15 Museums to Explore in Virginia

This is a water mill in Aldie, Virginia built shortly after 1804 to grind grain using the waters of the Little River. Retaining much of its original machinery, it is one of the best-preserved mills in Virginia.

The Centre Hill Mansion was built in 1823 by Robert Bolling IV, a Revolutionary War veteran and member of a prominent Virginia family. The house is a combination of Federal, Greek Revival, and Colonial architectural styles. The house remained a residence until 1936. Today Centre Hill is a historic house museum owned and operated by the City of Petersburg.

Dodona Manor, the former home of General George Catlett Marshal is a National Historic Landmark and historic house museum at 312 East Market Street in Leesburg, Virginia. It is owned by the George C. Marshall International Center, which has restored the property to its Marshall-era appearance of the 1950s. It is nationally significant as the home of George C. Marshall.

The Magnolia Grange is a historic mansion located across from the Chesterfield County Courthouse in Chesterfield. This brick plantation house was built in 1823 and is a two-story, five-bay, brick dwelling in the Federal style. It is known for its elaborate woodwork and ornamental ceiling medallions. It now operates as a museum and has a lot of ancient collections.

A unit of the National Park Service located in Prince William County, that preserves the site of two major American Civil War battles: the First Battle of Bull Run and the Second Battle of Bull Run. The park offers exhibits includes Civil War-era uniforms, weapons, field gear, and an electronic battle map and so more. The park was established in 1940 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

The Military Aviation Museum is home to one of the largest private collections of World War I and World War II-era military aircraft in the world.

A 1,000-acre historic estate and horse park in Leesburg, Virginia. It is home to the Morven Park Mansion, the Winmill Carriage Museum, formal boxwood gardens, miles of hiking and riding trails, and athletic fields. The park is also home to the Museum of Hounds and Hunting of North America with displays of art, artifacts, and memorabilia about the sport of foxhunting.

Historical Museum of the United States Marine Corps. Located in Triangle, Virginia near MCB Quantico, the museum opened on November 10, 2006, and is now one of the top tourist attractions in the state, drawing over 500,000 people annually. There are so many exhibits here which paves light to the history of United States.

A research library and art museum in Middleburg, Virginia in the United States founded in 1954. It has collections that include over 20,000 books, periodicals, archives, and ephemera objects. Overall, the collection dates to the 16th century, with rare and antiquarian titles housed in the library's F. Ambrose Clark Rare Book Room.

The NRA National Firearms Museum is a museum established in 1935, located at the NRA Headquarters Building in Fairfax County which has Approximately 2,500 guns are displayed in 15,000 square feet. The museum's exhibits cover seven centuries of firearms development and history. The main museum galleries are organized chronologically. Exhibits include firearms used for competition shooting, hunting, personal defense, recreational shooting, and police work.

This is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, which holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, and the Gemini 7 space capsule.

Sully was the home of Richard Bland Lee, uncle of Robert E. Lee, and northern Virginia's first representative to congress. The home is furnished with Federal period antiques and combines Georgian and Federal architechtural styles. It was restored by Fairfax County Park Authority in 1976.

The CIA Museum, administered by the Center for the Study of Intelligence, is a national archive for the collection, preservation, documentation and exhibition of intelligence artifacts, culture, and history. Its collection includes material associated with all activities of the CIA's predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, a material associated with activities of foreign intelligence organizations, and material associated with the history and mission of the Central Intelligence Agency.

A small historic museum in Dumfries, Virginia, United States which includes the landmark Weems–Botts House on the corner of Duke Street and Cameron Street and the Weems–Botts Museum Annex, which houses the Lee Lansing Research Library and Archive, The museum tour showcases the history of Dumfries, Virginia's oldest chartered town, and people associated with the house, including Mason Locke "Parson" Weems, and attorney Benjamin Botts.

Violet Bank is a historic plantation house and museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Today the home is a superb example of Federal design and American interior decorative arts. The museum interprets the period from 1815 to 1873 and displays a wide array of Civil War era artifacts.