Boise, explained
Access Boise Editorial Team 
The Idaho Black History Museum is a small nonprofit museum in Boise’s Julia Davis Park dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of African Americans in Idaho. It occupies a relocated early-20th-century Black Baptist church building and covers pioneer settlement, military service, labor, and civil rights history specific to the state. What is the … Read more
Zoo Boise is a city-owned zoo in Julia Davis Park, operated by Boise Parks and Recreation, holding a mixed collection of native Idaho species and animals from Africa, Asia and South America. Its conservation fee is a small surcharge added to every admission ticket, set aside in a dedicated fund and distributed to wildlife conservation … Read more
The Discovery Center of Idaho is a hands-on science museum in Boise built around physics, engineering, and applied math rather than static displays. It is aimed primarily at families and school groups, but its exhibits — many built to be operated, not just observed — hold up for adults with no children in tow. It … Read more
The Old Idaho Penitentiary is a decommissioned territorial and state prison on the east side of Boise, built beginning in 1870 and used to hold inmates from 1872 until 1973. It is now a museum operated by the Idaho State Historical Society, and yes — the public can go inside, walking through original cellblocks, the … Read more
What is the Basque Museum and Cultural Center? The Basque Museum and Cultural Center is a nonprofit museum and archive in downtown Boise dedicated to the history of Basque immigration to Idaho. It holds photographs, oral histories, textiles, and household objects tied to the sheepherding families who settled the state, and it occupies one of … Read more
The Idaho State Museum is the state’s primary history museum, operated by the Idaho State Historical Society and located in Julia Davis Park in downtown Boise. It covers Idaho’s human history from Native settlement and the fur trade through mining, statehood and the 20th century, drawing on state-owned collections, artifacts and changing exhibits rather than … Read more
The Boise Art Museum, usually shortened to BAM, is Idaho’s largest museum devoted to visual art. It sits inside Julia Davis Park near downtown Boise and holds a permanent collection built around American realist painting, a nationally recognized studio ceramics collection, and rotating contemporary exhibitions, alongside a changing schedule of loaned shows. What is the … Read more
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