Around The World In 25+ Weird Museums
This blog was inspired by a post on X (formerly Twitter) titled “24 of the World’s Weirdest Museums,” which got me thinking about some of the weird museums I have visited over the years. Places like the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho and the Museum of Clean in Pocatello, also in Idaho. London, UK had three museums that are definitely weird - Funeral Museum and Hospital Museum. Closer to home we stubbled upon a Pharmacy Museum in Castor, a Gopher Museum in Torrington, the Gas Plant in Turner Valley, now Diamond Valley and a Rubber Stamp Museum in Edmonton. In Mexico City we found an off the beaten path Toy Museum and in Dublin, a Library where you can’t touch the books.
I thought it might be fun to pull of these together into one BIG blog. Have a read and let me know what you think.
Why Mr. Potato Head Loves Blackfoot Idaho?
Located in the former Oregon Short Line Railroad Depot (130NW Main Street), the museum is as unpretentious as potatoes themselves. No high-tech videos or animated displays here; this is a down-to-earth museum (again pun intended) that you would expect in a small farm town. But we weren’t – nor should you be – there is something intrinsically charming about its simplicity.
The price is right - $3 for adults, $1 for youth 6 to 12 years old and free for kids 5 and under. Plan to spend about 45 minutes to an hour watching the films, looking at the displays and reading the interesting storyboards. Perhaps the museum’s biggest claims to fame are that it has the largest potato crisp ever made by Pringles, as well the original potato planted in Idaho.
The Dirt On The Clean Museum
Top ten reasons you should visit the Museum of Clean:
It might well be the most fun you've ever had in a museum?
The whole family gets in for 15 bucks.
Where else can you see a prison toilet and a model used by Queen Elizabeth the First to do a #2?
The kids can literally get their nosed dirty, learning about what life was like for chimney sweeps in the 19th century. Bet they don’t complain about cleaning their room after that.
You think your life sucks. Try owning over 300 vacuums, most are pre-electric and one weighs over 60 pounds.
Husbands will love and wives will hate the rocking chair vacuum.
Kids are responsible for making sure their parents don’t run in the museum.
Don’t worry you don’t have to take your shoes off at the front door.
You get to see a garage that is more cluttered than yours!
Don Aslett is a really nice guy.
Gopher Hole Museum
The museum is located in Torrington, Alberta on Highway 27 just 15 minutes east of the QEW II highway, about an hour’s drive north of Calgary.
Housed in an unassuming, cottage-like former house just off of Main Street, it is not an iconic building designed by a star international architect as we have become accustomed to in big city museums.
Murals on the west side of the building let you know you have found it. You can park right next to the museum at no charge. Try that in the big city.
Speaking of cost, the museum admission fee is $2 for adults and 50 cents for children under 14. How good it that?
And, we weren’t disappointed. Since 1996, this grassroots museum has been attracting 6,000+ visitors every summer (it is only open from June 1st to September 30th, when the gophers go into hibernation).
Arriving shortly after it opens at 10 am on a recent Saturday, we were the first to arrive, but by the time we left, there were several visitors and a motorcycle caravan was expected later in the day as part of a scavenger hunt.
So popular with visitors, a great unofficial website guide to the museum was created by fans as a tribute. Very professional and comprehensive, the website has lots of fun information. I loved the “Meet The Team” link.
Link: Gopher Hole Museum
After a hearty welcome, you are free to explore the single exhibition room that houses the 47 dioramas with 77 mounted gophers.
They look like old box televisions, with the innards replaced by miniature scenes from early 20th century rural life in a small Alberta town, the “twist” being the humans are represented by (real!) stuffed gophers.
The result is hilarious; there is a clever tongue-in-cheek sensibility to each of the scenes.
Museo del Juguete Antiguo Mexico (Toy Museum)
Located in the heart of the Doctores neighbourhood, this museum, located in a five-story office building, is definitely off the beaten path. However, for urban explorers and those who love toys, it is a “must see.” In fact, it is more like an antique or flea market than a museum as there are no fancy display cases, no labels with titles, dates and artists’ names, no information panels and no security guards. In fact, the main floor sells toys that could easily be extras from the museum – you will not confuse it with a typical gift shop.
The museum was started by Roberto Shimizu, a Mexican of Japanese descent, who began to hoard every toy he could get his hands on since the age of 10. Most of the 20,000+ toys, games, dolls etc. date back to mid-20th century. One of the highlights for me was the small peddle-cars. Backstory: My Mom tells me I loved my peddle-car so much they had to replace the tires!
The museum is absolutely chockablock full of toys, piled up everywhere, making you have to step over and around them in this hoarder’s dream. There is a “thrill of the hunt” atmosphere to the museum with lots of smiles and giggles from parents and children.
Admission: 50 MX pesos per person
Time: Give yourself about 1.5 hours depending on how much you are into toys and nostalgia. There is not a lot else to see and do in the vicinity of the museum.
Salisbury House: Restaurant Of Museum
Though Salisbury House restaurants have been a Winnipeg icon for over 85 years, I somehow had never eaten there until a recent visit, despite having lived in Winnipeg for 14 months and visiting regularly since the early 80s. However while researching “best keep secrets” in Winnipeg for a recent visit, I found out their Portage and Pembina restaurants have mini-museums in their lobbies.
The Portage Avenue restaurant has several display cases with sports artifacts including hockey, football, baseball, curling and basketball. While the Pembina Highway restaurant is a mini music hall of fame that even includes Burton Cummings piano. Don’t believe me?
Alberta Road Trip: Delia, Castor & Lacombe
Back in 2020 we took at road trip into Central Alberta and discovered three “off-the-beaten-path” museums. Delia and Lacombe both had outdoor museums in their downtown. But the real hidden gem was the Pharmacy Museum in downtown Castor.
We were nicely shocked, as the two block main street was full of stores still in operation. There was even a car “show and shine” happening.
As we wandered, we came upon the Castor Pharmacy Museum, which when peering through the window (as it was closed) looked very interesting.
A sign on the door with a phone number to call said someone could come on short notice (if available) to provide us with a tour.
Turns out the museum is the work of Mike Bain, a retired pharmacist from a family of pharmacists. The museum building was the original Bain Family Drug Store.
Yes, Mike’s Dad was also a pharmacist, as was a sibling and his daughter. It not only has a huge collection of pharmacy artifacts dating back to the 1880s, but also an equally impressive collection of mid-century drug store memorabilia – everything from cameras to candies to a soda fountain bar.
It is an amazing trip down memory lane, when the locally owned drug store was more like a general store and often a hang-out spot for teens and seniors. Bain spent over an hour with us, sharing his insights and family’s experiences.
London’s Quirky Museums: Funeral, Novelty, Hospital
If you are visiting London, England you could easily plan your entire trip around visiting quirky museums. Places like the Pollock Toy Museum; Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History; Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising; Clowns’ Gallery & Museum and The Vagina Museum all fit the criteria. I didn’t visit any of them, but they sound interesting.
When visiting in 2019, I was fortunate to stumble upon three other quirky museums – The Funeral Museum, the Novelty Automation and the St. Bartholomew Hospital Museum.
Funeral Museum
The Funeral Museum is located in Clerkenwell, just off Farringdon Road, at 29-31 Roseberry Ave. in the basement of H.E. Pierce Funeral Directors - a working funeral parlour. How appropriate is that?
Opened in 2017, it houses the personal collection of Thomas Treacy, one of the funeral directors. One thing visitors will notice when wandering off of London’s tourist streets is that it is common to see a funeral parlour mixed in with the shops and restaurants. And that is the case with H.E. Pierce. They are just another part of everyday life.
Fortunately, we were staying close to the Funeral Museum, which made it easy to visit, as it has limited hours (Wednesdays from 1 to 4 pm.) You may also be able to set-up an appointment on a different day - call (+44 20 3797 4220) to find a mutually agreeable time.
A narrow staircase takes you down to the basement where a dozen glass display cases each telling a story of funeral rites of a different culture - Egyptian, Assyrian, Hindu, Muslim and various Chinese sects. The history notes are brief, but informative. The walls are full of photos with more information.
Novelty Automation Museum
We literally stumbled upon Novelty Automation, when wandering home from The British Museum. Located on 1a Princeton Street, just off of Red Lion Square Gardens, you could easily miss it. (And it didn’t appear on Google searches of “strange quirky museums of London.”)
Look for the small Tudor House building (there is a large sign on the façade of the building). Located on the main floor, the space is full of machines that are more like works of art and quirky engineering machines.
The names are hilarious – Money Laundering, Pet or Meat, AutoFrisk, What is Art? On the back of the “What is art?” piece is a selection of historical cartoons about art, with a piece about the history of art snobbery. Link: Art Snobbery
My favourite piece was “Divorce.” There is even a YouTube video of a couple operating the “Divorce” machine works.
St. Bartholomew Hospital Museum
This museum, located in the 900-year old hospital’s historic North Wing, includes a grand staircase which showcases spectacular paintings by William Hogarth and overlooks the 18th century square designed by James Gibbs.
The museum is full of medical artifacts that not only tell the fascinating story of the history of medicine in London, but also how advances in medicine parallel other major world events.
It is a reminder of how primitive life was just a few hundred years ago. And It is a “must see” for history buffs. The artifacts on display are only a small part of the collection. Real keeners, can search the entire collection at BartsHealth.
Admission free. Reserve at least an hour to tour the museum as there is lots to see and read.
Turner Valley Gas Plant
While the others played follow-the-leader with David Finch, our tour guide, I was busy flaneuring the Turner Valley Gas Plant (TVGP) – southern Alberta’s secret national and provincial historical site. While the history of the birthplace of Canada’s oil & gas industry is interesting what fascinated me immediately was the untouched industrial design of the buildings and the equipment.
Careful not to wander out of earshot of Finch (yes, I did get some dirty looks – mostly from Brenda - for wandering off), a human equivalent of “Google” with his wealth of knowledge not only of the TVGP but of Alberta history. Who knew the Turner Valley Field continues to produce oil and gas using enhanced recovery methods?
I learned the town of Royalties (that should be Calgary’s nickname, or maybe Stock Option City), at its peak in the late 1940s, was home to nearly 1,700 people.
Today the only indication the town even existed is a monument 5.6 km from Hartell (3.2 km south of Naphtha, which has only four home remaining).
Royalties’ nickname was “Little Chicago” as the wheeling and dealing paralleled that the Chicago mafia and Al Capone. And in the mind of locals, if Royalties is “Little Chicago,” then Longview must be “Little New York” especially given the high prices charged by the stores. Other nearby town names included Snob Hill, Dogtown and Mortgage Heights – we need more fun names.
Another interesting factoid was that the “liquid” that gushed out of the Dingman #1 well in 1914 was so pure you could (and they did) put it directly into your car - a good thing as Calgary had no refinery back then. Listening to Finch is like listening to a gusher; the stories and information just flow out of him.
I would recommend the TVGP weekend tours to everyone – locals and tourists. I am thinking it should be a mandatory school trip for children across southern Alberta. Tours happen Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays until the end of September from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is by donation.
For more information on the history of TVGP, check out the 100th anniversary You Tube video hosted by David Finch.
Dublin’s No Touch Library
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty was an Irish-American mining magnate and millionaire. Born in New York City in 1875, he graduated from Columbia University as a mining engineer. He made his fortune mining in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and other mining operations around the world. Chester was called the "King of Copper"
A collector from an early age beginning with stamps, he had, by the 1940s, built up a remarkable and impressive collection of Oriental art and books. He also owned 19 ancient Egyptian papyri that he gave to the British Museum. He moved his collections to Dublin, Ireland in 1950.
Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954, Beatty lived his later years in Dublin and was made honorary citizen of Ireland in 1957. On his death in 1968, he was accorded a state funeral by the Irish government – one of the few private citizens in Irish history to receive such an honour. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
Beatty saw collecting as “a great adventure." He obviously had a great eye for quality and loved books where the text and images formed a pleasing composition.
Fun back story: he could be considered an early adopter of twitter acronyms using DCI for “don’t care for it” and NFE for “not fine enough” in correspondence and his own records.
The Chester Beatty Library is more a museum than a library.
Learn more: Dublin's Chester Beatty Library - Look but don't touch!
Edmonton Fun Find: Royal Rubber Stamp Museum
Recently, while in Edmonton we stumbled upon the Royal Rubber Stamp & Sign Company (106 - 109 St), while out for a night walk. It was our first night and so after dinner we decided to take bit of a walk to see what the neighbourhood might have to offer.
As we wandered past a widow we noticed two old machines in the window. One said it was Crown Press, patented February 14, 1888, making it one of the first-mechanical self-inking stamps, the other said Metal Type Cutter, no date. Looking inside we could see a display cabinet with dozens of old office stamps. We couldn’t help but wonder, what else they might have and made a note to return another day.
A few days later we found ourselves walking by the shop and decided to go inside and ask if we could look at the display of old stamps. We were welcomed to come in have a look and take photos. Soon we were getting a tour, by Jim Avery the Production Manager. After looking at the old stamps we were then taken on a tour of the entire facility. We got to see first-hand how stamps and signs are made today with state-of-the-art equipment. Rubber stamps that used to take an hour to make are now made in a minute.
It was a fun crash course on the history of stamp making, as well as how the Royal Rubber Stamp & Sign Co. has evolved.
Link: History of Rubber Stamps
FYI: I have my own “Poor Richard” rubber stamp found at thrift store.
One of the best-loved dolls of all time now has her own exhibition at Les Cours Mont-Royal in downtown Montréal: Barbie Expo is the largest permanent exhibition of Barbie dolls in the world, and features more than 500 Barbies, including Hollywood stars, unique one-of-a-kind Barbie dolls and glamourous outfits created by famous fashion designers. We visited in Dec 2017.
If you find yourself in Florence be sure to visit the The Ferragamo Museum. It opened in 1995, is housed in the Palazzo Spini Feroni on Piazza Santa Trinita, a 13th-century former residential palace that Ferragamo bought in the 1930s to serve as his company headquarters and workshop. The museum’s collection started with a staggering 10,000 shoes created by Ferragamo from the 1920s until 1960, and has grown after his death. Exhibits rotate every couple of years, and there are also temporary exhibitions from time to time.
I often wonder when developers and urban planners will wake up and see the light (pun intended), recognizing the importance of “lighting” in creating urban vitality - and I am not just talking about street lights.
When will they realize the bleakness of today’s city centers and urban streets is due in part to the absence of the colour, charm, playfulness and character that neon lights provided (day and night) to downtown hotels, restaurants, pubs, clubs, theatres, cinemas and retailers.
Show me a street full of neon and I will show you a street full of life. Human beings are attracted to neon like moths to a light bulb.
We visited the Neon Boneyard Museum in Las Vegas in 2013.
Located on the second floor of a downtown parking garage in Calgary is the Udderly Art Legacy Pasture. In the summer of 2000, 100+ cows were displayed in downtown parks, streets and even the lagoon.
The legacy pasture has a small herd of cows along with documentation of Calgary’s biggest and best public art event to date.
Last Word
If you are interested in reading about the 24 weird museums that inspired this blog click on the link below. There is a Pencil Museum in Cumbria, UK; Bake Beans Museum of Excellence in Port Talbot, Wales and Can Opener Museum in San Francisco. It is a quick read.