Regarding odd museums, here are a few favorites. Though they may not all be
considered museums by everyone, they're all 'museums' to me....

Mutter Museum in Philadelphia- has got a nice anthropometric collection of
skulls, tumors in jars, and a delightful selection of siamese twins...
It definitely fills the gap left by the dismantling of the Armed Forces
Medical Museum that used to be in Washington D.C. many years ago (and
which made me decide that I was not going to be a doctor when I grew up).

Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida- May be more of a monument,on National
Register, and a 'must see'. The man who built it singlehandedly, Ed, was
a bizarre dude with a fixation on his 'sweet sixteen'...had some strange
ideas about discipline, lifestyle, and magnetism too.

House on the Rock, Wisconsin- Incredible collections of music boxes,
guns, pianos, carousels, pneumatic orchestras, and on and on and on- took
but two and a half hours before I hit the wall with auditory and visual
overload. Thousands of unlabeled objets d'kitsch!

Cypress Knee Museum in Immokalee, Florida.- Not sure if it is still open,
but this museum of cypress knees was built by a visionary. Somewhat
hallucinogenic natural and unnatural history. Pleasant boardwalk tour
through the swamp,too.

Voodoo Museum, Rue Royale (I think), New Orleans- Hidden away in a small
house, plenty of voudon objects. They probably have spell casting
workshops as well...

Wonders of the World Museum- I'm not sure if it still exists, but they
had definitive proof of Bigfoot, and some very interesting paleoceramic
or osteoclay finds. Unfortunately, I leant the catalog to someone and it
didn't get returned. If anyone knows if it is still in existence, please
let me know. I think it was in the Mill Valley area of California.

Those are some off-the-top-of-my-head favorites. If I recall correctly,
there were some threads about strange museums last spring that you might
find in the museum-l archives. So much for lunchtime, back to work...


Richard E. Duggan                   |
Chairman, Exhibits Department       |   808-848-4178 (vox)
Bishop Museum                       |
1525 Bernice Street                 |   808-848-7897 (fax)
PO Box 19000                        |
Honolulu, HI 96817                  |   [log in to unmask]
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