Museums to Offer Free Admission

Hundreds of museums across the country will be offerring free admission on Saturday, courtesy of a program called “Museum Day Live!” by Smithsonian Magazine. The free admission includes a couple of museums around Winchester.

The Griffin Museum of Photography, a nonprofit organization dedicated solely to the art of photography, will be open noon to 4 p.m. for the Museum Day. It will be showing the following exhibits: "Through the Looking Glass" Photographs by Lynn Goldsmith, "Transcendence" Photographs by Jess Dugan and "Undertow"
Photographs by Rita Bernstein.

The Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, also participating, is the home of the state's largest slaveholding family and the enslaved Africans who made their lavish way of life possible. There are guided tours from 1 to 5 p.m. that will take you through the only remaining freestanding Slave Quarters in the north and a new installation that recreates living/working space of enslaved Africans in the Royall House.

Up the road a bit in Salem, the Salem Witch Museum and Phillips House are also on the list.

The Witch Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. The regular admission charge is $9 for adults, $7.50 for senior citizens and $6 for children age 6-14.

Phillips House is owned and operated by Historic New England and sits in Salem’s Chestnut Street Historic District. It is the only home on the street open to the public. It is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday with tours every hour. Regular admission is $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens and $2.50 for students. Salem residents are always free.

The John Cabot House in Beverly is owned and operated by the Beverly Historic Society and was the first brick mansion built in Beverly. It served as the first home of Beverly Bank in 1802. Regular admission is $5 for adults and $4 for senior citizens and students. Hours on Saturday are 10 am. to 4 p.m.

The other participating museums near Winchester include Andover Historical Society, Wenham Museum, Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Cogswell's Grant and Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, Cape Ann Museum and Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, The Great House at Castle Hill in Ipswich and Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury. A complete list of participating museums is available on the "Museum Day Live!" website.

The program simply involves going on the Smithsonian Museum’s website and printing out a coupon that is good for free admission for two people.

You are required to submit your information and a coupon is sent to you via e-mail. Tickets are issued for a specific museum.