parlor question:

[queenlua]

What's the most niche museum you've ever been to?

(derived from a delightful lunch conversation, in which we discussed some tribal-black-magic museum so obscure Google could not summon it, and a telecommunications museum that apparently is like church: only open Sundays, and a couple very niche artists' museums, etc)

My own answer is probably either the National Ainu Museum in Sapporo, or the Fillmore County Historical Society Museum in Fountain, Minnesota, which punches SHOCKINGLY far above its weight—I was there mostly because I happened to be in the area, and I found myself totally enthralled with all these old musical instruments you were allowed to just... play? and old Civil War diaries you could read with your own two hands? and just so much totally random Americana stuff in a giant room for you to sift through? Delightful.

(Also, while I don't think this makes the cut because it's technically not niche enough, it's so cool I always have to mention it: the Living Computer Museum is an absolute delight; it's packed with a bajillion old computers and you are allowed to play with ALL OF THEM; it's so fun and god I hope they come back post-covid and such...!)

Feel free to answer here, if you so choose! or just save it in your back pocket next time you need entertaining cocktail party discussion-starters :P

ETA (Sept 28, 2022): someone made a Twitter thread to this effect & the replies are great

Comments

[a_j]

This makes me feel like I've really missed out on some cool things. I've only been to a few museums in my entire life and nothing as wildly nifty as these. That living computer museum sounds really fun, ngl.

[queenlua]

yeah, LCM was a treasure when it was open... the place had a ton of volunteers who were just retired Computer Folks who actually worked on the machines back in the day, and could tell all kinds of fun stories about it, and helped maintain the systems today...

hope you get to find a niche museum of your own sometime in the future ;)

[garonne]

Ah, great question, though I can't think of an answer right now. That County Historical Society museum sounds amazing.

[queenlua]

haha, i am GREATLY enjoying all the replies here, so it seems it was even a better question than i first thought! good times~

[kradeelav]

Oh man, this is a fun one. Weirdly enough there's a crapton of high quality museums in GA, because I could easily come up with a list of like, ten? Or maybe being a weirdo daughter of an architect/ex-biology teacher was a blessing there as far as ALL THE ART AND SCIENCE lol. When we travel it's all about the museums and food XD

Top two, probably:

- Booth Western Art Museum - random ass museum in the middle of bumfuck north GA that is HUGE and on par with new york ones, except it's all about western art? like literal cowboys and indians western paintings except 20 and 30 feet long.

- Museum of Aviation - went there back in January, also in the middle of GA, and the second largest airplane museum in the entire US. Absolutely bonkers amount of planes on display in their 5 warehouses that are converted to hold the craft and seeing the SR-71 in the flesh was kind of a religious moment if you're the least bit into military aircraft. Shit was so good it was surreal.

that communications one sounds amazing but also lol at the hours, bless them xD

[queenlua]

that Booth Western Art Museum is so charmingly specific, lol. "oh like Western Europe 1600s-onward?" NO, western like cowboys. love it :P

(reminded me of another museum I forgot to mention!!! i got to visit the National Museum of Wildlife Art in my teens, and like... you've seen my tumblr, lol, that museum was LASER TARGETED at me haha)

[chocochipbiscuit]

These sound so cool, and make me want to seek out obscure museums in my area!

The most obscure one I've ever been (and haven't been to since I was in grade school, alas) was the mercury mining museum, because my hometown used to be home to mines! There were a lot of plaques and models of the area, but the thing that really stood out to me as a child was being allowed to (carefully) hold one of the fancy old-school glass mercury thermometers, and holding a small glass vial of pure mercury so I could feel how dense it was.

[queenlua]

being allowed to (carefully) hold one of the fancy old-school glass mercury thermometers, and holding a small glass vial of pure mercury so I could feel how dense it was

ok that is EXTREMELY cool. 10/10 niche museum, ty for sharing!

[threewalls]

Nicosia in Cyprus has a fairytale museum, open mornings Tues-Sat only. It's a two storey house converted to whimsical rooms, props and enormous books. They have costumes (admittedly for small children, mostly) so you can dress up while you're there. The museum door is within eyesight of one of the military observation towers/bases at the edge of the border between occupied and unoccupied Cyprus, which cuts through the city.

I've also been to a number of museums that are essentially 'history of the theme park you are currently visiting', and my favourite is Efteling's in the Netherlands. It's properly curated with little plaques beside displays and audio-visual presentations, plus one room of topical exhibition.

[queenlua]

ok, both of those sound immensely charming, especially the fairytale one! had a total blast clicking through both their websites, haha.

[threewalls]

Thanks!

This was such an interesting question. There's so many interesting museums out there.

[autumndaze]

Hmm... I'm not sure anything I've done really qualifies as a niche museum. Most of the museums I've been to are either in well known city centers, are popular tourist destinations, or are a regular part of the local landscape, like any battleground around here (which usually dates to the US Civil War). Or it's not a museum, it's just a still functional monument that allows tours lol The most I can think of is Lacock Abbey, which is in Lacock, Wiltshire, England, where they filmed a lot of scenes for the Harry Potter films and some of the "Pride and Prejudice" 1995 miniseries. The inside has a lot of historical art and artifacts, and is quite neat.

The other one is Giverny, in France, where Claude Monet lived. We actually weren't planning to go that one - it was a "random" add-on to a trip to Versailles - and it ended up being our favorite part of our trip lol The house itself is a museum of sorts and the paintings inside are, I believe, reproductions from lots of different artists. The garden itself is still cared for, and quite gorgeous.

[queenlua]

love when those random sidequests end up being the best part of the trip :) both of these sound delightful!

[lassarina]

I think the two most interesting niche museums I've visited are the Johnny Cash museum in Nashville (self explanatory, probably?), and the Chester Beatty library in Dublin--Beatty was an avid collector of all manner of books and manuscripts, and the museum is full of neat information about the books he collected and how books are made and so on.

[queenlua]

johnny cash <333333333

and, wow, even at a cursory glance that Beatty library is super impressive (that ancient Egypt stuff wow?)... someday I will travel to Europe...!

[lassarina]

I am absolutely the person who dawdles through the museum looking at all the cases and reading all the placards. Unfortunately my in-laws, with whom I was traveling at the time, are not. XD

[helicoprion]

Maybe stretching the definition of "museum," but mine is Agecroft Hall, which was a Tudor-era English manor that some crazy 20th-century rich guy had DISASSEMBLED AND SHIPPED TO AMERICA AND REBUILT IN THE ENVIRONS OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA because that's a thing you could do in the 1920s? You can putter around the house and grounds and look at historical furniture and sometimes they have theater productions on the lawn.

ETA actually I think the harness racing museum in Goshen, NY might be more niche than that

[queenlua]

Tudor-era English manor that some crazy 20th-century rich guy had DISASSEMBLED AND SHIPPED TO AMERICA AND REBUILT IN THE ENVIRONS OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

sorry what

that's. i just googled and omg. more eccentric rich guys like this plz :P

also TIL harness racing was a thing, ever, lol

[helicoprion]

My grandma is actually a Known Entity at the harness racing museum because her genealogy research turned up a connection with one of the big shots of mid-19th-century racing. So she went there to look at some of their records and became kind of a regular. One time she sent me some photocopies of RARE PRIMARY DOCUMENTS where a guy took out an editorial in the paper to say, "critics say my favorite trotter is an ugly horse. Critics need to shut up, this horse is so strong and deserves our respect, and he's also very normal-looking"

(included was a painting of a very normal-looking horse, but ofc I don't know how he matched up to the breed standards of the day, or how many liberties the painting took)

But yeah I guess harness racing is only a known phenomenon to people who either have ties in upstate New York or got deep into Marguerite Henry's back catalog in their horse girl phase XD

[queenlua]

WHAT.

ok this is the most delightful niche family legacy i've heard since "turns out Bird Guy has some kind of great-aunt who's in Canada's curling hall of fame", ty this made my month

critics say my favorite trotter is an ugly horse. Critics need to shut up, this horse is so strong and deserves our respect, and he's also very normal-looking

a tragedy this guy was born before the era of tumblr. that'd have like 50k notes minimum

[lassarina]

or got deep into Marguerite Henry's back catalog in their horse girl phase excuse u I'm in this picture lol

[helicoprion]

Lol, I mean, same. Also Walter Farley, but I think Marguerite Henry made more of an impression because of a childhood day trip to Assateague. omg the feral ponies are real and you can just go LOOK at them

[lassarina]

I grew up in Maryland so Chincoteague was nearby. I never actually went though. Which is surprising, because my parents were remarkably indulgent of my Horse Girl phase (I had riding lessons, etc.)

[helicoprion]

Possibly the secret is to already be on a trip to Ocean City when you start lobbying for a day at Chincoteague/Assateague? It was barely even going out of the way at that point. XD

[lassarina]

Ahhh, that might be the trick! We always did Ocean City, NJ.

[lassarina]

there's a delightful winery, Castello d'Amorosa, in Napa Valley built on the model of a Tuscan villa - they didn't ship a whole actual villa just a shit ton of discarded bricks, but yeah. 107 rooms including a torture chamber, and they hired two artists to paint frescoes from the town hall in Siena, Italy on the walls, and the artists were brothers, and one of them fucked off without finishing the job - so his brother did it, but painted over his signature and replaced it.

It's a delightful fucking place to visit and if you like sweet wine they got you. (It literally exists because a guy who was fourth-generation Napa vintner was like "oh me what shall I do with my free time and money, I know, I NEED A CASTLE")

[helicoprion]

Hi, hello, yes, what, everything about this is amazing. A torture chamber???

[lassarina]

A torture chamber! I think it has some actual antiques in it. Anyway, it's a stunningly beautiful place and they have great wine, I loved it and I want to go back.

[queenlua]

TIL about the noble sport of boule bretonne! what a charming lil find, very much agreed on "more obscure the better" lol

[airlock384]

a misfortune of mine is that I got dragged to visit a whole bunch of interesting cultural places when I was far too young to understand or enjoy what was going on, but now that I am old enough, I only ever end up on trips that are about shopping and sunbathing and whatnot. not that these aren't good things (although I'm never going to understand what's supposed to be FUN about TRAVELING to SHOP and it's NOT EVEN FOR NICHE MERCH), but I'd almost feel like it was a waste if it wasn't merely, in fact, terrible child management on my father's part,

which is why I couldn't tell you much about the place, but I believe the most niche museum I've ever been to was one in Spain, dedicated exclusively to pirates. not all that niche in that at least it's a historical topic, but eh, it is a bit overly specific! it was a pretty cool place in itself, too, seeing as it was, best as I recall, a literal pirate cove on the shore that was repurposed into the museum!

[queenlua]

a literal pirate cove on the shore that was repurposed into the museum

WHAT

okay this museum sounds so absurdly amazing

i have no idea when i might have occasion to visit the Iberian peninsula, but boy, if i ever do, i 100% know what i'm frantically looking up lol

[airlock384]

if you ever have occasion to visit mainland europe, really! as far as I'm told, these days, if you're in the EU, you can just hop on a train and get to wherever else in the EU for a day, for a laff; quick, cheap, relatively hassle-free

plus, who knows what other crazy interesting locales await in Spain that I tragically only half-remember as a nuisance? there's a city with almost the entire medieval architecture preserved, complete with a stone bridge that's seriously scary as fuck to cross. there's a city that was partially built into a cave. and apparently, the sights in Barcelona were interesting enough for my father and my uncle to ditch everyone else for a couple of days to make that trip happen, several times