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Time Out
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
These are the best museums in Massachusetts, including two Boston-based stunners
Few places in the United States have as strong a claim to the country's history than Massachusetts, home to witches, Harvard and Wahlbergs. WorldAtlas recently took stock of its excellent culture, releasing a list of what they consider the Bay State's 12 best museums. Shockingly, only two of Boston's dozens and dozens of museums (three, if you include Cambridge, which I strongly advise against) made the list. The round-up might be immediately controversial at the local clam chowder haunt for what it leaves out, but no one can say it doesn't cover an impressive amount of ground, from historical homeplaces to industrial icons and world-class fine art galleries. So MFA, Boston and Paul Revere House-heads, start reaching for that stiff drink. The rest of you, grab your Dunkin' and let's hit the road. For the sake of a clean and clockwise itinerary, we'll lay these out in a circuit starting and ending in the capital. These are the best museums in Boston, according to WorldAtlas: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston) One of those remarkable museums whose architecture almost surpasses its collection, the Gardner opened in 1903 in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palazzo, with what later became one of the country's most Instagrammed interior courtyards. Centuries later, in 2012, another Italian influence came via Renzo Piano's adjacent modernist wing. Its impressive collection boasts works by masters like Matisse, Titian, Botticelli and Sargent alongside letters and books by Dante, Sarah Bernhardt and T.S. Eliot. For the true crime-inclined, the museum's 1990 heist is still unsolved. Plimoth Patuxet Museums (Plymouth) Through painstakingly accurate recreations of 17th-century life, this living history museum provides a glimpse into the original Plymouth Colony. (As for its name: well, Plimoth was the old-timey spelling, and the 'Patuxet' was added in 2020 to accurately honor the area's original Indigenous name.) This open-air town shows how the Mayflower descendents lived after their historic split from the Church of England, with a well-appointed complex of houses. There's also an on-site market, cafe, cinema and event space, bridging the gap from our time to theirs. Whydah Pirate Museum (Yarmouth) No, its name is not part of a New England accent jokebook. Rather, it's titled after the Whyday Gally pirate ship, which sank near Cape Cod in 1717 and is the only shipwreck to be ever absolutely authenticated post-mortem. The museum highlights that history with artifacts recovered from the ship, which wrecked right in the middle of piracy's golden age, as well as other representatives of the era. New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford) What would a New England coastline be without some seafaring? After taking in one of Boston's famed whale watching boat tours, learn about the region's historic industry at this gabled museum which charts the highs and lows of whaling, and tries to inspire a future for nature preservation. Lizzie Borden House (Fall River) One of the first and most iconic American true crime stories was born here, when 32-year-old Lizzie Borden allegedly axed her parents. She was found innocent but ostracized by the community, and now her childhood home stands as a monument to the incident. Offering gallery exhibitions, rooms to stay overnight, myriad ghost hunting opportunities and even murder mystery dinners, it's one of the spookiest homes in the country. Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History (Springfield) Though it operates mostly as a research center, this Springfield institution boasts impressive collections ready-made for dad, including the world's largest of Indian Motorcycles, which were originally produced in town from the company's 1901 founding through 1953. Its well-stocked firearm (world's largest Smith & Wesson!) and automobile collections make it an international hit. Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge) The country's hopeful image of itself would not be what it is today without the contributions of Norman Rockwell, whose Rosie the Riveter stands as one of the most recognizable and historically important symbols of feminism and industry. Though born in New York City, the painter and illustrator died in rural Stockbridge in 1978. This purpose-built museum explores his life and career via paintings, magazine covers and other works. Worcester Art Museum (Worcester) Stocked with works by John Singer Sargent, an array of Japanese prints and art ranging from Modern to Roman, the Worcester Art Museum also features a Medieval meeting room lifted from a 12th-century French monastery, a theatre and an ecological science museum. Located only about an hour from Boston, it makes a case for the city's incredible culture. Concord Museum (Concord) The city that birthed the Revolutionary War (along with nearby Lexington) and Henry David Thoreau (he of Walden Pond fame) deserves a proper home, and the Concord Museum hosts artifacts and wisdom from both of those American stalwarts, as well as those belonging to the area's Indigenous heritage. Peabody Essex Museum (Salem) One of the oldest operational museums in the country began as a place to store exotic goods collected by the area's far-traveling seafarers in 1799. Today, it holds one of the United States' major collections of Asian art, and a significant African contingent as well. The museum also owns 24 historic structures and gardens throughout town, preserving local architecture and histories beyond its main walls and upping its total tally of items to around 1.3 million. Harvard Museum of Natural History (Cambridge) One of the venerable learning institution's six museums (not counting their specific subdivisions), its most-visited one will wow any nature lover with its collection of fossils, gemstones and famous glass flowers – exquisite, highly realistic glass botanical models. Look up! The massive skeleton of a right whale hangs from the second floor ceiling. Metropolitan Waterworks Museum (Boston) Originally the Chestnut Hill Pumping Station, this building became a beacon of Boston's modernization when it began pumping water to the area in 1887. It's now a fascinating museum that honors the innovation of running water and public life, with tours of the engine rooms and several historical exhibitions.
National Geographic
6 days ago
- National Geographic
See 100 years of New York City—through the lens of Nat Geo photographers
As New York City celebrates the 400th anniversary of its founding, National Geographic looks back on more than a century of covering the spirited metropolis. NOVEMBER 1957 A replica of the Mayflower sails into New York Harbor in July 1957 amid fanfare, escorted by planes, boats, and even a blimp. The vessel had crossed the Atlantic, following the route of the original ship to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where 17th-century English Puritan separatists started a colony. B. ANTHONY STEWART, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION In the summer of 1957, a replica of the Mayflower sailed into New York Harbor. Dubbed the Mayflower II, it had just finished retracing the Pilgrims' 1620 journey across the Atlantic to establish a colony in America. New York City celebrated its arrival with a ticker-tape parade. That November, National Geographic published an article written by the ship's captain about the Mayflower II's voyage, full of photos of its ocean journey and a victorious arrival in New York City (which was not a stop on the original ship's route to Plymouth, Massachusetts). As the city this year celebrates the 400th anniversary of its founding as the Dutch outpost New Amsterdam, National Geographic looked back on its coverage of the city over the last century. An early article highlighted its draws. 'It has more Irish and their sons and daughters than Dublin, more Italians and their children than Rome,' the author wrote. 'But New York's appeal is as much to the people of the United States as to those of the outer world ... New York is indeed the Niagara of American life ... so through this city passes the vast river of humanity that seeks the sea of opportunity in the world beyond.' (How to explore New York City's immigrant past through its food.) JULY 1918 Throngs fill the streets at an area then known as Newspaper Row, near a station that deposited commuters in Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge. EDWIN LEVICK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION National Geographic often has showed readers parts of the world they might never visit—and in the magazine's early days that included not just distant lands but the vibrant metropolis of New York City. 'Most people didn't get the opportunity to travel a lot or to travel really far,' says Cathy Hunter, senior archivist at the National Geographic Society. In a sense, Hunter says, the magazine did 'the legwork for you and showing you the most famous sites.' Many of the magazine's first stories about the city focused on architecture, people, and culture—elements that lent the armchair travel experience. AUGUST 1998 Symbolizing prosperity and driving away evil, lion figures dance in the Lunar New Year parade. A 1998 article chronicled the growth of New York's Chinese community, which was 3 percent of the city's population at the time. CHIEN-CHI CHANG, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION SEPTEMBER 1990 Underneath Broadway Street, off-duty Santas wait at the subway station. JODI COBB, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION 'Go up on any high hotel roof after sunset and watch the city come to life,' wrote the author of the 1930 article 'This Giant That Is New York.' 'By electric moons, rainbows, and fixed comets you see Manhattan blaze from dusk into gorgeous theatrical illumination.' The editorial focus shifted over time as the magazine began to cover more relevant angles: environmental issues like water pollution and landfills, and later, how the September 11 terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the city. Yet one of the constants in National Geographic coverage, which spans over a century, is change. In a 2015 article called 'New New York,' writer Pete Hamill reflected on the 80 years he'd lived in the city and the transformation of its skyline. 'We New Yorkers know that we live in a dynamic city,' he wrote, 'always changing, evolving, building.' AUGUST 2020 From a helicopter, photographer Stephen Wilkes peered at his hometown in the early days of the pandemic, including Central Park with its new field hospital (lower left). 'New York is like a river, always running with energy and motion,' he said. 'When you see New York empty, it doesn't make any sense.' STEPHEN WILKES, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION National Geographic published its first major article about New York City in the July 1918 issue. Called 'New York—The Metropolis of Mankind,' it gave readers a broad overview of the city just as it was rising to global prominence in the final months of World War I. 'A city which the Great War has made the Earth's international trading center and civilization's crowning metropolis,' the article proclaimed, 'Gotham now commands a new interest, arouses a new pride in its achievements, excites a new feeling of wonder, and stirs in every American breast a realization that it is a city of all the people, national in all its aspects.' (Explore New York City through the 700 languages spoken on its streets.) 'The Metropolis of Mankind' came out at a time when National Geographic was becoming synonymous for publishing photos that held appeal for those armchair travelers, Hunter says. Readers could gaze in awe at the size of a crowd in front of the New York Stock Exchange, wonder at the length of a traffic jam of cars (and at least one horse) on 42nd Street, and take in a full view of the Woolworth Building—which, at nearly 242 meters, was then the tallest building in the world. A view of the intersection at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street—a traffic jam of cars, pedestrians, and horses all attempting to share the road. This issue came out at a time when National Geographic was becoming synonymous for photos that appealed to armchair travelers, KADEL & HERBERT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION New York City streets looked quite a bit different a hundred years later in this aerial view of the Hudson River Greenway. The most heavily used bike path in the country, it stretches from Battery Park in the south to Dyckman Street in the north. George Steinmetz, National Geographic Image Collection And the buildings kept getting taller. The 1930 feature 'This Giant That Is New York' showed readers the new tallest building in the world, the 319-meter Chrysler Building, which had opened earlier that year. It also offered a glimpse of the ongoing construction of the Empire State Building, which promised to be even bigger. 'Tourist Manhattan' As National Geographic's popularity grew, it continued to serve as inspiration but also began to support real-life travelers in navigating the Big Apple. When New York City hosted its first World's Fair, in April 1939, that month's issue of the magazine came with a supplemental map called 'The Reaches of New York City.' The next time the World's Fair rolled around, in 1964, National Geographic sent subscribers a two-part map of 'Greater New York' and 'Tourist Manhattan.' (What was Manhattan like in the Roaring Twenties? See for yourself.) The magazine began to explore areas of New York City around this time. In 1959, the magazine ran a piece on the Staten Island Ferry, dubbing it New York's Seagoing Bus and highlighting its essential role for commuters from that borough. In 1977, it published a story about Harlem by Frank Hercules, a Trinidad-born writer who moved to the neighborhood in the 1940s. 'To live in Harlem,' he wrote, 'is sometimes to hear the siren song of success, often to be denied by heaven and disdained by hell, yet always to hope anew each morning, whatever yesterday's despair.' DECEMBER 1960 The casts of A Raisin in the Sun and My Fair Lady face off during a Broadway Show League softball game in Central Park during a 12-game season. BATES LITTLEHALES, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION MAY 1993 A lunch-hour napper rests in Central Park in the opening photo from an article about the sprawling 341-hectare oasis in the city. JOSÉ AZEL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION In both 1960 and 1993, the magazine featured stories on Central Park that countered the iconic park's reputation at the time as a crime haven—a myth that often turned tourists away from visiting the park. The '93 story blamed the media for its role in perpetuating this myth and instead described the park as an 'oasis in the city.' Modern coverage Starting around the 1970s, another trend emerged: amid an awakening environmental movement, the magazine began to cover more of the issues for which it's known today. Hunter says this reflected a changing editorial outlook. 'In the early days…the magazine did not do stories that were not pretty,' she says. SEPTEMBER 2002 New York City resident Lisa Adams holds photos she took from her terrace on September 11, 2001, near the former World Trade Center buildings. IRA BLOCK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION In 1978 the article 'Hudson: 'That River's Alive'' focused on the high pollution levels from the 1960s that had led to state and federal efforts to clean the Hudson River and other U.S. waterways. By 1978, the Hudson River had rebounded and saw a proliferation of aquatic life, prompting fishermen interviewed for the article to comment, 'That river's alive.' A 1991 story about landfills addressed the growing problems posed by sites such as Staten Island's Fresh Kills. (Decades later, the city is redeveloping it into Freshkills Park, which promises to be three times the size of Central Park.) Other articles focused on a city whose residents were in crisis. A year after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, National Geographic ran a piece featuring first-person stories from two people who lived in zip code 10013, right next to the World Trade Center. Two decades later, in August 2020, the magazine published photos of a markedly less bustling New York City amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as both residents and tourists stayed home. In more than a century of coverage, National Geographic depicted a New York City that is not only a thrilling place to visit but a real place with real people who call it home. In Pete Hamill's 2015 reflection on his decades as a New Yorker, he described his first time visiting the interior of One World Trade Center—built on the former site of the Twin Towers, whose destruction he had witnessed in person. 'I moved closer to the windows and looked down,' he wrote. 'There it was, the Woolworth Building. My favorite. Still here. Changing color in the fading sun.' JULY 1918 A view of the Woolworth Building in New York City. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world, standing at nearly 242 meters—but would within decades be eclipsed by the rise of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. PAUL THOMPSON, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION
The Age
15-07-2025
- The Age
Port guide: Boston, US
The seafaring capital of Massachusetts is one of America's most attractive cities, notable for excellent museums, great shopping and dining, and a vibrant cultural scene. Follow the Freedom Trail for an insight into the key role Boston played in American independence. Neighbourhoods worth exploring include North End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Chinatown, the Literary Cultural District and Cambridge, home to Harvard University. If you have young kids in tow, the Boston Children's Museum and very interactive Museum of Science are both excellent. Art-loving adults will prefer the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Museum of Fine Arts, the best among the city's many interesting museums. Don't miss Boston is one of the world's great sports cities, so you should check if an event is on during your time in port and enjoy an all-American sports experience – and pop-culture one too, complete with cheerleaders, razzmatazz and hotdogs. Major League baseball, basketball, American football, soccer, lacrosse, ice hockey and marathons are among the options. The city is home to top teams in their field such as the Red Sox (at Fenway Park stadium), Boston Celtics (TD Garden) and New England Patriots (Gillette Stadium). Get active Boston is easily one of car-obsessed America's most walkable cities. You can run or walk the five-kilometre Freedom Trail, which is marked by a red line, or follow the Esplanade along the Charles River – there's fitness equipment along the way. Boston has many dedicated cycle lanes, some of which run long distances. Various Boston parks – particularly wonderful in autumn – have a schedule of free daily exercises such as Zumba and yoga. Best bites Loading Lots of company headquarters, universities and big hospitals mean plenty of well-paid people, and Boston is packed with excellent restaurants. Seafood and oysters are the traditional specialties, but meat lovers won't be short of steakhouses. Try Mooncusser Fish House for seafood, Comfort Kitchen for soul food and Krasi for Greek food. For contemporary American cuisine tuck in at Field & Vine or Pammy's. Faneuil Hall Marketplace will bag you a picnic. Cocktail bar Equal Measure has been voted one of the best bars in North America. Further afield Notorious witch-trial town Salem (which also has a rich maritime history) and Plymouth Rock where the Mayflower pilgrims arrived (which has a replica of the ship) are among options. History buffs will want to take an American Revolution tour inland to Concord and Lexington, site of two significant independence battlefields.
Sydney Morning Herald
15-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Port guide: Boston, US
The seafaring capital of Massachusetts is one of America's most attractive cities, notable for excellent museums, great shopping and dining, and a vibrant cultural scene. Follow the Freedom Trail for an insight into the key role Boston played in American independence. Neighbourhoods worth exploring include North End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Chinatown, the Literary Cultural District and Cambridge, home to Harvard University. If you have young kids in tow, the Boston Children's Museum and very interactive Museum of Science are both excellent. Art-loving adults will prefer the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Museum of Fine Arts, the best among the city's many interesting museums. Don't miss Boston is one of the world's great sports cities, so you should check if an event is on during your time in port and enjoy an all-American sports experience – and pop-culture one too, complete with cheerleaders, razzmatazz and hotdogs. Major League baseball, basketball, American football, soccer, lacrosse, ice hockey and marathons are among the options. The city is home to top teams in their field such as the Red Sox (at Fenway Park stadium), Boston Celtics (TD Garden) and New England Patriots (Gillette Stadium). Get active Boston is easily one of car-obsessed America's most walkable cities. You can run or walk the five-kilometre Freedom Trail, which is marked by a red line, or follow the Esplanade along the Charles River – there's fitness equipment along the way. Boston has many dedicated cycle lanes, some of which run long distances. Various Boston parks – particularly wonderful in autumn – have a schedule of free daily exercises such as Zumba and yoga. Best bites Loading Lots of company headquarters, universities and big hospitals mean plenty of well-paid people, and Boston is packed with excellent restaurants. Seafood and oysters are the traditional specialties, but meat lovers won't be short of steakhouses. Try Mooncusser Fish House for seafood, Comfort Kitchen for soul food and Krasi for Greek food. For contemporary American cuisine tuck in at Field & Vine or Pammy's. Faneuil Hall Marketplace will bag you a picnic. Cocktail bar Equal Measure has been voted one of the best bars in North America. Further afield Notorious witch-trial town Salem (which also has a rich maritime history) and Plymouth Rock where the Mayflower pilgrims arrived (which has a replica of the ship) are among options. History buffs will want to take an American Revolution tour inland to Concord and Lexington, site of two significant independence battlefields.
New Statesman
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Cruelty is Britain's biggest export
The Mayflower's transatlantic voyage took 66 days. Love Island's has taken six years. But at last, the grotesque staple of Britain's late-2010s summer evenings is having its moment in the Yankee sun. We should only be surprised that it took so long. In one of this week's episodes, the islanders competed in the traditional heart-rate challenge – a pseudo-sexual ritual where the winner is whoever most dramatically spikes another contestant's pulse. Huda Mustafa, a 24-year-old influencer from North Carolina, caused villa-wide fervour with her performance. She straddled and kissed her friend's partner, before doing something so outrageous that the cameras cut away. Other islanders fumed. Social media frothed, speculating furiously. Not long afterwards, Child Protective Services received reports from viewers accusing Mustafa of being unfit to look after her children. Love Island USA first aired in 2019, but it was only with this season, the seventh, that steady growth has exploded into cultural ubiquity. Some 39 per cent of this season's viewers are new to the show. The entire American internet has put in their two cents, then their next two cents, again and again, like addicts at a Vegas slot machine. Each plot twist has been dissected with the feverish moralism once reserved for cable news. Debates about who's right and who's toxic have established Love Island USA as reality TV royalty. British fans hardly need reminding of Love Island's 2017-2018 heyday: Casa Amor, Ian Stirling, 'I've got a text', 'Can I pull you for a chat?', 'heads being turned', 'my type on paper', Molly-Mae. They also hardly need reminding what followed it. In 2018, a former contestant, Sophie Gradon, died by suicide. In 2019, Mike Thalassitis, another contestant, died the same way. The following year, the show's host Caroline Flack took her own life. There have been countless attempts to translate British television for an American audience, but very few successes: something about the sarcasm, the derision, the ironies of class, schooling and character simply do not translate. One notable miss was the 'bus wankers' scene from The Inbetweeners: 'bus turds' just didn't hit right. Shows that did thrive – The Office, Shameless – did so only by sanding off the sharp British edges and offering cleaner, happier arcs. But one side of British TV has always flourished in America: degrading reality TV. Simon Cowell's scornful empire of false idols and no-talents was a smash hit when it transferred to the States. And American audiences delighted in Anne Robinson's savage put-downs with gleeful surprise. The British recipe for humiliating members of the public proved a covetable commodity, which stateside producers and viewers alike salivate over. The French artist Antonin Artaud developed the concept of the 'Theatre of Cruelty'. In theatre, he said, we should make a 'believable reality which gives the heart and the senses that kind of concrete bite which all true sensation requires'. But Artaud was writing in the 1930s: he did not foresee how catharsis would curdle into abuse. The American version of Love Island turns the screws even tighter. Ad breaks come twice as often, so scenes must be faster, louder, crueller. There's no time for exposition or heart-felt scenes. Every overproduced moment has to be a sound-bite or a story. And of course, viewers watch with one eye on their phone, the online reaction being as much part of the entertainment as the show itself. Love Island may have reached American shores but the transformative #BeKind movement that emerged in the UK after Flack's death must have drowned somewhere in the Atlantic. Britain imports crude oil from America, but exports something far filthier: cruelty. [See also: What does Adam Curtis know?] Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related
