Niche Museums

I would like to signal boost The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.

https://www.mjt.org/

I've never been anywhere quite like it. My friend once described it as "an art piece that uses museum curation as its medium" and that's the best description I've come across. To get an idea of what that means, understand that it's fully laid out as a museum with exhibits featuring various objects and artifacts and expositions thereof but these exhibits wildly vary between truth and fantasy. Some are showcases of real, if niche, cultural practices and some are histories of entirely fictional figures that are nevertheless compelling and beautiful.

The creator was awarded a McArthur grant in 2001 and I feel it was more than deserved.

As someone in the process of building a niche museum about hyperlocal archaeology and history in my Philadelphia neighborhood, the timeliness of this post is excellent.

Speaking of, The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is fantastic. On the surface, it seems like some kind of stoner side show, but the people running it are very, very experienced archaeologists, and we ended up buying multiple books from them on the topic of pipes. Trained archaeologists in Philadelphia will look at a clay pipe and say "That's Dutch" but these guys are like "That's from Gouda, and was probably owned by a farmer"

I believe the Icelandic Phallological Museum fits the bill! https://www.phallus.is/

Not sure Stonehenge qualifies as "niche". Anyway ...

If you're ever visiting the Lake District, NW England, I recommend the unexpectedly interesting Pencil Museum in Keswick. Graphite was first mined nearby and when it was realised it could be used for pencils, it became extremely valuable, requiring armed guards for its transportation. Thus Keswick claims to be the birthplace of the modern pencil.

The Rosicrucian Egyptian museum is a pretty neat museum in San Jose. I remember going several times as a kid, really cool place with a remarkably large collection. Only relatively recently did I dig into who the heck the Rosicrucians are, and that's a wild deep-dive in of itself which probably should feature somewhat in the museum. Basically, in the early 17th century, a couple of essays were published describing this ancient order of mystics called "The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross" which protect secret and powerful knowledge. At some later point, a bunch of societies popped up that claimed to be descended from the "original Rosicrucians" (of which not only is there no evidence of ever existing, but the guy who presumably wrote the first essays about them published an essay about how he made them up as a bored 16 year old). Today, the largest such group is headquartered in San Jose, and run a pretty sick Egyptology museum.

My friend from school days, who is into a digging up lot of WWII stuffs, have a museum in a remote corner of India. Backed by Japan, and the local government, it is located near to other Japanese related location in Imphal, Manipur (INDIA).

Here are some pictures I took while visiting it some time before the official opening. I think I got some of the Indian Currency printed by the Japanese during the war. I might also have copies of some videos from during that time (I think the 40s-50s).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gao3hq1qYsgNBnzy6

Official Website https://imphalpeacemuseum.com/

There is a Cuba museum in my hometown, Tuxpan, Veracruz Mexico. History goes that, Fidel Castro, after exiling, organized and trained men and then sailed from the port to Cuba, ultimately this starting the Cuba revolution and his regime's start.

The UK entrant to Eurovision Song contest, Look mum, no computer, runs a museum!

I recommend the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia to the curious and strong of constitution. https://muttermuseum.org/

I really liked the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont when I went to visit. https://americanprecision.org/

I recommend Japan as a country with many niche museums, here are two I enjoyed:

https://www.tdk.com/museum/en/

https://www.khi.co.jp/kawasakiworld/english/

They are museums run by companies about their own histories and industries. The TDK one was quite unexpected: it's basically a museum about very thin plastic.

If you're in to some combination of American cultural history, pop art, or graphic design / typography, you might get a kick out of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, OH. It's a gem: https://www.americansignmuseum.org/

Aside: I wish the Museum of Holography in Chicago hadn't imploded. It was immensely cool.

Aside aisde: I love that this site has an RSS feed.

Corning NY has a Glass museum that is run by the Corning Glass Company (company that makes iPhone glass). Which is pretty cool, if you are ever in that area.

Adding my nomination for the Manitoba agriculture museum - https://mbagmuseum.ca/

They have 'Big Roy', one of the largest tractors ever built. It came into existence during a progressively competitive era of building super large tractors in the 60s. They also have several operating steam tractors and a workshop that restores them.

The Toy Museum of Munich is pretty cool and it is near a major tourist site in Munich, Germany. My wife and I went in to kill an hour while we waited for others and it was really nice. Covers 4 centuries of toys and toy evolution.

https://www.spielzeugmuseummuenchen.de/en

Museum of Brands in London

https://museumofbrands.com/

There's also the beautiful harp museum in Bruges https://www.visitbruges.be/en/things-to-do/culture-and-herit...

Pittsburgh has a two-story bicycle museum. Well worth the visit. Charming, densely filled, and well organized.

First one I clicked on was Reserva Cerro Ancón in Panama City (https://www.niche-museums.com/72)

Cool place, but hard to see how it's classified as a museum (park, trail, nature reserve).

I'm a bit surprised that here in Boston, the nearest museum listed is in New York.

Parasitological Museum in Meguro, Tokyo

https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top

Museum of World Religion https://www.mwr.org.tw/mwr_en

Musee Champollion in Figeac, France about Champollion and his deciphering of the hieroglyphs and deciphering of ancient texts generally

If you're ever in Wisconsin - House on the Rock and the Mustard Museum.

The UFO museum in Roswell NM should be added to their list.

Another addition to list: Indian Music Experience Museum - https://indianmusicexperience.org