Museum of the Penis
The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Iceland is a museum devoted to
phallology. As of July 2006, the museum houses 245 specimens displayed
like hunting trophies, embalmed in formaldehyde, or dried in display
cases. The museum attempts to collect penis specimens from every mammal
in Iceland, including several species that are endangered or currently
extinct in Icelandic waters.
Sigurður Hjartarson, a former teacher, is the founder and director of
the museum. The museum also exhibits a few specimens from mammals not
living in Iceland, as well as folkloric specimens (alleged elves,
trolls, sea monsters, etc.) and penis-themed art.
Toilet Museum
 The
American Sanitary Plumbing Museum is the butt of a lot of jokes. It's
also a shrine to the history of plumbing.
The joke is that in most museums you generally have to search for a
toilet. Here, toilets abound, some of them dating back to the early
nineteenth century. You'll see ornate porcelain toilets, chain-pull
toilets with high wooden tanks, and an "earth cabinet" that collected
the user's waste in lime instead of water. There's even toilet paper
from the 1800's, referred to back then as "boudoir paper." The museum
was founded by Worcester plumbing equipment distributor Charles Manoog
in 1979. Manoog was getting ready to retire and says he wanted to give
something back to the profession. Today, his son Russ Manoog runs the
distribution business. Down the street, in a refurbished warehouse,
Russ's wife, B.J. Manoog curates the only known plumbing museum in the
world.
New Orleans Historic Voodoo MuseumThe
primary purpose of this museum is to represent the traditional
practices of the Voodoo religion in New Orleans. The New Orleans
Historic Voodoo Museum brings together ancient and modern day Voodoo
practices. While you are visiting the Museum, you may wish to have one
of our practitioners prepare a special Gris-Gris bag just for you or
someone you may know. The Museum also houses artifacts of the Great
Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.
Museum of MenstruationThe
Museum, located in a suburb of Washington, D.C., is devoted to the
rituals and culture of menstruation. Visitors can see exhibits tracing
the history of pads, tampons, special menstrual underwear, and more.
As the Museum's brochure explains, "A particular weight is put on the
history and philosophy of menstrual hygiene advertising; the museum
owns over 1,000 ads from many countries, as well as patents, booklets
and other printed and visual material."
Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices shares his collection of the
hilarious, horrifying, and preposterous medical devices that have been
foisted upon the public in their quest for good health. Includes the
Prostate Gland Warmer, Phrenology Machine, Recto Rotor, Nose
Straightener, Wonder Electro Marvel, and hundreds of other weird
devices. Founder Bob McCoy retired and closed the St. Anthony Main
location of the museum in 2002, donating his devices to the Science
Museum of Minnesota, which still displays a small number of items in
their Collections Gallery.
Leila's Hair Museum
 Leila's
Hair Museum in Independance, Missouri is probably the world's only hair
museum, acting as the headquarters for the Victorian Hairwork Society.
The museum sports a large collection of hair jewelry and samples dating
back to 1725. Hair jewelry really caught on during Victorian times when
it was regularly used to honor a dead relative or loved one as part of
the mourning process.
National Lighter MuseumThe
National Lighter Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma has nearly 20,000 pieces,
representing over 85,000 years of lighters and fire starters. The only
museum of its kind in the world, it is dedicated to collecting and
preserving the history of the evolution of lighters.
Burger Museum
 If
you spent all day thinking of the unusual items that people collect, we
bet you'd never think of hamburgers. Harry Sperl, a German immigrant
living in America (where else?), has collected more than one thousand
hamburger-related items. including a hamburger waterbed and a hamburger
motorcycle. The collection includes more than 500 different hamburgers
and some pretty unusual burger material. There are banks, biscuit jars,
clocks, hats, trays, erasers, badges, magnets, music boxes, a pencil
holder, salt and pepper shakers and, of course, the waterbed, which is
complete with a sesame seed covered spread and matching pillows. There
are signs, posters, glasses, cups, bowls, stuffed toys, T-shirts,
towels, calendars and postcards. Most of the material was picked up at
flea markets and garage sales, where Harry trawled for burgers with
friend and fellow enthusiast Ron Baynton. When Baynton decided to give
up collecting hamburgers, Harry bought his collection and added it to
his own.
The Shoe Museum
Ladies and gentlemen, gird your loins and prepare yourself for some of
the most famous shoes in the world. The Shoe Museum includes the shoes
of celebrities like Ronald Reagan, Sandy Duncan or Mike Schmidt, plus,
the biggest shoe in the world: one made for a woman whose lek had to,
later, be amputated.
Nut Museum
 What
happens when more than 100 nutcrackers, nut masks, paintings and
sculptures of nuts, and a collection of mixed nuts from the nationally
recognized Nut Museum lose their home? They find a new one at
Connecticut College where author and Professor of Art History
Christopher Steiner and his students have been sorting, cataloging, and
archiving every piece in the collection, some of which will be
exhibited at the college beginning December 5, when Tashjian will be
present.
He is truly "nuts".
Copyright: Oddee
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