Travel for the Independence Day holiday week is already underway, with AAA projecting that close to 71 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home between this past weekend and next.
Whether or not you plan to hit the road, we hope visiting a museum is part of the agenda. Here are some museums offering free admission on July 4, throughout the holiday weekend and all summer.
In Seattle, the Museum of Flight is offering free admission all day (from 10 am to 5 pm) Thursday, July 4. The museum recently opened a new exhibit, Home Beyond Earth exploring what it might be like to live and/or work in space.
Museums on Us: free entry for the holiday weekend: July 6 & 7
(courtesy Alder Planetarium)
Bank of America offers free entry to major museums around the country during the first full weekend of every month to anyone with a Bank of America credit or debit card. The next free weekend is July 6 and 7.
The list of participating museums around the country is quite long and includes museums such as The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI and the Alder Planetarium in Chicago where the regular admission fee can be quite hefty. This is also a great option if you’re looking for an activity to escape bad weather or extreme heat.
The Blue Star Museums program offers free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families, including the National Guard and Reserve.
The 2024 Blue Star Museums program is underway now and runs through Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2024.
Participating Blue Star Museums include a long list of children’s museums, art museums, history and science museums, zoos, nature centers, and more.
Check this list to see if there’s a participating museum near you.
More ways to get free museum admission
Many museums have regular days or hours when admission is free, discounted or “pay what you wish.” To find out when you may need to check the “tickets” page on a museum’s website and scroll (way) down.
A membership card from a museum in the North American Reciprocal Museum Association will get you free admission at more than 1,000 member museums in the U.S., Canada and beyond.
In some American cities, a group of museums may offer free admission on the first Thursday or Friday of a given month. Some sites, like Chicago’s Field Museum, offer state residents free entry on select days. And in Washington, D.C., admission is always free at Smithsonian Institution venues, including the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Zoo.
The Museums for All program offers free or reduced admission year-round to visitors with public assistance (EBT) ID cards and many public libraries have museum passes that can be checked out free to anyone with a current library card.
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