Natick Soldier Systems Center, MA Museums

The Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham showcases over 3,500 works of American 18th century to contemporary art. Also, the museum offers hundreds of art classes and programs to the community every year.

The Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History at Regis College strives to preserve artifacts related to communication and postal history, and to date has over 2 million items from around the world in its collections. This is one of only two stamp museums in the country.

The Davis Museum at Wellesley College collects important and unique pieces from the days of antiquity to today across the genres of sculpture, painting, paper, photography, and other decorative items.

The Museum of World War II Boston in Natick features 10,000 square feet of chronologically and geographically organized exhibits with over 7,000 artifacts in one of the most comprehensive collections of WWII items anywhere around. Exhibits include propaganda documents, photographs, and personal diaries of prisoners of war.
 

Boston

Boston is relatively small for a city, compared to say, New York City, but there are countless things to do and see here. Since Natick is just about a half hour's drive from the heart of the city, the wealth of historical sites, museums, and entertainment should not be missed.

Boston Children's Museum is one of the world's oldest and largest children's museums featuring a collection of over 50,000 items of natural and American history and global cultures as well as hands-on exhibits for kids' enjoyment and education. Exhibits cover math and science, visual and literary arts, health and wellness, and world cultures.


The Harvard Museum of Natural History contains temporary and permanent historical collections related to the natural world, including thousands of fossils, minerals and gemstones, and taxidermied mammals, birds, invertebrates, reptiles, and fish for visitors to experience up close. The museum is also well-known for its Glass Flowers collection made of Blaschka glass, depicting hundreds of species of plants and flowers.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the unique and memorable home of Isabella Stewart Gardner, a spirited art collector and well-known supporter of the arts. Her ancient Venetian-style palace is as much a work of art as the 2,500 paintings, tapestries, sculptures, and rare books and manuscripts she collected in her worldly travels. The home's 3 floors are open to a courtyard garden and display her art and nearly 7,000 letters she shared with her well-to-do friends such as artists John Singer Sargent and Henry James. Other artists' works she collected include Rembrandt, Botticelli, Manet, and Michelangelo.

The JFK Presidential Library and Museum was built to honor the memory of the nation's 35th President, John F. Kennedy. His life, work, and leadership history are contained within a one-of-a-kind building designed by famed architect, I. M. Pei. Permanent exhibits include Kennedy's Oval Office, First Lady Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, the Space room, and a background of the Kennedy and Fitzgerald families.

The Larz Anderson Auto Museum contains the oldest car collection in the country and is located in the Anderson family's Carriage House in Brookline, near Boston. There are still 14 of the family's 32 original cars, including a 1899 Winton Runabout, in addition to many other models from the late 1800s to the early 1900s such as the 1924 Renault Torpedo and a rare, open-sided 1900 Rochet-Schneider.

The Museum of Science in Boston features over 700 interactive science and technology exhibits, an IMAX Omni Theatre, planetarium, and always changing temporary exhibits. Among those that are here to stay, subjects range from the Milky Way and space, including 2 full-sized replicas of the Mercury and Apollo capsules, a walk-through butterfly garden, dinosaurs, green energy, human life, and many, many more.

The New England Aquarium attracts over 1 million visitors every year who love to learn about and see firsthand the many marine creatures who call this aquarium home. There are green sea turtles, leafy sea dragons, penguins, giant octopus, seals, and sharks, just to name a few. The aquarium also facilitates whale watch tours and an IMAX theatre.

Boston is also home to the Old North Church which was built in 1723 and is the city's oldest surviving church. This is where the lanterns were hung to alert Boston's midnight riders, including Paul Revere, on how the British would be attacking the city, better known by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea". Paul Revere's House is nearby and is one of Boston's oldest homes, still standing from around 1680. Here visitors can tour the small brick building, climb the rickety, narrow staircases, see Revere family furnishings, and learn more about the famous American Patriot.