Museums & Galleries in Salisbury

Presidential dentures, a kid-sized dental chair, and interactive brushing instruction are some of the permanent exhibits spanning the space's two floors. The museum also boasts a life-size narwhal model, an exposé on saliva, and a celebration of our country's best dental schools. This upcoming season, stop in to pay homage to the tooth fairy for Tooth Fairy Day, or get a mouthful of mammals on Jaws and Paws Day. View a listing of upcoming events here. Take the whole family (admission for children ages 3–18 is $3, and those less than 2 are free), bring a bad-breathed date for a tutorial on mouth management, or instill yourself with a new sense of appreciation for the dentist.

The American Visionary Art Museum devotes its space to original work by self-taught artists who honed their craft—often unintentionally—while operating on the outskirts of the formal art world. As temporary exhibitions explore a particular artist or theme in depth, the permanent collection displays thousands of powerful and often whimsical items, such as Wayne Kusy’s Lusitania, a detailed toothpick replica of the doomed vessel, or the haunting Applewood Figure, an emaciated sculpture said to wince whenever someone eats a piece of fruit. The museum spreads its arresting pieces throughout three historical buildings, including the expansive main building, which boasts a reflective mirrored-mosaic exterior and neighbors the Tall Sculpture Barn, an ex-whiskey warehouse fully equipped with 45-foot ceilings for large-scale projects. A wildflower garden—complete with meditation chapel—and a sculpture plaza featuring a 55-foot whirligig beckon visitors to the museum's outdoor space, where envious clouds shape themselves into crude versions of Pietà. Completing any trip, the museum's Sideshow gift shop stuffs shopping bags with an ever-rotating collection of eclectic artwork, jewelry, toys, and more.

As the treasured sites of the first commercial long-distance track and passenger station in America, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum and Ellicott City Station harbor some of the oldest and most comprehensive collections of train relics in the world. At B&O, museum goers weave through the 40-acre campus to discover more than 200 pieces of finely preserved locomotive and rolling-stock materials, which are flanked by hundreds of thousands of artifacts such as tools, art, uniforms, and memorabilia. For more train-laden tutelage, visitors can peruse the Ellicott City Station––the oldest surviving railroad station in America––which hosts myriad seasonal exhibits and education programs that trumpet the history of transportation and travel. Both sites' trainy displays expertly lay out a timeline of America's railroad industry, its impact on culture, and the foolhardiness of starry-eyed tycoons.