The weirdest museum you have ever been in..

Arachne

Arachne

Member
OK so I love history and I have been to my fair share of museums.. However, the strangest one I have had, the displeasure of being in. Was The Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, Canada. We were on another family road trip and somehow landed here, because the kids saw a sign.. I was oh gee what can it be about... lol I was mortified to find stuffed prairie dogs displayed in dioramas. My daughter who was 4 at the time thought it was delightful. Wanted to get one for herself.. here is the link to their website . lol

http://gopherholemuseum.ca/dioramas/
 

That would have to be Leila's Hair Museum in Independence, MO. It's dedicated to the product of the Victorian era art of hair weaving......hair made into jewelry, wreaths, flowers, decorations, etc. Some of the "hair wreaths" would be made of a collection of hair from members of a family.....it might take years and years to complete. The intricacy of the finished product is astounding. I had to literally drag the Spousal Equivalent into the museum, but he ended up being impressed by it.

It was very popular in the Victorian days to have "mourning jewelry" (bracelets, broaches, etc) made from a deceased loved one's hair.

I first saw a "hair picture" about 30 years ago that was made from the hair of young women who had entered a convent somewhere around 1900. Their hair would be cut off when they made their first vows and a nun in the convent made elaborate floral pictures out of the hair to make money for the convent.

Here's an example of a hair wreath:

hair wreath.jpg
 

I like museums but haven't been to many. Used to do a lot of rv traveling around the country and occasionally got to stop and check out a museum. I remember a few; a Pioneer/William Cody wild west museum in Wyoming - the pioneer part was really interesting and had some fine examples of things that were a part of everyday life of the time. I particularly enjoyed the section on the trackside canteen that started out from a few local women deciding to prepare sack lunches to give to the troops who were on their way, via the train, to war duty. The train would stop for about 30 min and the troops would receive a warm welcome and a good lunch to take along their way. It was so gratefully received and sort of blossomed into a proper canteen. The station had some extra space so tables were added and simple food and big urns of coffee were brought in and ultimately even a juke box! It was completely staffed and supported by local volunteers who kept up their good work until the war ended and the last soldier had come home - YAY Americans and our good hearts!

I also visited a Ripley's Believe-it-or-not museum in St. Augustine Florida and saw lots of weird stuff. Back in the day (1800's ?) it was popular to have, in your home, a large (as you could afford) shelved cabinet with glass doors to display your personal collections. They were called "Curiosity Cabinets". And....lucky for me I've toured the Smithsonian museums and they were so wonderful that a couple of years later I had to do it again. I loved American History and Natural History the most. Natural History has a full size adult stuffed elephant in the entrance rotunda ! We stayed in the D.C. area (camping) for a couple of weeks each time and took the metro in to town daily. The train has a station stop (underground) right at the Smithsonian and the escalator brings you up and deposits you right in the middle of the Mall (which is lined by the museums). So there's some of my best museum memories:)
 
the sex museum in manhattan . they had the coolest ***** shaped lighting fixtures . lol . they had a whole machine room filled with all kinds of nifty gizmo's . i even think i saw the pepper mill from the corner steak house
 
There's the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming that has the "most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world' - over 7,000 guns and other gun-related items. The Spousal Equivalent had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the place when they closed - lol.

And if that's not enough Buffalo Bill Cody for you, in North Platte, Nebraska, you have the Buffalo Bill Ranch Historical Park, which was his estate. Also in North Platte, there is the Golden Spike Tower and the Bailey Yards, which if you are a railroad enthusiast, is a must-see. The Lincoln County Historical Museum in North Platte features pictures and info about all the troop trains that stopped there at all hours of the day, like farmchild mentioned. My father used to talk about what a treat it was when he was on a troop train headed out to California to pull in at 2 a.m. in North Platte and a party was waiting for them. Food, hot coffee and pretty girls to dance with. Then it was back on the train a couple of hours later. The SE's father stopped there, too. We spent an hour going through the picture albums looking for them. I bless the people of that town for going far and beyond to make our boys' trips more comfortable.

Go out west and you'll frequently stumble on small "barbed wire" museums in the backs of stores. I had no idea there were so many varieties of barbed wire. Who knew?
 
The most unusual museum I've been to is the Museum of Prostitution in Amsterdam. It was actually very interesting and very well presented. It was informative without being gratuitous.
 
The Torture museum in Amsterdam was not so much weird but made me think 'Why would you have a museum of such grotesque torture implements and practises. Guess it's history but quite disturbing. Followed up with a visit to the Hash Marihuana and Hemp Museum. Believe it was legal in the US at some time in the early 20th century and then made illegal by one of your Presidents.
 
We saw a torture museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany that was pretty creepy. And there's a buggy museum in Blanco, Texas that's very interesting. There are many unusual or old horse-drawn conveyances, some of which have been used in the movies, as well as a few horseless carriages. And we stopped at an apothecary museum in Cuero, Tx on a trip last fall.
 
The most "emotionally harrowing" museum I've ever been in was the Berlin Wall museum in Berlin. I was sobbing about half-way through.

There were two photos that moved me the most. In the early days, there were parts of the Wall where there was only barbed wire fences guarded by soldiers. Occasionally, the guards would allow people to reach through the fence to touch their loved ones. One photo showed a formal wedding being conducted in the middle of a muddy field. The bride and groom were on the Western side and she held hands with her mother (who had been trapped on the Eastern side) through the barbed wire, just barely being able to reach each other. The other one, and this one about killed me, was a series of photos of a young mother who had been trapped on the Eastern side. She was standing at a fence, talking to her husband on the Western side, when she tossed the baby over the fence into the arms of the father, who hightailed it out of there. Now there's love, giving up your baby to a better life. I can only hope they were eventually reunited when the wall fell.
 
Farmchild mentioned "Curiosity Cabinets" - I'm a big fan! Something like 45 years ago, I was in a museum in Canada that fit the description - chock full of nature's oddities (many biological specimens). My friends were disgusted. I was totally intrigued and fascinated. To this day, my house is full of curiosities!
 
Arachne said:
OK so I love history and I have been to my fair share of museums.. However, the strangest one I have had, the displeasure of being in. Was The Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, Canada. We were on another family road trip and somehow landed here, because the kids saw a sign.. I was oh gee what can it be about... lol I was mortified to find stuffed prairie dogs displayed in dioramas. My daughter who was 4 at the time thought it was delightful. Wanted to get one for herself.. here is the link to their website . lol

http://gopherholemuseum.ca/dioramas/
Click to expand...
First, I didn't know gophers were so cute. I also love dioramas. Bottom line, I hope they all died natural deaths! (Yes, I know - not likely)
 
Having lived outside of DC for so many years I've been in lots of museums lots of times.

The only "different" one I recall is in the far southwest corner of Virginia. It used to be coal mining country, so there are a few museums to what "used to be." Museums about mining and museums about the railroads that used to haul out the coal.

It was kinda depressing because there was only what used to be. No industry had replaced it.
 
The Ripley's Believe It or Not museums are pretty darn weird. I went through one at a beach resort that housed recreations of torture methods, anatomical curiosities, and the like. They seek to present "the strange, the bizarre, and the unexpected." A sample exhibit was of a Chinese emperor who had two pupils within each eye...
 
In The Sticks said:
Having lived outside of DC for so many years I've been in lots of museums lots of times.

The only "different" one I recall is in the far southwest corner of Virginia. It used to be coal mining country, so there are a few museums to what "used to be." Museums about mining and museums about the railroads that used to haul out the coal.

It was kinda depressing because there was only what used to be. No industry had replaced it.
Click to expand...
Did this museum have coal sculptures? I don't remember where I saw them, but do know they were for sale at rest stops. They were all incredibly beautiful.
 
Em in Ohio said:
Did this museum have coal sculptures? I don't remember where I saw them, but do know they were for sale at rest stops. They were all incredibly beautiful.
Click to expand...
Not that I recall, EM. I bet they are pretty. The structure and surface of coal can be quite attractive.

image.jpg


I love the folk art that people make with whatever materials are at hand. Just so talented.
 

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