4 ms·

Favorite Tech Museums

85 points by justincormack 9mo ago

cioaonk 9mo ago
Museum of Play in Rochester NY
- mcphage 9mo ago
  I do love it there (my family have been members for years), but it’s more for kids than adults.
Animats 9mo ago
The Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago). One of the big classics. It once contained exhibits from major manufacturers. US Steel, General Electric, RCA. AT&T, IBM, Whirlpool, International Harvester, the Santa Fe Railroad... Most of the corporate sponsorship is gone, it's more "educational", and it costs $30 instead of being free. Museum of Broadcast Communications (Chicago). This was once impressive, and now it's closed with the artifacts in storage. It had much early TV studio equipment. Their nostalgia exhibit, pre-Internet, was that they had a huge library of TV shows on VHS tapes, and you could request that one be played for you.
- ghtbircshotbe 9mo ago
  The Chicago museum also has a u boat.
  - satiated_grue 9mo ago
    A fun telling of the story of that boat by the Fat Electrician. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s-ZY0lnGeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s-ZY0lnGeI
    - Animats 9mo ago
      Oh, read the original.[1] In "Twenty Million Tons Under The Sea", Adm. Gallery describes the capture of the U-505, which he commanded. Gallery is a great writer; after WWII he wrote successful fiction books and magazine articles. [1] https://archive.org/details/twentymillionton00gall/page/n7/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/twentymillionton00gall/page/n7/m...
redwood 9mo ago
Explora Science Center and Children's Museum of Albuquerque
jghn 9mo ago
Deutsches Museum in Munich
bnycum 9mo ago
I’d also tack on National Videogame Museum in Frisco, TX to your lists.
bananaflag 9mo ago
When I saw aresluna I hoped this website (also due to Marcin Wichary) finally got updated https://guidebookgallery.org/ https://guidebookgallery.org/ It's been 20 years...
juliangamble 9mo ago
Some more - Cambridge Centre for Computing History - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ - London Museum for Science - Babbage's Difference Engine https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-difference-engines-and-science-museum https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles... - National Museum of Computing (near Bletchley Park Museum) https://www.tnmoc.org/ https://www.tnmoc.org/ - Bletchley Park Museum https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ - Manchester Museum (Manchester Baby) https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/meet-baby https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/meet-ba... I visited these all last year in a single trip to the UK and it was incredible. I can recommend it to anyone who has spent some time thinking about the history of computing.
- Arn_Thor 9mo ago
  Second the Cambridge Centre for Computing History
- dandelionv1bes 9mo ago
  Bletchley is great! I need to go again
technothrasher 9mo ago
The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts (https://www.charlesrivermuseum.org/ https://www.charlesrivermuseum.org/) is a nice local technology museum if you're in the area. Not a huge place, but tells a nice little bit of the story of the industrial revolution in New England.
billfor 9mo ago
Parasite Museum in Tokyo: https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top
analog31 9mo ago
I'd add the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, and the Air and Space Museum (both sites). They are not as up-close-and-personal as some of the ones mentioned in the article, owing to the extreme number of visitors, but have some utterly unique and historic artifacts, like Thomas Edison's lab.
- WalterGR 9mo ago
  The US Smithsonian National Air and Space (NASM) museums are great. For those that aren’t aware, one of the locations is on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC and the other - the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - is near the Dulles Airport in Dulles, VA. The latter has the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a Concorde… and the Enola Gay.
  - mcphage 9mo ago
    The Udvar-Hazy Center is utterly amazing. It’s like someone said “hey, you like planes? Here’s all of them. And they’re just there, you can walk up close to them. I took my family for the first time this summer, when we heard they were going to lose the Space Shuttle, and we all loved it.
  - satiated_grue 9mo ago
    The Udvar Hazy is being expanded to hold more stuff. The downtown location has more interpretation of artifacts - sometimes at the Udvar Hazy it's hard to really appreciate what you're looking at without a docent-led tour or other context. It also doesn't hurt that the docents include people like an SR-71 pilot.
    - WalterGR 9mo ago
      > The Udvar Hazy is being expanded to hold more stuff. Oh, that’s great news!
- satiated_grue 9mo ago
  The Henry Ford has tons of cool stuff. A running Apple 1. The working Wright Experience replica of the Wright Flyer that was flown at Kitty Hawk for the 100th anniversary. So much amazing They have not only the actual Wright Brothers Cycle Shop building and their house from 7 Hawthorn St. Dayton (Ford moved the buildings), but Ford hired their mechanic Charlie Taylor to set everything up as it was in Dayton. Taylor re-acquired the original tools; not the same kind, the exact serial numbers. When you walk outside, there's even a Dayton manhole cover on the ground.
EvanAnderson 9mo ago
Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, OH - https://cosi.org/ https://cosi.org/ Not a tech museum, per se, but I think it will appeal to the tech museum crowd.
- EvanAnderson 9mo ago
  Also, National Museum of the US Air Force: https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/ https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
shrubble 9mo ago
I will stick my oar in for the Large Scale Systems Museum just north of Pittsburgh, PA, in New Kensington (which is where the modern aluminum smelting process was invented), with their simple website at https://www.mact.io/ https://www.mact.io/ . They have DEC PDP11 and VAX, SGI, Sun, IBM mainframe and midrange, Data General (apparently the same terminal setup as used in Severance), a Cray J90, etc. And it all works and you can sit down and type on the systems. If you want to take the 45 minutes it takes to boot an IBM mainframe - you can do it. I know some of the people there, they are top-notch restorers and know the hardware and software very well.
- kev009 9mo ago
  LSSM is really top notch. It's grass roots, done by volunteers that want to preserve and share experience with these machines. Most museums, I'll pick on CHM as an example but it applies to basically any metropolitan museum: by contrast are quite sterile, you can tell they have a ton of money but it's the standard impressive architecture and displays setup that is designed to ferry large groups through relatively quickly but don't impart much wisdom on the participants. I never got a chance to visit Living Computer Museum but I wonder if that met some kind of high funding to be able to service masses while still going deep hands on.
  - WalterGR 9mo ago
    That wasn’t my impression of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. (Assuming that’s the CHM you mention.) I haven’t been in maybe 10 years, though. Have things changed?
    - tdeck 9mo ago
      I went to both years ago, and did enjoy LCM better. The difference is that LCM was ectremely hands-on. They had all kinds of rare machines out on the floor that you could just...play with. Imagine using an original Lisa running XENIX of all things, then firing up MazeWar on an Imlac. CHM is very well done but more of a traditional museum with limited, curated interactivity.
gorfian_robot 9mo ago
Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA Deutsches Museum in Munich Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix
izacus 9mo ago
A lot of amazing recommendations well worth the visit. The one that's missing is my favorite one though: the sister museums in Sinsheim and Speyer: https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/ https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/ They have both Concorde and Tu-144, the full interior of a 747 and a big space exhibit, including the Buran space orbiter. Last year they added a submarine to the collection, next to a massive amount of other exhibits.
- canpan 9mo ago
  I came here to say the same. The location is a bit hard to get to. But if you are in the area, also visit the town of Heidelberg, it is close by and worth the trip. I went there as a child and loved it, in particular the UBoat you can enter. Next time I am going to Germany I plan to visit it again.
spencerflem 9mo ago
Can confirm that the Connections museum is lovely :)
- Fwirt 9mo ago
  Seconded, the Seattle Connections museum is a hidden gem. It really is a living history museum run by volunteers who keep everything working. And so much of it is hands-on, you can make a call from a phone on one end of the building and hear the relays clicking as the call traverses exchanges from several different eras.
- tdeck 9mo ago
  They also have an excellent YouTube channel. https://m.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum/videos https://m.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum/videos
plotti 9mo ago
Technorama in Winterthur
kmoser 9mo ago
Amazing collection of locks at the Mossman Lock Museum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Mossman_Lock_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Mossman_Lock_Museum
oytis 9mo ago
Transport museum in Dresden is really nice, especially for kids. Computer game museum in Berlin is kind of disappointing IMO - it's mostly non-interactive, which is a huge missed opportunity given the subject
_the_inflator 9mo ago
Nothing comes even close to the Computer History Museum in Moutainview, CA. On my bucket list is a two weeks trips to spend there. For me it is the world’s only epicenter of start to finish of all technologies. So many precious pieces no matter big or small, from Japan or like the Zuse, from Germany - I cannot get enough of it, especially the people you can meet there. Founders, builders, billionaires as everyday Joe doing maintenance or giving talks - this is so much better than any ebook there is and also time runs, if you start to find out about the mechanical IBM machines, and especially the the smell there, which was a revelation. Nevertheless kudos to any Electronics Museum or Automobile Museums. It takes a lot of dedication and maintenance to build these museums for us. Thanks a lot, this is my Disney World on steroids, my childhood playground.
thrownawaysz 9mo ago
One more list for the privileged who can travel around the world
- tdeck 9mo ago
  I think some people might be surprised to find one of these close to home. For example, I only discovered the Connections Museum by chance (they were manning a booth at another more well known museum).
- mcphage 9mo ago
  I’m not sure it’s the author’s fault that there are world class museums all over the world.
- throw-the-towel 9mo ago
  Oh look, how cute -- a European calling someone 'privileged'.
dandelionv1bes 9mo ago
GAMM in Rome is quite fun (Italy): https://www.gammuseum.com/en/ https://www.gammuseum.com/en/ Shout-out to the museum of Ancient Greek technology, with their wine automaton (Athens, Greece): https://kotsanas.com/ https://kotsanas.com/
tagawa 9mo ago
If you're in the north of England the Derby Computer Museum is nicely maintained and presented. Exhibits are pre-2000. https://www.derbycomputermuseum.co.uk https://www.derbycomputermuseum.co.uk
phearnot 9mo ago
I’d add the following: - Kyoto Railway Museum (you can ride a passenger train pulled by a real steam locomotive) - Central Air Force Museum in Monino near Moscow (you can visit Tu-144 and Il-62 passenger cockpits, as well as check out other rather exotic aircraft)
warpdude 9mo ago
The Kyoto Railway Museum (https://www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/en/ https://www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/en/) is certainly worth a mention. Tons of well-preserved examples of Japanese rolling stock, including multiple generations of Shinkansen (including the first!). Their technical explanations of every part of the train were also incredibly well done, with lots of examples from parts of real trains. It was one of the most impressive and genuinely educational technical museums I've ever been to. Having been to both the National Railway Museum in Taipei and the Kyoto Railway Museum and comparing the two, I'd say that the former was particularly strong in areas around train maintenence, whereas the latter had much more content about trains themselves.
xg15 9mo ago
No mention of Deutsches Museum in Munich? Whaat!? https://www.deutsches-museum.de/ https://www.deutsches-museum.de/ Also recommended: Arithmeum Bonn: https://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/ https://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/ Miniaturwunderland Hamburg: https://www.miniatur-wunderland.de/ https://www.miniatur-wunderland.de/ (not really a tech museum but definitely of interest to techies) In Switzerland: Technorama in Winterthur: https://www.technorama.ch/ https://www.technorama.ch/ Verkehrshaus Luzern: https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/ https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/
- mvdwoord 9mo ago
  Came here to check if someone already mentioned the Arithmeum in Bonn. :)
davnola 9mo ago
One of the many reasons to visit Pembrokeshire, Wales: https://www.internalfire.com/ https://www.internalfire.com/ Lots of running kit you can get close to or hands on with e.g. 4000hp jet generators, telephone exchanges, steam engines etc. plus knowledgeable and passionate staff. Well worth a couple of hours detour to check out.
sevensor 9mo ago
I visited the Science History Institute in Philadelphia when it was still the Chemical Heritage Foundation museum. They had a fascinating collection; hopefully it’s intact. I remember seeing lots of material from the history of plastics.
tdeck 9mo ago
The InfoAge museum in New Jersey seems to not be well known, but they have lots of interesting computer and radio artifacts, including some hands-on demonstrations. The museum is on the site of an old Marconi shore station. https://www.infoage.org/exhibits/ https://www.infoage.org/exhibits/ Which reminds me, another shore station is KPH in Point Reyes which is worth a visit for sure. https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/kph_treetunnel.htm https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/kph_treetunnel.htm
sehugg 9mo ago
The System Source museum in Hunt Valley, Maryland is also worth a mention. I attended a demonstration of a revived Bendix G-15 there.
bmitch3020 9mo ago
NSA's National Cryptologic Museum[0] is a good one in the DC area. There's also the Smithsonian Air & Space, but that gets outside of the tech focus here. [0]: https://www.nsa.gov/museum/ https://www.nsa.gov/museum/
- satiated_grue 9mo ago
  If you can, combine the NSA visit with a visit to the System Source Museum: https://museum.syssrc.com/ https://museum.syssrc.com/ A great museum in its own right, and some overlapping with the NSA Museum (e.g. Crays, TEMPEST Macintoshes).
michaelbuckbee 9mo ago
The Wright Brothers memorial in North Carolina is a very special place. They've renovated it somewhat recently and it now conveys a lot more of the struggle that they went through. So much debugging of prototypes, crashes, redesigns and high stakes testing. There's also something undeniably cool about standing right where other humans did something for the first time did something and walking the distance of their flights on the field. https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm
dolmen 9mo ago
I recommend La Cité de la dentelle, in Calais, North of France (good train stop between Paris and London). Leavers machine that weight tons. Technology from 19th century that is still in production nowadays. https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/collections-1/industrie-et-technique https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/collections-1/industrie-et-tech...
sevennull 9mo ago
Bradbury Science Museum, las alamos, nm. worth a visit - neat area and history. Los Alamos National Laboratory (.gov) https://www.lanl.gov https://www.lanl.gov › engage › bradbury As Los Alamos National Laboratory's official museum, the Bradbury Science Museum helps visitors learn about the Lab's beginnings during the Manhattan Project.
vismit2000 9mo ago
Colossus & Bletchley Park - Computerphile: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9HH-asvLAj4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=9HH-asvLAj4
throw0101c 9mo ago
Museum of Television, Toronto, Canada: > The Museum exhibits the world’s most comprehensive collection of TV receivers for the formative 60yr period from the 1920s to the 1980s. It offers displays devoted to receiver design, to TV signals in space, & to the museum’s signature Philco Predicta line of sets. It's home to sets from Marilyn Monroe & Elvis Presley; to the 1939 Worlds’ Fair RCA Phantom Teleceiver, the rarest TV on the planet; to Felix The Cat, the 1st star of TV; & to tributes to John Logie Baird & Philo Farnsworth, the inventors of mechanical & electronic TV The Museum tells the story of the medium, to contribute to the understanding of the impact of TV on the people who watch it, & to recover the names & reputations of the Pioneers who invented it * https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g155019-d184937-Reviews-MZTV_Museum_of_Television-Toronto_Ontario.html https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g155019-d184937... * Official site: https://mztv.com https://mztv.com See also perhaps "Mr. Dressup to Degrassi: 42 Years of Legendary Toronto Kids TV": * https://museumoftoronto.com/collection/from-mr-dressup-to-degrassi/ https://museumoftoronto.com/collection/from-mr-dressup-to-de... * https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/mr-dressup-and-polkaroo-toronto-museum-celebrates-nostalgia-of-kids-tv/ https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/mr-dressup-and-polkar...

85 points by justincormack 9mo ago

cioaonk 9mo ago

Museum of Play in Rochester NY

mcphage 9mo ago
I do love it there (my family have been members for years), but it’s more for kids than adults.

Animats 9mo ago

The Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago). One of the big classics. It once contained exhibits from major manufacturers. US Steel, General Electric, RCA. AT&T, IBM, Whirlpool, International Harvester, the Santa Fe Railroad... Most of the corporate sponsorship is gone, it's more "educational", and it costs $30 instead of being free. Museum of Broadcast Communications (Chicago). This was once impressive, and now it's closed with the artifacts in storage. It had much early TV studio equipment. Their nostalgia exhibit, pre-Internet, was that they had a huge library of TV shows on VHS tapes, and you could request that one be played for you.

ghtbircshotbe 9mo ago
The Chicago museum also has a u boat.
- satiated_grue 9mo ago
  A fun telling of the story of that boat by the Fat Electrician. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s-ZY0lnGeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s-ZY0lnGeI
  - Animats 9mo ago
    Oh, read the original.[1] In "Twenty Million Tons Under The Sea", Adm. Gallery describes the capture of the U-505, which he commanded. Gallery is a great writer; after WWII he wrote successful fiction books and magazine articles. [1] https://archive.org/details/twentymillionton00gall/page/n7/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/twentymillionton00gall/page/n7/m...

redwood 9mo ago

Explora Science Center and Children's Museum of Albuquerque

jghn 9mo ago

Deutsches Museum in Munich

bnycum 9mo ago

I’d also tack on National Videogame Museum in Frisco, TX to your lists.

bananaflag 9mo ago

When I saw aresluna I hoped this website (also due to Marcin Wichary) finally got updated https://guidebookgallery.org/ https://guidebookgallery.org/ It's been 20 years...

juliangamble 9mo ago

Some more - Cambridge Centre for Computing History - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ - London Museum for Science - Babbage's Difference Engine https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-difference-engines-and-science-museum https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles... - National Museum of Computing (near Bletchley Park Museum) https://www.tnmoc.org/ https://www.tnmoc.org/ - Bletchley Park Museum https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ - Manchester Museum (Manchester Baby) https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/meet-baby https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/meet-ba... I visited these all last year in a single trip to the UK and it was incredible. I can recommend it to anyone who has spent some time thinking about the history of computing.

Arn_Thor 9mo ago
Second the Cambridge Centre for Computing History
dandelionv1bes 9mo ago
Bletchley is great! I need to go again

technothrasher 9mo ago

The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts (https://www.charlesrivermuseum.org/ https://www.charlesrivermuseum.org/) is a nice local technology museum if you're in the area. Not a huge place, but tells a nice little bit of the story of the industrial revolution in New England.

billfor 9mo ago

Parasite Museum in Tokyo: https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top

analog31 9mo ago

I'd add the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, and the Air and Space Museum (both sites). They are not as up-close-and-personal as some of the ones mentioned in the article, owing to the extreme number of visitors, but have some utterly unique and historic artifacts, like Thomas Edison's lab.

WalterGR 9mo ago
The US Smithsonian National Air and Space (NASM) museums are great. For those that aren’t aware, one of the locations is on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC and the other - the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - is near the Dulles Airport in Dulles, VA. The latter has the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a Concorde… and the Enola Gay.
- mcphage 9mo ago
  The Udvar-Hazy Center is utterly amazing. It’s like someone said “hey, you like planes? Here’s all of them. And they’re just there, you can walk up close to them. I took my family for the first time this summer, when we heard they were going to lose the Space Shuttle, and we all loved it.
- satiated_grue 9mo ago
  The Udvar Hazy is being expanded to hold more stuff. The downtown location has more interpretation of artifacts - sometimes at the Udvar Hazy it's hard to really appreciate what you're looking at without a docent-led tour or other context. It also doesn't hurt that the docents include people like an SR-71 pilot.
  - WalterGR 9mo ago
    > The Udvar Hazy is being expanded to hold more stuff. Oh, that’s great news!
satiated_grue 9mo ago
The Henry Ford has tons of cool stuff. A running Apple 1. The working Wright Experience replica of the Wright Flyer that was flown at Kitty Hawk for the 100th anniversary. So much amazing They have not only the actual Wright Brothers Cycle Shop building and their house from 7 Hawthorn St. Dayton (Ford moved the buildings), but Ford hired their mechanic Charlie Taylor to set everything up as it was in Dayton. Taylor re-acquired the original tools; not the same kind, the exact serial numbers. When you walk outside, there's even a Dayton manhole cover on the ground.

EvanAnderson 9mo ago

Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, OH - https://cosi.org/ https://cosi.org/ Not a tech museum, per se, but I think it will appeal to the tech museum crowd.

EvanAnderson 9mo ago
Also, National Museum of the US Air Force: https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/ https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]

shrubble 9mo ago

I will stick my oar in for the Large Scale Systems Museum just north of Pittsburgh, PA, in New Kensington (which is where the modern aluminum smelting process was invented), with their simple website at https://www.mact.io/ https://www.mact.io/ . They have DEC PDP11 and VAX, SGI, Sun, IBM mainframe and midrange, Data General (apparently the same terminal setup as used in Severance), a Cray J90, etc. And it all works and you can sit down and type on the systems. If you want to take the 45 minutes it takes to boot an IBM mainframe - you can do it. I know some of the people there, they are top-notch restorers and know the hardware and software very well.

kev009 9mo ago
LSSM is really top notch. It's grass roots, done by volunteers that want to preserve and share experience with these machines. Most museums, I'll pick on CHM as an example but it applies to basically any metropolitan museum: by contrast are quite sterile, you can tell they have a ton of money but it's the standard impressive architecture and displays setup that is designed to ferry large groups through relatively quickly but don't impart much wisdom on the participants. I never got a chance to visit Living Computer Museum but I wonder if that met some kind of high funding to be able to service masses while still going deep hands on.
- WalterGR 9mo ago
  That wasn’t my impression of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. (Assuming that’s the CHM you mention.) I haven’t been in maybe 10 years, though. Have things changed?
  - tdeck 9mo ago
    I went to both years ago, and did enjoy LCM better. The difference is that LCM was ectremely hands-on. They had all kinds of rare machines out on the floor that you could just...play with. Imagine using an original Lisa running XENIX of all things, then firing up MazeWar on an Imlac. CHM is very well done but more of a traditional museum with limited, curated interactivity.

gorfian_robot 9mo ago

Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA Deutsches Museum in Munich Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix

izacus 9mo ago

A lot of amazing recommendations well worth the visit. The one that's missing is my favorite one though: the sister museums in Sinsheim and Speyer: https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/ https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/ They have both Concorde and Tu-144, the full interior of a 747 and a big space exhibit, including the Buran space orbiter. Last year they added a submarine to the collection, next to a massive amount of other exhibits.

canpan 9mo ago
I came here to say the same. The location is a bit hard to get to. But if you are in the area, also visit the town of Heidelberg, it is close by and worth the trip. I went there as a child and loved it, in particular the UBoat you can enter. Next time I am going to Germany I plan to visit it again.

spencerflem 9mo ago

Can confirm that the Connections museum is lovely :)

Fwirt 9mo ago
Seconded, the Seattle Connections museum is a hidden gem. It really is a living history museum run by volunteers who keep everything working. And so much of it is hands-on, you can make a call from a phone on one end of the building and hear the relays clicking as the call traverses exchanges from several different eras.
tdeck 9mo ago
They also have an excellent YouTube channel. https://m.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum/videos https://m.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum/videos

plotti 9mo ago

Technorama in Winterthur

kmoser 9mo ago

Amazing collection of locks at the Mossman Lock Museum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Mossman_Lock_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Mossman_Lock_Museum

oytis 9mo ago

Transport museum in Dresden is really nice, especially for kids. Computer game museum in Berlin is kind of disappointing IMO - it's mostly non-interactive, which is a huge missed opportunity given the subject

_the_inflator 9mo ago

Nothing comes even close to the Computer History Museum in Moutainview, CA. On my bucket list is a two weeks trips to spend there. For me it is the world’s only epicenter of start to finish of all technologies. So many precious pieces no matter big or small, from Japan or like the Zuse, from Germany - I cannot get enough of it, especially the people you can meet there. Founders, builders, billionaires as everyday Joe doing maintenance or giving talks - this is so much better than any ebook there is and also time runs, if you start to find out about the mechanical IBM machines, and especially the the smell there, which was a revelation. Nevertheless kudos to any Electronics Museum or Automobile Museums. It takes a lot of dedication and maintenance to build these museums for us. Thanks a lot, this is my Disney World on steroids, my childhood playground.

thrownawaysz 9mo ago

One more list for the privileged who can travel around the world

tdeck 9mo ago
I think some people might be surprised to find one of these close to home. For example, I only discovered the Connections Museum by chance (they were manning a booth at another more well known museum).
mcphage 9mo ago
I’m not sure it’s the author’s fault that there are world class museums all over the world.
throw-the-towel 9mo ago
Oh look, how cute -- a European calling someone 'privileged'.

dandelionv1bes 9mo ago

GAMM in Rome is quite fun (Italy): https://www.gammuseum.com/en/ https://www.gammuseum.com/en/ Shout-out to the museum of Ancient Greek technology, with their wine automaton (Athens, Greece): https://kotsanas.com/ https://kotsanas.com/

tagawa 9mo ago

If you're in the north of England the Derby Computer Museum is nicely maintained and presented. Exhibits are pre-2000. https://www.derbycomputermuseum.co.uk https://www.derbycomputermuseum.co.uk

phearnot 9mo ago

I’d add the following: - Kyoto Railway Museum (you can ride a passenger train pulled by a real steam locomotive) - Central Air Force Museum in Monino near Moscow (you can visit Tu-144 and Il-62 passenger cockpits, as well as check out other rather exotic aircraft)

warpdude 9mo ago

The Kyoto Railway Museum (https://www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/en/ https://www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/en/) is certainly worth a mention. Tons of well-preserved examples of Japanese rolling stock, including multiple generations of Shinkansen (including the first!). Their technical explanations of every part of the train were also incredibly well done, with lots of examples from parts of real trains. It was one of the most impressive and genuinely educational technical museums I've ever been to. Having been to both the National Railway Museum in Taipei and the Kyoto Railway Museum and comparing the two, I'd say that the former was particularly strong in areas around train maintenence, whereas the latter had much more content about trains themselves.

xg15 9mo ago

No mention of Deutsches Museum in Munich? Whaat!? https://www.deutsches-museum.de/ https://www.deutsches-museum.de/ Also recommended: Arithmeum Bonn: https://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/ https://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/ Miniaturwunderland Hamburg: https://www.miniatur-wunderland.de/ https://www.miniatur-wunderland.de/ (not really a tech museum but definitely of interest to techies) In Switzerland: Technorama in Winterthur: https://www.technorama.ch/ https://www.technorama.ch/ Verkehrshaus Luzern: https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/ https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/

mvdwoord 9mo ago
Came here to check if someone already mentioned the Arithmeum in Bonn. :)

davnola 9mo ago

One of the many reasons to visit Pembrokeshire, Wales: https://www.internalfire.com/ https://www.internalfire.com/ Lots of running kit you can get close to or hands on with e.g. 4000hp jet generators, telephone exchanges, steam engines etc. plus knowledgeable and passionate staff. Well worth a couple of hours detour to check out.

sevensor 9mo ago

I visited the Science History Institute in Philadelphia when it was still the Chemical Heritage Foundation museum. They had a fascinating collection; hopefully it’s intact. I remember seeing lots of material from the history of plastics.

tdeck 9mo ago

The InfoAge museum in New Jersey seems to not be well known, but they have lots of interesting computer and radio artifacts, including some hands-on demonstrations. The museum is on the site of an old Marconi shore station. https://www.infoage.org/exhibits/ https://www.infoage.org/exhibits/ Which reminds me, another shore station is KPH in Point Reyes which is worth a visit for sure. https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/kph_treetunnel.htm https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/kph_treetunnel.htm

sehugg 9mo ago

The System Source museum in Hunt Valley, Maryland is also worth a mention. I attended a demonstration of a revived Bendix G-15 there.

bmitch3020 9mo ago

NSA's National Cryptologic Museum[0] is a good one in the DC area. There's also the Smithsonian Air & Space, but that gets outside of the tech focus here. [0]: https://www.nsa.gov/museum/ https://www.nsa.gov/museum/

satiated_grue 9mo ago
If you can, combine the NSA visit with a visit to the System Source Museum: https://museum.syssrc.com/ https://museum.syssrc.com/ A great museum in its own right, and some overlapping with the NSA Museum (e.g. Crays, TEMPEST Macintoshes).

michaelbuckbee 9mo ago

The Wright Brothers memorial in North Carolina is a very special place. They've renovated it somewhat recently and it now conveys a lot more of the struggle that they went through. So much debugging of prototypes, crashes, redesigns and high stakes testing. There's also something undeniably cool about standing right where other humans did something for the first time did something and walking the distance of their flights on the field. https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

dolmen 9mo ago

I recommend La Cité de la dentelle, in Calais, North of France (good train stop between Paris and London). Leavers machine that weight tons. Technology from 19th century that is still in production nowadays. https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/collections-1/industrie-et-technique https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/collections-1/industrie-et-tech...

sevennull 9mo ago

Bradbury Science Museum, las alamos, nm. worth a visit - neat area and history. Los Alamos National Laboratory (.gov) https://www.lanl.gov https://www.lanl.gov › engage › bradbury As Los Alamos National Laboratory's official museum, the Bradbury Science Museum helps visitors learn about the Lab's beginnings during the Manhattan Project.

vismit2000 9mo ago

Colossus & Bletchley Park - Computerphile: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9HH-asvLAj4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=9HH-asvLAj4

throw0101c 9mo ago

Museum of Television, Toronto, Canada: > The Museum exhibits the world’s most comprehensive collection of TV receivers for the formative 60yr period from the 1920s to the 1980s. It offers displays devoted to receiver design, to TV signals in space, & to the museum’s signature Philco Predicta line of sets. It's home to sets from Marilyn Monroe & Elvis Presley; to the 1939 Worlds’ Fair RCA Phantom Teleceiver, the rarest TV on the planet; to Felix The Cat, the 1st star of TV; & to tributes to John Logie Baird & Philo Farnsworth, the inventors of mechanical & electronic TV The Museum tells the story of the medium, to contribute to the understanding of the impact of TV on the people who watch it, & to recover the names & reputations of the Pioneers who invented it * https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g155019-d184937-Reviews-MZTV_Museum_of_Television-Toronto_Ontario.html https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g155019-d184937... * Official site: https://mztv.com https://mztv.com See also perhaps "Mr. Dressup to Degrassi: 42 Years of Legendary Toronto Kids TV": * https://museumoftoronto.com/collection/from-mr-dressup-to-degrassi/ https://museumoftoronto.com/collection/from-mr-dressup-to-de... * https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/mr-dressup-and-polkaroo-toronto-museum-celebrates-nostalgia-of-kids-tv/ https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/mr-dressup-and-polkar...