Off The Beaten Path Museums

[livius drusus]

This thread was inspired by the wonderfully peripitetic godfry n. glad, who while dragging his ass over Asia, came across some artistic marvels. Specifically, it was the following picture that gave me the idea for this thread:

http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/carpets/46280720.jpg

First of all, it a to-die-for gorgeous carpet. I love the intricacy of the pattern, the deep jewel tones of the blues and reds, the lush gold and silver. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were actually woven from gold or silver thread.

Secondly, he found it in the Tashkent Museum of Applied Arts (http://www.artmuseum.uz/index_eng.html), in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which is certainly far off any path I've ever beaten. That got me to thinking about how many treasure troves exist are out there that most people never hear about.

My own personal favorite is the tiny Etruscan Museum (http://www.sangimignano.com/sgimet.htm) in the enchating Tuscan town of San Gimignano. The area has been inhabited since 200 or so BC, and was a hotspot during the late Medieval battles between Pope fans and Holy Roman Emperor fans. It's known for its amazing skyline of towers (http://www.san-gimignano.com/homepage/panorama.jpg) and really, the whole town is a living museum. I have recommeded San Gimignano to everyone who has asked me for Italian itinerary suggestions, and without fail, they come back with one regret: that they didn't schedule more time for it.

Anyway, I love that the EM is replete with normal stuff the Etruscans used in their daily lives. It's like a folk art museum for people who lived 2500 years ago. Plates, vases, jewelry, funerary urns: all things you would have seen pretty much everywhere. Nothing super glamorous or Imperial; nothing Hollywood would copy for an epic. Just people's stuff.

Also, I love that the collection was restored and catalogued by the Archaeological Youth Group of San Gimignano, an organization that to my history nerd eyes, is just insanely cool.

So, am I just helplessly geeky, or do y'all have any favorite nook and cranny museums?

[Goliath]

Well, Vermillion is home to The National Music Museum (http://www.usd.edu/smm/) (which has some really funky instruments on display) and The W. H. Over Museum (http://www.usd.edu/whover/) (which I haven't visited yet, but will soon).

[livius drusus]

Oh. My. God. A Stradivarius mandolin in its original case.

http://www.usd.edu/smm/StradMandolin2.jpg

/me swoons

[Hugo Holbling]

With the obvious exception of the Louvre, these are my favourite museums:

Museum Boorhaave (http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/frame_nl.html)
Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza (http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/indice.html)

[livius drusus]

The Lakota artifacts at W.H. Over are breathtaking as well. Wow, Goliath. Thank you so much for posting those links. I'd never even heard of Vermillion (I'd barely heard of South Dakota, truth be told). I'd love to hear a report should you go visit either of these museum gems.

[Goliath]

Well, I visited the Music Museum back in March when I interviewed at USD. It was quite breathtaking...along with the Stradivarius, I also loved this HUGE drum that they had..it probably weighed literally a ton, and it was on a trailer (of sorts...not a modern trailer, kind of like a wooden "Y" with wheels on it).

I was told that they also occasionally host concerts where one or more of the instruments are played. Now that would be something to see!

And you're welcome, liv. =)

[HelenM]

One of my favorite museums is the Oxford University Natural History (http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/) and[hurl=ttp://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/]Pitt Rivers[/url] Museum (I see that they have a website each but physically they're joined together). You need directions to find it so I think that counts as off the beaten path.

It consists of two huge exhibition halls, the Natural History one being the inside of a beautiful building (the site has a photo). The Natural History part has what you'd expect, including a skull and feet of a Dodo. They used to have much more of it but as the story goes, an over-enthusiastic cleaning person destroyed it inadvertently, long ago.

The back hall is Pitt Rivers collection from his travels - a ton of stuff. It's probably not at all politically correct that he came back with all these things but *shrug* it's interesting.

A favorite "off the beaten track" museum of our family is the Illinois Railway Museum (http://www.irm.org/). It's north west of Chicago, out in the countryside, behind the tiny little town of Union. My train avatar from the first day I registered here was taken there. They have trains running every summer weekend which take people up and down their 9 mile track, plus they have barns full of old carriages and engines to walk through. Sometimes they have a steam engine running as well as diesel and electric trains. It's a fun day out if you like old trains :)

Helen

[livius drusus]

Museum Boorhaave (http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/frame_nl.html)

I imagine that library must be splendid. Certainly the catalogue - even the incomplete one posted on the site - is extraordinary. I was having difficulty navigating the site, so I just tried a few searches of the catalogue ("skeleton" and "instruments") and the results were stunning.

http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/Voorwerpen/31500/31591.JPG

Gynaecological instruments from 1880. (I can't say they've changed much.)

And my mom (who is fascinated by medical history, particularly procedures which may seem odd or disturbing but in fact worked in some instances) would enjoy these early 19th century trepanation instruments:

http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/Voorwerpen/4200/4272.JPG

The links page (http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/frame_nl.html) is a treasure trove, as well. It includes your next favorite museum, Hugo: Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza (http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/indice.html)

I honestly don't even know where to start there. I dimly recall visiting it as a girl, but I certainly had no memory of how fascinating (and gigantic) a collection it is. Just to give one tiny example, this is a late 18th c. model of a water pump built from a design of Galileo's patented in 1594:

http://vitruvio.imss.fi.it/foto/sim04/sim04-404015Ars.jpg

These are the kinds of museums you could spend weeks in and always find something new to drop your jaw. Thank you for posting the links, Hugo.

[LadyShea]

I like museums that speak about the history of the specific area I am visiting, so will simply post our local museum

Clark County Heritage Museum (http://lasvegas.about.com/library/weekly/aa_Clark_County_Heritage_Museum_a.htm) Sorry it's about.com, the poor little place doesn't even have their own website.

It is indoor/outdoor with exhibits of everything from mammoth fossils to Native American artifacts, to historic buildings and covered wagons to old casino machines, clothing and furnishings. They also do lots of fun events. It's a neat little place to spend a day :)

[godfry n. glad]

hmmm....

In aforesaid perigrinations, I visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Absolutely fabulous. But, it's not your "off the beaten path" museum. What I would recommend is that visitors to the Hermitage not miss the Summer Garden. It's barely off the beaten path and few seem to go there.

I think I told some you I have a thing about classical and neo-classical sculpture? I've got pictures of the Summer Gardens where gleaming white "marble" statues stand in the midst of a darkening forest where the midday summer sun streams through in dappled spots and concentrated bands where the pathways mark out openings to the sky. The white against the green and the sunlight fighting its way in...it's gorgeous.

I'd post up, but the system tells me my smallest images are too big...."File Too Large. Limit for this filetype is 39.1 KB. Your file is 88.4 KB."

Anyway, everybody focuses on what's inside, very few visit the gardens...at least as I could see. It's really a very nice park serving as a sculpture gallery...a sculpture garden.

godfry

"lookin' for just another roadside attraction"

[lisarea]

Well, it's not so much a straight-faced museum by any modern definition, but:

The Museum of Jurassic Technology (http://www.mjt.org)

I love that place. I love David Wilson. I met him there, just for a minute. Love that guy.

I'd read a book about it, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder (http://www.bookpage.com/9703bp/nonfiction/mrwilsonscabinetofwonder.html), so the next time I was in the LA area, I went. I even tried to get MJT on the matching donations program when I worked at, uh, this one company. It didn't work, but recently, Wilson got a genius grant, so har-de-har-har, stupid corporate boobs. In your face!

My favorite exhibit at the time was called the Voice of the American Gray Fox or something. It consisted of a stuffed fox head in a plexiglass box. You'd look into the box through these binocular-type things, and projected onto the head was a little green hologram of a chubby white guy, sitting on a ladderback chair, screaming.

They had a very somber and respectful exhibition of archaeological finds from a trailer park, this shit about bats preserved in heavy leaden walls or something, the Tell the Bees...Belief, Knowledge and Hypersymbolic Cognition (http://www.mjt.org/exhibits/bees/bees.html) exhibit (which I totally have the t-shirt of), and...and...and...you should just get in a plane now and just go.

God, I love that place. I love that place so much.

Also, I haven't been to the Mütter Museum (http://www.collphyphil.org/muttpg1.shtml), but I've heard good things about it, plus I saw it on the teevee.

[seebs]

It's now just an exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota, but there used to be a wonderful museum around here called the "Museum of Questionable Medical Devices".

The guy who runs it, Bob McCoy, is famous for many things. He was the founder and curator of that museum for many years. He is one of the last phrenologists alive. He has made money as a professional W. C. Fields impersonator. And he performed my wedding. Woot!

[livius drusus]

One of my favorite museums is the Oxford University Natural History (http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/) and Pitt Rivers (http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/) Museum (I see that they have a website each but physically they're joined together). You need directions to find it so I think that counts as off the beaten path.

You're right: the Natural History building is breathtaking. Those cast iron columns and pointed arches just slay me. (I fixed the second url, btw; your formatting had gone awry. ;))

The back hall is Pitt Rivers collection from his travels - a ton of stuff. It's probably not at all politically correct that he came back with all these things but *shrug* it's interesting.

I read about his typological organization in an intro to archaeology class I took. The collection looks amazing. I particularly like that they make a point of maintaining the Victorian feel of the museum, handwritten labels and cluttered layout and all.

A favorite "off the beaten track" museum of our family is the Illinois Railway Museum (http://www.irm.org/).

I was wondering where that avatar came from. The museum looks delightful. I love old trains. Actually, I just love trains, period. It's my favorite mode of transport.

[Dingfod]

The Metropolitan Transit Authority Museum (http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mta/museum/) in Brooklyn has displays of the building of the NYC subway system and a number of the old subway cars and other stuff transportation related. It's not a high traffic museum, kind of off the beaten path, but is interesting indeed.

Of course, there's the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum (http://www.rushcounty.org/BarbedWireMuseum/) in LaCrosse, Kansas. If you go to LaCrosse, say hi to my cousin Kathy.

Locally, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa has a fantastic display of Western art. If guns are of interest, I've never seen a more impressive display of firearms throughout history than at the J.M. Davis Gun Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. If you're in Claremore, you might as well check out the Will Rogers Memorial Museum.


Warren

[livius drusus]

I like museums that speak about the history of the specific area I am visiting, so will simply post our local museum

Clark County Heritage Museum (http://lasvegas.about.com/library/weekly/aa_Clark_County_Heritage_Museum_a.htm) Sorry it's about.com, the poor little place doesn't even have their own website.

It is indoor/outdoor with exhibits of everything from mammoth fossils to Native American artifacts, to historic buildings and covered wagons to old casino machines, clothing and furnishings. They also do lots of fun events. It's a neat little place to spend a day :)

Wow, Shea. I've never seen anything like it. It's like a 25 acre 3D historical overview of Nevada.

The 8000 square foot exhibit center allows you to explore Pleistocene southern Nevada to the early casino atmosphere in a time line that includes a mine to visit, Anasazi and Paiute camps, as well other interesting special theme exhibits. Find a mammoth's molar and an early slot machine.

And that's just the exhibit center. Then there's the Print Shop, the period houses and even a train station for Helen and me and all the other train lovers.

Thank you for posting this gem, Shea.

[Roland98]

It's not exactly off the beaten path (in fact, being 2 blocks away from me, it's just down the sidewalk), but the Toledo Museum of Art has a rather unique collection of glass art. (http://www.toledomuseum.org/Collection_main.htm#) (Click on the "glass" and it gives you thumbnails for about a half-dozen pieces). The images they show are mostly more modern pieces, but they also have some beautiful stained glass dating back to the middle ages.

[HelenM]

You're right: the Natural History building is breathtaking. Those cast iron columns and pointed arches just slay me. (I fixed the second url, btw; your formatting had gone awry. ;))

Thanks for fixing my link. I thought you'd like the building :). Oxford has such history in its buildings/walls - going back to bits of the Roman wall here and there, mostly in College gardens, Oxford "Castle" which is just a stumpy tower, Norman Church towers and then the University itself has many gorgeous buildings in. Growing up close to Oxford (and going there mostly just to shop, not to admire buildings), I noticed that other towns/cities looked different but it was quite a while before I realized that Oxford was the place that was distinctive, that many other towns looked like each other but nowhere else looks like Oxford. If you see what I mean.

I read about his typological organization in an intro to archaeology class I took. The collection looks amazing. I particularly like that they make a point of maintaining the Victorian feel of the museum, handwritten labels and cluttered layout and all.

They certainly have maintained the cluttered layout!

I was wondering where that avatar came from. The museum looks delightful. I love old trains. Actually, I just love trains, period. It's my favorite mode of transport.

Me too - I always have loved trains. They're so...big. I suppose airplanes are bigger but you can't get up close to them like you can to trains.

I love ruined castles too. There are plenty of them in Britain and while they aren't museums per se, they are often well off the beaten track. I like ruined ones best and I think the following one is restored, but anyway, when we go next month I hope we'll get to see Alnwick Castle (pronounced Annick) - the one used in some of the Harry Potter movie shots (in the first movie they used the gatehouse a number of times and the towers and courtyards when Harry was chasing after Neville's Remembrall.

I also hope we'll visit Conwy Castle (pronounced Conway) in Wales on this trip, which is ruined but with many towers intact enough to climb, giving it good kid appeal and great views. Conwy also has a substantially extant town wall.

Helen

[LadyShea]

It's not exactly off the beaten path (in fact, being 2 blocks away from me, it's just down the sidewalk), but the Toledo Museum of Art has a rather unique collection of glass art. (http://www.toledomuseum.org/Collection_main.htm#) (Click on the "glass" and it gives you thumbnails for about a half-dozen pieces). The images they show are mostly more modern pieces, but they also have some beautiful stained glass dating back to the middle ages.


I love glass art, I would spend most of my time in that section!

[Roland98]

I love glass art, I would spend most of my time in that section!

I love it too. It's interesting, because they have all kinds of more recent blown glass (including some by local artisans--the Toledo MoA actually either started or was very influential in early studio glass blowing), along with older (~early 1900s) pieces made by several of the local glass factories (Toledo's nickname is the "Glass capital,") and then of course all sorts of older pieces from all over the world. Always a harrowing experience to take the kids to, however, as a lot of the pieces aren't enclosed in a case! :scared:

It actually is closed right now, as they're building a new center for the glass collection across the street from the main museum. Won't be open until after I move, damn it.

[livius drusus]

hmmm....

In aforesaid perigrinations, I visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Absolutely fabulous. But, it's not your "off the beaten path" museum. What I would recommend is that visitors to the Hermitage not miss the Summer Garden. It's barely off the beaten path and few seem to go there.

I'm afraid I am not one of the few. I actually didn't even know it was there. Of course, I was in Leningrad (this was February of 1990) with my school, so we weren't exactly allowed to choose our itinerary.

I think I told some you I have a thing about classical and neo-classical sculpture? I've got pictures of the Summer Gardens where gleaming white "marble" statues stand in the midst of a darkening forest where the midday summer sun streams through in dappled spots and concentrated bands where the pathways mark out openings to the sky. The white against the green and the sunlight fighting its way in...it's gorgeous.

I share your thing for sculpture and the garden sounds absolutely enrapturing. Could I persuade you to email a pic or two to admins@freethought-forum.com? I'd love to host and post them for you (and me - let's not pretend it's anything but a selfish offer).

Anyway, everybody focuses on what's inside, very few visit the gardens...at least as I could see. It's really a very nice park serving as a sculpture gallery...a sculpture garden.

You're so right, and you've just reminded me of a great, great, wonderful off the beaten bath park/museum in Italy called Bomarzo (http://www.bomarzo.net/index_en.html), or the Park of the Monsters. It is absolutely otherworldly. It entranced me as a child and still does today.

Can you imagine having a picnic inside an orc's mouth?

http://www.bomarzo.net/images/Bomarzo_Orco_02.jpg

I might have to write an article about it, now that you've reminded me of what a wonder it is. Thank you, godfry.

[livius drusus]

Well, it's not so much a straight-faced museum by any modern definition

Is fucking too.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology (http://www.mjt.org)

First of all, that is very possibly the best written museum site I've ever seen. Hell, it's just plain amazingly well-written. The introduction (http://www.mjt.org/intro/genbroch.html) alone is fantastic, nevermind all the links and other comments.

Mr. Peale's Museum was open to all people (including children and the fair sex) and was philosophically grounded in the thoughts of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Peale fervently believed that teaching is a sublime ministry inseparable from human happiness, and that the learner must be led always from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar - guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life.

Secondly, if that's not a museum, nothing is. It's jam-packed with life and brilliance and science and history. Incredible.

I love that place. I love David Wilson. I met him there, just for a minute. Love that guy.

Did David Wilson do the writing on the site? Because if so, I love him too.

They had a very somber and respectful exhibition of archaeological finds from a trailer park, this shit about bats preserved in heavy leaden walls or something, the Tell the Bees...Belief, Knowledge and Hypersymbolic Cognition (http://www.mjt.org/exhibits/bees/bees.html) exhibit (which I totally have the t-shirt of), and...and...and...you should just get in a plane now and just go.

Packing my shit with one hand as I type with the other. Thank you for letting me know this marvel existed.

[livius drusus]

It's now just an exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota, but there used to be a wonderful museum around here called the "Museum of Questionable Medical Devices".

He he... That sounds like a blast. I know for sure my mom would adore it. Do you remember any favorite questionable medical devices from the museum/exhibit?

The guy who runs it, Bob McCoy, is famous for many things. He was the founder and curator of that museum for many years. He is one of the last phrenologists alive. He has made money as a professional W. C. Fields impersonator. And he performed my wedding. Woot!

Now that's just way cool. :)

[godfry n. glad]

You are more than welcome, liv.

I'm working on the Summer Garden pix. They'll be on their way to you soon.

Great park idea....it reminds me of the singular "Fremont Troll" that lives under the Aurora Avenue bridge (Highway 99) in the Fremont District (lovingly known as the "People's Republic of Fremont" by the locals) in Seattle. It turned what was an austere and foreboding under-bridge abuttment into a charming oversized scowling troll, complete with full-sized VW beetle clutched in his left hand. It made wasted space into a neighborhood attraction.

Back to the OP.... My wife & I loved visiting Washington, DC, which we called "Disneyland for mature and intelligent adults." The number and quality of museums and monuments is absolutely mind-boggling. I'm a big fan of the Sackler, with it's collection of Asian artifacts, but the big surprise was the off-the-beaten-path National Building Museum (http://www.nbm.org/Info/history.html). It's a bit away from the massive collection of Smithsonian museums on the mall, but still within easy walking distance. For those who are interested in architectual curiosities, this one is a brick building that was built as the Pension Building (now known as the Veteran's Administration) under the design and guidance of a U.S. Army general. The building is amazing in that, despite being a huge structure in the sweltering heat and humidity of Washington summers, it remains comfortable inside, even for mild climate wienies like me....without air conditioning. I was amazed that I could take refuge from the nasty heat and humidity in a building without air conditioning...and then, the displays are totally intriguing. Not to mention the tallest columns inside any structure in the world (7-story Corinthian columns). When last there, they had a wonderful display of art using or representing hand tools, along with a history of mass transit in the U.S. and a display on American cinemas. Additionally, they had an engineering student (on a summer grant) doing demonstrations of how buildings are built - for the average 6 - 10 year old visitor (just perfect for my wife and I). It's designed for all members of the family and is not jammed with the throngs of the Great Unwashed like the Air & Space and the other popular museums of Washington.

I highly recommend it.

godfry

[Clutch Munny]

Off the b.p. or not, here are a few museums by which I was surprised and intrigued, and my mind changed.

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (http://www.occupationmuseum.lv/eng/about_us/welcome.html).

Popped in here while I was spending some time in Riga. No doubt most former Soviet republics have similar stories to tell, but there's reason to think that the heavily Germanized Baltic states were subject to particularly vicious treatment by the Russians (and, mutatis mutandis, by the Germans in their turn). Using simple unaffected language, and with photos tending more toward the mundane than the horrific, this museum had me flashing hot and cold as it communicated both the scale of human tragedy perpetrated by the Russians, and how that scale was compounded out of disaster, loss and torment at the level of individual people and families. It's fair to say I stepped out of the museum into a very different city from which I had stepped into it.


The Placa del Rei site of the History of the City Museum of Barcelona (http://www.museuhistoria.bcn.es/eng/centres/placarei/index.htm)

Stumbled into it a few years ago, then went back for a second visit just a few weeks back. Besides having some excellent ground-floor displays and exhibitions, this place has a wonderful secret: the basement is an excavation down through the Visigothic city and into the Roman city. Metal walkways take you over the baths, laundry, wine-vats and fish-pickling industries of the Roman town. In the gothic city there is less evidence of covered sewers and public water conveyance, the buildings start using more cannibalized inscribed stones as structural materials, and the only buildings you find have a religious purpose: church or bishropic quarters. Again, you step back out into the Barcelona heat with a new sense of Things Hidden beneath your feet.


Batoche National Historic Site (http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/sk/batoche/natcul/histo_e.asp)

Armed rebellion, a religious visionary leader returning to unite his people, a wily guerrilla general, an army that brought its women and children, fighting without ammunition, resisting without food, and escaping through a series of forced marches under incomprehensible hardships... I lived and played and camped and fished all around the sites on which British control of Western Canada was largely determined by the crushing of Cree and Metis insurrections in the late 1800s. In retrospect, I had a dog on both sides of this fight; some of my ancestors came to North America hundreds of years ago, and others of my ancestors were onshore waving Hello when they arrived. But as a youth I had no idea of any of this. Didn't understand where I came from, why I had the government I had, why I spoke and thought and lived as I did, until I came to see Batoche and Steele Narrows as key points of victory, misery, and historical leverage. Nothing that shook the world directly (though the British/police victory probably ensured that the USA did not (yet) annex Western Canada); this was still a museum of sorts that changed the way I thought of my life and my world.

[godfry n. glad]

photo trial.

http://www.freethought-forum.com/im...en/46280879.jpg

failed....

[seebs]

He he... That sounds like a blast. I know for sure my mom would adore it. Do you remember any favorite questionable medical devices from the museum/exhibit?

There's this giant machine covered with dials and lights and knobs which does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I liked that.

Now that's just way cool. :)

Yeah. We were trying to find a minister to do our wedding, and they all used terms like "audience" which made us uncomfortable, and my friend Dave recommended this guy, and we talked to him, and he was SO COOL by comparison. Asked good questions, and so on.

Unfortunately, we have no idea what our vows were. I lost the saved file in a disk crash (annoyingly, my own stupid fault), I have no backups of it, and all we remember is that we agreed to love and cherish each other. I think my dad may have had a copy of the ceremony, but he's been dead a long time, and my stepmom throws EVERYTHING out if she doesn't know what it's useful for, so I doubt it still exists.

[godfry n. glad]

Okay... Thanks to liv and vm, this should work.

but, it didn't....

Hmmm...

[viscousmemories]

Testing for you. If you see a picture, quote me and copy this link. :)

http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/garden/46280878R.jpg

[godfry n. glad]

Testing for you. If you see a picture, quote me and copy this link. :)

http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/garden/46280878R.jpg


I see it... But I got little boxes with a red x that opened to a message when I tried.

godfry

[livius drusus]

They all work for me when I preview them, godfry. (And they're so beautiful all together too.) Can you see them when you paste their urls into another browser window?

[RevDahlia]

Just wanted to join lisarea in the giving of ups to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's just so great that it exists.

[squian]

My favorite museum would be considered off the beaten path by most. Detroit is probably the last place anyone would connect with fine arts. Sure, cars, unions, R&B, Eminem & Kid Rock, even Electronic Music, but fine arts?

Sure enough, I find the Detroit Institute of Arts (http://www.dia.org/) to be a top-notch museum and have whiled away many hours just marveling at the fantastic Diego Rivera Murals (http://www.diegorivera.com/murals/mural4.html) that grace the walls of the central courtyard. If you are a mural fan like I am, be sure to get across Woodward Avenue to the Detroit Public Library (http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/) where other murals can be found on the top floor.

[Blake]

I've never been there, but apparently an undeservedly obscure art museum is the Dulwich Picture Galley. The collection began as a selection of old masters commissioned by the last king of Poland to supplement his private collection; after Poland was partioned, they remained in England, unpaid for. My only excuse for posting this at all is that I had a friend who lived in Dulwich for a couple of years.

[freemonkey]

.....sigh..... I love museums. All kinds of museums, I have a special fondness for history museums of given areas, i.e., Galena, IL; Deadwood, S. Dakota.... Wish I had the time to travel, and visit more of them.

I love glass art, I would spend most of my time in that section!

Next time you're in my neck of the woods, call me and we'll go here (http://www.museumofglass.org/s99_home.jsp) .

[godfry n. glad]

You are more than welcome, liv.

I'm working on the Summer Garden pix. They'll be on their way to you soon.

Great park idea....it reminds me of the singular "Fremont Troll" that lives under the Aurora Avenue bridge (Highway 99) in the Fremont District (lovingly known as the "People's Republic of Fremont" by the locals) in Seattle. It turned what was an austere and foreboding under-bridge abuttment into a charming oversized scowling troll, complete with full-sized VW beetle clutched in his left hand. It made wasted space into a neighborhood attraction.

godfry

Hey... Look what I found, rummaging around in my pix files....

The Fremont Troll (keep in mind, the VW is full size):

[livius drusus]

:chuckle: He's adorable! Man is that an avatar waiting to happen. Thank you for posting him (and resurrecting this excellent thread), godfry.

[Dingfod]

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-oklahoma/ArcadiaOkBarn250.jpg
The Round Barn Museum in Arcadia, Oklahoma. It doesn't have a lot of artifacts, but one of the most interesting things they do have on display are road maps of Oklahoma and of Route 66 dating back to about 1922. It is astonishing how few paved roads there were at that time. Equally astonishing is how many roads did get paved within 7 or 8 years of that time.

Here's one from 1925. (http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/hqdiv/p-r-div/spansoftime/jpgs/fig23.jpg)

[Shake]

I missed the initial viewing of this thread -- in fact, I thought it was a new thread, until I saw Roland stating that a museum in Ohio was very close to her, when I know that she's in Iowa now -- so thanks for bumping it, godfry!

Anyway, Rochester really isn't on the beaten path for much, I guess. But we've got a great children's museum: the Strong Museum (http://www.strongmuseum.org/), which your kids will love! Currently, they've got an Arthur exhibit, and Clifford is coming in May!

Also in town is the George Eastman House (http://www.eastmanhouse.org/), which is a scant 1.6 miles (according to Mapblast) from my house. The gardens are also quite nice during the spring. I'll have to go back again sometime.

Oh, and for you glass lovers, I found a link to the Corning Museum of Glass (http://www.cmog.org/) in Corning, NY.

[livius drusus]

Mmmm... Maps in a round barn. Was the building an actual working barn at some point, Warren?

Shake, the Corning Museum of Glass looks absolutely dreamy. The Carder Gallery alone looks like it would take hours to peruse.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Mid America Science Museum in Hot Springs, I'm just a few thousand feet away from it at college right now. It's fallen on hard times, almost closed due to lack of money. I think it was saved, at least for now. It has the most bitchin' tesla coil I've ever seen. The thing is 5-6 feet tall and throws "lightning" bolts off about 7-8 feet out to the Faraday cage around it. The thing is so loud I have to plug my ears while it's going. It's like a loud leaf blower or continuous gun shot level sound.

[Dingfod]

Mmmm... Maps in a round barn. Was the building an actual working barn at some point, Warren?Yes, it is located on what used to be a working farm. Now, the bottom floor used to house animals and now is the museum and gift shop and the upper floor used to be hayloft is a now one large open room, a community center. The "curator" told me they still hold dances there; obviously not Baptist.

[Dingfod]

Mid America Science Museum in Hot Springs, I'm just a few thousand feet away from it at college right now. It's fallen on hard times, almost closed due to lack of money. I think it was saved, at least for now. It has the most bitchin' tesla coil I've ever seen. The thing is 5-6 feet tall and throws "lightning" bolts off about 7-8 feet out to the Faraday cage around it. The thing is so loud I have to plug my ears while it's going. It's like a loud leaf blower or continuous gun shot level sound.Hot Springs, Arkansas? Damn, I missed that one.

[Ensign Steve]

http://www.samfa.org/images/pic_museum_10x7.jpg

San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts

I like the shape of the roof. It is one of three bastions of culture I had the pleasure of visiting while stationed in San Angelo. There was a neat pops concert and fireworks show on 4th of July that I watched from the balocony of this museum. :)

http://www.samfa.org/

[JoeP]

It's a saddle complete with pommels!

[Shaguar]

London has loads of great museums (natural History, V & A etc) but my particular favourite is the Wallace collection (www.wallacecollection.org) which is eclectic to say the least. It is not huge but what it has is the best of everything.

I know it's not off the beaten track but the Guggenheim in Bilbao is worth a visit just for the building.

if you are ever in my neck of the woodfs you could try Snowshill manor (www.armin-grewe.com/holiday/ gloucestershire/snowshill.htm ), a private collection put together by a truly eccentric Englishman, it got so bad he moved out of the house and into the stable. Large collection of Samurai armour next to English agricultural implements, I mean this guy collected anything, plus which the buildings are good examples of "Costswold stone"

[livius drusus]

London has loads of great museums (natural History, V & A etc) but my particular favourite is the Wallace collection (www.wallacecollection.org) which is eclectic to say the least. It is not huge but what it has is the best of everything.

It's the stuff that dreams are made of. My dreams, at any rate. The history (http://www.wallacecollection.org/c/h/history_collection.htm) alone is droolworthy, nevermind the incredible quality and geographic/historical range of the art.

Also, the website is outstanding, offering pdf handouts for every featured item (and there are tons of featured items). I like it when the site really gives you a taste of the museum itself.

if you are ever in my neck of the woodfs you could try Snowshill manor (www.armin-grewe.com/holiday/gloucestershire/snowshill.htm), a private collection put together by a truly eccentric Englishman, it got so bad he moved out of the house and into the stable. Large collection of Samurai armour next to English agricultural implements, I mean this guy collected anything, plus which the buildings are good examples of "Costswold stone"

Oh. My. God. Look at those gardens! :vapours:

Boy oh boy do I wish you could take pics of the collection. That's cool, though; it whets the appetite. According to the National Trust (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PROPERTYID=194) it's closed for restoration right now. It's scheduled to open again some time this year. Meanwhile, the activities (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/thingstodo/events/default.asp?propertyID=194) scheduled in the garden look just wonderful. I'm totally down for the dragon hunt.
:redhoard:

[Shaguar]

For all the good work they do the National Trust is not the best organised body. I understood that the work was due to be completed this month but there you go, probably best visited in what passes for a summer here anyway.

I forgot to mention that the Wallace collection is just behind Oxford Street so after the culture you gan get some couture.

[Ensign Steve]

It's a saddle complete with pommels!

AH! Why did you say that? Now I hate it! :doh:

[Dingfod]

It's a saddle complete with pommels!And here is another, Calgary Saddledome:
http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~agenhtml/agenmc/canada/images/calgary.gif

[godfry n. glad]

It's a saddle complete with pommels!And here is another, Calgary Saddledome:
http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~agenhtml/agenmc/canada/images/calgary.gif

Now that looks like quite the snow catcher!

[JoeP]

It's a saddle complete with pommels!

AH! Why did you say that? Now I hate it! :doh:
Oh. I'm sorry :sadcheer:

Why? Don't you like horses? Do you imagine a 5-storey building between your thighs? Or is the pommels?

[Ensign Steve]

Nah, I don't really hate it. It's just that while stationed in rural Texas, I thought it was a bastion away from cowboyness, not an homage to it. BTW, my other 2 bastions of culture were the old west fort, Ft. Concho (http://www.fortconcho.com/), and the Chicken Farm Art Center (http://www.chickenfarmartcenter.com/). I guess country will be country. I can't say that I didn't enjoy the hell out of all three.