstrations. The new WWI Hangar has just opened and features a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny and a Thomas-Morse S-4 Scout, both over 100 years old! You can book rides on some of the historic airplanes too!
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum | This museum is located in Bristol, Virginia, just north of the Tennessee state line, and may be worthy of a weekend trip from our area. The museum is an award-winning affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. It tells the story of the legendary Bristol Sessions in 1927, explores how those recordings helped to usher country music into America’s mainstream, and highlights how this musical heritage lives on in today’s music. Check on special events and music festivals to plan a fantastic trip.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection | A special unit of the University of Virginia, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection is the only museum outside of Australia dedicated to the study and exhibition of Australian art. John W. Kluge experienced a powerful visual attraction to Aboriginal art and made several trips to Australia collecting and commissioning more than 600 artworks. Edward Ruhe’s collection and exhaustive catalogues and articles comprise the core of the collection. The museum has committed to ongoing consultation with Indigenous people, and has hosted numerous scholars and artists.
The Poe Museum | As in Edgar Allan… The only literary museum in Virginia is dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, who lived in Virginia during the early 1800s. The Poe Museum has the world’s largest collection of artifacts from the author. Although the author’s original home no longer stands, the museum is housed in the Old Stone House, the oldest residential building still standing in Richmond.
The Graveyard of The Atlantic Museum | This maritime museum in Hatteras Village focuses on the history of shipwrecks of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This area contains the remains of over 2,000 ships sunk due to weather conditions, piracy, or war. The museum structure is state-of-the-art and its design features ship’s curves and timber elements evocative of seafaring vessels. The museum works with local families and divers to bring historically significant materials into public view.
Let us know if you have a museum to add to the list, or if you have visited any listed above. We love to hear from you. We also love assisting folks with the buying and selling of homes in this part of the world, contact us if you have any real estate related questions.
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