Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums: Stories and Memorable Moments from People Who Love Museums

This title written and illustrated by award-winning cartoonist Eckstein (The Complete Book of Cat Names) is a mix of modern firsthand accounts from museum curators and visitors, mixed with the histories of individual museums in North America (mostly in the United States). It features Eckstein’s illustrations of the museums’ architecture, collections, and galleries. The institutions will be instantly recognizable (the Museum of Modern Art; the National Portrait Gallery) even as the images are in the artist’s signature style. This is not an encyclopedia of museums or even a list of the best. Instead, it is a small sampling of wonderful museums that readers of this book will be compelled to visit; those who have already perused these sites might feel nostalgic. For browsers, the book organizes the museums by type (“Academia & Science”; “Culture”; “Historic Homes”). Each institution is covered in a page or two, delivering a quick, light, but informative read alongside the book’s calming artwork.