Biggest [and Best] Museums in Baltimore

Baltimore has always been full of culture, history, sports, and special events throughout the year. Home to the Baltimore Ravens, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Maryland Science Center, and many more epitomes of history, it is definitely an amazing place to visit and to help educate the future generations on United States history.

If you’re looking to plunge your classroom in history, beautiful works of art and the wonders of science, here are some of the biggest and best museums to check out!

Star-Spangled Banner Flag House
American History

Originally built in 1793, this was the home and business of Mary Pickersgill, her daughter, and her mother, Rebecca Young. They moved there in 1806, and it later became the site where the very first American Flag was created. It was sold in 1927 to the Baltimore City, where it was then turned into a museum. Come and experience what life was like in the 19th century with your classroom and “meet” Mary Pickersgill. Tour the Pickersgill House, that still retains much of the original design, and experience the aspects of the flag-making process that she and her mother were involved in. The kids can design their own flag and have it flown on the gallery’s flagpole or they can cook in a replica of the original kitchen!

Port Discovery Children’s Museum
Hands-On Learning

This museum has THREE full floors of hands-on, interactive exhibits to encourage children to use their imagination, ask questions and explore how things work as they learn through play. You can take the children to the Adventure Expeditions and have them travel back in time to the 1920’s Egypt on an adventure! It is a partly physical and partly mental obstacle course, but the kids will have a blast deciphering hieroglyphs and finding clues to lead them to a pharaoh's tomb!

There is also the Wonders of Water display, this exhibit features an Earth Today that has a real-time atmospheric display featuring real global data from NASA, NOAA, and USGS; Water Chimes, Build a Fountain, and many more activities to help stimulate their brains! P.S… Don’t forget an extra change of clothes on this trip!

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
Cultural History

A great place to visit and educate the classroom during Black History month, this museum is dedicated to Reginald F. Lewis who shared a love for educating people on the history of African Americans and bring that to life. This museum collects, preserves, documents, interprets and exhibits rich contributions of African American Marylanders from the past, present, and future. It is an excellent choice to enrich the education of the early African Americans and how they contributed to the Baltimore we know today.

National Great Blacks in Wax Museum
Cultural History

A museum full of life-sized wax models of important historical and contemporary personalities that were of African ancestry gives this museum its uniqueness. This museum was the first of its kind in Baltimore and in the country. It is also one of the most dynamic cultural and educational institutions in the country. This would be another great place to the class during black history month. The kids can learn about the history and backgrounds of some of the countries greatest people, like Makeda, Queen of Sheba, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, and many more! Plus there will be a lot of photo opportunities!

Baltimore Museum of Art
Art Education

One of the largest art museums in the nation, the Baltimore Museum of Art holds more than 90,000 pieces of art. The kids will be wowed by the intricate designs of the exhibit The Succession of Nature by Phaan Howng or the hazy glow of the Fog Star by Ann Veronica. This museum is a great idea to spend the day at and learn about different cultural differences when it comes to different displays of art from different countries. It is definitely a must see!

Maryland Science Center
Science Education

Are you trying to teach your kids about the differences between the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods? Or how about the cells in the human body? What about the solar system? A better way to teach them the differences would be to show them. The Maryland Science Center has an over a dozen life-sized dinos on display in their exhibit, Dinosaur Mysteries, right in the open hall! There, your kids can touch a triceratops skull or sit in a nest of eggs! They also have an interactive exhibit, Cells: The Universe Inside Us, that can show kids the wonders of the human body and the cells that make it up. You can fly through a virtual cell or see a heart cell! The Maryland Science Center also has a Life Beyond Earth exhibit that the kids can take part in with a state-of-the-art surface touch table that has activities to find out how scientists detect distant “exoplanets.”