Inspiration
Museums with a Difference
If you are looking for an off-the-beaten path attraction or perhaps you travel with someone who thinks museums are not for them, explore Connecticut, where one-of-a-kind museums display intriguing curios, reveal interesting histories and educate visitors on a variety of little-known topics.
Pop Culture
Take a trip down memory lane at the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, where comic strip, cartoon, western, television and advertising memorabilia transport visitors as far back as the 19th century. See 80,000 everyday items that children used or played with from 1873 to the present, such as the Lone Ranger gun, Ronald McDonald phone and Roy Rogers lunchbox. The museum also houses the only official Celebriduck Museum in the world. See more than 150 members of the celebrity bathtub duck line, featuring the likenesses of some of the greatest entertainment, sports and history icons.
Painted Ponies
In Bristol, see one of the largest collections of antique carousel pieces in the country at the New England Carousel Museum. Learn about the evolution of carousel animals, as well as their place in American folk art history, during a guided tour.
Puppetry
All the world's a stage at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in Storrs. Located on the University of Connecticut's Depot campus, the museum exhibits puppets from around the world, as well as those created at the University of Connecticut, the only school in the United States to offer a Master's degree in puppetry. Some of the puppets were designed by the famous puppeteer and UConn professor Frank Ballard, while others have been donated by his friends and world-famous puppeteers. The diverse collection includes puppets that date back hundreds of years. The museum also features rotating exhibits.
Dinosaurs and Mummies
See giant dinosaur fossils, primate skeletons, Native American artifacts and Egyptian mummies at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven. Founded in 1866, this museum contains one of the great scientific collections in North America. Among them are the comprehensive mineralogical and ornithological collections, the second-largest repository of dinosaur artifacts in the United States and the largest intact Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus) in the world. Note: Museum is currently under major renovations and is expected to re-open in 2024.
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