9 Best Museums In Rhode Island

Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the U.S., but its small towns pack a surprisingly big punch for museum lovers. The state offers a unique blend of history, culture, and eccentric charm from Providence's lush Roger Williams Park to Newport's gilded-age mansions. Whether you’re exploring the island’s industrial past at Pawtucket’s Slater Mill, tinkering with vintage tech at East Greenwich’s Wireless and Steam Museum, or wandering whimsical gardens and hidden curiosities in Bristol and Portsmouth, the Ocean State invites you to discover its museums, and in the case of the Musée Patamécanique, actually find it.

Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, Providence

The Museum of Natural History is the state’s only natural history museum and home to the only planetarium in the state capital of Providence. Set on the lush grounds of the 435-acre Roger Williams Park, the museum is housed in a striking yellow-brick landmark building built between 1893 and 1895 and resembles a French Château. The museum opened its doors to the public in 1896, while the planetarium opened in 1953 and has undergone numerous multimedia enhancements.

Today, the museum has five exhibit halls and one lobby exhibit spanning two floors. These exhibits feature urban wildlife, space exploration, the ocean, and the changing earth. Planetarium shows rotate regularly and include family-friendly shows like “Journey to the Stars,” “Our Place in Space,” and “Great Space Adventure.” They occur in the dome theater, which casts images of stars, planets, and constellations to stimulate the night sky.

After your museum visit, you can plan on spending an entire day (or two) exploring Roger Williams Park. The vibrant park is a hub of activity, home of the Roger Williams Park Zoo, a Carousel Village centered around a historic 1895 carousel, a Botanical Center, a Temple to Music, and much more.

Green Animals Topiary Garden, Portsmouth

Pick up a few gourmet sandwiches and sweets at Picnic Bakery + Cafe en route to this part garden, part outdoor sculpture museum in Portsmouth. The Green Animals Topiary Garden is home to over 80 quirky animal-shaped topiaries and other figures. From giraffes to teddy bears, Green Animals is set on a seven-acre country estate and is the oldest topiary garden in the United States. The surreal landscape also boasts more than 35 flowerbeds, meandering geometric pathways, vegetable and herb gardens, fruit trees, and over 37,000 tulips that appear in early spring.

The country estate was originally purchased in 1872 by Thomas Brayton. It takes its unusual moniker from a name used by his daughter, Alice, who named it for the abundance of “green animals” in the garden. Alice Brayton made the estate her permanent home in 1939 and hobnobbed with the family of John F. Kennedy, regularly opening up the estate for the public to enjoy. After her death, she donated the estate and gardens to the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Audrain Automobile Museum, Newport

While a “car museum” may sound humbling to some audiences, the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport is far from ordinary, transforming a typical car showroom into a sleek showcase of America’s enduring love affair with the automobile. Founded in 2014, the museum is housed in a classy Beaux-Arts-style building designed in 1903 as a luxury automobile dealership. The museum displays four curated thematic exhibitions annually, with access to collections containing over 400 cars and motorcycles from vintage classics to pristine luxury sports cars. If you’ve got gasoline coursing through your veins, the Audrain Automobile Museum is a must-see pitstop on any trip to the spectacular city of Newport.

When you run out of gas at the museum, fuel up nearby Wally’s Wieners, a Newport staple named after the owner’s golden doodle, Wally. The quirky restaurant features a playful menu of gourmet wieners like Truffle Shuffle, Balsamic and Brie, and Girl Dinner, or wiener towers to share. The eatery went viral for serving espresso martinis with names like Chai City, Funfetti, and Midnight Mocha.

Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol

The Herreshoff Marine Museum, founded in 1971, celebrates the legendary yacht-building legacy of brothers John Brown Herreshoff and Nathanael Greene Herreshoff (also known as “Captain Nat”), founders of the renowned Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. More than just a tribute to boats, the museum is a tribute to the America’s Cup, the oldest operating international competition in any sport, not just sailing.

Located in Bristol on the waterfront overlooking Narragansett Bay, the campus includes a large museum, the family’s former home, six company buildings, and a large section of the company’s waterfront and marina. The museum has over 60 significant boats in its Hall of Boats, about 500 model boats in the Model Room, and hosts the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. After your museum visit, wander along the waterfront, stopping for an Aperol spritz and a plate of oysters on the patio at the DeWolf Tavern in the historic building once known as DeWolf Rum Distillery, and enjoy watching the boats moving across the water.

New England Wireless and Steam Museum, East Greenwich

For tinkerers, tech nerds, and engineers of all sorts, the New England Wireless and Steam Museum is a quirky gem of a museum overflowing with vintage wireless gear, steam engines, old transistor radios, television relics, you name it. The museum preserves the Massie Coastal Wireless Station. This station communicated by Morse code sent over radio waves to ships in the ocean, long before GPS and satellite phones revolutionized safety at sea. A point made more poignant in the museum’s collection of transmitters showcases a Marconi distress transmitter, the same kind used to send distress calls from the doomed Titanic on April 15, 1912.

The museum is in East Greenwich, a small town in Rhode Island. After you’ve finished tinkering with early tech, explore Main Street, stop for coffee at Mainstreet Coffee, or pick up a box of gourmet cookie-dough cupcakes at the Silver Spoon Bakery.

Newport Mansions, Newport

Although strictly not a museum in the traditional sense of a single-building structure, the Newport Mansions are a living museum of high society during the Gilded Age in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Preservation Society of Newport County operates the mansions as part of a network of historic house museums that you can tour individually or book a guided tour of several mansions in one visit. Each mansion, such as Rosecliff, Marble House, and The Elms, exemplifies the architectural grandeur and opulent lifestyle of the wealthy during the Gilded Age, like the Vanderbilt family, who owned the “summer cottage” known as The Breakers.

Upcoming guide-led tours of the Newport Mansions include a “Beneath The Breakers Tour,” looking at the underground system that makes the mansion function, a “Servant Life Tour,” and an insider’s look at four of the locations used in HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” called “Inside the Gilded Age Tour.”

When you’re done hobnobbing with the rich and famous, clear your head with a stroll along the magnificent Cliff Walk, a 3.5-mile walk from North End Easton’s Beach to South End at Bailey’s Beach. Wander in town for a small-batch, big-flavor ice cream cone at Get the Scoop.

Slater Mill Historic Site, Pawtucket

In 1793, Slater Mill was America’s first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill. British emigrant Samuel Slater used the Blackstone River to power machines to process raw cotton into thread. Today, the mill on the west side of the longest river in Rhode Island is an iconic landmark in the history of the American Industrial Revolution. The cotton mill began an industry that dominated New England's economy for over a century.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, Slater Mill is now part of the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park in Pawtucket. The park is home to two historic mills, the 1768 Sylvanus Brown House and the 1810 Wilkinson Mill. The mill offers free ranger-led tours from the patio in front of the old mill that bring the legacy of the industrial revolution to life. Wander through the park grounds, reading interpretive panels, and see spinning and weaving demonstrations at various times throughout the year.

Musée Patamécanique, Bristol

A private museum hidden in the historic district of Bristol, the Musée Patamécanique is the perfect antidote for people who like their museums curious, eccentric, immersive, and hard to find. Founded in 2006 by Neil Barden Salley, an artist, filmmaker, and inventor, the quirky museum offers visits by appointment only, after which you’ll receive instructions and a map of the museum’s top-secret location. If all this sounds a bit absurd and artfully strange, it is meant to be, and all part of an immersive experience. So expect the unexpected at the musée, whose exhibits have equally unusual names, including “Legume Vacuum,” “Olfactory Lighthouse,” and “Earolin.”

After a surreal museum experience, reconnect with nature by exploring the pathways, hiking trails, and historic stone walls within the 464-acre Colt State Park. Enjoy the panoramic view of Narragansett Bay.

Jamestown Windmill & Museum, Jamestown

Built in 1787 and operating until 1896, the old Jamestown windmill stands high on Windmill Hill in the middle of tiny Conanicut Island, one of the most beautiful islands in Rhode Island, and is accessible by the Jamestown-Newport Ferry in the summer. You can also reach the island by car, but the ferry is more fun.

The windmill is an octagonal-shaped three-story structure with a domed cap that holds the sails, capturing the wind from all directions. The windmill is one of a cluster of historical sites maintained by the Jamestown Historical Society (JHS), and includes the Jamestown Museum, once a one-room schoolhouse built in 1885. Each spring, the JHS presents a new exhibit at the museum, and this year’s exhibit focuses on the contributions of organizations in Jamestown and how they affected the growth and development of the small island community. Have a late lunch at Slice of Heaven, a pretty café bakery that offers indoor and outdoor seating, before sailing back to the mainland by ferry.

As if you needed another reason to visit the Ocean State, the nine best museums in Rhode Island promise experiences as varied as the coastline. Wander through Architectural-Digest-worthy buildings that spark awe and curiosity, stumble upon quirky oddities, or step back to explore centuries of history, innovation, and artistry. From immersive exhibits and hands-on discoveries to top-secret gems tucked away in charming towns, Rhode Island’s museums invite you to slow down, explore, and delight in the unexpected at every turn.