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This list of museums in Atlanta is a list of museums, defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Also included are non-profit and university art galleries. Museums that exist only in cyberspace (i.e., virtual museums) are not included.
This list includes museums in the City of Atlanta and the immediately adjacent communities of Druid Hills, and Hapeville at Atlanta's airport. For museums in the rest of Metro Atlanta and the rest of the state of Georgia, see List of museums in Georgia (U.S. state).
Name | Image | Area | Type | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|
APEX Museum | Sweet Auburn | African American | Contributions of African Americans to the United States and the world | |
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center | West Midtown | Art | Local, national, and international contemporary art; education geared toward working artists and collectors of art | |
Atlanta History Center | Buckhead | History | History of Atlanta and Georgia; includes the Centennial Olympic Games Museum [1] and one of the nation's most complete Civil War exhibitions | |
Atlanta Monetary Museum | Midtown Atlanta | Numismatic | History of money, banking in America, and the Federal Reserve, operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta | |
Booth Western Art Museum | Cartersville | Art | The world's largest permanent exhibition space for Western art. | |
The Breman Museum | Midtown Atlanta | Jewish | Jewish history, with special emphasis on Georgia and the Holocaust | |
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center | Druid Hills | Art | Community arts center, gallery hosts one-person and occasional group exhibitions by emerging local artists in varied media | |
Center for Puppetry Arts | Midtown Atlanta | Puppetry | Puppets from various time periods and countries around the world | |
Children's Museum of Atlanta | Luckie Marietta | Children's | Formerly known as ""Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta" | |
Clark Atlanta University Art Museum | West End | Art | African American art [2] | |
College Football Hall of Fame | Luckie Marietta | Sports | Honors collegiate athletes from around the country | |
David J. Sencer CDC Museum | Druid Hills | Medical | [3] Public health issues, operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | |
Delta Flight Museum | Hapeville | Aviation | Aircraft, aviation, and history of Delta Air Lines | |
Dignity Museum | College Park | Homelessness | [4] Homelessness, Poverty, Justice | |
Fernbank Museum of Natural History | Druid Hills | Natural history | Natural history and the development of the planet | |
Fernbank Science Center | Druid Hills | Science | Planetarium, telescope, and Fernbank Forest, a 65-acre (26 ha) natural forest | |
Ferst Center for the Arts | Midtown Atlanta | Art | Contemporary art and photography | |
Georgia Capitol Museum | South Downtown | History | Collections representing the natural and cultural history of Georgia | |
Georgia Governor's Mansion | Buckhead | Historic house | Mid 20th century official home of the state's governors | |
Hammonds House Museum | West End | African American | African American fine art, culture of the African diaspora; located in a historic Queen Anne-style house | |
Hapeville Depot Museum | Hapeville | Local history | Historic 1890 train depot featuring local history. The museum is operated by the City of Hapeville. | |
Herndon Home | West End | Historic house | House of Alonzo Franklin Herndon, a rags-to-riches hero who was born into slavery and went on to become Atlanta's first black millionaire | |
High Museum of Art | Midtown Atlanta | Art | Southeast's leading art museum and among the 100 most-visited art museums in the world; significant permanent collection of 19th and 20th century American art, European art, decorative arts, African American art, modern and contemporary art, photography and African art; traveling exhibitions [5] | |
Ivan Allen Jr. Braves Museum and Hall of Fame | Summerhill | Sports | Atlanta Braves history and memorabilia | |
Jimmy Carter Library and Museum | Poncey-Highland | Biographical | Presidential library with papers and exhibits about President Jimmy Carter and the Carter family's life | |
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park | Old Fourth Ward | History | Covers the American Civil Rights Movement, the preserved boyhood home of Dr. King, the church where he pastored, and his final resting place | |
Margaret Mitchell House & Museum | Midtown Atlanta | Historic house | Life of Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind museum, operated by the Atlanta History Center | |
Michael C. Carlos Museum | Druid Hills | Art | Art from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, and the ancient Americas, 19th- and 20th-century sub-Saharan African art, and European and American works on paper from the Renaissance to the present day; largest collection of ancient art in the Southeast [6] [7] | |
Millennium Gate | Atlantic Station | Art | Georgia history, architecture, culture and philanthropic heritage | |
Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia | Buckhead | Art | Archive of hundreds of contemporary works by Georgia artists in painting, print, sculpture and photography | |
Museum of Design Atlanta | Midtown Atlanta | Design | Only design museum in the Southeast; devoted exclusively to the study and celebration of design in architecture, products, interiors, furniture, graphics, fashion | |
National Museum of Decorative Painting | Midtown Atlanta | Art | Collects, preserves, and exhibits a variety of items from around the world and across many time periods that are examples of the art of decorative painting, including historic and contemporary decorated items, open by appointment [8] | |
Omenala Griot Afrocentric Teaching Museum | West End | African American | Afrocentric teaching museum | |
Rhodes Hall | Midtown Atlanta | Historic house | 1904 Romanesque Revival 9,000-square-foot (840 m2) mansion inspired by Rhineland castles | |
Robert C. Williams Paper Museum | Midtown Atlanta | Art | Changing paper art exhibits, and science and technology of papermaking; allows visitors to create their own paper | |
Spelman College Museum of Fine Art | West End | Art | Art by and about women of the African diaspora | |
Swan House | Buckhead | Historic house | 1920s–1930s period furnishings, operated by the Atlanta History Center | |
Teaching Museum South | Hapeville | Multiple | [9] Open for school groups only | |
Tullie Smith House | Buckhead | Historic house | 1840 plantation farm house, operated by the Atlanta History Center | |
World of Coca-Cola | Luckie Marietta | Corporate | Coca-Cola history and memorabilia | |
Wren's Nest | West End | Historic house | Late 19th century home of Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Tales of Uncle Remus | |
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, although a portion of the city extends into neighboring DeKalb County. With a population of 498,715 living within the city limits, Atlanta is the eighth most populous city in the Southeast and 38th most populous city in the United States according to the 2020 U.S. census. It is the core of the much larger Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to more than 6.2 million people, making it the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan area. Situated among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains at an elevation of just over 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level, Atlanta features unique topography that includes rolling hills, lush greenery, and the densest urban tree coverage of any major city in the United States.
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campus is in the Druid Hills neighborhood 3 miles (4.8 km) from Downtown Atlanta.
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina; to the northeast by South Carolina; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean; to the south by Florida; and to the west by Alabama. Georgia is the 24th-largest state in area and 8th most populous of the 50 United States. Its 2020 population was 10,711,908, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Atlanta, a "beta(+)" global city, is both the state's capital and its largest city. The Atlanta metropolitan area, with a population of more than 6 million people in 2021, is the 8th most populous metropolitan area in the United States and contains about 57% of Georgia's entire population. Other major metropolitan areas in the state include Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, and Macon.
Macon, officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia, United States. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Atlanta and near the state's geographic center — hence its nickname "The Heart of Georgia."
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest of the principal cities by population of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Druid Hills is a community which includes both a census-designated place (CDP) in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, as well as a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. The CDP's population was 14,568 at the 2010 census. The CDP formerly contained the main campus of Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) however they were annexed by Atlanta in 2018. The Atlanta-city section of Druid Hills is one of Atlanta's most affluent neighborhoods with a mean household income in excess of $238,500.
Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it officially merged in 1970. Columbus is the second most populous city in Georgia, and fields the state's fourth-largest metropolitan area. At the 2020 census, Columbus had a population of 206,922, with 328,883 in the Columbus metropolitan area. The metro area joins the nearby Alabama cities of Auburn and Opelika to form the Columbus–Auburn–Opelika Combined Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 486,645 in 2019.
Spelman College is a private, historically Black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a founding member of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman awarded its first college degrees in 1901 and is the oldest private historically Black liberal arts institution for women.
A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make viewers, surrounded by the panoramic image, feel as if they were standing in the midst of the place depicted in the image.
Clark Atlanta University is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Founded on September 19, 1865 as Atlanta University, it consolidated with Clark College to form Clark Atlanta University in 1988. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the United States. The university enrolls more than 16,000 students from across the United States and around the world with international students comprising up to 17 percent of the student population. SCAD is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and other professional accrediting bodies.
The Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum was a Civil War museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. Its most noted attraction was the Atlanta Cyclorama, a cylindrical panoramic painting of the Battle of Atlanta. As of December 2021, the Cyclorama is located at the Atlanta History Center, while the building is now Zoo Atlanta's Savanna Hall.
Atlanta History Center is a history museum and research center located in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia. The Museum was founded in 1926 and currently consists of nine permanent, and several temporary, exhibitions. Atlanta History Center's campus is 33-acres and features historic gardens and houses located on the grounds, including Swan House, Smith Farm, and Wood Family Cabin. Atlanta History Center's Midtown Campus includes the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum. The History Center's research arm, Kenan Research Center, is open by appointment, and provides access to the archival collections. Atlanta History Center holds one of the largest collections of Civil War artifacts in the United States.
The Michael C. Carlos Museum is an art museum located in Atlanta on the historic quadrangle of Emory University's main campus. The Carlos Museum has the largest ancient art collections in the Southeast, including objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, Africa and the ancient Americas. The collections are housed in a Michael Graves designed building which is open to the public.
Western & Atlantic Railroad #49 "Texas" is a 4-4-0 "American" type steam locomotive built in 1856 for the Western & Atlantic Railroad by Danforth, Cooke & Co., best known as the principal pursuit engine in the Great Locomotive Chase, chasing the General after the latter was stolen by Union saboteurs in an attempt to ruin the Confederate rail system during the American Civil War. The locomotive is preserved at the Atlanta History Center.
The Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg was a historic modernist concrete and glass Mission 66 building dedicated November 19, 1962 by the National Park Service (NPS) to serve as a Gettysburg Battlefield visitor center, to exhibit the 1883 Paul Philippoteaux Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama and other artifacts, and to provide an observation deck. The building was demolished in 2013.
The International Panorama Council (IPC) is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization, subject to Swiss law. It is a global network involving museum directors, managers, artists, restorers and historians who deal with the historical or the contemporary art and media forms of the panorama. The organization comprises members from all over the world who are either representatives of museums and research institutes or private researchers and enthusiasts. The organization was founded in 1992 as the European Panorama Conference in Szeged, Hungary, and renamed in 1998 in Altoetting, Germany, at the International Panorama Conference. Since 2003 the organization is called International Panorama Council. IPC has been a Membership Association since 2010. It is governed by a member-elected Executive Board whose Secretary-general acts as the operational center for the Board’s members.
Black Atlantans form a major population group in the Atlanta metropolitan area, encompassing both those of African-American ancestry as well as those of recent Caribbean or African origin. Atlanta has long been known as a center of black entrepreneurship, higher education, political power and culture; a cradle of the Civil Rights Movement.
The arts in Atlanta are well-represented, with a prominent presence in music, fine art, and theater.