queenlua: (kacho-e)
[personal profile] 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

Date: 2022-06-24 09:46 pm (UTC)
lassarina: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2022-06-29 08:46 pm (UTC)
lassarina: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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

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