Peabody Essex Museum, Salem: Photos, Reviews & Location

Modern museum features regional American/Asian art & artifacts, plus an atrium & garden restaurant.

At a glance

#1 of 3 Museums in Salem

LocalGuideWorld score: 4.70

0.1 km from the center of Salem

Rating breakdown

5 ★77%
4 ★16%
3 ★4%
2 ★1%
1 ★2%

Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St, Salem, MA 01970, United States

pem.org

+1 978-745-9500

Photos of Peabody Essex Museum (78)

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Quick facts

What is the rating of Peabody Essex Museum?: Peabody Essex Museum is rated 4.7 out of 5 based on 8,337 reviews.
How does Peabody Essex Museum rank in Salem?: Peabody Essex Museum is #1 of 3 Museums in Salem by LocalGuideWorld score (rating weighted by number of reviews).
Where is Peabody Essex Museum located?: Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St, Salem, MA 01970, United States — 0.1 km from the center of Salem.
How can I contact Peabody Essex Museum?: Phone: +1 978-745-9500 · Website: pem.org

Reviews (8)

Ann 2024 Apr 27

Disappointed because I wanted to see the exhibition about the Salem witch trials that I went to view and it was not available until later I believe summer. The rest of the museum is like an art museum. Nice but not was I had in mind.

Dionnasaur 2024 Apr 07

This museum is awesome! You can easily spend an entire day here. The bats exhibit cleared up a lot of well known myths and shine a better light on these cute little critters. You’ll certainly gain a new appreciation for them.
The Yin Yu Tang exhibit is absolutely gorgeous. So much history and detail within those walls. It’s so amazing they were able to ship the whole house from China and still maintain its structural integrity.
There’s so much to see and enjoy!

Arik Burakovsky 2024 Apr 07

I have come to the museum with my friends and family multiple times, and we always enjoy it. There is an excellent maritime exhibition, and they have a great repertoire of Asian art. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Salem, Massachusetts.

J C (Tempiwmf) 2024 Apr 06

Always an amazing adventure the PEM aka Peabody Essex Museuem is always filled with great exhibits, educated staff, and unique experiences. Good for people of all ages, backgrounds, & capabilities. Very accessible & inclusive.

Amanda G 2024 Apr 05

Great experience. The museum has a great variety in their collection. The kids enjoyed the fashion as well as the animal and nature rooms. Definitely go when you have time to wander as this can easily take 3-4 hours. We had lunch in their food court and the variety and quality were surprisingly good. Its hard sometimes when you have a couple of picky kids but we all found something good today.

Katelyn McKay 2024 Feb 10

Great lunar kick off event today. Definitely attracted a good crowd. Appreciate the complementary coat check and lockers for our bags. Thoroughly enjoying the bath exhibit as we speak. Hope to make it again sometime in the future.

Valentina O. 2024 Jan 20

I'm a Salem resident and I am on a mission to tour all the local attractions, museums and places of relevance.

About this one:

The Peabody Essex museum is the oldest continuously running museum in the United States!
With its permanent collection and temporary exhibits, it offers an eclectic variety of artifacts and art/design pieces. Its temporary exhibits in particular tend to often focus on matters of social equality and on environmental issues. It spreads through three floors and, even though it's not gigantic, it is a pretty big museum.

PEM's jewel is definitely the Yin Yu Tang, a complete Chinese house originally built in the 1600s in southeastern China, moved to the museum and reconstructed as it was when the family last inhabited it in 1982. You can walk the courtyard and corridors, enter its furnished rooms, learn through the recorded audio guides. It is actually pretty amazing.
It requires a timed reservation that I recommend to get online in advance.

My favorite rooms are the Maritime Art one, the American Art exhibit ("Being and belonging in America") and the fashion and design display in the new wing.

PEM is free for Salem residents and a constant source of new exhibits, workshops and events.

If you are visiting Salem, PEM is a wonderful Museum to tour. Please keep in mind that the scope of its exhibitions goes way beyond Salem itself, as it shows artists from all around the world. If you are looking for something local, you should check out "Salem Stories" on the second floor, and a few art pieces and artifacts connected to the Salem Witch trials and to Salem architecture inside the American Art display that I mentioned above. They also sometimes offer temporary exhibits about Salem history, especially during tourist season.

PROs
This is an amazing museum, very modern in the way things are presented to the public - in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking.

CONs
No real cons to mention!
Just, if you visit the Yin Yu Tang house during winter, be aware that it is COLD inside the house!

Also, again a reminder that PEM is strongly connected to the local community but it is not a museum about Salem.

sharklar 2018 Dec 19

Beautiful museum, so much history and art . I'm biased because I grew up going here , but it keeps getting bigger and better. It's not very interactive , Soo keep your kids on a leash . Though it is kid friendly it's a pretty quiet museum.... Hopefully