Niche Museums (niche-museums.com)

96 points by bookofjoe 3 days ago

in_a_hole 10 hours ago

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.

bookofjoe 9 hours ago

Another strong recommendation for this unique place. I visited soon after its 1988 opening. The museum was so off the grid and unknown that early visitors like me received personal guided tours of unlimited duration from its founder/creator, David Hildebrand Wilson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Jurassic_Technology

in_a_hole 9 hours ago

I am green with envy, that sounds amazing.

Do you remember any exhibits from that time that aren't in place today?

bookofjoe 8 hours ago

da-bacon 6 hours ago

The book "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder" about the museum is a good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Wilson%27s_Cabinet_of_Wond... Recommend reading it after visiting, don't want to spoil the first journey into the Jurassic.

bsenftner 8 hours ago

https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/museum-of-jura... We almost lost it, a fire nearly destroyed it.

jonstewart 8 hours ago

I once explained to a friend as "imagine Umberto Eco made a museum when he was drunk, and he was a mean drunk."

leviathant 3 hours ago

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"

ks2048 23 minutes ago

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).

schubart 36 minutes ago

Parasitological Museum in Meguro, Tokyo

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

arnorb 5 hours ago

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

buildbot 3 hours ago

It's not a Niche Museum but the Reykjavik Art Museum & Reykjavík Art Museum Kjarvalsstaðir both are amazing and worth a visit too, neither are far away in Reykjavik from the Phallological Museum.

Reykjavik is quite nice to visit! It's similar to Ballard, WA, where we have a somewhat niche Nordic Heritage Museum that very nice as well.

OkayPhysicist 4 hours ago

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.

mullen 2 hours ago

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

EvanAnderson 3 hours ago

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.

Bridged7756 4 hours ago

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.

kitd 4 hours ago

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.

simonw 3 hours ago

I mainly define "Niche" as "I get to define what Niche is and put things I like on my website".

Stonehenge is probably the most mainstream thing on there, but I don't think most people visiting know to look out for the rooks!

heyitsmedotjayb 4 hours ago

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.

Brajeshwar 7 hours ago

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/

t1234s an hour ago

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

ecshafer 6 hours ago

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.

boredinstapanda 9 hours ago

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

jonstewart 8 hours ago

It's a fantastic museum and featured a bit in Stewart Brand's Maintenance of Everything (https://books.worksinprogress.co/book/maintenance-of-everyth...).

bookofjoe 8 hours ago

Can't wait to read this. His 1995 book, "How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built," is excellent.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp...

dmd 7 hours ago

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

simonw 5 hours ago

It's only museums I've visited myself. I actually do have a draft entry in the works about the Glass Flowers at the Harvard Natural History Museum, I should finish and publish that!

bookofjoe 4 hours ago

Again I ask, do you have the time, interest and energy to bring it back from hibernation since 2019?

simonw 3 hours ago

madcaptenor 6 hours ago

I think the site is compiled by one person. If you look at the map (https://www.niche-museums.com/map) it's heavily biased towards the southern UK and the SF Bay Area.

bookofjoe 4 hours ago

Yes, by Simon Willis

mcphage 5 hours ago

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is in Amherst, MA and quite excellent.

SideburnsOfDoom 5 hours ago

There is or was a Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) in Boston.

https://museumofbadart.org/history/

wolfi1 8 hours ago

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

robertclaus 7 hours ago

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

FuriouslyAdrift 4 hours ago

The Red Room at HOTR is my happy place (along with the Don Q Inn cheese vat bathtubs)

IAmBroom 3 hours ago

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

jeffrallen 7 hours ago

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

simonw 5 hours ago

And it looks perfect for the site, I'm hoping I can visit next time I'm back in the UK.

contingencies 6 hours ago

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

oulipo2 7 hours ago

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

vismit2000 8 hours ago

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