Standing near the center of Old Ironsides last Friday, USS Constitution Museum Director Anne Grimes Rand and Ship Commander John Benda announced the exciting news that the Constitution Museum in the Navy Yard was voted the #5 best history museum in the United States by a USA Today reader’s poll.
“The USS Constitution Museum is pleased to announce we have been voted one of the Top 5 museums in the United States according to a USA Today 2021 Reader’s Choice travel awards poll,” said Rand. “They voted the Top 10 in the United States and we came in at number five.
“We are honored and thrilled by this award, especially in the company of so many prestigious history museums,” she continued. “Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted for us, and to our partners who supported our efforts to ‘get out the vote’ and achieve this wonderful distinction. The USS Constitution Museum looks forward to wowing our guests with great hands-on experiences as we share the stories of ‘Old Ironsides’ and her dedicated crew, both past and present.”
Commander Benda said the partnership between the Constitution and the Museum is a very special one, and it goes hand-in-hand.
“This not just a national-class museum, but a world-class museum,” he said. “We could not do what we do without the collaboration of our great partners in the Charlestown Navy Yard like the Constitution Museum.”
The USS Constitution Museum ranked #5 in USA Today’s 2021 10 Best Readers’ Choice travel awards in the category of “Best History Museum.” In a highly competitive category of top museums from around the United States, online votes determined the winners from a group of 20 initial nominees. The Museum was the sole nominee and winner in this category from New England.
The full list of the 10 Best Readers’ Choice Award-winners for Best History Museum is as follows:
•National Infantry Museum & Soldier Center (Columbus, GA)
•National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, OH)
•National Museum of the Marine Corps (Triangle, VA)
•The Mob Museum (Las Vegas, NV)
•USS Constitution Museum (Boston, MA)
•Museum of History & Industry (Seattle, WA)
•Independence Seaport Museum (Philadelphia, PA)
•National WWII Museum (New Orleans, LA)
•Museum of Native American History (Bentonville, AR)
•The Henry Ford (Dearborn, MI)
The USS Constitution Museum opened last weekend, and it will be open daily for the summer beginning on Thursday, May 27. During Memorial Day weekend, Museum visitors can craft a poppy—a symbol of remembrance—to honor a fallen military service member in their life or share a message of gratitude and add it to our memorial poppy garden. The completed poppies will be featured in a Memorial Day ceremony on board USS Constitution.