Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/05/15-bizarre-museums-to-add-to-your-next-us-road-trip.html
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Disgraceful that the Vincent E. Simonetti Tuba Collection didn’t make this list.
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While I had to go through the list to make sure our local treasures (House on the Rock and the National Mustard Museum) were included, the real highlight was finding out there’s a town called “Shartlesville.”
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What? No love for No. 11 The International Banana Museum?
Just look at it!
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I’ve been to the Jell-O museum, it was pretty fun! Though I wonder if they still have the little Cosby shrine in the back playing all the pudding pop commercials on loop. Seems like that might be… questionable, now.
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I’d like to nominate an additional museum, the Ditrick Medical Museum in Cleveland. It has the Skuy contraceptive collection, which is a fascinating look at contraceptive methods. If you finish that up too quickly for your tastes, you are still within easy walking distance of some other great museums
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Most of these are tiny independent places, but the Mütter in Philly is legit. Definitely recommended. And if you like that kind of thing, the Deutsches Hygiene Museum in Dresden is fun, too.
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Came for the Mütter, and was surprised to find Roadside America, too!
Oh, I’ve seen much worse since moving to PA. 
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The Oz museum? No thanks.
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If you find yourself in New England, visit The Main Street Museum in White River Junction, VT for their cryptozoological specimens.
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When I was a kid we were on vacation in route from Virginia to Gatlinburg, TN and somewhere in rural VA my little eyes spotted a spray painted “MONSTER MUSEUM” sign with an arrow on the side of the road. I was (and still am) a MONSTER FREAK. I remember begging my dad to check it out and we wound up at some dude’s house in the woods. This guy ran a “museum” out of his normal, unassuming house! I remember walking through different rooms with walls covered in monster magazines (Fangoria, Famous Monsters of Filmland, etc) displayed in plastic bags. There was even a room filled with monster masks and another with model kits. Looking back, it was probably a really sketchy scene for my parents. It wasn’t some emaculate, well designed museum. It was just some random dude’s collection of horror stuff. I just remember being in heaven and how proud the guy was to show us around.
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Decapitated screaming heads, but not Princess Ozma going through most of the story in the body of a boy until the good witch turns her back.
I think I will stick with the original book, where magical confirmation surgery is a thing.
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I love stuff like this. The wife and I took a cross country trip in 2016 and spent more than a week visiting every little kitsch site we could find. From largest ball of twine to the Parthenon in Memphis, TN, to a weird and wonderful back yard dinosaur tour (life size sculptures). My personal favorite was Foamhenge in Virginia. Stonehenge recreated in life size out of styrofoam.
We are a truly strange species. And I love it.
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While I have never visited Vent Haven, I know the creator of one of the dummies in that collection. If you see “Sparky” by Scott Bryte, you can appreciate his artistic style.
He is entirely self-taught and carves dummies from wood - which is extremely rare these days.
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This article was first published in April of 2020. Sadly, Roadside America (#15 on the list) closed permanently the month before the article was published.
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I have to add the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. Creepy and fascinating. The illustrations room alone is worth the trip, and the medieval torture, erm, surgical tool exhibit is a lovely complement to the hall of weapons at Art Institute.
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This is an excellent museum. The human body, and all its variations, is truly an amazing thing.
I tried to take pictures last time I was there, but it wasn’t allowed. They try to keep it respectful, and it’s hard to do that if too many people are taking pictures.
EtA: I also hear great things about the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St Joseph MO but I haven’t been there
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May I also recommend the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA. It’s a bizarre Wunderkammer collection that has little if anything to do with either the Jurassic or Technology.
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Our business has heard from the gentleman who owns the Banana Museum. (He keeps looking to sell it.) I even have a sticker he sent to us (with his info redacted 
):
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Don’t forget the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, which isn’t run by the city and isn’t really a museum. I suppose there are a few small parts that act as a pseudo-museum, but it’s really a giant constructed playground in an old shoe factory that’s amazingly fun for all ages.
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