Harvard Museum of Natural History, Boston

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a fairly recent arrival on the Boston museum scene. It opened in 1998 to bring together parts of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, Herbaria, and the Mineralogical and Geological collections to make them accessible to a broader audience.

Among its most renowned attractions is the Glass Flowers collection, whose name is wonderfully literal. These are botanical models made from glass, wire, paint, and enamel. They are so incredibly lifelike that some visitors stare at them and ask, quite reasonably, “But where are the glass flowers?” The answer is: right in front of you, fooling your eyes with professional confidence.

The collection is especially satisfying in winter, when the outside world is grey and leafless, but inside, you can find desert cacti, tropical orchids, and blue flag irises all apparently in bloom at the same time. Nature may have seasons; Harvard, apparently, has glass...

Children are usually drawn to the dinosaur exhibits, large mammals, and meteorites, and adults often share their enthusiasm. These displays can become quite crowded and noisy, particularly on weekends or weekday mornings when school groups visit. An excellent escape is the small balcony situated just above the Great Mammal Hall, where Harvard's splendid collection of North American birds is showcased. Here, you can relax on a bench by a window and sketch the beautiful hummingbirds and warblers, or simply wonder how creatures so tiny manage their long biannual migrations while most of us complain about changing gates at the airport...

Indeed, this is a classic museum in the best sense: thoughtful, dense, slightly overwhelming, and full of things worth lingering over. The Glass Flowers alone make the visit worthwhile, partly because they are beautiful, and partly because they leave you questioning your own eyesight. Better still, your admission also includes the adjoining Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, giving you access to one of the world’s major anthropological collections. So pace yourself: Harvard has packed a lot under one ticket, and it fully expects your curiosity to keep up.