Raleigh may not be known for having big ticket attractions, but it does have some fantastic museums! It’s not referred to as the Smithsonian of the South for no reason.
What I love about the museums in Raleigh is that many of them are free to enter and run on donations, making them accessible to anyone.
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 always see something new.
Whether you’re looking to blast back to the dinosaur age or you’re looking to learn about local culture, or perhaps just want something to do on a rainy day, this is a complete guide to Raleigh’s museums so you can pick one to visit.
Many of Raleigh’s museums are temporarily closed for renovations, and we will update this guide for all reopening dates as soon as we hear them.
To help you plan your day out at the museum, 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
The excellent and free to visit North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is one of Raleigh’s top attractions, located in the heart of downtown, just behind the state capitol building.
It’s 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. There are also special exhibitions on throughout the year and an IMAX screen showing 3D movies.
If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend attending an event at the museum. The annual BugFest festival in September is a great event to take the kids to. Each year they shine the spotlight on a bug or creature, such as spiders or crustaceans, and host a bunch of educational activities and programs to get kids interested in the natural world.
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.
- Hours: 10.00am – 5.00pm Tuesday – Sunday, Closed Monday
- Address: 11 W Jones Street, Raleigh
- Website: naturalsciences.org
Video: Watch us explore the NC Museum of Natural Sciences
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 4,000 pieces art from around the world, spanning over 5,000 years old. 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.
As of June 2025, work has started on a new expansion of the campus and improvements to its accessibility. The museum is open during the construction, which will continue until 2027, but note there may be some parts of the museum closed and some parking lots may be impacted during the construction. 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
Video: Watch us explore the NC Museum of Art
3. North Carolina Museum of History (Temporarily Closed)
NOTE: The NC Museum of History is currently closed for extensive renovations. It’s expected to take 3 YEARS!!! There is no expected opening date. Check back at the end of 2027 to see how it’s going. While the building is closed, it continues to engage the public through programs and digital resources.
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: 10:00am – 5:00pm Tuesday–Saturday, 12:00pm – 5:00pm Sunday
- Address: 5 E. Edenton St., Raleigh
- Website: ncmuseumofhistory.org
4. NC Sports Hall of Fame (Temporarily Closed)
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.
Since the NC Musuem of History is closed for renovations, the NC Sports Hall of Fame is also closed until 2027 when works are expected to be completed.
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.
Note however, that this is one of the few museums in Raleigh that is NOT free. Prices start at $9.50 or you can buy a membership. WE had a membership when our daughters were little and it was worth it! They do sometimes have free events on though.
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 special events throughout the year and even fun events for adults! Here is our complete guide to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.
- Hours: 10.00am-5.00pm daily, on Thursday it closes at 7.00pm for extended play hours! Closed Monday
- Address: 201 E Hargett St, Raleigh
- Website: marbleskidsmuseum.org
6. Contemporary Art Museum (Temporarily Closed)
The Contemporary Art Museum, also known as CAM, closed its doors in June 2025 to “reflect, reimagine, and redesign” its future, with no reopening date currently set. The cost of running its space in the Warehouse District became too high, and so it was forced to close its doors.
However, they are still running events and exhibitions in the Raleigh and Triangle area, including the Raleigh Fine Arts Society North Carolina Artists Exhibition from September 28th to November 16th, 2025 – so they are still a massive presence in the Raleigh art scene.
CAM Raleigh is known for being 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 has not had a 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, and every exhibition is unique and designed to be thought-provoking and transformative.
Stay tuned for updates about the future of this museum.
- 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, Closed Monday, First Fridays 6:00pm – 9:00pm
- Address: 220 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh
- Website: Raleighnc.gov
8. Dr. M.T. Pope House Museum (Reopening November 2025)
The museum is currently closed for renovations, and is expected to reopen sometime in November 2025. Check back for reopening dates nearer the time.
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 get tour tickets from the onsite Visitor Info Center. You can walk around the grounds for free at any time and twice a year they have FREE Fridays with free tours all day.
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!
The museum offers tours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 10am, 11am, 12pm and 1pm, as well as on Saturdays at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. Tours are free and walk-ins welcome (groups under 6). Some tours are open to the public and others are private, so it’s best to check the website before visiting.
- 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 34,000 pieces in its permanent 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/
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!
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I was born in Raleigh but moved to Indiana when I was a very young child. I haven’t managed to go to all of these museums on my visits back ther. If I’m ever blessed enough to be able to visit again I’ll be going to more of them. From this article, they’re all must sees.
Hi Janet. The museums in Raleigh are a definite highlight for visitors and locals.
1/10/26 – so disappointed that both modern art museums are closed at the SAME TIME. Planning a trip today and in deciding which museums to visit I find that the NC Museum of Art and CAM Raleigh are both closed. For us modern art lovers this is blowing my trip up and not in a good way. Not interested in any other museums at this time. Also surprised that so many museums are closed for multiple days during the week. I understand that most museums get most of the visitors on weekends, but some of us visiting Raleigh during the week are surely let down.
I understand how frustrating this is for you! CAM has been closed for a while now and we’re unsure if it’s coming back. We really hope it does. I guess in the winter things slow down a lot as well, so tough choices have to be made so its financially viable. The history museum is also closed for a couple of years for renovations. I hope you were able to find other fun things to do.