Say “museum” and one immediately thinks fine arts, or maybe history or science. At least that’s my inclination. But when traveling abroad, I was drawn to the quirky side: museums of torture (Amsterdam), sex machines (Prague), and leprosy (Bergen, Norway)—all part of the tourist experience!

On the domestic front, a few years ago I visited a depression era glass museum in Lancaster, Ohio. I thought that special, but it turns out there are 232 glass museums just in the United States and Canada! And as for my other “unusual museum” experiences? They are far from unique. Torture museums: at least 25, including 4 in North America. Sex museums: at least 33 (7 of them in North America), plus 2 virtual ones. Even leprosy has 8 museums across the globe.

What Makes a Museum?

Humans have been curating and displaying interesting collections for thousands of years.

In Greek mythology, the Muses were sister goddesses who inspired science, literature, and the arts. The first museums (mouseion) were shrines to these divine sources of inspiration.

In the 6th century BCE, Princess Ennigaldi of the Neo-Babylonian Empire curated a collection of Mesopotamian artifacts with origins spanning 1,500 years. The Capitoline Museums in Rome have housed Roman art and antiquities since 1471. Alongside collections of Mauritian art and history, the Blue Penny Museum in Port Louis, Mauritius, showcases the Blue Penny and Red Penny, two of the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world.

Some museums exist entirely in the cyberworld. Rock harpist Deborah Henson-Conant proudly curates an online Burnt Food Museum, showcasing her own culinary disasters. Minecraft players have created several replicas of real-world museums in online servers, making them accessible to players around the globe.

Strangest Museums

Recently, The Wall Street Journal (8-28-25) featured an article about a jellyfish museum in Kyiv, Ukraine. And that led to an online search for off-beat museums around the world. Here is a non-comprehensive list of those I found. Feel free to explore any of these:

• Cats (Kuching, Malaysia and Minsk, Belarus, among others)
  • Seto, Japan has a small museum dedicated specifically to Lucky Cat (maneki neko) figurines.
• Kazoos (Beaufort, South Carolina)
• Waffles (Decatur, Georgia)
• Lunchboxes (Columbus, Georgia)
• Banjos (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
• Barbed wire (LaCrosse, Kansas)
• Ice cream (initially in San Francisco, there are now locations in New York City, Chicago, Austin, Texas, and Singapore)
• Neon signs (Glendale, California and Las Vegas, Nevada)
• Toilets (Sulabh, Delhi)
  • Madison, Wisconsin had an entire museum of toilet paper, but it closed in 2000.
• Bad art (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Broken relationships (Zagreb, Croatia)
• Spies (Washington, DC)
  • There is also an interactive role-playing exhibit in London and New York
• CupNoodles (Yokohama, Japan)
• Potatoes (many, including Brussels, Belgium and Blackfoot, Idaho)
• Funerals (Houston, Texas)
• Hospitals (Kowloon, Hong Kong and Edirne, Turkey)
• Pharmacies (Woolloongabba, Australia and Buenos Aires, Argentina, among others)
• Gophers (Alberta, Canada)
• Rubber stamps (Evanston, Illinois)
• Toys (Kansas City, Missouri and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico)
• Railroads (Too many to count! So far as I can tell, Antarctica is the only continent without a railroad museum.)

And then I came across 1160 Unusual Museums in the United States – Atlas Obscura Discover 1160 unusual museums in the United States. · The Whale Museum · Karpeles Manuscript Library Mini Museum · The Lagoda · Dauer Museum of Classic Cars.

Clearly there are more weird museums that I can list here!

Bottom Line: If you’re interested in it, there’s no doubt a museum for it somewhere!