Ellen Byron
The weirdest museum I’ve ever been to was the Bowling Hall of Fame. My husband’s from St. Louis and during one visit to his parents, I insisted on dropping by the B H of F because it sounded so darn kitschy. I actually never made it past the gift shop, where I bought a friend a mug shaped like a bowling ball. The gift was as useless as it was amusing because the round shape of the rim made it impossible to drink without dribbling on yourself. But my friend still proudly displays this Bowling Hall of Fame trophy.
Lisa Q. Mathews
I still have nightmares from a creepy wax museum in Rouen, France honoring patron saint Joan of Arc. I was 15 when I visited and my French was good enough to catch all the details of her life up to her terrifying demise, portrayed with 50 Tussauds-style wax figures. It was located right next to the post where she was burned. Aargh!!! When I googled the museum for this post, I learned that a brand new, state-of-the-art, interactive museum took its place in 2015. The owners of the 50s-era wax museum who tried to sell it found no buyers (pas de surprise). Then someone broke in and decapitated one of the Joan figures. To spare you, I’m not including a link. Please don’t look it up!!’
Marla Cooper
If you’re ever in Key West, be sure to visit East Martello Museum, where the star attraction is Robert the Doll — a completely creepy life-size boy-doll who comes with his own stuffed animal and wears a sailor suit. Oh! And he’s cursed. He’s over 100 years old, and every ghost tour in town stops in front of his former residence, because he was known to move around mysteriously at night and cause household hijinx — a habit he supposedly has kept up at East Martello. It’s not enough to go see a creepy doll who may or may not set off motion detectors at night: the curse applies to museum-goers who dare photograph him or make fun of him. And displayed next to him are letters from people who have written over the years to apologize, which, apparently is the only way to lift the curse. (One can only speculate why he doesn’t pass the bad juju on to the people who locked him in a plexiglass coffin.)
Kellye Garrett
I’m not a big museum person. I have my faves (the Museum of Natural History for one) and others I’d love to go to (African-American History Museum in DC and Museum of Ice Cream in LA). I’d say the most interesting museum I’ve been to is the Museum of Sex. If you’ve ever ridden a subway in NYC then you’ve probably seen the ads. The name is self-explanatory. They tend to have cool exhibits like an adult bouncy house of breasts, which unfortunately wasn’t there when I went. In fact, about the only thing I remember from my visit is the exhibit about animal mating habits. Lots of statues. Lots more photos. Lots more than I ever wanted to know.
Cynthia Kuhn
Definitely Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, which celebrates weird in all its glory. (I think the slogan for the San Francisco one is actually “weirdest thing on the wharf.”) There are a strange combination of items on display, from medieval torture devices to animals with extra appendages etc.–kind of like the dark side of Guinness Book of World Records. I can remember reading the paperback books (anyone else read those?) as a young person, when part of the fun was not knowing whether the factoids recounted within were real or not. And the museums turn that experience into a reality. Everything is sort of gothic and joyfully disconcerting.
(I also loved the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. It didn’t seem weird at all, though. Just cool.)
Readers, what’s the most unusual museum you’ve ever been to?
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to Chicks on the Case and you’ll never miss a post. Just click the button on the top right side of this page and let the fun begin!
Chicks on the Case 
Like Kellye, I’m a little tame on my museum visits – mostly the Carnegie museums around here. But if I ever find myself in LA I will totally visit the museum of ice cream!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Here’s the link, Liz! 😉 But hurry… it’s only temporary. At least for now. It’s been so successful, who knows? https://www.museumoficecream.com/los-angeles/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would totally go to the ice cream museum!
Museum of sex would be good for a laugh, but I’d probably have to go by myself, my friends are too tame.
Weirdest one I’ve been to? Not really a “museum” per se. The Mansion of O Street in DC. It’s a place for artists, it’s a B&B, they have like a brunch on the weekends, Drag Queen show night, you can pay for a scavenger hunt. It’s several townhouses all joined together, over 100 rooms you traipse through. Can seriously get lost, because there’s hidden doorways everywhere. Hallways everywhere. Rooms have themes. And almost everything in the place is for sale. If you are a clean freak, DO NOT go there, because it’s stuffed to the gills with fancy stuff, crap, toys, salt shakers, hats, posters, books, everything!
LikeLiked by 2 people
My brother went to school in DC and I’ve never heard of this place. I love it! Now I want to go.
LikeLike
Road trip! Or come to Malice early next year. They have a website so you can find out the history of the place. It’s hard to find it, since it’s a townhouse thing. No big marque. You got to ring a doorbell! Makes it all the more mysterious. And we love our mysteries.
A holographic image of John Lennon on a bathroom floor? And you got to find the hidden wine cellar dining room. Hint, go to the kitchen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds like a blast!
LikeLike
Just finished a mystery with a perfectly proper paranormal museum. It was called Pressed to Death by Kirsten Weiss. Now that is weird museum.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Okay, now I have to read this. Dying to know what a Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum is.
LikeLike
I read that one too, Christine! Enjoyed it (and the sheet dividers in the museum hanging down/flapping throughout the book made it extra-creepy).
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’d have to be the wax museum in Vancouver, British Columbia. I was probably 8 years old and don’t remember much but what I do remember is that I don’t ever want to go back again.
LikeLiked by 3 people
LOL, I don’t think there’s a wax museum in the world I’d go back to!
LikeLike
Ha ha! Totally get that, Keenan. I find wax figures alarming.
LikeLike
I’m not a big museum person, so fortunately, I’ve skipped the weird ones.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mark, you’re in NOLA! You have to go to the Voodoo Museum and the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum!
LikeLike
I’ve walked by both today after seeing this post. In fact, I thought of this post when I walked by them and said, “If I went in, I could update my comment on Chicks on the Case.” But that’s as far as I got. I was trying to get somewhere else and wasn’t willing to pay money just for a comment here. 🙂
LikeLike
This is a hard one for me, because I’ve been to so many strange museums over the years. The Black Hills Holy Land comes to mind, but it’s more of an amusement park than a museum (though they do claim to have the world’s largest collection of salt and pepper shakers, as well as the wonderful Jesus in a Bathtub). And the Tupperware Museum in Orlando, FL was pretty fabulous. But I think I’ll have to go with the Cypress Tree Museum, also in Florida. It is, alas, now gone, but you can read about it here: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2061
LikeLiked by 2 people
A museum of Tupperware? That sounds so retro-chic!
LikeLike
Oh, now I SO want to see Jesus in a Bathtub and go to the Tupperware Museum. The gift shop for the latter must be FAB!
LikeLike
Love this post! I want to visit all of them – except i think I’m glad the Joan of Arc museum is gone. Probably would have given me nightmares.
LikeLiked by 2 people
All wax museums give me nightmares. UGH.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cynthia, I’ve been to the Ripley’s in Hollywood and it’s kind of a big disappointment. But a shoe museum??? Sign. Me. UP.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get that. You have to be prepared for the kitsch factor. 😉
LikeLike
Cynthia, just now catching up on this thread because I was busy visiting weird museums, but I’ve been the shoe museum in Toronto! The pair that has always stuck with me was the tiny shoes for foot binding. That part qualifies as weird!
LikeLike
I was in Hollywood last week and assed the Museum of Broken Hearts. I didn’t have time to go in. I’ve got to go back and do some research. Never seen anything like it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a fascinating idea for a museum! I’m adding it to my list!
LikeLike
Roberta Isleib/Lucy Burdette wrote about Robert the Doll in one of her Key West Food Critic Mysteries — he’s pretty creepy. There is a museum somewhere I think in Pennsylvania that is devoted completely to hinges.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to find that one! In a similar vein as hinges there’s an entire museum in Texas dedicated to barbed wire.
LikeLike