Offbeat Museums: The Collections and Curators of America's Most Unusual Museums
Offbeat Museums contains profiles of the curators and collections of America's most unusual museums. From the Banana Museum in California to the Tragedy in U.S. history Museum in Florida, Saul Rubin takes you on a guided tour of the United States strangest institutions, and introduces you to the offbeat people who run them. \ Include among the places you will visit are:\ \ Cockroach Hall of Fame\ The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices\ Mister ED's Elephant Technology\ The Mutter Museum\...
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Offbeat Museums contains profiles of the curators and collections of America's most unusual museums. From the Banana Museum in California to the Tragedy in U.S. history Museum in Florida, Saul Rubin takes you on a guided tour of the United States strangest institutions, and introduces you to the offbeat people who run them. Include among the places you will visit are: Cockroach Hall of Fame The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices Mister ED's Elephant Technology The Mutter Museum Houdini Historical Center UFO Enigma Museum The Museum of Menstruation Nut Museum 50 museums in all! In the age of cable television and the World Wide Web, it's easy to smugly believe that we've seen it all. Such institutions as The Museums of Death, the Museum of Bathroom Tissue, and the Glore Psychiatric Museum suggest otherwise. By stepping outside the mainstream, these offbeat museums meet and even surpass the promise of more traditional museums: To amaze, inspire and enlighten the public. About the Author: Saul Rubin worked as a staff feature writer for Copley Los Angeles Newspapers, based in Santa Monica, from 1990 until 1997. Previously, he worked as a news reporter for the Santa Monica Outlook, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Berkeley Gazette. In addition, he has written feature articles for magazines such as Buzz , Muscle and Fitness and the Berkeley Journal. He is currently a staff member of "Goin' Deep," a new sports magazine show on Fox Sports West. He received both a Master's degree in Journalism and a B.A. degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley. Born in Boston on June 15, 1957, Rubin grew up in nearby Brookline, MA. He moved to California in 1978 and has lived there ever since. When on the road, he prefers his attractions on the offbeat side.Wisconsin Public RadioThe best and the weirdest and the quirkiest of homespun Americana is on display in Offbeat Museums.
In the 17th century-an age of exploration and scientific inquiry-Europe's parlor set entertained themselves by musing over private collections known as "cabinets of curiosities." Collectors gathered items for their educational as well as shock value. The result was haphazard, sensational displays featuring everything from art treasures to such exotic knickknacks as shrunken heads and dried kidney stones. Before newspapers and steamships, let alone computer networks and jet travel, this was how the world's marvels became known.\ Many of these early collections formed the basis for the world's first museums. Charles Willson Peale opened the Philadelphia Museum in 1786, presenting the tradition of curiosity cabinets to a much wider audience. In his self-portrait "The Artist and his Museum," Peale depicts himself as a conjurer lifting up a curtain and presto!-a magical world appears stocked with mastodon bones, stuffed animals and a live porcupine. Early museums were, in a word, fun. The dawn of the 20th century, however, marked a sobering period for America's exhibit halls. Museums were increasingly perceived as solemn places designed to educate the public in a somber manner, a concept that persists today. America's most cherished institutions are marble-lined mausoleums, presided over by high-minded boards of trustees and guarded by uniformed sentinels armed with attendance clickers.\ Thankfully, hundreds of more homespun American museums are not burdened with such lofty concerns. Instead, by seemingly subverting the role of the modern museum, they recapture the spirit of America's early collections. By stepping outside the mainstream, these offbeat institutions fulfill the traditional promise of the world's first great collections: to amaze, inspire and enlighten the public.\ It is to these remarkable museums that we turn our attention. This book presents 50 of the most offbeat museums in America, institutions that defy conventional wisdom by their very existence. Their names alone are enough to trigger puzzlement and curiosity. The Museum of Menstruation? The Madison Museum of Bathroom Tissue? In Pennsylvania there's a Shoe Museum, where you can examine the pumps that shod former First Ladies. In Massachusetts there's the American Sanitary Plumbing Museum, which began with the surprising discovery in 1956 of a Colonial-era spigot. Common sense says that the words "banana" and "museum" should never be juxtaposed, but then sure enough you come across a listing for the Banana Museum. It's in Altadena, California, and on the Internet, too, with a bright yellow web page.\ These museums invite us to ponder the significance of diverse artifacts such as a table setting from the doomed Hindenburg airship and dentures from the mouth of the father of our country, George Washington. Curators at these museums have taken items such as hair jewelry, spinning tops, and obsolete U.S. spy equipment, and displayed them just as proudly and naturally as fine art museums hoist Van Goghs.\ Just who is mounting these exhibits? It's a reasonable question to ask. They are courageous people. In the era of the Shopping Channel, when dozens of curious items burn across television screens hourly, these modern-day Peales dare to say that there's room in contemporary society for genuine amazement.\ There is Elizabeth Tashjian, a charming woman with a lilting voice and an unusual obsession. In her dark-wooded Connecticut estate, she's fashioned a reverent tribute to the nut. There is Charles Gandolfo, who opened a Voodoo Museum in New Orleans to dispel negative myths about the religion. He was motivated by family history-his great-grandfather was cured of lockjaw by a Voodoo priestess named Mama Midnight. In Chicago, John Urbaszewski exhibits his wondrous creations made from household trash, including a replica of the Taj Mahal. If visitors to his traveling museum care to listen, Urbaszewski will tell them of his grand vision to revive urban America by building mile-high residential complexes, anchored by bustling casinos. We've selected some museums for the provocative way they transform everyday items into stunning objects worthy of careful study. The National Museum of Dentistry, the National Lighter Museum and the Hamburger Hall of Fame come readily to mind. Others, including the Museum of Death, the Tragedy in U.S. History Museum, and the American Funeral Service Museum, bravely shine a light upon dark, but worthy, subjects.\ In an age of sophisticated communication, it's possible to smugly believe that we've seen it all, most likely on cable or the Internet. The Barbed Wire Museum, the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, and the Great Blacks in Wax Museum say otherwise. There's much to learn and surprise is still possible. This is true even if it means reflecting upon items normally taken for granted, such as cakes, cockroaches, clocks and toothbrushes-all subjects deemed worthy of scrutiny by the museums in this book.\ We submit Offbeat Museums as a modern cabinet of curiosities. It's time for these museums to be put under glass and examined. In this rocket-paced, hyper-linked world, we need them more than ever. They provide much-needed moments of insightful contemplation. Let them be your trusted guide on a journey of unexpected wonder and discovery.
Offbeat Museums by State CaliforniaExotic World/Burlesque Hall of FameInternational Banana Club and MuseumThe Mini Cake MuseumThe Museum of DeathThe Museum of Jurassic Technology ColoradoThe Nikola Tesla Museum of Science and IndustryConnecticutThe Barnum MuseumThe Children's Garbage Museum of Southwest ConnecticutThe Menczer Museum of Medicine and DentistryNut MuseumFloridaTragedy in U.S. History MuseumIllinoisGrandpa Moses' Traveling MuseumInternational Museum of Surgical ScienceThe Time MuseumIowaThe National Farm Toy MuseumKansasKansas Barbed Wire MuseumThe Martin and Osa Johnson Safari MuseumLouisianaNew Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum MassachusettsAmerican Sanitary Plumbing Museum MarylandThe Great Blacks in Wax MuseumHavre de Grace Decoy MuseumThe Museum of MenstruationThe National Cryptologic MuseumThe National Museum of Dentistry MinnesotaThe Museum of Questionable Medical Devices MissouriGlore Psychiatric MuseumLeila's Hair Museum NevadaThe Liberace Museum New MexicoAmerican International Rattlesnake MuseumThe International UFO Museum & Research CenterThe National Atomic MuseumUFO Enigma Museum North CarolinaThe Country Doctor MuseumMarvin Johnson's Gourd Museum OhioWarther Carvings OklahomaNational Lighter Museum OregonKam Wah Chung & Co. Museum PennsylvaniaMister Ed's Elephant MuseumThe Mütter MuseumThe Shoe MuseumSouth DakotaThe Shrine to Music MuseumSoukup & Thomas International Balloon & Airship Museum TexasAmerican Funeral Service MuseumBarney Smith Toilet Seat Art MuseumCockroach Hall of FameThe U.S. Border Patrol MuseumWashingtonDon Brown Rosary CollectionWisconsinHamburger Hall of FameHoudini Historical CenterMadison Museum of Bathroom TissueSpinning Top Exploratory Museum
\ Los Angeles TimesOffers an abundance of alternatives to predictable places like the Getty.\ \ \ \ \ Edmonton JournalAs delightful a coffee table/reference/bathroom/travel/popular culture tome as you'll ever discover.\ \ \ Lindy CrosbyOffbeat Museums is difficult to stop reading. And with plenty of photos and pull-quotes, directions to each location and hours of operation, and a clean, reader-friendly design, Offbeat Museums belongs in your collection.\ — From Lindy Crosby, Eye, November/December 1999\ \ \ \ \ Wisconsin Public RadioThe best and the weirdest and the quirkiest of homespun Americana is on display in Offbeat Museums.\ \
