Best Free Museum (2022)

Free immersive exhibits at the National Infantry Museum & Soldier Center in Columbus take visitors through 240 years of U.S. history through the lens of what it means to be a U.S. soldier. It's one of the world's top military museums and one of the top-rated attractions in Columbus. 
Photo courtesy of Jay Rosenblatt / National Infantry Museum & Soldier Center

The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood is home to more than 10,000 objects, and its permanent collection is one of the largest of Mexican art in the country. The accredited museum is dedicated to preserving and facilitating knowledge about Latino life and history. Exhibits focus on Mexican culture as it is represented in the US and in Mexico, and the permanent collection includes folk art, ephemera, sculpture, textiles and drawings.
Photo courtesy of Graham Chapman / Choose Chicago

Established in 1933, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is among America's premier art institutions, boasting a variety of prestigious works dating from antiquity to the present. The Atkins is renowned for its magnificent collection of rare European, American and Asian art, and the 17-acre Sculpture Park features the largest stateside collection of bronzes by British sculptor Henry Moore. 
Photo courtesy of Don Ipock / Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

This free Philadelphia museum showcases a collection of natural history specimens housed in a soaring three-story exhibition hall. Much of the collection is laid out much as it would have been during the Victorian era, complete with cherry wood and glass cabinets dating back to the 1880s.
Photo courtesy of Wagner Free Institute of Science Exhibit Hall. David Graham, photographer

The museum at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology packs a big punch. The self-proclaimed "most fashionable museum in New York" comprises three galleries displaying garments from the 50,000-piece permanent collection, as well as accessories dating back to the eighteenth century. Exhibits change every six months, making it a great free option for return visitors.
Photo courtesy of The Museum at FIT

The world’s largest museum complex comprises 19 museums in the greater Washington, DC area, all of them completely free to the public. Highlights include the Air and Space Museum, American Art Museum, Natural History Museum and the Portrait Gallery. 
Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Institution

The Baltimore Museum of Art is home to the Cone Collection, the largest Matisse collection in the world. In addition to the works within the walls that span centuries of prints and paintings, the grounds offer a sculpture garden with fountains and 34 sculptures. On Sundays the museum hosts hands-on workshops and tours for families. 
Photo courtesy of Mitro Hood

This art museum in Cincinnati’s Eden Park displays works from its collection of 67,000 works spanning 6,000 years of art history. Admission is always free to the two floors of gallery space. 
Photo courtesy of Phil Armstrong

Open to the public since 1934, the Walters Art Museum houses works from the third millennium BC to the present. Within the walls of this world class art museum, visitors can view works in many mediums, including ceramics and sculpture, in addition to unique pieces such as medieval armor and jeweled Faberge eggs. The Byzantine, Ethiopian and Egyptian sections are particularly striking.
Photo courtesy of The Walters Art Museum

At the center of University Circle, the Cleveland Museum of Art encompasses some 70 galleries with art spanning from Mediterranean antiquity to the modern day. There's a little bit of everything here, including works by Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh and Michelangelo. Even non-art lovers will have something to look at – Egyptian mummies, African masks and a collection of medieval weaponry.
Photo courtesy of Destination Cleveland