The Atlas Obscura Guide To Cambridge

30 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Updated June 13, 2024

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Unusual Attractions in Cambridge

The world's only Kronosaurus skeleton.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Three prestigious academic collections come together to create a world-class natural history museum.

Forbest Pigment Museum

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Forbes Pigment Collection

The thousands of shades on display — some toxic, others impossibly rare — are a library of more than just color.

View of Modica Way from the street.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Modica Way

An alley way dedicated to graffiti and street art is a constantly changing street gallery.

The O'Reilly Spite House, aka Cambridge Spite House.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

O'Reilly Spite House

This is the house that spite built.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Blaschka Glass Flowers

Impossibly life-like natural history models created out of glass by a father and son.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mount Auburn Cemetery

This peaceful Massachusetts graveyard was one of the first "garden-style" cemeteries in America.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Old Burial Ground

This cemetery served as the only official burial grounds in Cambridge for nearly 200 years.

The small sculpture.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Necco Wafer Sculpture

A tiny monument to the classic American candy.

See All 30 Things To Do in Cambridge

Cool Places to Eat & Drink in Cambridge

The small sculpture.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Necco Wafer Sculpture

A tiny monument to the classic American candy.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Kennedy Biscuit Lofts

Whimsical cookie-themed plaques mark the birthplace of the Fig Newton.

Another wall, including the "Full Circle" pennant.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Clover HSQ

A Harvard-area eatery preserves the uncovered tiles of its century-old predecessor.

The fatayers are served warm and luscious.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mahalab Bakery

Order savory Levantine baked goods with innovative twists at this takeout-only spot.

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Atlas Obscura Itineraries

Rogue Routes: The Road to the Ice Castles

Sponsored by Nissan

A deep blanket of snow often covers New England in the winter. But there’s adventure to be found in the frozen landscape, with its steep mountains and frozen ponds—and not just for skiers and snowboarders. This route blazes a unique path through Massachusetts and New Hampshire that is filled with bright colors, bold flavors, and the legacies of pioneering thinkers.

Explore Cambridge, Massachusetts

Art 4

Universities 4

Colleges 4

Plants 4

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Stories About Cambridge

Longfellow House is a stately manor on Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, owned by the literary family for nearly 130 years. It was also used as a headquarters by George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

Preserving the LGBTQ Legacy of One of America's Most Historic Homes

Boston’s Longfellow House was a 19th-century refuge.

Podcast: Forbes Pigment Collection

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

August 16, 2021

Cambridge, MA 2018.

Meet the Artist Who Does Extreme Close-Ups of Utility Poles

Rosamond Purcell finds stories, landscapes, and more on their mottled surfaces.

October 16, 2020

Glass strawberries, or Fragaria, gone white with imitation Penicillium.

Feast Your Eyes on These Delicate Glass Models of Decaying Fruit

Blighted, century-old produce goes back on display for the first time in decades.

by Jessica Leigh Hester

August 27, 2019

Broadway Bicycle School, founded in 1972, is one of the few countercultural spaces in Devin's book that are still around today.

Mapping the Lost Countercultural Hotspots of Cambridge, Massachusetts

Local librarian Tim Devin has found hundreds of buildings that once housed utopian groups.

The catalog entry for Fanny Brawne's hair demonstrates the sometimes-labyrinthine routes these samples take to get to libraries.

Untangling the Secrets of One of Harvard’s Historic Hair Collections

The university's Houghton Library is home to a number of famous tresses.

November 20, 2017

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