Coming Up this Weekend: Freebie Fun at the Nation’s Museums

Abraham Lincoln’s ghost, John Dillinger’s boyhood baseball shoes, homemade Voodoo dolls. America is full of treasures. Housed at museums big and small across the country, these items will be that much more accessible Saturday September 29 when institutions across the country join the Smithsonian for the eighth annual Museum Day.

Big names like the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and El Museo del Barrio in New York are on the list of participating museums. But a quick look at the map shows a country saturated with orange.

In Springfield, Illinois, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will offer free admission Saturday and can dispel any of your lingering questions about that president’s rumored vampire-hunting.

The John Dillinger Museum at the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond is also planning to open its doors to crime enthusiasts, temporarily countering its slogan, “Crime doesn’t pay, but it does charge admission.”

Huntsville, Texas’ Sam Houston Memorial Museum invites guests to the grounds Houston walked on, worked on and died on to memorialize the statesman and general.

A return-favorite, Baltimore’s National Museum of Dentistry houses a set of George Washington’s false teeth as well as funky, old toothbrushes that look less than helpful by today’s standards.

And only a fool would risk the bad juju of not attending the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum for a free trip into the compelling world of the religion, because, as the site says, “No one grows up in New Orleans without Voodoo.”

For a full list of participating venues, check the map to find a museum near you. Be sure to print out your ticket before heading to your pick.

Leah Binkovitz | | READ MORE

Leah Binkovitz is a Stone & Holt Weeks Fellow at Washington Post and NPR. Previously, she was a contributing writer and editorial intern for the At the Smithsonian section of Smithsonian magazine.