National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Review

Extraordinary venue. Attended a movie premiere. Very nice b

Great place for school events on the Underground railroad. Had many biographies and primary sources also.

Lovely time spending my birthday at the National Underground Freedom Center being thankful to God and my ancestors my life and remembering history.

It shows you the history of slavery. Plus I think we caught a spirit on camera..

Spent most of the afternoon there and barely finished one floor of exhibits! Great information

Great museum - with lots of reading material in the exhibits. There is some repetition but very informative on slavery, the economy of the slave trade and the Underground Railroad. On the 4th floor there are people who will help you find your ancestors if they were in the US (I am Canadian so did not check out this service.) In early slave years the slaves were identified only by numbers and not names and families were often split up. Runaway slaves often changed their names (understandably) so ancestry is hard to track.

It is historical and has lots of great views for the OHIO river and blue brige.

Very educational for me and my children...staff was great!!!!

Very moving place. A must see for all, especially teens. Great history lesson.

I was really disappointed. The information that was there was great and it brought tears to my eyes, but there was no local context. This region was a major stop on the Underground Railroad, yet there was little to no discussion or display about the Cincinnati area s importance. No reference to the murals across the river, viewable from the museum windows, referencing escaped slaves. No explanation of liberty street. No maps of any of the major stops all around the region. What a missed opportunity.

A very beautiful facility for such an ugly part of American History. Great videos and artifacts about the underground railroad and even some civil war memoriabilia
There are ao many wonderfully written and displayed first person accounts. Thankful for the volunteer docent Robert who shared his knowledge. If you are anywhere near, a must visit!

This is a must see exhibit. It should be at the top of anyone's list of must see things to do in Cincinnati. The Freedom Center is situated appropriately near one of the most popular bridges. It was the bridges like this one that slaves used to cross the Ohio River to freedom. Their are many artifacts, films, and stories throughout the 3 levels. You start at the top level and work your way down. It was interesting to see how each state fit into all of this. I was particularly interested in Florida. I didn't realize that there was so much Civil War history in Cincinnati until walking through the exhibits. There's also an outdoor area on the top floor that has the freedom torch burning for eternity. There's a wonderful view of the Roebling Suspension Bridge, and the Ohio River.

Wonderful experience. You can explore your own history with experts.

My friend and I spent a few hours emerged in the history. It was such a heartfelt experience. We really enjoyed the personal stories. It gave slavery so many faces. We also appreciated the section one modern slave trade (human trafficking). Slavery is very much still a real issue.

Very informative and a great learning experience for the whole family

My favorite place in Cincinnati. You'll learn a whole lot while enjoying the view. If you're open to history, then this is the place to go. I'll see you there.

I went here with my choir and it was amazing. We learned so much and had a great time. There was information there I doubt you would learn in school. It would probably be hard to find online too. It was an amazing experience and if you have the chance to go you really should.

Had a blast with my friends and learned a few things.

A very important and powerful museum. Worth the visit, as there is a lot of information to learn.

You can see exhibits not only about American slavery but also about the ongoing world slavery issue. It was a pity that the exhibits were broken here and there, but I felt it was worth a visit and needed to know.

Definitely something to stop and visit while in town

Very emotional just thinking about what our people went through.

A must see museum that not only depicts the pain of slavery back then, but the injustice that still continues today. Very friendly and helpful stuff and smack in the middle of where you want to be while in CN. Parking is ample.

Well worth the visit, modestly priced.

Beautiful building, lovely setting close to the river, variety of displays relaying historical facts including an authentic "Slave Pen" and we were fortunate to tag along with a group that had Carl Westmoreland as the tour guide. It was an informative and thought provoking experience. Glad we went.

Well organized, floor plan and exhibition. A guided tour would be great, which they may offer periodically but I'm unsure.

Didn't get to spend as much time as we would've liked. A lot to see and provides a great understanding of past times. Very nice staff as well.

One of the must see museums. Great piece of history in Cincinnati. Please visit often as they have various exhibits that will educate you on international events as well as domestic.

Tout guide is the way to go! Excellent guide but her name escapes me .So so so sooooo much interesting information.

I would recommend this place now with the covid there were 2 hands on exhibits closed but for safety reasons my sister and I respected that but it's was still worth the trip so bring everybody to see this it's raw info, emotional and educational so come and enjoy.
we did and will be back with our grown kids

Second time here. First time was about 8 years ago. Powerful. Do pay the extra $5 for the Rosa Parks Experience.

Really enjoyed the experience, but needed more time without the grandkids to be able to read the exhibit informstion. Many of the recorded features were not working, so long reading at each stop made it tough on the kids (11, 9 and 5) and the adults too. The Rosa Parks VR experience was a great addition to the visit.

A new view of what went on a long time ago this is something we all should see

Beautiful place, can easily get lost in all the history and information, wonderful experience

They had a discussion about the civil Rights movement and it was great and very informative.

Incredible experience. So much of this was absolutely amazing, so many artifacts! My ten-year-old daughter loved it. There was one floor of modern slavery that I think was too mature for her to view in full. I went through the exhibit myself and found it very difficult to maintain my composure. I had to hold back tears. A lot of really great information and I think our favorite part was the Rosa Parks 4D virtual reality experience. Very cool reenactment.

Amazing museum, very informative. I would definitely recommend to anyone.
The 3rd floor focused on modern day slavery that still exists, which was very sobering. The 2nd floor was more on the American history of slave trading and the underground railroad.
Some of the exhibits were broken and overall I would say the place needed a little love but it didn't take away from my experience much.

Rich in history. Very educational. Could have done without the propaganda. It's wasn't necessary.

Not like they used to be some visitors or workers have been tearing up some of the exhibits

Staff was clueless. Paid the extra for the Rosa Parks experience which we never got to do because it closed down. The staff left before the museum was even closed. Not worth the money. So sad because it is such an important park of our history.

This is a really cool museum. It looks small from the outside, but they have a lot of information packed into not that much space. And it's important information. It's stories and people that we all too often tend to forget. It's an aspect of Cincinnati history that I had never really considered before. Plus the location just by the river is incredibly scenic. Take a walk across the bridge afterward! Think about what that journey could have been like 160 years ago.

Very historical, love learning or seeing different parts of the building

Amazing! Lots of different exhibits here beyond underground railroad. I do wish there was more detail on locations of different railroad stops throughout the country. There were a few highlighted opposed to being able to get a bigger picture of how many locations were actually involved.

Local history with visual depictions of the experience of enduring slavery and the heroics of abolitionists.

Such a beautiful amd historic place. I learnt a lot

I went on a educational field trip to the Underground Railroad center in Cincinnati with my school program and we had a visitor tour guide and she did not present accurate facts at all about black culture and slavery. There were multiple times that even my teachers had to correct her and get her on the right track because according to her 6 months of training and reading 100 books about black culture made her feel she was well educated on the topic when she wasn't. Also, she did not connect with the students at all even we as students read straight through her like glass because we knew what she was saying was bs not to mention all the tourists were white which automatically put a gap between understanding how we as felt as a black person

My 11 y/o daughter & I enjoyed lots of things like the tiny house replica with little hiding places, and a couple other interactive exhibits. The slave pen cabin was amazing. You could go inside and see the shackles & chains. Such a moving thing to experience. The actual information is extremely good and absolutely needs to be told and heard by every single American. I hate to give only 3 stars, but here are my reasons.

Parking was terrible and very difficult to find, we were even stopped by another car full of people inside the designated parking area. They wanted to know if we could tell them where to park for this museum & we explained that they were in it now. They had been looking for too long, also. Need to have signage clear and highly visible.

Another issue is the layout. Nothing is clear. Entrances and exits are often next to each other and you have to search & figure out which way to go inside. Then once inside you second guess yourself because areas are unclear & you feel like you might be going backwards. Very confusing which is a distraction to the overall experience. There were several people throughout different exhibits who clearly had the same issues. We go to museums all the time and have never noticed this problem, you should be able to explore easily without a guide. This is an obvious flaw which may not be noticeable to employees, but to people who are new to the experience... it is a problem.

We were able to be there during the Auschwitz exhibit, which was powerful. Again with the lack of obvious flow here. The Human trafficking exhibit was very odd in its layout & content, but at least it raised awareness to the issue by the exposure.

The portion of the Berlin Wall out front was pretty disappointing. It definitely deserved a spot inside with a little more information on its history. We almost missed it all together.

Basically loved the content, but wish they had some information shared in a more exciting way. Tons of school groups go through & you can see several areas get boring because they are expected to read tons of information, and only a couple people can read the same thing at a time so it isn't possible. My daughter LOVES to read so she tried to read everything... just wasn't possible when there are others around. So you end up feeling like you may have missed out on something important.

Also wanted to say the employees are very friendly. They all smile and say hello, which is great.

We brought our church youth group (New Fellowship Family Church). John, Ms Pat & Howe were excellent tour guides. We loved the coorlation references to christianity.

This was my 2nd visit, but this time with the guides & I would suggest anyone to please use the gudes. Walking & reading at your own leasure is fine, but i heard much more with the guides.

I appreciate all this museum teaches & exposes about my history as a black person.

Rae Jones

A great treasure and a tremendous service to our community

It was worth the ticket! Tour guide very informative, staff helpful and polite. Exhibits worth seeing!

Learned a lot on school trip with Taylorsville elementary

This museum cum exhibition documents history of slavery and freedom and it does a great job at it. Documents history of american slave trade and struggles of slaves. At the same time, it shines light on current state of slavery on international stage and emphasizes that there is still a lot to be done. This is a must visit place if you are in Cincinnati.

With all I knew, so much more to know! Thought it would be depressing, ,(stayed away for years,) it was inspiring! My grand children will have this wonderful legacy to shape their counsel to the people they love, from the people who loved them, our Ancestors.

Nice Museum. Really nice story telling. Freezing air conditioning.

Great museum - with lots of reading material in the exhibits. There is some repetition but very informative re slavery, the economy of the slave trade and the Underground Railroad. On the 4th floor there are people who will help you find your ancestors if they were in the US (I am Canadian so did not check out this service.) In early slave years the slaves were identified only by numbers and not names and families were often split up. Runaway slaves often changed their names (understandably) so ancestry is hard to track.

Beautiful building. Exhibits are very informative, but there's a lot of reading and some of the information is repeated, which does not motivate one to read everything. The exhibits could have a bit more variety.

We loved it. This museum is very well put together and extremely informative. Be prepared to read and not just walk through looking at things! They also have little short documentaries.

As far as museums go, this would have been better as a book considering the museum was mostly text and often 12pt font. The best part was the "invisible slavery" exhibit. Much more interactive and interesting.

One of the best museums I've gone to. A truly emotional experience.

A must-see if you're in the area. A really informative museum that focuses on the institution of slavery in the United States, as well as modern-day slavery. Some things may be a bit outdated, but it is a beautiful building and museum.

It takes more than just a quick walkthrough to fully take in everything that's in the museum, but it's worth taking the time to see as much as possible.

The balcony on the second floor has a beautiful view of The Banks and has an eternal flame that is always on.

The Genealogy Center on the fourth floor has very helpful volunteers that can help you find a lot of information about your family history and ancestors.

Great museum that very well covers a necessary topic for for everyone to understand. One critique, some of the display placards were hard to read due to insufficient lighting. Mainly in the glass-enclosed cases.

I've never been disappointed visiting this place. The experience there is always fun and educational

Interesting part ot history that should not fade away.