[HN Gopher] Niche Museums
___________________________________________________________________
Niche Museums
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 104 points
Date : 2026-03-23 20:57 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.niche-museums.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.niche-museums.com)
| in_a_hole wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I am green with envy, that sounds amazing.
|
| Do you remember any exhibits from that time that aren't in
| place today?
| bookofjoe wrote:
| It was wonderful. Scintillating. Alas, that was in the late
| 1980s and I haven't been back, though from the photo in
| Wikipedia its kind of derelict/dumpy entrance looks like it
| hasn't changed at all.
|
| If you read "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants,
| Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic
| Technology," Lawrence Weschler's superb 1995 book about the
| museum with extended interviews with Wilson, you will find
| it hard not to want to visit.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Wilsons-Cabinet-Wonder-
| Technology/...
| bsenftner wrote:
| https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/museum-of-jura...
| We almost lost it, a fire nearly destroyed it.
| jonstewart wrote:
| I once explained to a friend as "imagine Umberto Eco made a
| museum when he was drunk, and he was a mean drunk."
| da-bacon wrote:
| 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.
| boredinstapanda wrote:
| I really liked the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont
| when I went to visit. https://americanprecision.org/
| jonstewart wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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...
| vismit2000 wrote:
| Another addition to list: Indian Music Experience Museum -
| https://indianmusicexperience.org
| wolfi1 wrote:
| Musee Champollion in Figeac, France about Champollion and his
| deciphering of the hieroglyphs and deciphering of ancient texts
| generally
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| 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/
| robertclaus wrote:
| If you're ever in Wisconsin - House on the Rock and the Mustard
| Museum.
| FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
| The Red Room at HOTR is my happy place (along with the Don Q
| Inn cheese vat bathtubs)
| jeffrallen wrote:
| The UK entrant to Eurovision Song contest, Look mum, no computer,
| runs a museum!
| simonw wrote:
| And it looks _perfect_ for the site, I 'm hoping I can visit
| next time I'm back in the UK.
| dmd wrote:
| I'm a bit surprised that here in Boston, the nearest museum
| listed is in New York.
| madcaptenor wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Yes, by Simon Willis
| simonw wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Again I ask, do you have the time, interest and energy to
| bring it back from hibernation since 2019?
| simonw wrote:
| Back in 2019 I tried to post one a week... then the Event
| happened. I'm back to posting a couple of new ones every
| year now.
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| There is or was a Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) in Boston.
|
| https://museumofbadart.org/history/
| mcphage wrote:
| The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is in Amherst, MA and
| quite excellent.
| oulipo2 wrote:
| There's also the beautiful harp museum in Bruges
| https://www.visitbruges.be/en/things-to-do/culture-and-herit...
| ecshafer wrote:
| 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.
| contingencies wrote:
| Museum of World Religion https://www.mwr.org.tw/mwr_en
| arnorb wrote:
| I believe the Icelandic Phallological Museum fits the bill!
| https://www.phallus.is/
| buildbot wrote:
| It's not a Niche Museum but the Reykjavik Art Museum &
| Reykjavik Art Museum Kjarvalsstadir 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.
| heyitsmedotjayb wrote:
| 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.
| Bridged7756 wrote:
| 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.
| OkayPhysicist wrote:
| 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.
| kitd wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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!
| leviathant wrote:
| 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"
| IAmBroom wrote:
| Pittsburgh has a two-story bicycle museum. Well worth the visit.
| Charming, densely filled, and well organized.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| 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.
| mullen wrote:
| 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
| t1234s wrote:
| The UFO museum in Roswell NM should be added to their list.
| schubart wrote:
| Parasitological Museum in Meguro, Tokyo
|
| https://www.kiseichu.org/e-top
| ks2048 wrote:
| First one I clicked on was Reserva Cerro Ancon 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).
| santix wrote:
| Museum of Brands in London
|
| https://museumofbrands.com/
| t0mpr1c3 wrote:
| I recommend the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia to the curious and
| strong of constitution. https://muttermuseum.org/
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2026-03-26 23:01 UTC)