Science, art, politics, gardens and aviation: The museums of California have innumerable stories to tell.
From Balboa Park in San Diego to the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, great museums can be found all throughout California. Some are focused specifically on the people and culture that make the Golden State unique, and others are more national or global in their reach.
At the southern end of the state, the San Diego Air and Space Museum is a repository for historically significant military and civilian aircraft. In the Greater Los Angeles area, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library helps visitors remember America’s 40th president, and the Huntington Library houses millions of rare books and an impressive art collection.
Traveling up the coast, visitors will find artwork from around California at two locations of the Monterey Museum of Art. And in San Francisco, the California Academy of Sciences is a world-class science museum with a great menu of interactive opportunities for groups.
Remembering Reagan
As a Hollywood-star-turned-politician, Ronald Reagan brought a dose of California style to the White House and became one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century. In Simi Valley, northeast of Los Angeles, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library gives visitors an inside look at the president’s life and legacy.
Renovated and expanded in 2011, the museum at the Reagan library contains 18 permanent exhibit galleries. Groups can explore a re-creation of Reagan’s Oval Office, see pieces of the Berlin Wall, learn about the heroics of the Secret Service when Reagan was shot and step aboard the airplane that served as Air Force One during the Reagan presidency. Other highlights include a presidential limousine and official White House china.
Interactive features allow visitors to act in a movie with Reagan the Hollywood star, deliver the president’s inaugural address on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, ride a horse alongside Reagan at his family ranch and participate in other activities.
Collecting Culture
Established in 1919 by a southern California railroad and real-estate magnate, the Huntington Library in San Marino is a cultural repository and museum dedicated to research, education and beauty.
The Huntington is housed in the former estate of Henry Huntington, an art, literature and gardening lover who left his monumental collections to be used for enriching the public. The library features more than 6 million rare books, including a manuscript of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” a Gutenberg bible and a first edition of Audubon’s “Birds of America,” as well as a collection of early Shakespeare works.
The estate’s main house now serves as the Huntington Art Gallery, which has one of the country’s most comprehensive collections of 18th- and 19th-century British and French art. The estate also has 120 acres of botanical gardens that include a desert garden, a Japanese garden, a Chinese garden and a rose garden. Groups can have educational experiences in the on-site conservatories.
