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Niche Museums

niche-museums.com

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Re: Niche Museums

#31

Post by bookofjoe »

simonw wrote: post #23
dmd wrote: post #16

I'm a bit surprised that here in Boston, the nearest museum listed is in New York.

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!

Again I ask, do you have the time, interest and energy to bring it back from hibernation since 2019?

Re: Niche Museums

#32

Post by bookofjoe »

madcaptenor wrote: post #21
dmd wrote: post #16

I'm a bit surprised that here in Boston, the nearest museum listed is in New York.

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.

Yes, by Simon Willis

Re: Niche Museums

#34

Post by OkayPhysicist »

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.

Re: Niche Museums

#35

Post by kitd »

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.

Re: Niche Museums

#36

Post by leviathant »

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"

Re: Niche Museums

#38

Post by simonw »

kitd wrote: post #35

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.

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!

Re: Niche Museums

#39

Post by simonw »

bookofjoe wrote: post #31
simonw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Again I ask, do you have the time, interest and energy to bring it back from hibernation since 2019?

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.

Re: Niche Museums

#40

Post by EvanAnderson »

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.

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