New York can be a magical city for museumgoers. It can also be overwhelming and overcrowded at times, especially at the biggest, most famous museums.
Luckily, the city has scores of great museums, everything from elegant gems housed in historic mansions to preserved Lower East Side tenement flats and hands-on experiences that might surprise even long-time New Yorkers.
“Going to the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the American Museum of Natural History is fantastic. But they can be like a supersized coffee drink, while we’re more like a cup of espresso,” says Alex Kalman, director of two of the city’s tiniest museums, Mmuseumm1 and Mmuseumm2.
One is built into an old lift shaft in a downtown alleyway.
At other small museums you’ll find a cosy, Viennese-style coffee shop; kosher Jewish comfort food like bagels, blintzes, herring and house-cured salmon; and edgy gift shops to rival MoMA’s famous one.
You could view the chair that George Washington sat in before giving his inaugural address to Congress. You can even make seltzer or solve maths puzzles.