Museums

Phipps Conservatory’s Winter Flower Show – Holiday Magic

When it comes to holiday festivities, one of the best places in Pittsburgh to visit is Phipps Conservatory. Their winter flower show, which begins the Friday before Thanksgiving and runs until early January, is a celebration of the holiday season with festive art pieces, an array of gorgeous winter flowers, and some of the most beautifully decorated Christmas trees in Pittsburgh.

The 2022-2023 flower show is themed Holiday Magic and features numerous arctic animals plus those inspired by stories from the North Pole- like the abominable snowman and unicorns!

As members of the conservatory, we got the chance to visit this one on opening day in the 2022-2023 season (running until January 8th, 2023) and wanted to share a few of our favorite rooms here!

Note: The outdoor garden shots were from 2021's show while indoor shots were from this year's 2022-2023 show. As such, there may be some differences outside when you visit this year.

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Phipps Conservatory’s Summer Flower Show – Monet in Bloom

Whenever Phipps Conservatory features a famous painter as the focal point for a flower show, you know you're going to be in for a good time.

2022's Summer Flower Show does just that with its theme “Monet in Bloom” and features floral recreations of some of the master's top works (next to copies of the paintings themselves for reference), quotes from the artist, themed sound elements, and more!

As with all of our museum posts, we do not like to give away every exhibit. In this one, we're only going to share a few of our favorite rooms and encourage you to visit to see the rest!

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Phipps Conservatory’s Spring Flower Show – Sunshine and Rainbows

As the cold of winter begins to leave Pittsburgh, there is one thing we always look forward to in order to ring in the start of spring – Phipps Conservatory's Spring Flower Show!

2022's Spring Flower Show has the theme “Sunshine and Rainbows” and highlights the colors of the rainbow- making this one an incredibly vibrant show!

We visited this one shortly after the show opened and wanted to share some of our favorite rooms and exhibits with you today. As with all of our museum posts, we're only sharing a selection of our favorites because you truly must visit for yourself to experience it all!

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The Carnegie Trees & Neapolitan Presepio Are A Holiday Gem

We love it when local museums decorate for Christmas in Pittsburgh as it always gives us an excuse to visit one more time before the end of the holiday season.

The Carnegie Museum of Art gets into the holiday fun with two annual exhibits worth checking out- the Carnegie Trees and the Neapolitan Presepio. While both of these exhibits are on the smaller side compared to other exhibits we've been to, they pack in a lot of detail that will have you lingering for quite some time.

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Latrobe Area Historical Society Shines a Light on the City’s Past

We really love going to historical societies when we visit nearby cities and boroughs. These small, often one or two-room museums offer fascinating displays and artifacts that highlight a large cross-section of the region's history.

This is no different in Latrobe, where the Latrobe Area Historical Society operates a modest exhibit where you can learn more about the city's past!

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Boarding a Tench Class Submarine at the USS Requin

Not every city can boast that they have their own submarine, which makes the USS Requin at the Carnegie Science Center one of Pittsburgh's most unusual attractions (and a personal favorite).

Visitors to this one can explore the submarine as either part of the Carnegie Science Center ticket or with an a la carte ticket in order to learn more about what life was like on a mid-20th century submarine!

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Experience Village Life in the 1800s at Depreciation Lands in Allison Park

The history of the Depreciation Lands is a fascinating one and was a novel solution to a problem that the early United States had after the Revolutionary War.

While the living history museum of the same name in Allison Park covers this unique history, it also takes a look at what life was like in the region in the early 1800s- a time when southwest PA was the wild frontier.

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Mummies of the World at the PPG Science Pavilion for a Limited Time

Since 2018, the Carnegie Science Center has stepped up its exhibit game with the addition of the PPG Science Pavilion. This new wing not only significantly expanded the museum's footprint but also allowed for national and internationally touring exhibitions to make a stop in Pittsburgh.

One such show is Mummies of the World, a touring exhibition focused on all things mummies and mummification!

This exhibit runs from October 2019 to April 2020, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the first to check it out during a press event a few days before the official opening. In this one, I wanted to share more about what you can see when visiting!

Note: This article contains images of human mummies in various states. A few images could be considered graphic. Likewise, please note that Mummies of the World is a strictly no photography show; however, I was given an exemption during a media preview event for this article.

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The Compass Inn Museum Preserves the 1800s in the Laurel Highlands

You may know a lot of what life was like during the early days of Pittsburgh's history thanks to the forts found nearby and famous battles that took place leading up to the Revolutionary War.

But the period after the war quiets down a fair bit (apart from the brief Whiskey Rebellion) until a few decades later due to the War of 1812. This triggered a rapid increase in iron production, which subsequently became the steel industry, and ultimately modern Pittsburgh as we know it.

One spot in the Laurel Highlands, the Compass Inn Museum, captures the history from this rather calm period, around the turn of the 19th century, and showcases what life was like for those living in (and more appropriately, passing through) southwest Pennsylvania around this time!

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The Big Mac Museum in North Huntingdon is a Quirky Spot

Note: We have reports that this location is under renovation and the museum may not be open at the moment. We will update this article accordingly when we learn more.

In the category of off-beat Pittsburgh museums, the Big Mac Museum in North Huntingdon may be the most unusual of them all.

While this one is quite small and found, quite literally, inside a McDonald's, it does highlight the history of the famous burger that was invented nearby!

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