The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

Cute little town on the Mississippi. We stopped here on our way home from trip out West. The historic town has a lot of beautiful building, it's an easy walk around the town to see everything. We went to Becky's Old Fashioned Ice Cream to treat ourselves, the Huckleberry flavor wonderful. A lot of Mark Twain references and memorabilia.

Had a great tour with Maddi. Visited the town and this was our favorite stop. She knows a lot about the cave and was very passionate about it. Thanks for such a great tour Maddi. She needs a raise. Always 52°F in the cave which makes it super nice year round. Hour long tour.

Very cute place you can walk around without having to pay to go into the museum. This is at the end of the street easy to miss if you're driving by.

The tour takes you around much of the downtown area of Hannibal, MO. It's extremely informative and there is an optional spoken tour by way of QR codes for your smartphone and a pair of headphones (they sell some, if you forget yours).

Well preserved boyhood home and a couple of other important houses, big drug store and a separate museum 3 blocks away. It is well worth the $15.

Great place. Very informative Staff was friendly and helpful. 5 stars here. I am a fan of Mark Twains books so i knew a lot of his early life. It was awesome seeing the real deal. This was a well thought out well organized tour.

Very well done and adventurous. Very informative and fun interactive displays along with an adventurous path of discovery from museum and the various houses and locations relevant to Mark Twains life and legacy. All the volunteers were very friendly and informative, as well.

Like going back in time to a grade school field trip, learned a lot actually, well worth it if you have the time to read everything, $14 adults, $12 Seniors, $10 kids. I had no idea really how brutal life was just a short time ago , well kept and clean, polite informative staff. there was a lot of other people and I didn’t really get to take pictures of the inside of the tour, but I did get some nice shots of the river Park, which is a short walk and enjoy the scenery.

We enjoy taking in all the local attractions when we travel and doing so while learning (or re-learning) some history or and biographical facts is even better. The history of Mark Twains family and life is very interesting and very well presented in the house tour and videos. The gem of the tour is the museum! The Norman Rockwell originals created for the books are beautiful.

Mark Twain's Boyhood Home and Museum is a must visit. It's been years and years but I found my souvenir from my visit. At the time I had friends in Missouri. I'm partial to the State of Missouri because one of my favorite Uncles was born there. I'm definitely a huge fan of Mark Twain. Controversial as he is and the banning of his books is upsetting to me. I'm recommending if you can get to the museum and his home you go. If you are not a fan then don't!

Outstanding museum that highlights Samuel Clemens years growing up and becoming a writer. It tells of the family history in great detail, and then allows you to visit his boyhood home, Becky Thatcher's home, the pharmacy and Huck Finn's home as well. Lots to see and do here in Hannibal, Missouri. Make sure you read the books before you go for a better experience. A very reasonable price for the museum and the other buildings as well.

I absolutely loved the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum and Hannibal, MO. What a great place to visit. Unexpected. It gave me Galena, Illinois vibes if you've ever been. So much history. We stopped here on our way to St. Louis. I wish we had left home earlier because there really was a lot to see in Hannibal; enough that we could have spent a full day. It's also not far from Iowa City. It'd be easy to visit and drive back home in the same day. We started the tour at the Mark Twain Museum & Gallery. The bulk of our time was spent here, as we didn't realize there were so many other locations to visit. Some of the sites are quick walkthroughs, like Huck Finn's house. The Museum & Gallery and Interpretive Center might take you longer. The Boyhood Home and Grant's Drug Store were my favorites. The tour does an excellent job of guiding you through Twain's life and the characters that made his stories what they are. Plan to be here a few hours. You could break up the day and visit a downtown restaurant or check-out some of the other shops. Wear comfortable shoes because you'll do a fair amount of walking. Very friendly staff in the buildings where staff were present. We plan to return.

Lots to see here in the museum and my focus today was the gift shop. I'm quite familiar with Mark Twain's story and have encountered him in my travels. I was in Virginia City Nevada and spotted the marker at the Territorial Enterprise https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-territorial-enterprise-historical-marker-virginia-city?hrid=dhbVFx7MIdl8v9hndlgMzA where he wrote about the the bustling frontier-mining town in 1862. Lots of trinkets and mementoes in the gift shop (you do not need to buy a museum ticket to visit) and I picked up a handful of postcards to send back to my friends. [Review 19712 overall - 190 in Missouri - 684 of 2023.]

The Boyhood Home was self guided tour with a lot of memorabilia and interactive exhibits. The tour also included the Norman Rockwell painting exhibit. If you're a literary nerd this was definitely worth visiting and learning about Hannibal's most famous resident. The gift shop had a lot of great post cards as well.

I visited this marvelous place twice. The first time was in 1990 when it was under major renovation. The second time was in 2017 when I was in the Midwest to see the eclipse. In the early years the ticket just got you a look at the house. By 2017 they had added a considerable lot of extra features, including more museum at the Becky Thatcher house across the street, the Huck Finn house and a major Twain museum several blocks downtown. As you move through the Boyhood home you see artifacts and detailed descriptions of the great man's early life. In planning your visit, try to avoid times that the river boat has just disgorged a few hundred passengers. Otherwise, this is a necessary pilgrimage for any Twain enthusiast.

What a fabulous surprise! The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is a very thoughtful and well executed museum. Honestly, my husband and I were prepared for something charming, but quite a bit "less" museum-like, and thus were impressed with all of the exhibits and hands-on activities throughout the museum complex. You could easily spend two to three hours exploring all of the buildings. After touring the museum you may want to read more about Samuel Clemons/Mark Twain, and if you have never read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, you might be contemplating that reading, as well! Museum staff are very polite and well-informed. The gift shops have some interesting items along with lots of books. This is a great destination for both young and old.

Nice look into Mark Twain! The museum, home and other buildings all on one ticket. Definitely a look back at history and museum nicely done.

" A Must See In This Town " The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is a must see in this town. The entire town of Hannibal revolves around the Mark Twain history. So before you go anywhere in this town, you should visit the Museum to find out information about Mark Twain. The museum was very crowded the day we went, so it was a little difficult to see and hear all of the information, but it was a good start to our day.

Interesting information but we'd already taken in a lot of info before we got to this stop so to be fair I was tired and hungry. However, you do get to go into a few of the old buildings and get a glimpse into home life. Give yourself about 1-1.5 hours for this self-guided tour. I do wish they had your guides but there are a lot of placards and videos with information and history on them. It's worth the stop overall.

Came here for my birthday with my family. The museum and historic sites are in extremely great condition. Very well maintained. The gallery was fantastic as well. We were pleasantly surprised with complimentary tickets for me being retired Military. This is not advertised on their website and was not expected at all. Very nice touch. We made sure to donate some money and also frequented several of the gift shops as well. Very friendly staff.

Pleasant experience. The museum takes 30-45 minutes to go thru. Walked Main Street and many businesses were closed on Sundays in February, but the weather was nice and we enjoyed our stroll back in time.

It's really not done up that well in my opinion and to me so much more could be done. Maybe, some reenactments? Maybe, some actors portraying Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer? I just think more could be done with so much history.

Mark Twain's boyhood home was the primary reason we made the trek to Hannibal as I'm sure it is for most tourists to the area. We'd seen his adult home in Hartford, CT which I also recommend for a completely different experience but it was really cool to see the town where he grew up and which inspired many of his classic works. The boyhood home is self-guided but there's plenty of plaques and interactive material that makes it fairly self-explanatory. For about $12 you can buy an all-encompassing ticket to see it as well as the Becky Thatcher House, the Twain Museum, the law office of his father, the drug store, and a lot more. Note--once you start the Twain Home tour you'll need to be ready to the bulk of the rest as some of the buildings are only accessible once you've pass through it and they check your card off as you go so plan about two hours to do the whole thing. I highly recommend the Mark Twain riverboat cruise as well as the Mark Twain cave in the area. If you can plan your trip for the week of July 4 you'll catch some of the Tom Sawyer Day happenings, e.g. fence painting, the local "Tom and Becky" kids, lots more.

We began our exploration at the museum itself. The ground floor of the museum provides a fairly elaborate interpretation of some of Twain's books, including Tom Sawyer, The Innocents Abroad, and his time in the gold rush territory of California. While these displays looked nice, they didn't do a great job of conveying their message, especially to their intended audience, which seemed to be children. The upper two floors of the museum did a much better job, displaying artifacts and artwork from Twain's life and books. For those with the patience to read the detailed signage, there was a lot of interesting information here. The museum ticket is available as a package that also grants access to other buildings down the street, and that's definitely worthwhile. You can tour the homes that provided the inspiration for Tom, Huck and Becky, and all were interesting.

This was a fun, informative and interesting museum tour. It's actually 5 different places with things to see and do for whole family. Very glad we did this.

This was fun! We went during a heat wave so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have if it was cooler outside. But it was a great tour, informative and interesting.

We made a quick 2 hr. pit-stop in Hannibal, MO, to see Mark Twain's boyhood home. We were fascinated to learn that Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher were real people in Sam's life and changed their names, as he did his own. Hannibal is a charming little town that sits on the Mississippi River, 2 hrs. north of St. Louis. It is a must stop if traveling in this area; as is, the Mark Twain Museum with a floor dedicated to all the original Norman Rockwell paintings illustrating various scenes of his books. I am suddenly inspired to go back and read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

We came here on a pilgrimage to a new favorite author of mine. There were inconveniences and disappointments but this was not one of them. We bought the ticket for the homes, museum and grounds. It takes about two hours total to see it all, more if you want to listen to one of the frequent story tellers at the museum. We did and she was excellent. We had a beautiful fall day so that made strolling through all the houses even more pleasant. There isn't one house or one exhibit which was overwhelming; it was more the overall combination. I also loved the gift shops; I found items for my upcoming book club which were just delightful. If you love Twain, this spot makes the trip worthwhile.

What a great way to see and learn about a part of American history. The museum was very nice and the people working their were very so nice. This museum is really a treausure and the people who take care of it should be so proud. I didn't know Mark Twain had such a fascinating life, was so well traveled and had so much personal sorrow. Be sure to add this as one of your stops while visiting the Midwest.

We really enjoyed this self guided tour. You start out in a museum. You hear Mark Twain's voice over the speakers telling stories of his past. He has a southern accent and a smooth and slow way of talking. It is of no surprise as to why people listened to him. His mother was a gentle soul and she influenced the way he saw things. She taught him to be fair minded and treat others in a kind manner. Sam Clemons AKA Mark Twain was a rambunctious little guy who seemed to get into mischief wherever he went. You will love this place! There are other houses of his friends to check out. His first sweetheart Becky lived across the street from the museum. Very well done!

It is a must go tour if you like reading, if you like Mark Twain. 2014 Hours are 9 to 5 daily, 7 days a week. Closed Christmas Day, December 25 and New Year's Day, January 1 Free summer concert series of Music Under the Stars on every Thursday from Memorial Day to Labor Day! http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/index.php/community-projects/music-under-the-stars

Got there at closing time so was very disappointed we couldn't enjoy it all but walked around and got the drift of it and went in Aunt Polly's antique shop! Owner was so friendly and prices were reasonable! Plan to make Hannibal our destination earlier in the day sometime soon!

I fell in love with Hannibal, Missouri when we stopped here this past summer. I really could imagine Mark Twain walking the streets. I definitely want to go back. Part of why I loved it was the Boyhood Home. It's small, but nicely done. I really felt like I could envision him in those spaces. We went through Huck Finn's house and Becky Thatcher's home too. Actually, we started out at the museum. The GPS is thoroughly confused by the place because the museum is a little ways away (a couple blocks away) and took us there instead of the Boyhood Home first (which is where we wanted to start from). We ended up walking over to the boyhood home. The museum was also interesting and fun to explore. You could do all of it in one day, but hanging out by the Mississippi River in the summer looking at the paddle boat, you could make it into a terrific weekend trip. We will be back!

It was honestly one of those moments when I was at a loss for words when I was standing outside Mark Twain's home. Walking through the streets of his town was truly a great moment for me. This was his town and when you see it, you see him and it is like his writing has come to life right before your very eyes! The people in Hannibal were so friendly and so eager to share their town with you! If you are thinking about visiting Hannibal, I urge you to just do it. You will have an amazing time!

When you buy a ticket to the museum they include the other buildings as well because each one is fairly small and there aren't many artifacts. I was motivated to start Twain's autobiography as it was quoted at nearly every place and with every picture. It did make me wonder what was there earlier as it only came about about a year ago. If you are a fan of museums, this will not appeal to you but if you like Mark Twain, it will.

Neat, clean, and informative. Could use a few more interactive exhibits for kids, but the staff is friendly, the gift shop items are reasonably priced, and the facilities are well maintained.

Very interesting a must-see, take your time there's a lot of information there. Employees were friendly and would answer any questions that you had. I went through the museum before I saw the home externally from the front on the main street. If I had to do it again, I would study the house from the outside so I could better understand what was going on in the inside as you travel through the museum. As you enter one building, to gain access to Samuel's boyhood home.

Add a plus to this review. We came to Hannibal for the Mark Twain exhibits and I am glad we did. Interesting information in the museums but a lot of it is signs rather than artifacts. That is not too say there are not artifacts but signs dominate. I particularly enjoyed the museum that houses Norman Rockwell sketches and paintings for two of Twain's books and family photos. Worth the $10 admission and Hannibal is a quaint town.

This is an excellent museum, made even better since it occupies the actual place where Mark Twain was raised. Lots of information and artifacts about Twain, his life, and his writing. I read Twain in high school, but not since. I'm not a super-fan, but I still enjoyed the home and museum. So if you have even a passing interest in Twain, or his time in history, I recommend the museum.

I have visited this attraction probably four times in my lifetime. I would visit this every time I come to Hannibal. I always learn something new about the life of Mark Twain and his upbringing, and laugh at the humor he was able to convey through his writings. Lots of buildings to visit - enjoyed them all!

I would have given another star, if all of the interactive exhibits were working. So frustrating to push button and have nothing happen. I enjoyed the museum the most of the several buildings encompassed in the ticket price. Someone put a great deal of thought and effort into making the museum special (if only all of the buttons had worked!). The birthplace was also well done and interesting; the other buildings were much less interesting.

Great historical learning opportunity. Definitely worth the admission fee!!!

Spent a day in Hanibal last summer, and was very impressed by the Mark Twain Home and Musuem. I think every American owes it to themselves to come to Hanibal and discover this jewel along the mighty Mississippi; to trace the early steps of one of America's most reknowned figures in history, Mark Twain. The Musuem is brilliant, one ticket gets you access to four establishments, the main musuem, his boyhood home, his father's place of business, and access to the Nelson Rockerfeller art exhibition. The art exhibit is worth the money alone. Some of Rockerfeller's most prized pieces are here (If you are a fan?). The establishment is fully restored to the times of when Twain was a kid. So it's like you've stepped into a time portal of some sort, and you get to experience in some ways what life was like in this once bustling stop along the mighty Miss. Hanibal is as Americana as you can get; a quaint, quiet, lovely small town with solid American gothic/Victorian architecture abundant all around. It's a great oppurtunity for Americans to get aquainted with their heritage, for them to rediscover the magic of the Mississippi River. It's 2 hours flat from Saint Louis. The main street has many delightful antique shops, ice cream parlors, and cozy diners all with the charm and sweetness of small town America. Made us appreciate the beauty of this country even more. I highly recommend it to everyone, even if you don't read, and it's a good chance for your city slickers to take a break and find some peace out here.

If you find yourself anywhere near Hannibal, stop and visit the Mark Twain Home and Museum. You can buy a ticket that gets you into Twain's boyhood home, the museum, Becky Thatcher's house, Huck Finn's house, Clemens Justice of the Peace office, and Grant's Drug store. Grant's was closed for renovations while we were there but everything else was fantastic. It was so neat to see the home he grew up in. You also learn about his friends that inspired the Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher characters. Everything except the museum is all in the same area. The museum is just a short two block walk down the street. The museum blew me away, I learned so much about Twain that I didn't know. Also they have some neat artifacts throughout the museum, including first editions of Twain's books as well as the white jacket he wore later in life. If you buy a book while you are there, they will use a seal press to show it was purchased in Hannibal. I bought two while I was there. Check Groupon before you go, we found one that saved us over 50%. This would be a good place for kids to visit, they had sections aimed just for kids. Oh, shoutout to Barbara at the ticket desk at the museum. That is where we purchased our tickets and she was wonderful! But everyone who works there is great. Oh, and we even saw Mark Twain walking down the street (we stopped for a picture). :)

Im posting here on behalf of the whole town as this is where people will go on their search. We arrived with our airstream, not knowing where to park or anything. We ended up on some side street off of the main street. We ended up 2 days there i think. The amazing thing is that NOBODY BOTHERED US! Hannibal was very welcoming. They seemed happy that we were there. It was me, my girlfriend and our baby. We have been to many places where they are just chomping at the bit to run you off. Hanibal was very pleasant and I will go back. Restaruants are good and there are enough of them for a few days. The museums were fun. They do make a lot of milage off that one guy, but i dont care. Its a fun place. So, on the last day, they set up a music concert fright across from our airstream, nobody cared that we were there. The party just sprung up around us. And then dissapeared that evening. No one bothered us. In this day and age..... AMAZING

Since I would just be echoing the accolades of the Mark Twain Museum given in the other reviews, I will state that all of this is possible because of exemplary staff, volunteers, contributors and donors who love this museum in this small river town of Hannibal. As a donor, I am treated right and professionally. The conduct of the director and staff members at this institution is a model of courtesy, ethics and professionalism that is emulatable for any museum.

it was interesting, but I noticed the displays could use some tlc. The Becky Thatcher house had nothing to do with her. waste of time. but the price of it and the museum made it worth doing. just note that most things are closed until may. shops and restaurants including.

Went to buy tickets for 5 of us, and front desk lady mentioned a groupon we could get that split our bill in half. It would have cost us over $50, but with the groupon it came out to under $30! Fantastic overview of Twain's life and writing. SOOO cool, and especially enjoyed Norman Rockwell's paintings that he donated to them. Wonderful way to spend a day in Hannibal!