Many museums are good for first dates, though the ones mentioned here might best be shared with good friends only—those who also have an interest in the truly odd and bizarre. Be warned: these museums include an assortment of un-PC art, grotesque humor, freak shows, medical mysteries, rare specimens, kitsch, and warped curio cabinets.
Toilet Seat Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Photo source: Nats on flickr (cc)
Joseph Crapper would have been proud. Barney Smith, a retired plumber, transforms the bathroom toilet seat into an artistic creation. Smith’s museum contains more than 600 works of art mounted on toilet seat lids. He mostly finds inspiration from his travels around the world. You can visit this Texan anytime, but you can’t transform your porcelain throne: his toilet seats are not for sale.
The National Atomic Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Photo source: Marshall Astor on flickr (cc)
A Three Mile Island Lamp takes kitsch—or bad taste—to new levels. You can find it at the National Atomic Museum, recently renamed the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Visitors can view bombs or see exhibits called fallout shelter, Little Al’s Lab, or Radiation 101. The original 1941 Packard Clipper that transported the scientists from the train station to Los Alamos and to the Trinity base camp for testing of the first atomic bomb is there too, but visitors are not allowed to drive it.
Aurora Ice Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska
Photo source: Huei on flickr (cc)
Using 1,000 tons of ice, world champion ice carvers Steve Brice and wife Heather created the Aurora Ice Museum—which includes ice sculptures like an observation tower and circular staircase, jousters on horseback, Christmas tree and polar bear bedrooms, an igloo, and an ice outhouse—and Stoli bar for thirsty tourists. A patented absorption chiller keeps the museum an icy 20 degrees Fahrenheit all year.
Museum of Spam, Austin, Minnesota
Photo source: Eda Cherry on flickr (cc)
In the early 1990s, the term “spam” increasingly referred to unwanted email, much to the chagrin of Hormel Foods, the makers of SPAM, America’s favorite canned meat. In 2001, the museum’s founders opened the Spam Museum to remind Americans of the pleasures of canned pork. A “Wall of SPAM,” a scale model of a SPAM plant, and many other exhibits inside are worth a look.
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