Top Museums in Tucson
The top museums in Tucson include art and history museums, children’s and science museums, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the Pima Air and Space Museum.
The top museums in Tucson and neighboring towns are, in alphabetical order:
The Acadia Ranch Museum is run by the Oracle Historical Society in the small town of Oracle, about an hour’s drive from downtown Tucson. The museum naturally tells the fascinating story of Acadia Ranch, which was built between 1885 and 1930. In 1885 it was built as a lodging house and also served as the Oracle Post Office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Close to the campus of the University of Arizona, this museum is run by the Arizona Historical Society. Among the many interesting exhibits is Geronimo’s rifle, a reconstruction of the kind of home early miners lived in, a chance to experience what it was like to walk through one of those mines (not pleasant!), and a look at transportation through the years.
This is easily one of Tucson’s highlights. Animals here are either permanently or temporarily unable to survive in the wild, and they are shown in their natural habitat, as much as possible. Don’t miss the hummingbird enclosure, or the daily raptor displays, and there are mountain lions, wolves, javelinas… and of course snakes! See our full page on the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Founded in 1893, this Tucson museum has had plenty of time to build up its substantial collection covering the whole state of Arizona. This includes the largest collection in the world of southwestern Native American pottery. Don’t miss the photographic collection. Allow plenty of time as it is absorbing.
Center for Creative Photography
Located on the University of Arizona campus, where you’ll find several museums, this major photography collection contains over 80,000 images from more than 2,000 of the world’s leading photographers, including sixty of the USA’s most celebrated photographers. The collection also includes the Ansel Adams archive, which has every negative known to exist when Adams passed away.
A short walk from downtown, the Children’s Museum Tucson is in what was the city’s original Carnegie Library. It covers everything from ancient dinosaurs to transportation to modern electricity, with many hands-on exhibits. The museum also takes advantage of Tucson’s climate with a butterfly garden (not what you think), a music garden with drums and xylophones, and a garden planted by Tucson’s most famous chef, Janos Wilder.
Flaundrau Science Center and Planetarium
This center includes a mineral museum as well as the science center and planetarium. It’s conveniently close to the State Museum, History Museum, and the University of Arizona Museum of Art.
This small but enjoyable museum is housed in the reconstructed officers’ quarters from the original Fort Lowell in the Fort Lowell public park. The fort was active from 1873 to 1891 in what was at the time the outskirts of Tucson. Now it’s a couple of miles from the nearest Costco! You can find out what it was like to be in the army at the time, and try your hand at basic but essential skills like making your own soap and candles.
Maynard Dixon was an artist (1875-1946) whose work focused on the southwest USA. You’ll find this museum in the Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, which also features contemporary southwest artists and is close to Sabino Canyon in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Here you’ll find paintings, drawings and poetry by Dixon, as well as his easel and other personal items.
Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures
We went to this museum when we had friends visiting, and one of them wanted to go. We thought it would be boring but it was totally fascinating and we spent a long time closely examining the collection of over 500 miniature items, from antique to present-day. Do check out their very good YouTube channel to see what’s there.
You have to be the right person to enjoy this vast place. We sent our visiting nephews and niece there one day. The nephews both said ‘That was a blast!’ and took hundreds of photos, while the niece’s verdict was ‘That was the most boring day I’ve ever spent in my life.’ There are six hangars with almost 300 airplanes in total, and you can take a separate bus tour to see all the planes in their ‘boneyard’. To get an idea of whether this is for you, check out their Live Stream.
Southern Arizona Transportation Museum
This is another of Tucson’s smaller and more specialist museums, but equally fascinating as you learn how the arrival of the train in the 1880s transformed the city. The museum also deals with the arrival of the car, and then the interstate. It’s housed in, appropriately, what was the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot
This is a 25-minute drive south of Tucson, located between the neighboring towns of Sahuarita and Green Valley. It is totally unique, the chance to see around the facility that housed an intercontinental ballistic missile which was aimed at the USSR for almost twenty years during the Cold War.
What would have happened if the button had been pressed to launch the missile? What precautions were in place? What was life like for those who had to keep the place operational 24/7? You’ll discover the answers to all these questions on a gripping guided tour.
Located right downtown and a five-minute walk from the Visitor Center in the Presidio district, this is an eclectic and must-see museum if you’re visiting Tucson. Its permanent collection of over 8,000 pieces goes back to Native American art, pre-Columbian artefacts, southwester art of the old west, and an extensive contemporary collection too. The galleries are light and spacious. The full name is the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, as the grounds also include five 19th-century buildings that are used by the museum.
The University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum
One of the major events in the Tucson calendar is the annual Gem Show, one of the biggest in the world. The city’s long association with gems and minerals is showcased in this lovely museum, housed in the historic Pima County Courthouse, where you’ll also find the tourist information office. It has displays beautiful gems and minerals from all over the world, but with a special emphasis on those from Arizona and neighboring Mexico.
University of Arizona Museum of Art
On the northern side of the U of A campus, this art museum has over 6,000 items in its permanent collection, which began collecting art in the 1930s. It concentrates on European and American art, from the Renaissance to the present day, and has works by Edward Hopper, Matisse, Picasso, Dalí, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Rodin, Henry Moore, and Marc Chagall, amongst others.
OUR PICK OF THE GUIDES
From that blues bar you haven’t visited yet to the desert hike you keep meaning to plan, experience something new right here at home with Moon 52 Things to Do in Phoenix & Tucson.
- Cool things to do in and around the cities: Kick back at a Spring Training game or squeeze into the grandstands of El Gran Mercado for some lucha libre. Bike the famed Loop in Tucson, kayak Tempe Town Lake, and lace up your boots for an urban hike in the Phoenix Mountains. Support local BIPOC writers at Palabras Bilingual Bookstore and taste what’s on tap at a women-owned brewery. Savor Sonoran-style food like tamales and carne asada or try authentic Tohono O’odham fry bread.
