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    Fort Devens, MA Museums

    The Fruitlands Museum in Harvard is the site of Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane's experimental Transcendentalist community in 1843. It now houses the Shaker Museum with the world's largest collection of Harvard Shaker documents and artifacts, the Native American gallery featuring cultural artifacts of local Native Americans, and an Art Gallery housing the second largest collection of Hudson River School paintings in the country.

    The Fitchburg Art Museum features 20,000 square feet of space for exhibits of local contemporary art, American photography, and American, African, Roman, Egyptian, and Greek art from the 19th century. Admission is free for military members and their families.

    The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton showcases North America's largest collection of Russian icons, and one of the largest collections outside of Russia itself. Privately collected at first, many of these icons, or images made for spiritual enlightenment (usually by Orthodox Christians, as in Russia), date back thousands of years. The 16,000 square feet of space exhibit the icons and also houses room for archives and research, lecture and concert rooms, and a Russian tea room.

    The EcoTarium in Worcester is a nature and science museum, aimed at education and fun for kids K-12, with indoor and outdoor exhibits covering the topics like minerals, bubbles, and dinosaurs. There are also nature trails and many animals (that are unreleasable into the wild) such as chinchillas, red fox, river otter, and bald eagles.

    Old Sturbridge Village provides a living history experience of the early 1800s in New England. Kids can dress up in period clothing and learn about colonial life, from farming to cooking, and participate in many different programs, camps, and educational events.

    The Willard House and Clock Museum is the oldest building in Grafton, built in 1718, and is the site of the famous Willard brothers clock making business, started in 1766. The Willard brothers would become some of the most important clockmakers of the 19th century and their home is still furnished with family artifacts and over 80 original clocks, the largest collection anywhere in the world.

    The Worcester Art Museum contains international art from antiquity to contemporary works, with over 35,000 total pieces. The museum has acquired the entire inventory of the former Higgins Armory, one of the country's largest collections of armor and arms, including several full suits of armor.

    The Worcester Historical Museum is one of the only places to share local history of Worcester with the public, including artifacts and documents from the Civil War era, industrial and textile days, WWII, as well as art and sculpture. The historical society also runs the Salisbury Mansion, a restored 1800s home with one of the most complete histories in the New England area.

    The Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum in Fitchburg is claims to be the only aviation-toy related museum in the world and offers visitors a unique chance to play with and make their own planes and flying things. There are also antique toys on display from around the world and vintage artifacts related to aviation.