Wondering

What are some of the most unusual museums you have ever been to in the U.S.?

artlover

The Museum of Bad Art (aka "MOBA") in Massachusetts.

This place goes beyond the proverbial Velvet Elvis; we're talking seriously bad, bad, bad stuff but treated in a comletely (tongue-in-cheek) serious manner.

Paul Rabe

Not limited to museums, but you can find the really weird and tacky tourist sites at

www.roadsideamerica.com

Also, Sandra Gurvis wrote a book "The Cockroach Hall of Fame -- and 101 other Off-the-Wall Museums" which has some real doozies.

KATHY

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada is quite unusual.

The Voodoo museum in New Orleans, LA is the tackiest thing I have ever seen.

Beachbum

The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis. Yep, just as weird as it sounds.

priestess

Kathy - calling a museum based on someone's religion tacky might be considered in bad taste.

Gross

Washington D.C used to have a medical museum, where deformed bodies and gross
medical abnormalities were on display in
big jars and displays. Im not sure the actual name of the museum, but it was very disturbing!

Cindy

I can't remember the name either, but Washington, DC does indeed have this museum of medical oddities. My personal favorite exhibit was related to a young woman who had a psychiatric disorder that caused her to consume hair until her stomach was full of hair that had to be surgically removed. The hair, still in the shape of a stomach, is on display.

They also have a limb from a person with elephant disease. You can also hold a real human brain (freeze dried, of course). The leech exhibit is also not to be missed.

G. Kremer

Never been there, but there's a Museum Of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis,Minnesota area. A strange one we saw was the Tinkertown Toy Museum near Cedar Crest, New Mexico.

T.M.

Cool thread!

The Crawford Long Museum in Jefferson, Georgia is kind of weird butI enjoyed it a lot. He was the first surgeon to use ether as an anisthetic around the post-Civil War era. According to the local history, the good doctor and his friends used to have "ether frolics" and one of the young men fell. Long realized his friend suffered no ill effects and he could use it in surgery. Until then, it was use opium or bite the bullet during an operation.

I think the most eye-opening thing was the price list of operations from the 1880s. A nighttime house call was $8. Wow! That and a display of medical kits from the era.

I left thanking God for the advances in modern medicine.

Sal

Solomon's Castle in Ona, Fla.

An eccentric gentleman has built a "castle" complete with mote, including alligators. The museum is full of sculptures that he has designed out of mechanical parts--dragons, cars, and even presidents. He lives in the castle. There is also a castle suite that is available for "romantic getaways". He gives guided tours peppered with off-color humor. I have gone there with all of my children on field trips. It's all very strange and gets a little more weird each time we visit!

pagalina

The medical museum mentined in DC is called Walter Reed. I don't have the nerve to check it out!

There is also a museum south of whitefish montana by about an hour called "The Miracle of America Museum" it has an outrageously large collection of americana arranged obstensibly by era, but it's mostly someone's personal collection run amok. It only cost $3 each to get in and provided over an hour of entertainment. There is one main building and then several smaller out buildings containing vintage cars and equipment. I wish they'd have a big ol yard sale, i'd snap up quite a few things.

Kris

There were two stories about wierd musuems Iread on this site, but I can only find one. Here's the URL: http://www.fodors.com/features/si/001204_si_museums.cfm

Teh Bad Art one is on this list.

Kris

Oh, here's that other story. It's about overlooked hall of fames like bowling, exotic dancers, inventors, and gospel music, plus some regular oens. Here's the URL: http://www.fodors.com/features/si/010330_si_halls.cfm

Joanne

Massachusetts, we're so cultural, is home not only to MOBA, the Museum of Bad Art, but also to the industry-sponsored Plastics Museum (in Leominster?) and the very personal (in somebody's basement down the cape, I think) Thermometer Museum.

ilene

Another museum of medical oddities is the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. It is on 22nd and Chestnut streets (I think). Made me feel sick to my stomach but some medical types may enjoy it.

Holly

Cindy -

I lived in D.C. when I was a little girl and when I was 4 and my mom took me to see that display to keep from chewing on my hair. It worked - and I STILL remember it.

Lisa

Medieval Knights dinner theatre in Kissimee has a museum that has a very weird section. The main part of the museum is free and focuses on medieval life. However, for a fee of $2.00 you get to enter a section that deals with torture of the times. It has every imaginable object used to torture people that were considered political or religious rebels. It is very disturbing.

D.J.

Seems to me that there was a Ripley's Belive It Or Not museum in Myrtle Beach last time I was there.

x

Lets not forget the Spam Museum in Austin, MN.