Three Massachusetts museums have been ranked the best of their kind in 2025 as selected by USA Today readers out of 10 categories queried.
The museums named were Concord Museum in Concord, Plimoth Patuxet Museums in Plymouth and Battleship Cove in Fall River.
For the Concord Museum, USA Today readers found the town to be the “Best Small Town Museum” thanks to the town’s integral role in the American Revolutionary War as the presence of transcendentalist writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
“Concord Museum presents the cultural, political, environmental, and literary history of this town through artifacts from Concord and the surrounding land,” USA Today wrote.
It added that its collection includes centuries-old artifacts like paintings, maps and more.
The Concord Museum is also celebrating the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution on Saturday, April 19.
For Plimoth Patuxet Museums, USA Today readers ranked it the “Best Open-Air Museum.”
The publication said that the Plymouth museum allows visitors to “immerse themselves in the living history while interacting with historical interpreters who portray both Pilgrims and Wampanoag people and showcase daily life of the period.”
Additionally, the site features preserved and reconstructed structures such as the Mayflower II and replicas of English and Native American villages, USA Today added.
For Battleship Cove, USA Today readers found it to be the “Best Museum Ship” in the nation.
USA Today said that visitors can “tour five different museum ships and other craft, including battleship USS Massachusetts, destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., and the submarine USS Lionfish.”
The Fall River site is home to the world’s largest collection of historic naval ships, USA Today said, adding that it makes for “a great place to get a deeper look into U.S. naval history.”
To see USA Today’s complete best of rankings for U.S. museums and their full lists by category, click here.
