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The Museum Nobody Asked For: Quirks, Kitsch & Question Marks
271 Plays2 months ago
In this delightfully offbeat episode of States of Discovery, Sara and Marisa take you on a road trip through America’s weirdest museums—the kind of places that make you do a double-take and say, “Wait… this is real?” From preserved medical oddities to mustard-themed exhibits, we explore the strange, specific, and surprisingly educational corners of the museum world.
You’ll learn about:
- The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, home to giant colons and soapified bodies
- The hilariously sincere Museum of Bad Art in Massachusetts
- Idaho’s love letter to the potato at the Idaho Potato Museum
- Extraterrestrial encounters at the International UFO Museum in Roswell
- Neon nostalgia at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas
- And yes—even the National Mustard Museum in Wisconsin
Plus, we dig into how these wonderfully weird places actually stay open—spoiler: it involves passionate collectors, creative funding, and a whole lot of merch.
Why You'll Love It:
If you’ve ever taken a roadside detour to see the world’s largest ball of twine, this episode is your jam. It’s a celebration of niche passions, local flavor, and the power of the peculiar. Whether you’re into science, food, folklore, or just good ol’ fashioned weirdness, there’s something here for every curious traveler.
Stay Curious:
Got a favorite bizarre museum in the U.S.? Know a hidden gem with an eyebrow-raising backstory? Send it our way! We’re always on the hunt for America’s strangest attractions.
Connect With Us:
- Phone Number: 805-298-1420 - Leave us a message! We’d love to hear from you.
- Email: podcast@onlyinyourstate.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Title
00:00:03
Speaker
guess how you're going to behave at these kinds of museums because some of these places are strange. Their origins are wild. And it makes you just really think who asked for this?
00:00:16
Speaker
Why? right But in the best way. 100%. And I just want to note that Sarah came up with this amazing episode title. The museum nobody asked for, ah which just I fell in love with because it's true. Nobody's really asking for a museum about mustard, but here we are. we Yep.
Personal Museum Experiences
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to States of Discovery, the podcast that uncovers the fascinating, the bizarre, and the beautiful corners of America. Marissa. Hi, Sarah. How you doing today?
00:00:56
Speaker
Fabulous. Excellent. ah How about you? doing well. Doing well. Coming off of a 40th birthday, the big foro and I'm still here. Yeah, happy the birthday. Again, thank you very much.
00:01:11
Speaker
ah I'm excited today to talk about this in relation to my birthday because I grew up visiting museums Museums were always a very special occasion for me and my family. and Sometimes the little nerd in me was like, how do I want to celebrate a birthday? Let's go to a museum.
00:01:27
Speaker
and oh it Today, we're diving into little bit different of a world of museums. The offbeat, a little eerie, and a little odd.
00:01:41
Speaker
Yes. And not to stop you there, but I'm gonna. um I need to know something about, you know, child Marissa, little nerd. What's your style of museum perusing? Like, do you go in, you're going to see very specific things? Are you getting the audio tour?
00:02:00
Speaker
Are you stopping and reading every plaque? What's what's the situation? Yeah, yes, that's an excellent question. and an intro to my psyche as a child and now into an an adult. But yes, I was the one who would read every plaque and i couldn't miss a thing.
00:02:15
Speaker
i couldn't skip around. um Yeah. What about you? I, yes. So it depends on the museum. ah If it is historical or art, I am hitting every single little thing.
00:02:34
Speaker
um When it gets to the natural, i get spooked easy. I've had multiple times where I would go into the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C.
00:02:45
Speaker
and they have a big whale hanging over, like the entryway. And I quite literally had a panic attack and abandoned my friend because I couldn't. Long story short, listeners, I have some very specific fears that don't help me in very specific situations.
00:03:01
Speaker
So- It depends on the museum, but if it's a safe place for me, I do like to like really dig in. Yeah. Yeah. i There's a meme going around that is just my favorite. It's like a standing frog ah just going around a museum at every plaque
Strange and Curious Museums
00:03:16
Speaker
reading. And they're like, I'm the type of person that goes to a museum and reads every plaque and makes sure make sure the people at the museum see me reading it so they know I'm doing a good job.
00:03:26
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, that's me. That's really sweet. Hey, guys, this is me. I'm learning everything I possibly can. Hey, did you see that? I'm at this plaque. And I'm like, I'm really interested. You're nodding. Wow, that's interesting.
00:03:42
Speaker
I love the acting. Okay, so now that we know yeah the weird, the offbeat, I'm curious how you're going to behave at these kinds of museums because some of these places are – strange, their origins are wild and it makes you just really think who asked for this Why? Right. But in the And I just want to note that Sarah came up with this amazing episode title, The Museum Nobody Asked For, ah which just I fell in love with because it's true. Nobody's really asking for a museum about mustard. But here we are. And like, we are. Yeah. Wouldn't it be something we are celebrating? Because i mean, come on.
00:04:28
Speaker
but Yeah, i also feel like it's a good way to summarize my life. Maybe it's going to go on my tombstone. The museum nobody asked for. collection of experiences. Yeah, it's so good. and And I'm excited to dive into this today. Right. We mentioned the mustard bottle collection. That's going to be a little bit later. But we're also talking about these weird offbeat museums that have jars of preserved body parts and yeah um you know oddities and and just like the strangest things you can find. And and we're going take a look at some of these very niche eyebrow-raising museums that are across the country. And we're also talk about how they manage to stay open, which, fair question.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yes, and we're going to start with one of the most famously weird, and I honestly use this as a litmus test for friends. Like, if you know this museum, I know I like you, the Mudder Museum in Philadelphia. Yeah.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yes. So ah I'm pumped about this because I didn't even know about it until recently. um I'm going to Philadelphia and next week.
00:05:35
Speaker
This is on the agenda. It was added to the agenda by a friend. And then you and I got to talking and you're like, oh my God, yeah, that museum. And I was like, oh, okay. Connecting the dots. But do you want to talk a little bit about what this museum, why it's so popular, what it's about?
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So it is a medical museum that was, i think, ah founded by the College physicians of the college Physicians of Philadelphia. So it's not just like someone put together like, hey, guys, I want to start collecting body parts. But honestly, it's not that far from it, to be quite honest with you. And so you can go there, learn about anatomy.
00:06:13
Speaker
Learn about all of these specific medical conditions. You'll find human skulls, a giant colon that once belonged to a man who suffered from extreme constipation.
00:06:24
Speaker
Love that for you. If you're going to go see that, got to take pics. um And there's even what they what they call a soap lady. So it was a body exhumed from the 1800s whose corpse turned into a waxy soap-like substance called adipocere. And I think it's also known as grave wax, if you've heard of that before. Okay. Okay.
00:06:47
Speaker
Interesting. Cannot wait to see that. um I will be sending you pics. So what is it just curious? like Because I know for me, this type of like dark, weird, offbeat stuff, I love.
00:07:01
Speaker
Why do you think it's so popular, this museum in general? like What is it that you think draws people in and why this museum has stayed open beyond just people that love like weird medical stuff?
00:07:15
Speaker
So just to speak from personal experience, not about the Mudder Museum, i'm I'm planning to go there soon with actually some Jersey friends who are like very much in the same, like all we want to do you know fun, creepy things.
00:07:27
Speaker
But I have been to the National Surgeons Museum in Edinburgh. I think I went over that too quickly last time in Scotland. And it's a very similar thing. it was you know It's a medical museum run by surgeons, run by researchers. And the reason I went there and why I was so compelled, because not only is it a morbid curiosity of like, oh, I want to see someone's bones, but in front of me, um you get to learn about specific conditions and you know, tumors and how they grow and how what they look like. And like, oh, hey, this is what, you know, a certain kind of uterus looks like. And maybe you didn't know that's what it was. Like, just FYI, the illustrations of fallopian tubes are not accurate to what is actually in the human body.
00:08:12
Speaker
um So to me, I think it walks that tightrope between morbid curiosity. You just want to see these things and be kind of creeped out by it. But also, there's a sort of educational piece that I think is really important.
00:08:25
Speaker
And the Mudder Museum pulls in about 130,000 visitors a year. And I think it's because of those reasons married together. We're curious. It's weird, but we're fascinated by our own mortality, our fragile nature, and what is really going on inside of our ah own meat sacks.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
Yes. Very well put. Thank you. It's kind of got that same... allure of people who are fascinated by space. It's like this unknown that you are you experience because you can look up, you can see it.
00:09:00
Speaker
you know We're walking around in these bodies that really we have no idea what it looks like except for exactly like you're saying, these science textbooks that have I don't know, colored pencil drawings of fallopian tubes. And that's like our only experience with what certain human human body parts are, especially, you know, just anatomically correct body parts that it's this unknown thing that we're all experiencing in a museum in like that might be your only glimpse of a, and what is it? An uncoiled, uh,
00:09:34
Speaker
colon you said or uh yeah yeah the giant colon like it's just like that's that's fascinating and i think that that's like the interest of these you know especially these medical museums have you ever been to the what's the the one it's like the skin museum or the human bodies like the bodies the bodies yeah Yeah, it's like me traveling, but there's like one in Vegas. and Yes.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yes, I have. Yeah. Okay. Was that cool? i always It is really cool, but it always expect I expect it to smell like formaldehyde, you know, like when you do like the science experiments and you're like, I mean, I thankfully never had to do like the fetal pig or frog or anything. I just, I didn't.
00:10:14
Speaker
so But I knew the smell. I knew the smell of other – that's what I always expected, but it's fine. It doesn't smell like formaldehyde. I mean, I don't think it would get very far, but it is a really – it's a fascinating exhibit.
Travel and Museum Visits
00:10:25
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And you've never been? No, no. It's always kind of been on my radar, but I've never been. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's fascinating. um But so yeah, this museum I'm going to be tackling next week. So expect a lot of photos to be sent to you. ah Just rapid fire, random body parts.
00:10:48
Speaker
So we'll describe it in detail in the next episode. Yeah. Yeah. Of what you saw. I'm really excited. And for anyone listening, you can visit. It's open to the public. um And it's not like an extremely outrageous, expensive journey. You can just like go get tickets and which I think is one of the coolest things. But it's not the only weird museum in America, not by a long shot.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah, yes, the weirdness is not limited to bones and body parts only. But across the country, people have created these museums that are devoted to very hyper specific, wonderfully quirky things.
00:11:25
Speaker
We have a couple of examples we're going to just like run through. um but this is not an exhaustive list by any means.
00:11:37
Speaker
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00:11:53
Speaker
Find those and more at amazon.com slash shop slash only in your state.
00:12:02
Speaker
Have you been to any like kitschy specific museums that you'd like to talk about and share your experience? um yeah So sure. Yes.
00:12:13
Speaker
I went to one recently in Savannah, Georgia, which was, um I thought it was going to be more like medical curiosities and stuff. It actually was a very interesting experience. It's called the Graves Museum.
00:12:30
Speaker
um they have a lot It's a very oddities, quirky, but it's very serial killer centric. So you go through. Yeah. Yes. It's there's a lot of history about serial killers. There's this huge exhibit on John Wayne Gacy that um yeah like letters from prison.
00:12:50
Speaker
They rebuilt the the porch underneath where I guess they found all the bodies. Very creepy, but fascinating. They have a whole section on um Satanists in the Satanic cult in Los Angeles. um Gosh, that. That's what's fascinating.
00:13:11
Speaker
um yeah Okay. The Graves Museum. Yeah. Interesting. Very interesting. What about you? um One of my favorite favorites was um the International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico, if you've ever been.
00:13:25
Speaker
I mean, i was so if you're driving through Roswell, you know the name from the like famous UFO crash. You see the the the silver UFO shaped McDonald's. You're like, okay, I'm getting it. I parked the ah RV, went to get lunch at a nearby um like Tex-Mex place and there were like alien murals inside. I'm like, okay, getting the vibe.
00:13:46
Speaker
The museum was kind of what I expected it to be. Quirky, strange. It wasn't like test tubes and scientific. There were like an action they were like models like like and a like fake aliens and a UFO like you know taking like a little stage play taking place and you walk around. It was just you know fascinating.
00:14:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah You know what? think I've been there. like You have. It's like they're like alien mannequins that are kind of just, I think I've been there.
00:14:24
Speaker
I don't know what I expected, but as I started to like look around Roswell, I'm like, oh, this is going to be fun. I thought it was going to be more serious or like. Yes. And there like screenshots of like the X-Files up on the wall.
00:14:37
Speaker
It was fabulous. I loved it. um So if you're ever in Roswell, go check out the International UFO Museum. It is a hoot. Yeah. so What a happy surprise. think it was in like a strip mall or something or like the main street, but tucked away.
00:14:53
Speaker
yeah but I mean, yeah, that whole area is so fun. looks like a record store, to be honest. like Yeah. yeah So fun. That is a good one. um One that always pops up whenever I'm researching like museums or weird museums or the Museum of Bad Art in Massachusetts. Mm-hmm.
00:15:11
Speaker
With a tagline that reads, art too bad to be ignored. So, you know, we all say art is subjective, but here they've really labeled what bad art is.
00:15:22
Speaker
um And it's a lot of like odd portraits, ah creative disasters that likely start with good intentions from artists that end up in a museum, which I guess is their goal. They did yeah Yeah. I mean, it is really it's funny because it is subjective. I don't know. There's a its a popular TV show and they did this about like the um like Always Sunny.
00:15:47
Speaker
They did the whole art show episode. And it' that's all I can imagine is just walking through and be like, derivative, derivative. Yeah. like i I know nothing about art. I'm not an artist. like I would love to be, but just being able to pass judgment on pieces of work, like, man, that's not actually in the art exhibit. That's a trash can.
00:16:07
Speaker
But I would love to go see the Museum of Bad Art. I think that would be a fun time. Yeah, ah agree. Sometimes whenever I do go to an art museum, It does feel a little overwhelming but because like if you go to... um So like MoMA is going to be different than like the Cleveland Art Museum versus um the main one. I wasn't even the one in Chicago. But like they all have different vibes, which is great and different exhibits and it cycles through. And sometimes it just like hits you spot on. You know what you want to see. You understand it.
Art and Subjectivity
00:16:39
Speaker
Maybe you read a book about it or whatever.
00:16:41
Speaker
And then sometimes it's just like... I don't know what I'm looking at. I'm trying really hard. I'm looking at the plaque. I'm reading really intently. but what want to do? you would do Yeah. i I think that's, too, what gets me frustrated about my way of attending museums and having to experience it all is, like, I do walk away feeling underwhelmed with certain exhibits just because, for me, it doesn't, like, hit personally.
00:17:06
Speaker
But I wonder if, cause like I've been, you know, the Smithsonian I've been to I've been to Natural History Museum in New York. Like I've been to some big ones. And I always try to see everything because especially rotating exhibits and I'm like, I don't know if I'll ever see this again in my lifetime.
00:17:23
Speaker
So let me check it out.
Memorable Museum Trips
00:17:25
Speaker
You know, but then if it's just not hitting personally for me, it's kind of like, oh, well, that's a diamond. Yeah. So what's in ah an exhibit that sticks out to you in your memory that not for like kitschy reasons, but it meant a lot to you. it was really important that you saw it or you thought it was really overwhelming or beautiful.
00:17:44
Speaker
Oh, wow. What a great question. um You know what I have to say probably is really anything that whenever we would go, it's going to be really weird, but my grandparents used to take us to not only like big museums, but very small museums or They took us to, my sister and I, to the fish hatchery in our local town to learn about like fish and like where fish are coming from in terms of like sourcing food. And this is me at like but seven, eight, nine years old. cool.
00:18:14
Speaker
So I feel like- Save people with that stuff. Yeah. Anytime I was able to learn something and take it away and take it back with with me into life, like those were my favorite museum moments.
00:18:27
Speaker
You know, like a science, I love a good science center. Yeah. Oh my. Yes. I become a kid again. I'm like, i want to play with these tubes. I know. want to throw things.
00:18:37
Speaker
This is great. Yes. No. Same. What about you? Speaking fish hatchery, It wasn't on the podcast, but we were talking for some reason about live streaming webcams. I don't know how that came up. Maybe it was for the podcast. No idea.
00:18:51
Speaker
But I saw recently ah news article about that fish doorbell in the Netherlands that we discovered and how popular. It is amazing and how they're just like everyone is doing it and it's like getting more and more popular.
00:19:03
Speaker
It's viral. Yeah. Yes, a year ago, almost two years ago, maybe. know. I'm just so happy that we got in there first. We were letting the go. Check it out, though. If you're listening to the podcast and you want to open the doorbell for fish that are going through a lock, it's it's not automated. they rely on people to press the doorbell so that way the people manning the lock can open it.
00:19:24
Speaker
It's wonderful. It's so fun. I'm glad we were like one of the first 10 viewers that went live when we were... yeah Think of the the fish lives we've changed.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:38
Speaker
Just doing our part. um Yeah. So what about you? Do you have like a memorable museum moment that is just like in your core memory? Aside from becoming paralyzed by fear and multiple natural history museums, I would say any um any Salvador Dali exhibit tickles me.
00:20:01
Speaker
I want to go to the museum. It's in Florida, right? Yeah. St. Petersburg. I really want to go. um i just, my family, i don't know. i think my mom just had a Salvador Dali t-shirt whenever I was little and I was just captivated by it. It was um the persistence of memory and I'm like, oh, wow, this is really cool. And now ever to this day, i just, I love it. um you know ah So yeah, I think whenever I've seen some of his exhibits at different places, it's been really, really fun.
00:20:30
Speaker
um I've been meaning to go to the Neon Museum in Las Vegas every single time that I visit. Haven't managed it yet, but maybe next time because that's a unique museum that I think it would just be so fun to see for yourself.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yes. Agreed. I've never been, but that's definitely on my list too. um And of course, we have to mention the Spam Museum. For all our spam fans, there's a museum dedicated to spam in Austin, Minnesota.
Food and Quirky Museums
00:21:02
Speaker
I did not realize just how many flavors there were, honestly. just I never grew up eating Spam, and I only recently got into it because ah like if I wanted to make Misubi or something like that.
00:21:14
Speaker
But then, no, you have so many different flavors. so like The history of Spam is really interesting as well. so i just I'm surprised it's in Minnesota. Is that where it was created? That's a great question.
00:21:26
Speaker
Because I would have expected Hawaii or a Western state. Yeah. Actually, I just had a conversation with ah my sister about spam this past week, which as we normally do. Of course. Yeah. um Well, because her boyfriend's family is from Guam and they're big on spam. They love it. And um we didn't grow up with it either in New Jersey. but um And my sister's vegan, so they make a vegan spam. Yeah.
00:21:54
Speaker
which I had no idea. She said it tastes great. But yeah, like what you're saying, the musabi I make maybe once a month, but I use tofu. I'll like marinate tofu. But now I might need to try this vegan spam. I'm vegan spam. I mean, to be honest, if you put vegan spam and any other spam in front of me, I would not be able to understand the difference between them. So i mean, look, it's in a can.
00:22:17
Speaker
It's very compressed. and That's part of what it is. um Interesting. Okay. And then another one I want to talk about, a little offbeat museum, the Cryptozoology Museum.
00:22:30
Speaker
I and feel like it's going to be some sort of journey for me in my lifetime I have to make. Yeah. Is in Portland, Maine. Because of course it is. ah And so it has exhibits on all the famous, the the big shots like Bigfoot, Loch Ness, and you know probably some Mothman, Jersey Devil, Wendigo, Skinwalkers, typical crew.
00:22:52
Speaker
um I should just start listing for an entire podcast episode all of the cryptids I know, and we'll just see how how it goes, how long I can manage.
00:23:02
Speaker
Love that. um This is one, yeah, definitely I feel like should be added to your list, of course. like This has everything that I feel like you would want in a museum.
00:23:14
Speaker
um you got to play Have you been to Maine before? Never. Never. Me neither. wonder why. want to go. Yeah. Maybe I should maybe specifically go for the cryptozoology museum.
00:23:27
Speaker
Fly out they're like, oh, are you going to go to Acadia or are you going to see the coastline? Nope. Excuse me. No lobster rolls, no nothing. I want cryptozoology museum. Please and thank in, stay out.
Curation and Passion
00:23:39
Speaker
That's it.
00:23:40
Speaker
I have a feeling it's going to be a very similar vibe to Roswell, but we'll see. Yeah. Interesting. See, I think that's too what I love about these weird, quirky museums is that like they're not professionally curated.
00:23:56
Speaker
you know yeah like with the You go to a ah museum, one of these big name museums, they have curators. That's their job to curate these beautiful exhibits. Big bucks. Yeah. Big bucks.
00:24:08
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. But then you go to this museum like in Roswell or like the Graveface Museum, um and it's just like very it's it's curated, but by somebody who just loves it. like You can tell. It's just somebody that really loves. This was like a hobby.
00:24:27
Speaker
This was a passion project for them. And they're like they just decided, hey, you know what? I have all this memorabilia. Let me put it together in a museum. And doesn't have to be fancy. it doesn't you know They're really not charging too much money for these museums either for entry. And some are donations.
00:24:44
Speaker
you know Yeah. um whenever i Growing up, I actually volunteered at the Denison Depot Railroad Museum. um for multiple years.
00:24:56
Speaker
And it would just be like running a gift shop, like, lighting people on tours through the museum, which was thrilling, I'm sure you think. um Yeah, it was really cool to see that, like, you know, it wasn't it was a small town museum. it Like, the ah railroad industry was really important to to Denison as a town.
00:25:15
Speaker
and which is great. And if you're ever in the small town of like Denison, Ohio, I so highly suggest going to the museum because it's just a cool piece of history back whenever and rail was so, so important, not only because of war efforts, but also the way that we shipped different kinds of materials. And you know now nowadays it's not nearly as important, but yeah, I mean, not a lot of money behind it, but people really do care.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah. i I always I'm the type of person that will always go to the visitor center wherever like parks I visit areas I visit. Just like you're saying, if I'm in a small town and there's a visitor center or like a local museum, I'll always go because I do think that that like these places are very important in terms of.
00:26:00
Speaker
just like maintaining the integrity of a place, of an area, the history. These are just the kind of like these capsules of time that that deserve to be honored and recognized and, ah you know, appreciated.
00:26:19
Speaker
Absolutely.
Niche Museums and Sustainability
00:26:21
Speaker
And they really are these just little time capsules for niche passions. They are flags on the ground for people who truly care about maybe spam or trains or mustard, which we we we talked about mustard.
00:26:34
Speaker
We didn't talk about the museum. Oh my God, you're right. In Middleton, Wisconsin, they have over 6,000 mustards from more than 70 countries. It is it is impressive. i'm not i grew I grew up not being a mustard fan. I think I could stomach it now. I'm mustard fan.
00:26:52
Speaker
agnostic. Okay. It could be great. Like if it's in a vinaigrette or something, you know, and you mix it in, that's awesome. But I'm not just going like dive into a jar of mustard with a spoon or something.
00:27:03
Speaker
don't know if Yeah.
00:27:07
Speaker
Is that what they do at this museum? and um Yeah, no, same. i'm I like mustard. I do certain mustards. I'm like, as an adult, just appreciating different mustards.
00:27:20
Speaker
But over 6,000 seem- Once you hit 40, you start appreciating mustard. Right, exactly. This all happened last week. Let me tell you, I woke up. See, I hit 35 and I'm like, you know what? I care about birds now. Yeah.
00:27:38
Speaker
but So 37, what's next? What's the new milestone? I'm i'm so excited to find out. Maybe it's mustard. Maybe it's a wo inside slippers. I don't know.
00:27:50
Speaker
I've had those since my twenty s so let's get out of here with that. Fair enough. Fair enough. um Okay. Well, now that we've talked about some of the best and brightest hits of weird museums, and we we've alluded to how they're funded, but I really do want to dig into it because it seems strange and interesting that scattered across the country in countless towns, there are these like museums that are just dedicated to the strangest things, and they've been there for a while. Right. Right.
00:28:20
Speaker
i Yeah, that's always been my curiosity. How do these museums even stay open? Because, you know, the Mustard Museum is not raking in the same ticket sales as, say, the Met.
00:28:32
Speaker
um But, I mean, their their overhead sure is a lot less. So let's talk about, like, how these museums stay open, stay funded, and even bring in new things every once in a while.
00:28:49
Speaker
So a lot of them are um nonprofits, and that makes them eligible for grants, donations. The Mutter Museum is actually part of an older institution and benefits from endowments and donations. So that's really an important factor.
00:29:05
Speaker
um And then some are private collectors. So passion projects where they are collecting these things on their own and, you know, opening the warehouses to the public.
00:29:16
Speaker
So I'm pretty sure whenever I went to the National Surgeons Hall Museum, that started as one person just collecting. I know I alluded to it as if it was wild, but I think it was one person just collecting body parts.
00:29:30
Speaker
Wow. all of sudden, they're like, you know what I should do? Maybe I should let other people see this. um Not Jack the Ripper, maybe. Who knows?
00:29:41
Speaker
that's the In places like the Ventenhaven Museum in Kentucky, which is devoted to ventriloquist dummies, which thanks to goosebumps, I am now forever terrified, but I'm not sure if I'd visit. i probably should read the plaques, but it started with someone's collection, which is wild.
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think that is very fascinating that, you know, like we said, it's it is caught ah can start as a hobby for some people. You know, you have a... Collecting bodies as you do. um Yeah. i was going to say, that's such an extreme example because I was go to say the salt and pepper shaker museum.
00:30:15
Speaker
But, you know, it's like, yeah. Don't fact check me, please. This is it's much better if you don't. It's way more fun. Welcome to my brain. Yeah.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah. Curious now what's in your basement ah that we have to... Joke's on you. I don't have a basement. Just a garage. um But yeah, other other ways that these places can be funded. like Obviously, these weird museums get really created creative with their gift shops.
00:30:45
Speaker
i'm I used to love a gift shop whenever I would go to a museum. My grandparents, my mom, they'd be like, but you can buy one thing. which was always so fun at the end of the day. But these museums, they have gift shops with really cool stuff.
00:30:57
Speaker
There are events like the Museum of Bad Art host Bad Art Nights. um That's great. Where you can sip wine and create your own masterpiece disaster. And that's an experience people are paying for to have, which I think is really neat.
00:31:14
Speaker
Yeah. And we also have to note that there are some tourism dollars behind these as well. So, you know, regional tourism, DMOs, towns love supporting, you know, things that they're proud of and they love a good attraction to bring people in and get foot traffic to their town. So I think a lot of it is is really looped into...
00:31:35
Speaker
local tourism. And you know as someone who cares very much about travel and domestic travel, I think that's fabulous. And being able to support that kind of tourism, I think is just really important and everyone should
Creating Hypothetical Museums
00:31:49
Speaker
do.
00:31:49
Speaker
yeah. Yes, 100%. yeah yeah ah hundred percent and And um real quick, before we just like segue, if you had to open up a weird, quirky museum for one one of your hobbies, likes, interests, what would it be?
00:32:07
Speaker
o ah
00:32:10
Speaker
The only things I collect are magnets and shot glasses, so I don't know if it's going to be too impressive. um You never know.
00:32:21
Speaker
i mean, there's a niche for everything, really, so I really do think that what I'm drawn to is you know legends, lore, cryptid, but maybe maybe regional or local legends. I don't know. I think it's so important to highlight that kind of storytelling.
00:32:39
Speaker
And maybe it could be like a combination art museum and lore museum. So you see like tattoos and paintings and movies all about these like really hyper specific things.
00:32:51
Speaker
like the Loveland Frogmen or the Jersey Devil or Mothman's shiny butt that everyone touches and stuffs money in, you know? Right. How about you?
00:33:03
Speaker
Um, you know, I couldn't even tell you. um I'm not even like, would probably be that person that just wants to open a little library or something. You know, gotta make a sandwich museum. Museum of sandwiches. Oh my God. Yeah.
00:33:19
Speaker
Wow. I would do that for sure. and the gift shop is the deli. So you go out, get a sandwich that you can recreate, whether it's famous or new seat. Wow. Perfect.
00:33:31
Speaker
It's so funny because you just said magnets and then you said sandwiches. And I'm remembering a ah magnet set that my grandma had, which was like different sandwich pieces that you could like stack together. That's really cute.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. um Yeah. So, okay. why Why do we love these weird museums so much? Not you and me, but everyone. Because people will really make the trek to these towns specifically to see these museums. So why?
00:34:00
Speaker
I think it really taps into people's passions, their niche interests, their special interests. And if you care about something, whether it's mustard or Bigfoot or barbed wire or bodies, whatever it is, that kind of passion and dedication can be
Conclusion and Encouragement
00:34:15
Speaker
infectious. And then it gives you a way to break from the ordinary and to really just dive into something you care deeply about or can pique your curiosity.
00:34:26
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And I think too, just based on like my experience, weird museums can end up becoming the soul of road trip culture. Weird museums, weird attractions, oddities on the side of the road.
00:34:40
Speaker
It's like these places really bring small towns to life, which I love. Celebrating individuality, authenticity. And it it asks us, the viewer, to see the beauty in the offbeat.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. I think that's so beautiful. And some of my favorite memories, I think, as I travel and just go do random things is that last minute, spur of the moment decision to make that detour and go to you know the UFO museum or the meteor crater or maybe... I mean, it's not quite a museum. It's a big hole in the ground, but still it has a museum attached to it.
00:35:16
Speaker
um And I remember it really stuck out to me because I stopped at that meteor crater. There are cows all over the road because it's just like in the middle of the desert and you're just driving along a little dirt path to get to it.
00:35:28
Speaker
And i got there and the person taking tickets just had like an incredibly emotional moment because they received some news. And my friend and I sat down with her and just had a chat about it. And she let us in. it was It was the most incredible moment that just randomly happened in a small town off the side of a road because we wanted to go to the museum by the meteor crater.
00:35:50
Speaker
So I think it's important to seek out these quirky spots, find a new story, make a new moment. And, you know, if you find any museums that you'd like us to talk about or you want to share, definitely reach out, share on our pages, our socials, um or even just ah just shout it out into the ether.
00:36:09
Speaker
Let people know. 100%. That was very well said. Remember, beauty is in the detours, right? So make that detour. ah And until next time, everyone, this has been States of Discovery.
00:36:23
Speaker
Stay curious.