Most people expect to experience art, science, or history when they visit a museum. Yet around the world, there are museums that have been established to teach the public about everything from love and friendship to vampires and werewolves.
If you’re planning on traveling or even learning more about your own region, check out some of the world’s exceptional museums.
National Videogame Museum
Regardless of whether you like board games, video games, or playing games at an online casino you’ll enjoy a trip to the Videogame museum, located in Frisco Texas. The museum is an everything-you-always-wanted-to-know place about the video games industry from information about the industry’s beginnings in the 1960s to its evolution to consoles, cloud gaming, social media gaming, live streams, virtual reality, augmented reality, first-person shooters, role-playing games, headsets, and more.
After you take a walk around the NVM you can spend time playing retro games and exploring some of the industry’s newest gaming adventures.
International Spy Museum
The International Spy Museum, located in Washington DC (where else?) aims to create a context in which visitors can gain an understanding of the role that intelligence has played throughout history and continues to play today. The museum curates the largest collection of espionage artifacts in the world including items that have been used in real-life spying – spy cameras hidden in day-to-day items, lipstick pistols, and more.
The museum is set up to be an interactive experience where visitors experience the world of spydom. Every visitor is assigned a code name and an alias and throughout the 17 digital and interactive exhibits they need to remember their undercover identities, break codes and stay undercover as they engage in espionage activities.
Throughout the museum, visitors meet spies and spymasters, scientists, engineers, and gadget makers while viewing the devices used to steal secrets and protect the free world from the evil and wicked. Everyone has a chance to try to crack a code, think like an analyst, and consider how intelligence is used in decision-making.
The history section is one of the most fascinating areas of the museum. Stories of historical spies going back to the Revolutionary War are told. And if you’re interested in learning about what real spies think about online spies, make sure that you finish your museum tour.
SPAM Museum
What is there to say about SPAM? Quite a bit, it turns out, and Hormel, the company that makes SPAM, has created a museum as part of its Austin Minnesota headquarters to tell the SPAM story. Visitors are guided through the exhibits by “SPAMbassadors” some of whom heat slices of SPAM and serve it to visitors on pretzel sticks while the Monty Python cast repeatedly sings “SPAM” from a video monitor.
In addition to learning about the history of SPAM which includes the evolution of the product, the SPAM can, SPAM’s role in winning World War II and the meat’s popularity in the Pacific Islands visitors are invited to help can spam on a mock assembly line, view SPAM art and explore a 22-foot-long SPAM rocket. You shouldn’t miss the museum’s gift shop with SPAM-branded air fresheners, souvenir SPAM can keys, SPAM lip balm and even SPAM can guitars.
If you’re hungry, of course, there is also plenty of vacuum-packed slices of….you guessed it.
The Dog Collar Museum
If you ever doubted that the English are crazy about their dogs, head to the Dog Collar Museum in Leeds Castle where you’ll see 130 rare and valuable dog collars, some of which date back to the 15th century.
Other exhibits include German iron collars, ornate gilt Baroque-period collars, and more.
National Museum of Mathematics
The National Museum of Mathematics, located in New York City, is a math geek’s dream come true. It’s meant to inspire budding mathematicians and inspire awe among the non-mathematically-inclined among us about the role that math plays in illuminating patterns and structures in the world around us. Exhibits include those aimed at children, adults, seniors, and everyone else in-between.
Alongside the exhibits are special events such as hands-on experiences, programs for gifted students, programs for pre-schoolers, workshops on origami folding, evenings of games, and much more.
St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum
The St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum, located in St. Augustine Florida, highlights the history of the pirates of the region. St. Augustine was a landing sot for famous pirates such as Sir Francis Drake and Robert Searles. They could often be found at the Castillo de San Marcos, the city’s Spanish fort. Now the Pirate and Treasure museum displays 800 authentic artifacts that celebrate the history of piracy from the 1600’s Golden Age of Piracy through the present day.
Exhibits include the world’s only surviving authentic pirate chest, a replica of a rouge’s tavern, pirate weaponry, maps, the Jolly Roger, a pirate gun deck, and artifacts found on pirate ships.
Cancun Underwater Museum of Art
The Cancun Museo Subacuático de Arte — Underwater Museum is the largest underwater museum in the world. The museum is located between the islands of Cancun and Isla Mujeres and exhibits sculptures — most of which are by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor and others by local Mexican sculptors. Access to the museum is limited to divers because all of the statues are located under the water.
deCaires Taylor and the other sculptors wanted to create the museum to draw attention to the importance of preserving the coral reefs that surround the area. Snorkellers can access the Punta Nizuc section and scuba divers can dive down to the Manchones. Visitors can also charter a glass-bottom boat to view the sculptures.
The sculptures themselves focus on humans – stand, sitting at a table, hands in a blessing symbol, a child, etc.
