Museums in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City is the largest city in the state of Missouri. It was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River. The town of Kansas was incorporated in 1850.

Shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory and then the State of Kansas. Since then confusion between the state and city has ensued.

The name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish it from the Territory and the State of Kansas. Kansas City today sits on Missouri’s western boundary of Missouri next to the state of Kansas.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum opened its Euro-Style Bloch addition in 2007, and the Safdie-designed Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2011.

The Liberty Memorial, a World War I memorial and museum, was designated as the National World War I Museum and Memorial in 2004. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is near the Country Club Plaza District.

The home of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum is in the 18th & Vine District, an internationally recognized cradle of jazz music and a historic hub of African-American businesses.

Swope Park, one of the nation’s largest city parks, features a zoo, a woodland nature, and a wildlife rescue center.

Hodge Park includes the Shoal Creek Living History Museum, a village of more than 20 historical buildings dating from 1807 to 1885.

The Downtown Airport was TWA’s original headquarters and houses the Airline History Museum.

Museums in Kansas City, Missouri

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
National WWI Museum and Memorial
Kansas City Museum
American Jazz Museum
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Science City
Union Station Kansas City
Arabia Steamboat Museum
TWA Museum
National Airline History Museum
The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures
Historic Garment District Museum
Kansas City Zoo
Shoal Creek Living History Museum
The John Wornall House Museum
Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site
Belger Arts Center
Johnson County Museum
Strawberry Hill Museum & Center
Museum at Prairiefire
Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site
Trailside Center
Missouri Town 1855
Liberty Jail Church Historic Site
Jesse James Bank Museum
Truman Home – Harry S Truman National Historic Site

Highlights Tour of the Museums in Kansas City, Missouri

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum with a comprehensive collection of art from nearly every continent and culture.

The museum’s new Bloch Building has been listed in “The 10 Best Architectural Marvels” by Time magazine in 2007.

The museum’s Culture Collection includes European and American sculpture, Decorative arts, English pottery and works on paper, Egyptian art, Greek and Roman art, modern and contemporary paintings and sculpture, and the art of Africa and Oceania.

National WWI Museum and Memorial

The National World War I Museum and Memorial of the United States opened as the Liberty Memorial museum in 1926. The United States Congress designated it as America’s official museum dedicated to World War I in 2004.

The museum tells the story of the Great War and related global events from their origins before 1914 through the 1918 armistice and 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Visitors enter the exhibit space across a glass bridge above a field of 9,000 red poppies, each one representing 1,000 combatant deaths.

The memorial grounds include a sizeable elliptical fountain, and on each side is a tapering staircase ascending to the commemorative deck.