If you’re visiting Boston, you should make time to explore Cambridge. It’s a compact and pretty town with world class museums, stunning architecture, and plenty of al fresco patios for eating and drinking.
The best place to start is with the Harvard Museum of Natural History which houses over 12,000 different natural specimens. Among them are dinosaur fossils, meteorites and gems.
Museum of Natural History
Located in the center of Harvard’s campus, the Museum of Natural History is an exciting destination for science lovers and nature enthusiasts alike. Guests can explore its extensive collections of dinosaurs, fossils and geology.
The museum’s zoology collection is a favorite with children. The stuffed animals range from tiny hummingbirds to large giraffes.
Another popular attraction is the Blaschka Collection of Glass Sea-Life and Glass Flower models, a series of accurate, lifelike models created by father and son artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.
The museum’s galleries contain many exhibits based on its extensive collection of fossils, birds and mammals. These provide important information on evolutionary and distributional processes and are a vital resource for current and future research.
Kettle’s Yard
Kettle’s Yard is a beautiful house and modern art gallery that is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This place is one of the best places to see modern and contemporary art in Cambridge.
The former home of Jim Ede, a curator at the Tate Gallery in London, Kettle’s Yard is a unique setting for modern and contemporary art. It combines art and natural objects in intimate rooms to create a balanced, artistic whole.
The gallery was designed by Leslie Martin and David Owers, and recently expanded by Jamie Fobert Architects. The extension includes a series of new exhibition and education spaces that complement the original converted house.
Longfellow House
This historic yellow mansion was home to the world’s foremost poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He lived here from 1843 until his death in 1882. It was also General George Washington’s first major headquarters during the American Revolution, where he planned the siege of Boston here between July 1775 and April 1776.
In 1972, Longfellow’s descendants transferred the house to the National Park Service, ensuring its long-term preservation and public access. The house and furnishings are open to the public, where visitors can learn about Longfellow’s storied legacy and see his extensive library and thousands of letters.
Harvard Divinity School
Founded in 1816, Harvard Divinity School is an academic community committed to serious and impartial investigation of Christian truth. It educates women and men for service as leaders in religious life and thought, as ministers and teachers, and in a variety of professions enriched by theological study.
While it was founded as a Protestant institution, its faculty has expanded to include scholars of Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist traditions. The school also has a long history of social justice activism.
On a sunny afternoon in the courtyard of Andover Hall, a small labyrinth leads visitors to a place of calm. The garden, created to encourage contemplation, has been visited by a wide range of people over the years.
Punting on the River Cam
Punting on the River Cam is a popular activity in Cambridge. It’s an exciting way to see the city while gliding along the river in a long wooden punt.
- It’s also a great way to experience the history of Cambridge and the University. You can book a chauffeur-driven punt tour where an expert punter will narrate the history and tell you all about the sights.
- Self-hire punting is another option where you can hire your own boat and try your hand at this mellow watersport. However, it’s important to be aware of your surroundings and other people in the water around you.
- The lower River Cam is where most tourists go when they come to Cambridge, but the upper portion of the River Cam is much quieter. This section of the river is perfect for a peaceful and relaxing experience, as you glide past tidy meadows, Cambridge-adjacent villages and traditional buildings.
