American Museum in Britain

American Museum in Britain Review

A 19th-century Greek Revival mansion in a majestic setting on a hill 2½ miles southeast of the city holds the only museum of American decorative arts outside the United States. Rooms are furnished in historical styles, such as a 17th-century keeping room from Massachusetts and a richly red New Orleans bedroom from the 1860s. Other galleries explore historical themes (the settlement of the West, the Civil War) or contain rugs and quilts, porcelain, and Shaker objects; a separate building is devoted to folk art. The parkland includes a reproduction of George Washington's garden at Mount Vernon. Take a bus headed to the University of Bath and get off at the Avenue, where signs point to the museum, half a mile away. You can also take a City Sightseeing bus.