Visitors to New York City have a wide variety of attractions to choose from when planning their trips, including history museums. These institutions each provide guests with a different view of history. Some focus upon a geographical area, such as the founding and settling of New York City or the United States as a whole. Others focus their collections on a specific theme like the development of the free market economy.
The Museum of the City of New York is located on Fifth Avenue near the Central Park Conservatory Gardens in New York City's Borough of Manhattan. The museum has serves as home to around 1.5 million artifacts that tell the story of New York City's five boroughs. The collection approaches the history of the United States' largest city through photographs, decorative arts, drawings, prints, fashion, textiles and items collected from the New York City Theatre District. The museum also features temporary exhibits that provide an in-depth look at a particular facet of the city's history, such as a biographical portrait of a former mayor or a particular event like the arrival of the First Japanese delegation to the city, which occurred in 1860. The museum does not have its own parking, but more than five garages are located nearby.
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10029
212-534-1672
mcny.org
The New York Historical Society is in the borough of Manhattan along Central Park West. Founded in 1804, the Society displays around 60,000 of its artifacts in its museum. The collection covers the broad topic of American history through 2,500 paintings, 8,000 drawings and works on paper and 800 sculptures. The museum also houses decorative art pieces and exhibits on the history of tools, transportation, the military and protective services like the police. Among the permanent exhibits is also a section dedicated to the attacks upon the United States that occurred on Sept. 11, 200 with artifacts such as items taken from the rubble of the World Trade Center, objects left at shrines in New York City following the event and photographs and written eyewitness accounts. Visitors to the museum can find public parking at three lots located nearby between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues.
New York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
212-873-3400
nyhistory.org
The Museum of American Finance is located in the Wall Street financial district in New York City's borough of Manhattan. John E. Herzog, a Wall Street broker, founded the museum in 1989, and the institution is the only museum devoted to the history of free enterprise and entrepreneurship in the United States, according to the museum's website. The museum features exhibits on the history of money, banking, financial markets and the credit crisis that began in the United States in 2006. Among the artifacts visible on display is a ticker tape from the morning of Oct. 29, 1929, the date of the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression. The museum does not have its own parking lot, but area lots on Rector Place and Pearl and Water Streets offer discounts for museum patrons.
Museum of American Finance
48 Wall St.
New York, NY 10005
212-908-4110
moaf.org
