 
There are many museums out there with glitzy exhibits . . . racing to get headlines . . . wine-and-cheese opening parties . . . competing to get donations. But there are also museums for us in the Dull Men’s Club . . . museums displaying stuff that in-and-trendy people are likely to think is too ordinary . . . too everyday . . . too dull. But for us, these museums are exciting to visit.
Everyday Objects — Ordinary Artifacts
Britain’s small museums — “The Nation’s Attic”
May 17, 2006
Dear DMC,
Here is a link to a news item about small museums, together with attached
correspondence from DPLU (dull people like us). Mrs R and I rather like the
museum in Kitzbuehel, which we visit most years. (There is an even smaller
museum in St Johann in Tirol.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4764827.stm Steve Reszetniak
Gas Works Museum and Saving Bank Museum — Scotland
August 29, 2005
Dear DMC,
I suggest you list this museum in the museums section. The Gasworks Museum in Biggar:
http://www.theguidlife.net/ORGANISATIONS/BMT/museums/gasworks/page/index_html Warning: This page contains one exclamation mark, and several colour photographs.
Then there is the equally uninspiring Savings Bank Museum:
http://www.dumfriesmuseum.demon.co.uk/bank.html Andrew
+ + + + + + +
Dear Andrew,
We look forward to visiting Biggar, especially to watch one of the demonstrations at the Gasworks Museum. And also to see the gasometers. But what is a retort house?
The Savings Bank Museum will be facinating to visit also. We did not know until hearing from you that Rev Dr Henry Duncan was the father of savings banks. It’s understandable, however — as Scots are known for frugality and saving, it makes sense that savings banks were fathered there.
Thank you,
DMC
Potted Meat Museum
August 30, 2004
Dear DMC,
My fellow dull men will surely enjoy an on-line visit to the potted meat museum at www.pottedmeatmuseum.com
Not a great site for vegetarians, it must be said.
Best wishes,
Steve Reszetniak
August 24, 2004
Dear DMC,
I have a couple of suggestions for your museums page.
http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_museums/sewingmachine_museum1.htm
http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_museums/fan_museum1.htm
and Buxton Museum & Art Gallery Terrace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6DA Tel: 01298 24658
Location: Buxton Dates Open: All Year (except Mondays, Christmas Day, Boxing day and New Years Day).
All three are exceedingly Dull, and so are perfectly safe to be entered on your site.
Many thanks,
Terry
Forge Mill Needle Museum
May 12, 2003
Dear DMC,
http://www.redditchbc.gov.uk/forge_mill/forgemill1.htm#top
This is a link for the Needle Museum. I found it quite interesting, but this situation is rescued by the museum being in Redditch. A word of warning, however, because the cafe sells Cornetto ice creams, which every dull man knows is dangerously bordering on the exciting.
I took a bottle of water with me
Simon B
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Dear Simon,
Thank you so much for this news. We went to their web site and are really interested . . . we looking forward to traveling to Redditch . . . to Needle Mill Lane . . . to spend a lot of time at what appears to be a truly fascinating museum. As for the Cornetto ice cream, might be no need to be worried.
We went to the ice cream company's web site (http://www.catcha.com.my/cornetto/product.shtml#). We see that they have vanilla.
Let's hope that, among the flavors served at this museum, they include vanilla.
DMC
Postcard and Greeting Card Museum The first such museum on the Internet. Over 900 cards on exhibit.
The site has something that is truly fascinating: The History of Greeting Cards.
The first card was a Valentine, back in the 1400s. It is now housed in the British Museum.
There are exhibits of cards for New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays, and more.
A caution to dull men: the site uses exclamation points.
Jerusalem's Tax Museum
An appropriate web site to hear about now during the Holiday Season. A web site from the Holy Land. What makes it even more appropriate is that it deals with a tops that is right up our alley: taxes. Our attention was caught immediately . . . we saw that our of the museum's purposes was to be a place to learn about the routine work of the tax department. Wow . . . it doesn't get much better than that . . . for dull men. The purpose of the museum is to:
Centralize a collection about taxes in the ancient world and in Jewish communities of the Diaspora, and also about taxation in Israel, through its history.
To be a "show window" through which the public can learn about the development of taxes, and about the routine work of the tax department.
Activities offered by the museum are:
Tours for individuals and organized groups; [does this mean that disorganized groups cannot join the tours?] Professional guidance (optional); [does this mean that the other activities are mandatory?]
Recommended as a source of information and inspiration for research and study activities in the field of taxation. [We look forward to going there for inspiration.]
There also is a page about the History of the Museum. The history is 43 words long.
[Thanks to Josh Segal from Harvard Law School for informing this about this museum]
D.D. Smalley’s Hyde Park Miniature Museum Here is a great museum, in Houston Texas, featuring a collection of pencil stubs . . . radio tubes, telescope lenses, and arrowheads . . . something as usual as postage stamps . . . something as unusual as a tiny cucumber seed found on the Capital grounds in Washington DC . . . a petrified mastodon tooth . . . costumed fleas.
The items in the museum were collected by David David Smalley. He was a mapmaker for the South Pacific Railroad, a job that required keen observation, a stead hand, and patience. He was our kind of guy. Smalley was an avid collector, as well as an amateur scientist, inventor, and folk artist. He carefully assembled all that he collected, labelled each item in precise, impeccable lettering. You can see pictures of Smalley at http://www.brazosprojects.org/smalley.htm.
His parents named him David David, once for his grandfather and once for his uncle. In this description of him and his museum, we call him Smalley. We would have referred to him as David, but we were not sure which David he would have preferred: the David from his grandfather or the David from his uncle. And calling him David David would have looked strange. So we call him Smalley. (Do you think that the fact that his surname was Smalley had anything to do with why he collected small things?) The museum was in the attic of Smalley’s house. It was opened to the public on weekend until Smalley’s death, at the age of 73, in 1958. In the 1970s, Frank Davis, Smalley’s grandson, reopened the attic museum. The first task was to clean off decades of dust. In a gesture Smalley would certainly have approved of, the dust was saved in a jar. The museum’s address is: Brazos Projects, 2425 Bissonnet Street, Houston, Texas 77005.
You can read more about the museum at Brazos Projects’ web site: http://www.brazosprojects.org/hydepark.htm
You can read even more about it in a newspaper article: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/art/1374919.
You can see a stumming picture of cigars boxes full of stamps at: http://www.brazosprojects.org/stamps.htm
Canoe Museum
Apron Museum
Safety Razor Museum
Hallucinogenic Museum
We haven’t yet be able to find the link to this museum. Perhaps the museum is located only in someone’s mind.
RV Museum Exhibit (for our readers in the UK, this is a "Caravan Exhibit") A dozen vintage and contemporary RVs. The vintage RVs include a q1q920s pop-up tent trailer, a 1938 Covered Wagon with a camping lodge-style interior, and a 1957 Airstream Caravanner, and a 1960s hippie byus. Sponsored by Pete's RV Center in South Burlington Vermont. It's at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne Vermont, seven miles south of Burlington Vermont. They have big parking lot. Big enough to park you RV.
Outdoor Fire Hydrant Museum This museum is indeed unique. It is missing. Apparently, no one knows where it is. In an attempt to find it, a website about fire hydrants (http://www.firehydrant.org) pleas, "We do not know where this outdoor fire hydrant museum is and of course are quite anxious to find out. If you have even seen this place or know where it might be, please send us an email and let us know." Click here to see a picture of the museum There are 24 hydrants in the picture, including a two Ludlow Valve hydrants, one Glamorgan hydrant, and two Corey hydrants. There are no dogs in the picture.
Comb Museum, in China Click here to read a few points about this wonderful museum . . . 300 combs . . . including combs made of bone, bamboo, and wood
Framework Knitters Museum In Ruddington, one of Nottinghamshire's award-winning museums . . . explore cottages restored to 1850 and 1900 conditions with their communal pump, wash house, privy, and pigsty . . . training facilities on sock machines and knitting frames . . . and a primitive Methodist chapel.
[Thank you Jamie Regan for telling us about this site]
Gas Museum
[description in development]
[Thank you Mike West for telling us about this site]
Museum of World Sands
[description in development]
Landsborough Historical Society Museum Located in Landsborough Queensland (Australia). Has an impressive array of dental equipment and chairs. Also an almost complete set of Queensland Government Gazettes . . . which are great reading for dull men.
[Thank you Bill Walker for telling us about this museum]
Bounty Folk Museum This museum houses the largest privately-owned collection of memorabilia on Norfolk Island (Australia). This museum is for sale. Bill Walker, Brisbane, informs us that this museum is virtually untainted by artefacts from the HMS Bounty. The ship itself was wrecked on Pitcairn Island many miles to the East of Norfolk Island, thus making it difficult to get any genuine artefacts. Many of you may not know this as a mutiny on the high seas . . . no doubt too exciting of a fact. There is, however, an exceedingly dull life-size diorama with a badly0-made paper mache model of Captain Bligh's cabin on the night preceding the mutiny.
[Thank you Bill Walker for telling us about this museum]
The Barber Museum A favorite activity of some dull men is going to a barber shop where they can watch. Now we have found something to add to this interest . . . a museum that has recreated barber shops from bygone eras, 58 barber poles, over 500 shaving mugs, razors dating back to the 1700s. The Barber Museum is in Canal Winchester, Ohio. It is easy to find . . . it is located above Zeke's Barber Shop and the Wigwam Restaurant on High Street. Canal Winchester is a port on the old Ohio and Erie Canal . . . is off U.S. 33 midway between Columbus and Lancaster.
The Salt Museum Located in Northwich, Chesire (U.K.) . . . The Salt Museum conserved and promote the history of the salt industry of the Cheshire salt towns. There are photographs from the 1870s onwards that show many aspects of the salt industry such as mining and trasporation. There are publications for sale such as "The Supply of Brine" (45 pence), "Roman Salt Making" (25 pence), "The Salt Tax" (25 pence), and "Salt in the Home" (35 pence).
[Thank you Mike West for telling us about this museum]
The Cumberland Pencil Museum A fascinating museum. And a fascinating web site. It has The History of Cumberland Graphite. First discovered about 1500 near Keswick. Was discovered by shepherds. Was first used for marking sheep. About 50 years later, the first pencils ever made were produced from the graphite. Pencils were made in the beginning by cutting the graphite and wrapping it in sheepskin. A wooden holder was then developed in Italy. A cottage industry making pencils grew in Keswick. The web site and museum have pictures of these early days of pencil manufacturing.
[Thank you Mark Malik for telling us about this museum and website]
Windmill Museum [We had written a description of this museum. We were reading it in a nice day -- outdoors. It blew away. We are writing it again. Stay tuned.]
British Lawnmower Museum The British Lawnmower Museum in Southport, Lancashire, U.K., has a fascinating display of over 100 lawnmowers. There are lawnmowers made by Rolls Royce, Daimler, Hawker Sidley, and British Leyland. There are lawnmowers of the Rich and Famous. And there is information about the history of Lawnmower Racing, which we think is a good form of safe excitement. Lawn mower racing had its origins in a meeting of enthusiastic beer drinkers at the Cricketers Arms, Wisborough Green, West Sussex. The first British Grand Prix meeting for lawn mowers ran at Wisborough Green in 1973 and attracted 35 drivers who drove mowers ranging from a 1923 Atco to a brand new 8 horssepower Wheel Horse. There were races for run-behind mowers, towed-seat mowers and the type you sit on top of. These formed the classification system for present-day lawnmower racing, which are Class 1, run behind, Class 2, Towed Seat type, Class 3 , the sit on type,
[Thank you Dan Appleby for telling us about this museum and website]
Asphalt Museum We realize that not everyone likes to mow laws, and to do all the other chores needed to maintain a lawn. For these people, there is a museum . . . the Asphalt Museum in Sonoma California. On display is asphalt from notable highways . . . the original Route 66 and the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). There also is asphalt from Australia and Italy. And the Asphalt Art Gallery with photographs of asphalt.
Stapler Museum Antique staplers and other paper fasteners are on display at what is officially named the Early Office Museum.
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