Hidden Oddities inside Four Unique Museums

By Paige Wood

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word museum? Is it bones and fossils? Or maybe it is abstract art that you don’t understand? These next examples will not be like anything that comes to mind, but they are worth the visit. It's time to take off the blinders, get off the interstate of normality, and experience these four odd museums that are unlike anything you have seen before. 

It’s time to get off the pot for this museum! Barney’s Toilet Seat Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas will have you wondering just what you can't do with a toilet seat. The museum’s owner, Barney Smith, began decorating toilet seats after he was inspired at a plumbing supply house while picking up parts for his job (“Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum”). According to Ferguson, Barney’s first decorated seat displayed a pair of deer antlers. In 1992, he opened the museum up to the public (Ferguson 40). He has been decorating these toilet seats for over 50 years. According to “Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum”, today the museum houses 1,350 decorated toilet seats displayed in every place possible throughout the old metal garage. Most of Barney’s creations are personal and every seat has a story. His collection includes tributes to his wife, featuring a seat adorned with the stethoscope she used as a nurse, depictions of historic events, such as the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 that inspired a toilet seat decorated in ash, and reflections of other influential moments in Barney’s life. For example, the museum features a seat showcasing a chunk of space shuttle debris from the Challenger Space Shuttle and a seat featuring a hornets’ nest that Barney destroyed (Ferguson 40). In order to fully open the lid on this experience, you need to visit the museum in person. The museum is free to visit, but you must call ahead to make your afternoon appointment. Barney can be reached at 210-824-7791 (“Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum”). If you’re a guy, you’ll appreciate the fact that after you leave, you will never have to put the lid down on this experience. 

The next museum up on the list will have the hair on your arms tingling in excitement, fascination, or maybe even disgust. Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri is filled with many unique pieces of art made from human hair. It truly is an unbe-weave-able find. According to Arthurs, the museum’s owner started her hobby in 1956 when she saw an arrangement of hair in an antique store window (6). She ended up purchasing the arrangement and researching how to make her own art out of human hair (Arthurs 6). Leila Cohoon opened the museum in 1989 in her dorm-like cosmetology room, after deciding to stop hiding the creations that she had made and collected over the past 40 years (Marsh 26). According to Erickson, the museum has over 400 wreaths and 2,000 pieces of jewelry on display made from human hair. These jewelry items include rings, watch fobs, bracelets, necklaces, chains, brooches, hat pins, and corsages (“Leila’s Hair Museum”). Marsh comments, “Cohoon also has locks from George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, as well as Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Marilyn Monroe” (26). These famous locks help draw visitors into the museum. “Leila’s Hair Museum” states, that the braided hair wreaths are the main attraction. Cohoon's collection includes nine wreaths made from hair contributed by just one person. The rest of the wreaths have a hair length contributed from each family member. Cohoon states that “Before the camera was invented, that’s how you’d document a family.” The wreaths featured in Cohoon’s museum are unique representations of family trees. Along with the family wreaths, Cohoon also has a friendship wreath, that she believes came from a church group, where each member contributed a length of hair (Arthurs 6). If this information has brushed a wave of excitement and intrigue over you, then you should schedule a visit. Visiting hours are from 9AM to 4PM Central Time on Tuesday through Saturday, and tickets are $15 for adults and $7.50 for seniors and kids. The museum’s address is 1333 S. Noland Rd, Independence, MO, and while it is not necessary to call ahead, you can assure that Leila will be present during your visit by calling 816-833-2955 (“Leila’s Hair Museum”). I hope that you have a hair-raising time!

The Mütter Museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania might have your skin crawling at its oddities. According to Jones, the museum was founded in 1863 as part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia as an educational center for practicing physicians. The museum was meant to help doctors experience what they might encounter during their practices (Jones). Today, it is open to the public but is still considered to have educational value. The Mütter Museum is home to the largest collection of anthropodermic books. What does that mean? It means that the books are bound in human skin! According to Lander, three of these books were bound with a woman named Mary’s skin. Mary was admitted to Philadelphia General Hospital in 1868 with tuberculosis. While she was there, she obtained a parasitic roundworm from pork products. Mary later died from the tuberculosis and parasite and was autopsied by Dr. John Stockton Hough. During this autopsy, he removed skin from Mary’s thigh and took it to the basement to tan it in a chamber pot. He then used the skin to bind three of his books: Speculations on the Mode and Appearances of Impregnation in the Human Female, Le Nouvelles Decouvertes sur Toutes les Parties Principales de L’Homme et de la Femme, and Recueil des Secrets de Louyse Bourgeois. The three books each are based on female health, conception, and reproduction. Along with the aforementioned books, there are two other anthropodermic books in the collection at the Mütter Museum (Lander). If that does not interest you, there are other items on display such as wet organs, wax models, medical instruments, examples of multiple diseased organs, such as eyes and gallbladders, and other unique items like the ‘soap lady’ (Golden 616). There is almost no limit to what you might find in this museum. The museum is open daily from 10AM to 5PM Eastern Time and tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $13 for youth ages 6-17 and Free for children 5 and under. There are also discounts for veterans, students with ID, and Monday and Tuesday walk-ins. Memberships can also be purchased. The address to visit in person is 19 S. 22^nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19103, but you can also tour the museum online at muttermuseum.org. The museum recommends that you call 215-560-8564 before visiting in person to ensure that you are able to view each exhibit (“Hours and Admission"). Have a bone-chilling experience!

With the past three museums, you may feel a little gross. Well never fear! This museum has exactly what you need to wipe that gross feeling right off of you. The Moist Towelette Museum in East Lansing, Michigan is home to two bookcases with over one thousand different moist towelettes from around the world (Blankinship). Towelettes on display have been acquired from countries such as Sweden and Japan (French). According to Blankinship, the oldest item found in the collection is a box of “Wash Up!” towelettes from 1963. The collection features everyday towelette wipes, such as a CVS towelette and more unique items featuring used wipes donated from celebrities, like “Car Talk” hosts Ray and Tom Magliozzi (French). You can observe the collection for free in room 100 at the Abrams Planetarium on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan or online at www.moisttowelettemuseum.com. Visiting hours are 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM Eastern Time Tuesday through Friday (French). French also accepts towelette donations for display at the museum. 

 

Now that you have a little taste of what these four unusual destinations have on the menu for you, I hope that you make your reservation to visit one or all of them soon. It is time that we educate ourselves about those objects that are considered “different”, and what better way to do that than to see them in person? Enjoy your trip and have a hair-raising experience!

Works Cited

Arthurs, Sara. "Combing Through the Intricacies of Hair Art." US Fed News, 20 Apr. 2018, p. 6. Access World News, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/16B733CC6E191620.

Blankinship, Donna Gordon. “Weird Museums: Travel off the Beaten Path.” The Billings Gazette, 21 Dec. 2014, billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/leisure/weird-museums-travel-off-the-beaten-path/article_6492f122-33bc-5055-84f8-7b8ee9c6e8c7.html.

Erickson, Lori. “Leila's Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri.” Spiritual Travels, 2018, www.spiritualtravels.info/articles-2/north-america/leilas-hair-museum-in-independence-missouri/.

Ferguson, Wes. “Circling the Drain.” Texas Monthly, vol. 45, no. 9, Sept. 2017, pp. 38–40. Academic Search Premier, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124755292&site=ehost-live.

French, John. “Moist Towelette Online Museum.” Moist Towelette Online Museum, 2013, www.moisttowelettemuseum.com/.

Golden, Janet. “The Mütter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19303, USA.” Medical History, vol. 56, no. 4, 2012, pp. 616–617, doi:10.1017/mdh.2012.71.

“Hours & Admission.” Exhibits | Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2018, muttermuseum.org/visit/hours-admission/.

Jones, Malcolm. “Terrible, Beautiful.” Newsweek, vol. 140, no. 21, Nov. 2002, p. 14. Academic Search Premier, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7853160&site=ehost-live.

Lander, Beth. “The Skin She Lived In: Anthropodermic Books in the Historical Medical Library.” The Historical Medical Library, 1 Oct. 2015, http://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/skin-she-lived-in/.

Marsh, Betsa. “5 Weird Museums.” Saturday Evening Post, vol. 285, no. 6, Nov. 2013, p. 26. Academic Search Premier, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=91761410&site=ehost-live.

Wilkins, Mike, et al. “Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum.” Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions, 14 Aug. 2018, www.roadsideamerica.com/story/6166.

Wilkins, Mike, et al. “Leila’s Hair Museum.” Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions, 2018, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11479.