Raleigh doesn’t have big ticket attractions, but it does have some fantastic museums!
What I love about the museums in Raleigh is that many of them are free to enter and run on donations. I also love how there are always special exhibitions and new installations popping up all the time, so you can go back to them time and time again and see something new.
Raleigh is well known for its quality of museums, not just quantity, and has often been referred to as the “Smithsonian of the South.”
Whether you’re looking to blast back to the dinosaur age or you’re looking to learn about local culture, or perhaps prefer an art museum, don’t miss these fun and educational institutes on your trip to Raleigh.
The Best Museums in Raleigh
To help you plan your visit, here is an interactive map that shows the location of these museums. You can download this map by clicking the square icon on the top right corner.
1. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
When I think of the top attractions in Raleigh, at top of mind is the excellent and free North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences located in the heart of downtown, just behind the state capitol building.
In fact, it is the Southeast’s largest natural history museum and North Carolina’s most visited museum, and one of the USA’s most respected museums that explores the natural world.
The museum is separated into two buildings; the Nature Exploration Center and the Nature Research Center.
With two buildings spanning two city blocks joined by a pedestrian bridge, you can easily spend a full day from dawn until dusk exploring all the exhibition halls.
In total, there’s over 4 floors of exhibits in this science museum featuring live animals, fossils of dinosaurs and whale skeletons, research centers where you can watch scientists at work, walk-through dioramas, microbes and meteorites, human anatomy, planets, 3D movies and much more.
If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend attending an event at the museum. We had a blast at the annual Jingle Ball Gala, where bars and party spaces were set up amongst the exhibitions and dinosaurs. It was so unique.
Without doubt, it’s easy to see why it’s considered one of the top museums in North Carolina and showcases some of the best collections belonging to our natural world that I’ve seen. For those that love natural history and sciences, be sure to check it out.
Read our full review of NC Museum of Natural Sciences here.
Watch our video from this museum
- Hours: 10.00am – 5.00pm Tuesday – Sunday, Closed Monday
- Address: 11 W Jones Street, Raleigh
- Website: naturalsciences.org
2. North Carolina Museum of Art
The North Carolina Museum of Art is another popular museum, and again, general admission to the Museum’s permanent collection and Museum Park is free.
This art museum in Raleigh is home to more than a dozen beautiful indoor gallery spaces showcasing art from around the world.
You can self-explore, take an engaging tour, see performing arts, and participate in family-friendly workshops.
Don’t miss taking a stroll through the Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park, the 164-acre park and trail system through natural areas features more than a dozen commissioned works of art and sculptures. We love biking the Art to Heart trail, which runs through the park.
Note: check the museum website for current exhibits and dates, and sometimes parts of the museum and certain galleries are closed for work and changing out exhibits.
Read our full guide to the North Carolina Museum of Art.
- Hours: 10.00am – 5.00pm Wednesday – Sunday, Closed Monday and Tuesday
- Address: 2110 Blue Ridge Rd., Raleigh
- Website: ncartmuseum.org
See our video of the NC Art Museum below
3. North Carolina Museum of History
Located directly across from the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown, is the North Carolina Museum of History, which is one of the best free museums in the city.
The NC Museum of History was founded in 1902 and more than 400,000+ visitors a year pass through, including 80,000+ school groups.
On display are over 14,000 years and 150,000 artifacts of North Carolina history.
Some highlights of the museum include “The Story of North Carolina” exhibit, which includes a lunch counter from a 1960 Salisbury sit-in during the American civil rights movement and a restored one-room slave cabin from Martin County where seven enslaved African-Americans lived in 1860.
This history museum in Raleigh also has exhibits that tell the African-American story and their contributions to the history and heritage of North Carolina.
Video presentations dive deeper into subjects such as secession, Reconstruction, and the Wilmington Race Riot.
The museum also offers a separate gallery for temporary exhibits. See current exhibits here. Again, the North Carolina Museum of History has free admission and runs on contributions from its guests.
We only recently discovered the museum’s incredible indoor music venue. The intimate space seats about 300 and has amazing sound. Concerts are frequently held. Each year in May, they also host the two-day Longleaf Film Festival.
- Hours: Tuesday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.Sunday: Noon–5 p.m.
- Address: 5 E. Edenton St., Raleigh
- Website: ncmuseumofhistory.org
4. Sports Hall of Fame
If you’re a big sports fan, located inside the museum of history on the third floor is The NC Sports Hall of Fame, which currently has 375 members, and the first class was inducted in 1963.
The Hall of Fame celebrates excellence and extraordinary achievement in athletics, and commemorates and memorializes exceptional accomplishments in sports for the inspiration and enjoyment of all North Carolinians.
On display are sports such as football, basketball, baseball, athletics, golf, motor racing, Olympics sports and more. Admission is free, and you can take a self guided tour.
It’s not a huge space and you can easily get through it in about one hour, and admission is also free.
- Hours: 10.00am – 5.00pm, Tuesday – Saturday, 12.00pm – 5.00pm Sunday, Closed Monday
- Address: 5 E Edenton St, Raleigh
- Website: ncshof.org
5. Marbles Kids Museum
If you’re looking for a fun children’s museum in Raleigh, look no further than Marbles Kids Museum.
For families with young kids and toddlers (up until the age of about 12), this is the best kids museum in the city and is not only fun and exciting, but nurtures creativity too.
There’s two levels of kid-focused museum activities with dozens of hands-on exhibits and the state’s only 3D-capable IMAX theater.
Here children can imagine, discover and learn in dozens of interactive exhibits, daily educational programs
Located in the Moore Square District of downtown Raleigh, Marbles serves a diverse population of families, school groups and community organizations.
A wall that wraps around the museum is filled with more than one million marbles that light up at night.
They regularly have fun events throughout the year and even fun events for adults!
- Hours: 10.00am-5.00pm daily, on Thursday it closes at 7.00pm for extended play hours!
- Address: 201 E Hargett St, Raleigh
- Website: marbleskidsmuseum.org
6. Contemporary Art Museum (CAM)
Another of the excellent museum in downtown Raleigh in Raleigh’s ever evolving Warehouse District, is the Contemporary Art Museum.
CAM Raleigh is a non-collecting art museum that provides an environment for transformation through educational programs, cultural experiences, and bold, non-traditional exhibitions by living artists.
This is a multimedia contemporary art gallery that has no permanent collection but offers exhibitions of works by artists with regional, national, and international recognition
You’ll find CAM Raleigh as smart, modern and a little unexpected, and popular among the Raleigh locals – we loved our visit during a First Friday in Raleigh – and every exhibition is unique and designed to be thought-provoking and transformative.
The expansive, light-filled gallery space that was once a produce warehouse from the early 1900s offers various levels and floors to enjoy the ever-changing art and fashion displays.
- Hours: 10.00am – 5.00pm Thursday – Saturday, 11.00am – 5.00pm Sunday, Closed Monday – Wednesday
- Address: 409 W Martin St, Raleigh
- Website: CAMRaleigh.org
RELEVANT READING: Explore these top art museums and galleries in Raleigh
7. City of Raleigh Museum (COR)
The City of Raleigh Museum is an important place to learn about the history and culture of Black Americans in Raleigh.
Located in the 1874 historic Briggs Building, a former hardware store, the museum is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of North Carolina’s capital city while envisioning its future.
The museum features exhibits on a variety of topics, including African-American history, art, and culture.
A notable exhibit in its permanent collection is the Let Us March On: Raleigh’s Journey Toward Civil Rights room, which tells the story of Raleigh’s struggles to unite a divided society.
The exhibit features a timeline of events and images through more than 5 decades of a movement for equal rights for all.
- Hours: 9.00am-4.00pm Tuesday – Saturday, 1.00pm – 4.00pm Sunday
- Address: 220 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh
- Website: Raleighnc.gov
8. Pope House Museum
Built in 1901, The Pope House was once the home to Dr Manassa Thomas Pope and his family.
It is the only African-American house museum in the state of North Carolina and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 22, 1999.
It offers a glimpse into the life of Dr Pope, a prominent physician and the only African-American man to run for mayor of a Southern capital in the midst of the Jim Crow Era.
Pope was in the first graduating class of Shaw University’s Leonard School of Medicine in 1886 and among the first Black American physicians licensed to practice in North Carolina.
He founded the Old North State Medical Society in 1887 with three medical school classmates in response to being barred from joining the all-white North Carolina medical society.
The society has played an important role in improving the health and health care for the Black Americans in North Carolina.
The house features original furnishings to the family and many historical artifacts giving insight into a remarkable man and family.
Guided tours are by appointment only, must be scheduled at least 30-minutes prior to the tour, and will be limited to a family group or 5 people. Tours are first come, first served. Please call 919-996-2220 for more information.
Entry to the museum is free.
- Hours: 9.00am-2.00pm Saturday, 1.00pm-4.00pm Sunday.
- Address: 511 S Wilmington St, Raleigh
- Website: Raleighnc.gov/pope-house
Here are other ways to learn about Black history and culture in Raleigh.
9. Mordecai Historic Park
The Mordecai Historic Park was once the site of the largest plantation in Wake County. and is home to Mordecai House, the oldest house in Raleigh in its original location ca. 1785 and the Birthplace of Andrew Johnson.
The park also shares the stories of the 200 African-American slaves who lived on Mordecai Plantation between the American Revolution and the Civil War.
Tours of the Mordecai House and outbuildings are offered at the top of the hour (10am – 3pm) for about 50 mins. You can walk around the grounds for free at any time.
They sometimes have a Free Black History Trolley Tour which takes you to historic homes, schools, churches, and businesses important to Raleigh’s African American history.
It feels kind of random when they put them on, and they don’t operate in the winter. See trolley tours here.
- Hours: grounds are open dawn until dusk, tours run hourly between 10.00am – 4.00pm Wednesday – Saturday, 1.00pm – 4.00pm Sunday
- Address: 1 Mimosa St, Raleigh
- Website: Raleighnc.gov-mordecai-historic-park
Read our guide to the Mordecai Historic Park guided tour with a lot more interesting history!
10. Legends of Harley Drag Racing Museum
Raleigh is home to the only Harley-Davidson drag racing museum in the world, founded by world-famous drag racing champion Ray Price located on the second floor of one of the largest Harley dealerships in the United States.
Open to the public during store hours, and located on the upper balcony above the main showroom.
Ray Price was an inducted member of four halls of fame including the AMA Hall of Fame, National Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame, North Carolina Drag Racing Hall of Fame, and the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame; and is noted as the Father of the Funnybike.
He was instrumental in creating the current style racing transmission. Price also designed the first successful wheelie bar for bikes, allowing more power to the rear wheel without flipping the bike over.
- Hours: 9.00am-6.00pm Monday – Friday, 9.00am – 5.00pm Saturday, 12.00pm – 4.00pm Sunday
- Address: 1126 S Saunders St, Raleigh
- Website: Tobaccardhd.com
11. Joel Lane Museum House
Joel Lane Museum House is Wake County’s oldest home and is a museum dedicated to the founding father of Raleigh.
It was built in 1769 and was named after (though didn’t belong to), Colonel Joel Lane, who was a middle-class plantation owner known for selling 1,000 acres to the state in 1792 to be used as the new state capital.
You can wander through this historic home which has been lovingly restored to look authentic of the era it was built and is filled with 18-century objects and furnishings.
You can pre-arrange a FREE tour. which are provided by costumed docents, which are really fun and bring history to life!
- Hours: 10.00am, 11.00am, 12.00pm and 1.00pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 1.00pm, 2.00pm and 3.00pm on Saturday
- Address: 160 S St Mary’s St, Raleigh, NC 27603
- Website: https://www.joellane.org/
12. Gregg Museum of Art and Design
Located on the campus of NC State University on Hillsborough St, The Gregg Museum of Art & Design is an intriguing art museum containing around 54,000 pieces in its permenant collection.
As well as the permanent collection, they host about six temporary exhibitions each year, each with a focus on celebrating diversity amongst artists, cultures, and artistic styles.
It’s free to enter, and you can also attend lectures, film-screenings, artistic performances, and workshops. In the summer, they also often have outdoor yoga classes.
One of my favorite exhibits is dedicated to international artists, and features 19th century Japanese color woodblock prints and the textured print of a wolf – Go Pack!
This museum is really worth visiting for its celebration of local student art. The gardens out the back is also beautiful land out the front is one of my favorite trees in Raleigh – this stunning magnolia tree.
- Hours: 10.00am – 5.00pm Tuesday – Saturday, Closed Sunday and Monday
- Address: 1903 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC 27607 ·
- Website: https://gregg.arts.ncsu.edu/
There you have it. Which of these museums in Raleigh NC would you most like to visit? And if you’ve already explored them all, what one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
