If you’re in the US and didn’t know there are so many odd museums all over the country, it’s time for a road trip. For those outside, here’s an even better reason to visit the country and see what are the downright weird attractions.
1. First created in 1927 to help adults that wanted to quit smoking, Pez later received the well-known heads on its dispensers in 1952. The different shaped head dispensers grew to such a number that they needed their own museum - the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Burlingame, CA. The Pez fans grew once the dispensers were featured in movies such as “The Client”, “Stand By Me”, “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” and “Seinfeld”. The pride of the collection is a 1952 Mickey Mouse head, possibly the first ever, Mary Poppins or a counterfeit Hitler dispenser. [website]
2. The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices or “Quackery Hall of Fame” located at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Pieces displayed at the museum include the Prostate Gland Warmer (a 4.25 inch probe with a blue light bulb at the end), a machine that determines the personality by measuring the bumps on one’s head or a rejuvenator that uses magnetism, radio waves, infra-red and ultra-violet rays. There are numerous devices in the museum, many of which still work to this date. [website]3. The Glore psychiatric museum in St. Joseph, Missouri comprises the history of psychiatrics from the beginning till present. It starts with the first therapy methods, when a sharp sticks or a club were used, and goes to the Middle Ages, when the treatment involved public humiliation or even burning at the stake. By the 20th century, there was no more horror, the pacients receiving icy baths or electroshock therapy. The Glore museum also exhibits more than 1,000 metal objects removed from a patient’s stomach, straitjackets, dungeons and even cages formerly used for pacients. [website]
4. It can get more sick than this. The National Museum of Health and Medicine located in Washington DC is one of the oldest museums, founded by the U.S. Army during the Civil War. The extensive collection encompasses over 24 million items, including organs, skeletons or bone fragments. Among the prized objects of the museum, you’ll find pieces of Abraham Lincoln’s skull and the bullet that killed him, a mummified head of a Kentucky girl preserved with arsenic, an eviscerated woman or a stocmach-shaped hairball from a hair-eating girl. [website]
5. Devil’s Rope Museum located in McLean, Texas presents every detail and aspect of barbed wire: artifacts, significance and impact of the development back in the Old West. There are number displays of both common and rare barbed wire, tools and devices used in constructing it. There is also a demonstration on how to make a barbed wire, for those curious, if any, and an exhibit around studying the “Evolution Of The American Cowboy”. For a little bit of art in the museum, you can check out the 45 sculptures made out of barbed wire. There are also 58 illustrations by western artist Al Martin Napoletano and more than 100 photographs with fences. [website]
6. If you’re a fan of art, you’ll surely enjoy the Museum of Bad Art located in Dedham Square, Massachusetts - the only museum in the world dedicated to bad art of all sorts. MOBA was founded in the fall of 1993 and presented its first show one year later. The good response lead to an ever growing collection, that people from all corners of the world contributed to. There are also special events that the museums hosts such as “Fine Wine/Bad Art”. There is also an online collection to enjoy over at the museum’s official [website]
7. Just north of Helendale, California lies the Exotic World Museum or the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Operated by Dixie Evans, a former dancer, the museum depicts the golden age of burlesque, when exotic dancers or strippers were very popular. It has a great collection of extravagant costumes, memorabilia, posters, photos and even G-strings. Dixie Evans is know as being the former “Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque”; she’ll show you around the museum but she’ll also show you a few moves and secrets of the trade. [website]
8. Aliens are among us, at least this is what the following museum preaches. The International UFO Museum & Research Center was founded by the people that took part in the Roswell incident. Trying to bring light to the UFO crash, the museum has outgrown 2 locations since it first opened in 1991 in Roswell, New Mexico. Activities around the UFO incident include trade shows, alien costume contest, parades and visits from Hollywood celebrities. [website]
9. “Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum is known from coast to coast, like butter and toast. From headlines to bedlines, from school rooms to pool rooms, this place is like no other that can be found in the contiguous United States and other environs of the free world.” We couldn’t have said it any better. You can find anything here related to the amusement world: from animatronic dummies to rides, from pinball machines to video games and from model airplanes to robots or neons. There is also a large collection of the oddest coin operated machines, out of which almost all work. [website]
10. The Circus World is America’s Circus Museum located in Baraboo, Wisconsin, state formerly known as the “Mother of Circuses,” when more than 100 travelling circuses met. The museum is now operated by a not-for-profit, educational foundation, now known as Circus World Museum Foundation. Displays include a very large collection of circus memorabilia, including posters, photos, films, costumes, props, and over 200 circus wagens. Best visits are between May and September, to catch the shows, animal rides, concerts or parades.
