School History Trips to Explore the Top Museums in New York

New York is known for being a modern city, but it is also an excellent destination for students. Among its many sights, its museums offer students on school history trips a chance to expand their understanding of New York’s past, and that of the wider world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s long survey of art from ancient cultures around the world up to modern times, including the specific medieval European focus of the Cloisters, is world-renowned and not to be missed. To learn about the past accounts of America and New York, students can also visit the George Gustav Heye Center (part of the National Museum of the American Indian), the Tenement Museum and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a landmark museum on the edge of Central Park and a strongly recommended stop. It exhibits art from across human cultural history: from the monumental stone lammasu (guardian figures) from a palace of the Ancient Near-Eastern king Ashurnasirpal II to the American Wing, its range is formidable. Whatever areas a student is interested in, there will be material to appreciate and study. In northern Manhattan, the Cloisters collects the majority of the medieval European material in a beautiful wooded setting.

George Gustav Heye Center

The permanent collection in the George Gustav Heye Center is designed to showcase the breadth of the greater National Museum of the American Indian collection, which has the mission of exhibiting the life, history, languages, literature and arts of the Native American peoples. It is invaluable for students on school history trips who want to learn more about the true depth of American history.

The Tenement Museum

New York’s history as a destination for immigrants newly arrived to the country is best appreciated in the Tenement Museum, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is located at 97 Orchard Street, a former tenement block that housed a total of over 7,000 people during a period of about 70 years (from 1863 to 1935). For groups on school history trips, it is a chance to see the living conditions of immigrants and understand how their lives fit into a wider American historical context.

National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The most memorable event in recent New York history is, of course, the attacks on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 that resulted in the buildings’ collapse and the deaths of almost 3,000 people. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, opening in 2014, commemorates the deaths and examines the consequences of the attacks - giving contemporary students on school history trips a greater insight into the history being made in the present day.

Angela Bowden works for EST (Equity School Travel), the UK's largest educational travel company, providing school history trips for secondary schools, primary schools and colleges. Tours with EST can also encompass a wide range of other learning opportunities in worldwide destinations.

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