3 Dayton museums one group says should be on everyone’s bucket list

Other museums on the list include the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Toledo Museum of Art; Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus; the Warther Museum in Dover; the Wagner-Hagans Auto Museum in Columbus; and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Here are some highlights of the Dayton attractions:

Dayton Art Institute

Credit: Lynn Hulsey

Credit: Lynn Hulsey

Founded in 1919, The museum’s collection spans 5,000 years of art history, including important Oceanic art, Asian art, European art, and American fine and decorative art collections.

Credit: Lisa Powell

Credit: Lisa Powell

The museum's founding patrons included community leaders such as Orville Wright and the Pattersons of NCR. The museum's building, designed by prominent architect Edward B. Green of Buffalo and completed in 1930, was modeled after the Villa d'Este near Rome and the Villa Farnese at Caprarola in Italy, according to DAI.

Boonshoft Museum of Discovery

Credit: Staff photo by Lauren Rinehart

Credit: Staff photo by Lauren Rinehart

Though primarily a children’s science museum, the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery can also stretch the adult intellect. The museum features more than 100 animal species from insects to a two-toed sloth named Patience. Children can learn about our own planet’s systems on a 68-inch globe called Science On a Sphere; explore deep into space in the Hall of the Universe; and visit the Sun Room to learn about the star at the center of our Solar System.

Credit: Lisa Powell

Credit: Lisa Powell

National Museum of the United States Air Force

In four gigantic hangars – the newest opening just last year to house, in part, a collection of presidential planes – the The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force hosts more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles. Many are rare and one-of-a-kind.

The exhibits – weaving in thousands of historical items – bring aviation history to life from the earliest efforts to put man aloft to the Wright brothers’ powered-flight successes to development of country’s unyielding combat air and space superiority.