Take your family to a Smithsonian exhibition near you! There are more than 100 Smithsonian Affiliate museums across the country. Here we highlight shows of special interest to families. Some are temporary, so be sure to check the dates.

Wisconsin Maritime Museum
Children's Waterways Room
Youngsters of all ages can launch miniature boats on a miniature Lake Superior and steer through a miniature version of the Sault Ste. Marie locks. Take a look, too, at the museum’s Model Ship Gallery, featuring finely detailed scale models of Great Lakes–going vessels.
Permanent Exhibit
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Antique Automobile Club of America Museum
A Family Affair: Station Wagons
This summer, the museum celebrates the standard family transport of “those days before minivans, SUVs, and soccer moms.” The exhibit A Family Affair: Station Wagons includes more than 20 wagons, from a 1928 Chrysler to a 1987 Cadillac. Exhibit open May 23–October 11, 2015.
Temporary Exhibit
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Plimoth Plantation
Family Overnights
Visitors to this reconstruction of colonial Massachusetts “learn something old every day”—and throughout the night as well. Families can “sleep like the pilgrims” on overnights at the plantation, after a day of immersion in the 1600s. Everyone is outfitted in period clothing. Allowances are made for modern needs. Breakfast the following morning, for example, includes coffee for the adults—something the pilgrims never knew they were missing.
Permanent Program
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Museum of Flight
How Birds Fly
This special exhibit introduces the basics of flight with a look at the true masters of the air. Bird flight has always been an inspiration to the dreamers of human flight, from Daedalus to Leonardo to the Wright brothers to today’s aerospace engineers. Through September 4, 2015.
Temporary Exhibit
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San Diego History Center Ingenious! The World of Dr. Seuss
The full artistic career of La Jolla resident Theodor Seuss Geisel is represented in an exhibit for all ages. Included are family activities inspired by Seussian themes. Through December 31, 2015.
Temporary Exhibit
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Frazier History Museum
Historical Interpretations
Louisville’s museum of American and world history presents several live shows each day, drawn from a repertory of 90 historical interpretations. The cast of characters includes Annie Oakley, Joan of Arc, Wilhelm Tell, Lewis and Clark, an English archer at Agincourt, and an Edo-period Samurai warrior. See a detailed schedule on the museum’s website.
Permanent Program
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South Florida Museum
Family Night at the Museum
The museum of South Florida natural and cultural history includes a manatee aquarium, a planetarium, and a re-creation of a colonial Spanish plaza. These broad interests are reflected in Family Night at the Museum, held the first Saturday of most months. Recent programs include “Under the Microscope” and “The Science of Art.” Check the website for upcoming programs.
Permanent Program
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Rubin Museum of Art
Family Sundays
Every Sunday is family day at the Rubin, a museum of South Asian art in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The day includes drop-in art activities and family exhibition tours. For ages 3 and up with accompanying adults.
Permanent Program
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New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
FossilWorks
In 2014, a group of friends decided to combine a bachelor party with a camping trip to Elephant Butte Lake State Park, New Mexico. The name Elephant Butte did not prepare them for the highlight of the trip: they stumbled upon the skull of a 3.2-million-year-old elephant, complete with tusks. The skull is currently being extracted from its stone matrix in the museum’s FossilWorks lab. Everyone is invited to watch this mammoth undertaking.
Permanent Exhibit
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Japanese American National Museum
Free Family Saturdays
The museum, an anchor of downtown L.A.’s Little Tokyo historic district, holds periodic Free Family Saturdays. Admission is free for the whole family. Past activities include origami workshops, taiko-drumming lessons, and Hello Kitty crafts. Check the website for upcoming days.
Permanent Program
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Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum
Choo Choo Blue Kids Zone
Dedicated to the childlike love of trains in visitors of all ages, the 40-acre museum complex has added a Kids Zone that features weekend activities and story times. Kids can also take a train ride through the miniature Choo Choo Blueville.
Permanent Program
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Lyman Museum and Mission Home
Grandfather's House: An Exhibition on Korea
Visitors to the museum can step inside a full-scale model of a 1930s Korean family home. Once a traveling exhibit, Grandfather’s House is now a fixture at the Lyman. On the grounds of the museum is an actual historic house, built in the 1830s by New England missionaries to Hawaii.
Permanent Exhibit
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Museum of the Rockies
The Tyrant King
Tyrannosaurus rex is ruler of a new exhibit in the museum’s Siebel Dinosaur Complex, home of America’s largest collection of dinosaur fossils and one of the world’s most complete T rex skeletons (40 feet long from teeth to tail). The Tyrant King exhibit includes a series of T rex skulls that show the growth of the species from juvenile to adult. The dinosaur complex was designed by its curator, Dr. Jack Horner, the science advisor for the Jurassic Park movies.
Permanent Exhibit
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U.S. Space & Rocket Center
The Robot Zoo
The complexities of biology are introduced in the simpler terms of engineering in this hands-on exhibit for the whole family. Animal anatomy is presented as easily recognizable machine parts. Visitors meet mechanized versions of a giraffe, a rhino, a chameleon, a giant squid, and a gigantesque house fly. Through September 13, 2015.
Temporary Exhibit
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