Some Bizarre Museums of
the World
Museum of the Penis
The
Icelandic Phallological Museum in Iceland is a museum devoted to phallology. As
of July 2006, the museum houses 245 specimens displayed like hunting trophies,
embalmed in formaldehyde, or dried in display cases. The museum attempts to
collect penis specimens from every mammal in Iceland, including several species
that are endangered or currently extinct in Icelandic waters. Siguršur
Hjartarson, a former teacher, is the founder and director of the museum. The
museum also exhibits a few specimens from mammals not living in Iceland, as well
as folkloric specimens (alleged elves, trolls, sea monsters, etc.) and
penis-themed art.
Toilet Museum
The
American Sanitary Plumbing Museum is the butt of a lot of jokes. It's also a
shrine to the history of plumbing. The joke is that in most museums you
generally have to search for a toilet. Here, toilets abound, some of them dating
back to the early nineteenth century. You'll see ornate porcelain toilets,
chain-pull toilets with high wooden tanks, and an "earth cabinet" that collected
the user's waste in lime instead of water. There's even toilet paper from the
1800's, referred to back then as "boudoir paper." The museum was founded by
Worcester plumbing equipment distributor Charles Manoog in 1979. Manoog was
getting ready to retire and says he wanted to give something back to the
profession. Today, his son Russ Manoog runs the distribution business. Down the
street, in a refurbished warehouse, Russ's wife, B.J. Manoog curates the only
known plumbing museum in the world.
New Orleans Historic Voodoo
Museum
The
primary purpose of this museum is to represent the traditional practices of the
Voodoo religion in New Orleans. The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum brings
together ancient and modern day Voodoo practices. While you are visiting the
Museum, you may wish to have one of our practitioners prepare a special
Gris-Gris bag just for you or someone you may know. The Museum also houses
artifacts of the Great Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.
Museum of Menstruation
The Museum, located in a suburb of
Washington, D.C., is devoted to the rituals and culture of menstruation.
Visitors can see exhibits tracing the history of pads, tampons, special
menstrual underwear, and more. As the Museum's brochure explains, "A particular
weight is put on the history and philosophy of menstrual hygiene advertising;
the museum owns over 1,000 ads from many countries, as well as patents, booklets
and other printed and visual material."
Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
The
Museum of Questionable Medical Devices shares his collection of the hilarious,
horrifying, and preposterous medical devices that have been foisted upon the
public in their quest for good health. Includes the Prostate Gland Warmer,
Phrenology Machine, Recto Rotor, Nose Straightener, Wonder Electro Marvel, and
hundreds of other weird devices. Founder Bob McCoy retired and closed the St.
Anthony Main location of the museum in 2002, donating his devices to the Science
Museum of Minnesota, which still displays a small number of items in their
Collections Gallery.
Leila's Hair Museum
Leila's Hair Museum in Independance, Missouri is probably the world's only hair
museum, acting as the headquarters for the Victorian Hairwork Society. The
museum sports a large collection of hair jewelry and samples dating back to
1725. Hair jewelry really caught on during Victorian times when it was regularly
used to honour a dead relative or loved one as part of the mourning process.
National Lighter Museum
The National Lighter Museum in Guthrie,
Oklahoma has nearly 20,000 pieces, representing over 85,000 years of lighters
and fire starters. The only museum of its kind in the world, it is dedicated to
collecting and preserving the history of the evolution of lighters.
Burger Museum
If you spent all day thinking of the unusual items that people collect, we bet
you'd never think of hamburgers. Harry Sperl, a German immigrant living in
America (where else?), has collected more than one thousand hamburger-related
items. including a hamburger waterbed and a hamburger motorcycle. The collection
includes more than 500 different hamburgers and some pretty unusual burger
material. There are banks, biscuit jars, clocks, hats, trays, erasers, badges,
magnets, music boxes, a pencil holder, salt and pepper shakers and, of course,
the waterbed, which is complete with a sesame seed covered spread and matching
pillows. There are signs, posters, glasses, cups, bowls, stuffed toys, T-shirts,
towels, calendars and postcards. Most of the material was picked up at flea
markets and garage sales, where Harry trawled for burgers with friend and fellow
enthusiast Ron Baynton. When Baynton decided to give up collecting hamburgers,
Harry bought his collection and added it to his own.
The Shoe Museum
Ladies
and gentlemen, gird your loins and prepare yourself for some of the most famous
shoes in the world. The Shoe Museum includes the shoes of celebrities like
Ronald Reagan, Sandy Duncan or Mike Schmidt, plus, the biggest shoe in the
world: one made for a woman whose lek had to, later, be amputated.
Nut Museum
What
happens when more than 100 nutcrackers, nut masks, paintings and sculptures of
nuts, and a collection of mixed nuts from the nationally recognized Nut Museum
lose their home? They find a new one at Connecticut College where author and
Professor of Art History Christopher Steiner and his students have been sorting,
cataloging, and archiving every piece in the collection, some of which will be
exhibited at the college beginning December 5, when Tashjian will be present. He
is truly "nuts".