Best History Museum in New Orleans

"Warehouse DistrictSuffice it to say, if you served in the United States Military during WWII, you’re granted free admission to the National WWII Museum, which is a really amazing place worth paying to visit, anyhow. But if you’re not a member of “The Greatest Generation,” but still a US veteran, you can still visit the museum for free on certain national holidays (check the website for details). Again, though, you should pay to check this place out: it has boats, and tanks, and airplanes, and a 4D cinematic experience narrated by Tom Hanks."

"A massive museum dedicated solely to the war that changed the world, The National World War II Museum is the largest museum in the state. Their campus consists of six buildings and permanent exhibits, three restaurants, everchanging special and traveling exhibits, their own in-house theater and much more. A weekend can easily be spent exploring all that the National WWII Museum has to offer, and you’d still barely scratch the surface."

"The National WWII Museum, previously known as The National D-Day Museum, is a history museum delving in the historical events of World War 2."

"Our own French Quarter neighborhood offers plenty of history to explore, including some of the best museums in New Orleans. The Historic New Orleans Collection is both a museum and research center dedicated to the study and preservation of local and regional history. They have two French Quarter locations, and at the Williams Research Center (410 Chartres Street) you can visit their exhibit, “African Heritage of New Orleans: 300 Years in the Making,” which tells the story of the “African presence in New Orleans and its development of a uniquely African cultural identity in New Orleans, from its founding in 1718 to the post-Civil Rights period.” The exhibit is open until December 8, 2018, and admission to this exhibit is free."

"This collection will see it’s new home, designed by Waggoner and Ball, open in the fall of 2018. The design includes a restoration of 200-year-old Spanish Colonial structure, the Seignouret-Brulatour House, with an addition to provide gallery space. With a careful eye towards renovation and education, the team used conservators and archaeologists to simultaneously preserve and exhibit the treasured French Quarter building."

"Here's your chance to experience and understand the history and culture of the city of New Orleans!. The center is dedicated to the preservation and research of New Orleans and general Southern Gulf culture and history and is located in the French Quarter. Archives include the Sugar Bowl, life after Hurricane Katrina, the William Russel Jazz Collection, and the William C. Cook War of 1812 in the South Collection."

"Located in a French Quarter building where the nation’s first licensed pharmacist, Louis J. Dufilho, Jr., lived and practiced in the 1800s, the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum is a time-travel extravaganza. You can visit independently, but the insightful (and included with admission) 1 p.m. tour on weekdays is worthwhile to hear about medicine’s fascinating, unsterilized history and to eyeball some seriously iffy relics, like lead syringes, bottles once filled with opium-based teething formulas, strychnine-laced cosmetics, and over-the-counter heroin; plus, here’s your chance to view a pig’s-rib toothbrush and a calcified goat’s hairball."

"In 1804 the State of Louisiana passed a law requiring a licensing exam for would-be pharmacists. The first person to pass this exam was one Louis J. Dufilho Jr. , becoming the first licensed pharmacist in the United States. You can drop by his premises on Chartres Street in the French Quarter, where stacks of strange remedies line the walls in historic apothecary bottles."

"It’s also an excellent place to people watch and where a number of New Orleans’ historical landmarks like The St Louis Cathedral, The Cabildo, and The Presbytère are located (with Preservation Hall and The Historic New Orleans Collection nearby). Tons of artists, musicians, and fortune tellers hang out in Jackson Square and in the spirit of disclosure, I spent most of my time here people-watching and eating beignets. However, if you want to be a little more cultured than I was, visit one or several of the above-mentioned landmarks for even more NOLA history."

"A visit to The Presbytère is recommended and worthwhile for at least three reasons. (1) Built in the 1790s as a matching structure to the Cabildo, which flanks the St. Louis Cathedral on the other side, it is one of the nation's best examples of formal Spanish Colonial style, with a full panoply of Renaissance architectural forms. Destroyed by a hurricane in 1915, the cupola was restored to match the one atop its twin, the Cabildo, and in 1970 the structure was designated a National Historic Landmark."

"After voodoo (or vodou) came to New Orleans in the 1700s—first via West African slaves, then with Haitians after the Haitian Revolution—it entwined with the city’s identity. Which is why, since the 1970s, a French Quarter visit has been deemed incomplete without a stop at the tiny Historic Voodoo Museum. If it’s lore you seek, you’ll find it here."

"The Whitney plantation is the first American museum dedicated to slavery. It has records of memoirs from literate slaves and their experiences. The Whitney plantation focuses on the institution of slavery. The Laura plantation is a creole owned plantation whereby the family tell the history of the their generation."

"Other plantations in the area to consider are the Laura Plantation, the Houmas House Plantation, the Nottoway Plantation, and the Whitney Plantation, among others. The Whitney Plantation is newly renovated and has an exhibit that focuses on the children of slavery that is said to be deeply moving and emotional."

"If you’re going to visit any plantations, please make The Whitney Plantation a priority. It’s the first slavery museum in America, dedicated to telling the history of slaves in their own words, taken from historical records."

"One of the city’s most famous photographers, Frank Relle has made a career out of his love of New Orleans architecture, history, and light – or lack thereof, in the last case."

"The Octavia Art Gallery focuses on artists whose work is informed by distinct cultural heritage but also vast global perspectives. The staggeringly dynamic paintings pop out from the big white walls as you wander through the brightly lit space on Magazine Street, just off Julia Street. At Octavia Art Gallery, you might catch the exquisite wildlife photography of Joe Zammit-Lucia and the sombre industrial landscapes of Errol Barron."

"With both Louisiana specials and classic Northern Italian cuisine on the menu, Andrea’s in Metairie is designedto please everyone at the dinner table and their massive 500-seat din..."