31 May 2025
This museum is not to be missed. Start with the approximately 20 minute video on the first floor about the history of New York. It’s a good starting point for the rest of your visit. From there we visited the two rooms on the history of the city. There was so much information. I feel like I have a greater understanding of the city after going through these spaces. (Pro tip: grab a stool, there’s a lot of reading.) There’s a very well done film that’s about 30 minutes long on NYC film. I could watch it again since I know I missed parts due to where I was seated in the room (the film is along three walls).
The exhibit on Shirley Chisholm was excellent. I honestly knew very little about her before visiting the exhibit.
We spent four hours at the museum and didn’t see everything. I would definitely return. I wish I had visited at the start of our trip because I probably would have noticed some different things about the city after having visited the museum.