The Best Places You've Never Seen
Pennsylvania's Small Museums: A Traveler's Guide
224 pages | 84 illustrations | 7 x 8 | 2003
Cloth edition is not available
ISBN 978-0-271-02276-5 | paper: $26.95 tr
A Keystone Book®
To view an interview with this author about this book, click here: http://boyd.soar.psu.edu
“Though her book - her first - contains all the details and photographs necessary to be a useful guide, Boyd’s amusing storyteller’s approach to chronicling her visit to each site conveys much more about its subjects, and its author, than a utilitarian tour guide.” –Marion Winik, Baltimore SunYou know the Carnegie Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but have you ever visited the Toy Robot Museum in Adamstown or Bill's Old Bike Barn in Bloomsburg? The Tom Mix Museum in Mix Run? The Houdini Museum in Scranton? Pennsylvania's many small museums are easy to miss in an age of instant information and superhighways. After reading Therese Boyd's guide, however, you'll rush to get off the beaten track to find them. Pennsylvania's little wonders are as entertaining as they are educational.
Unlike large museums, which display masterpieces of art and other "important" items, small museums feature objects that would otherwise be thrown away and forgotten—everything from spittoons to high button shoes and trolley cars. Some small museums, such as the Richard Allen Museum, serve a serious purpose; others are playful, even eccentric. All offer a fresh perspective on how people have lived and worked.
Of the hundreds of small museums throughout Pennsylvania, Boyd concentrates on forty-two she considers well worth a detour. These range from Kready's Museum, where visitors can savor the simple pleasures of a country store, to the Vocal Groups Hall of Fame and Museum, where music fans can listen to "golden oldies" and pore over memorabilia (including sequined dresses once worn by the Supremes).
Boyd's book is a comprehensive, illustrated guide to the best small museums in Pennsylvania. It weaves amusing anecdotes about Boyd's own visits to the museums along with descriptions of their histories and collections. Her guide provides travel directions as well as complete information about each museum's visiting hours, Website, and contact information.
Therese Boyd is a writer, editor, and teacher. Currently she is a stringer for the Harrisburg Patriot-News, writes "One-Day Getaways" for Mode (Harrisburg's monthly entertainment magazine), and reviews books for the Greensboro, N.C., News-Record.
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Symbols
Introduction
Better in the Poconos
Bill’s Old Bike Barn, Bloomsburg
Houdini Tour and Show, Scranton
White Christmas Chalet and Tree Farm, Slatington
Yuengling Brewery, Pottsville
Zane Grey Museum, Lackawaxen
Around the City of Brotherly Love
Boyertown Museum of Historical Vehicles, Boyertown
Christian Sanderson Museum, Chadds Ford
The Insectarium, Philadelphia
Lost Highways Museum, Philadelphia
Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Doylestown
Mummers Museum, Philadelphia
Museum of Mourning Art, Drexel Hill
Richard Allen Museum, Philadelphia
Shoe Museum, Philadelphia
Wharton Esherick Museum, Valley Forge
Deep in the Lower Susquehanna Valley
Bob Hoffman Weightlifting Hall of Fame and Museum, York
First National Bank Museum, Columbia
Kready’s Country Store Museum, Lititz
Le Petit Museum of Musical Boxes, Marietta
New Holland Band Museum, New Holland
The Toy Robot Museum, Adamstown
Heart of the Alleghenies
Gardners Candies, Tyrone
Grice’s Clearfield Community Museum, Clearfield
Horseshoe Curve, Altoona
Johnstown Flood Museum, Johnstown
Mr. Ed’s Elephant Museum, Ortanna
Pasto Agricultural Museum, State College
Rockhill Trolley Museum, Rockhill Furnace
Iron City Environs
Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Uniontown
George Westinghouse Museum, Wilmerding
Jimmy Stewart Museum, Indiana
Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
Photo Antiquities, Pittsburgh
Heading for Lake Erie
John Brown Museum, New Richmond
Vocal Groups Hall of Fame and Museum, Sharon
Wild West Museum, Franklin
Top of the World
Eldred World War II Museum, Eldred
Ole Bull Museum, Oleana
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Galeton
Piper Aviation Museum, Lock Haven
Tom Mix Birthplace and Museum, Driftwood
Zippo Visitors Center, Bradford
Photo Credits
Appendix: Other Small Museums Mentioned