Manhattan's Marvelous Museums

I live in New York, where museums abound.  There are, of course, big museums as well as small specialized or even quirky museums.  Here are a few of my favorites and a few I have yet to check out:

Metropolitan Museum of Art – This museum is the Cadillac of art museums.  The “Met” has over 2 million pieces in its permanent collection: yes, there are works by the usual suspects: Degas, Van Gogh, Pollack, etc. – but did you realize the Met is also home to the world’s oldest surviving piano as well as Henry the VIII’s actual armor.  And let us not forget the Costume Institute section of the museum which has over 35,000 significant articles of clothing and accessories.  There is always something “new” to explore here.

Tenement Museum – This museum, located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, commemorates the American immigrant experience and the intertwined histories of New York City and the immigrants who shaped its evolution.  It is an authentic tenement that recreates different eras from New York City’s history, showing how working class immigrants from the 19th and 20th centuries would have lived. Each apartment represents a different family, living in a different era. One might observe a Jewish family’s home on one visit and an Irish family’s on the next.  This museum drives home the reality that we are a nation of immigrants.

Whitney Museum of American Art – This museum has been living in its new home downtown for about three years now.  Here, you will see works created by more than 3,000 American artists during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Lots of large scale relatively current work to be seen.  At the moment there is a special Andy Warhol exhibit that looks terrific.

Now for the museums I have yet to see, some of which you probably didn’t even know existed: Mmuseumm, 9/11 Memorial, the Skyscraper Museum, the Jewish Museum, National Museum of Mathematics, Merchant’s House Museum, Houdini Museum.

I have been to many many more museums in NYC than listed about.  Those listed are just a taste of what is awesome and in the offing.

-- Eve