Atlantic City Historical Museum


Small but informative – you'll learn all about AC's quirkiest details, such as the high-diving horses that once leapt off a 40ft tower at Steel Pier.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Ripley's Believe it or Not!

0.41 MILES

Robert Ripley spent a lifetime collecting bizarre stuff, and a lot of it's here. Two-headed goat fetuses, a baling-wire Jimi Hendrix head, the world's…

2. Steel Pier

0.59 MILES

The Steel Pier, directly in front of the Taj Mahal casino, was the site of the famous high-diving horses that plunged into the Atlantic before crowds of…

4. Absecon Lighthouse

0.79 MILES

New Jersey's tallest lighthouse at 171ft (228 steps), Absecom (Ab-see-cum) gives you a bird's-eye view of AC. Moonlight climbs are offered monthly during…

5. Historic Pipe Organ

0.8 MILES

A nonprofit institute runs tours, recitals and silent films to maintain the Boardwalk Hall's two historic – and impressive – pipe organs: the 'sonic Mount…

6. Lucy the Elephant

5.33 MILES

This six-story wooden pachyderm was constructed in 1881 as a land developer's weird scheme to attract customers. It's in Margate (just south of AC), and…

7. Batsto Village

22.66 MILES

This 18th-century village is an open-air museum that introduces the bog-iron industry, and also has a nature center. Guided tours ($3) of the central…

8. Pinelands National Reserve

24.4 MILES

Better known as the Pine Barrens, this area of sandy-soil forest and bog covers almost a quarter of New Jersey.