America's Oddball Museums: Potatoes, UFOs, and Bad Art

Author: Victor Block
Published: 2025/08/12
Publication Type: Informative
Category Topic: Disability Travel America - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This article explores America's quirky specialty museums that offer unique alternatives to major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, showcasing collections dedicated to potatoes, mustard, locks, UFO phenomena, and other unconventional subjects. These offbeat attractions provide educational and entertaining experiences while maintaining accessibility for visitors with disabilities, featuring wheelchair-accessible entrances, elevators, and mobility aid accommodations. Notable destinations include the Idaho Potato Museum with its world's largest potato chip, Wisconsin's National Mustard Museum housing over 5,600 jars from 60+ countries, Connecticut's Lock Museum of America displaying the largest collection of locks and keys, New Mexico's International UFO Museum preserving Roswell incident materials, Michigan's architecturally distinctive Pickle Barrel House Museum, and Boston's tongue-in-cheek Museum of Bad Art with its deliberately low standards for acquisition - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

Each year, more than five million people usually visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The American Museum of Natural History, located nearby, attracts some four million callers annually.

Main Content

Other museums around the country appeal to far fewer folks, but those who frequent them find much to educate, and in many cases entertain, them. We're talking collections focused on potatoes and mustard, locks and alleged landings of unidentified flying objects, and other offbeat galleries. Some may be located near where you live, while others might tempt you to stop by when you're traveling.

Fortunately, most of these offbeat collections are accessible to those using a walker or wheelchair. For example, there are two low steps to enter the Pickle Barrel House Museum, which are easily navigated.

The Mustard Museum is wheelchair accessible, and has accessible restrooms, parking spaces and doors. There is an elevator to get between floors and plenty of room to use mobility aids such as walkers and scooters.

The Idaho Potato Museum showcases that state's famous spuds. Exhibits include the world's largest potato chip, a 14 by 15-inch crisp; how fries were introduced to the White House by Thomas Jefferson, and 1,600-year-old vessels which are believed to be the first containers used specifically for potato storage.

More than 5,600 jars of mustard from over 60 countries greet callers at the National Mustard Museum in Middelton, Wisconsin. Other displays include hundreds of mustard memorabilia items and exhibits depicting the use of the condiment throughout history. Those who wish to take home a souvenir may choose from a long list of recipes, a mustard jar opener and clothing ranging from a "Mustard Happens" apron to a "Poupon U" T-shirt.

A unique bolt that sprays tear gas is among items seen at the Lock Museum of America in Terryville, Connecticut. It's home to the largest collection of locks, keys, handcuffs and ornate door hardware anywhere.

The building occupies the site of the Eagle Lock Company, which during its lifespan (1833-1975) was the largest trunk and cabinet lock manufacturer in operation. The establishment claims to provide an introduction to "the genius of lock makers who over the centuries have constantly tried to stay one step ahead of the bad guys."

In 1947, a rancher in New Mexico discovered metal debris near a trench that spanned hundreds of feet.  That became the basis for conspiracy theories alleging that the fragments were from an extraterrestrial spacecraft which had crashed.  In fact, it belonged to a military balloon that was designed to detect nuclear tests by the Soviet Union.

That incident is recalled at the International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell. It preserves materials and information connected to the event and other unexplained phenomena related to unidentified flying objects.

Those who happen upon an unusual structure in Grand Marais, Michigan also might imagine that they have been transported to a never-never land. It's a 16-foot-high building comprised of two oversized barrels, with windows shaped like pickle jar lids.

That quirky wooden wonder was erected in 1926 in the shape of a pickle barrel. The larger cask of the Pickle Barrel House, as it's known, serves as the living area and bedroom, while the smaller adjacent drum contains the kitchen. In keeping with its history, the furnishings echo 1920s décor. In keeping with its architectural theme, exhibits at the Pickle Barrel House Museum trace the history of the building, showcase the story of pickling and include vintage photographs and pickle-themed memorabilia.

An equally quirky experience awaits guests at the Museum of Bad Art in Boston, whose motto is "Art too bad to be ignored." It was founded in 1933 after an antique dealer showed an appallingly worldpainting he had recovered from the trash to friends, who suggested that he start a collection.

Perhaps surprisingly, the museum sets rigorous standards for works it will accept. Its tongue-in-cheek explanation is that "Nine out of ten pieces don't get in because they're not bad enough. What an artist considers to be bad doesn't always meet our low standards."

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Author Credentials: Victor Block has been a travel journalist for many years, and has written for major newspapers, magazines and travel websites and served as an editor of Fodor's Travel Guides. He is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Travel Journalists Association. Victor is a regular contributor of reviews to the Disabled World travel section. Visit Victors's biography for further insights into his background and expertise.