Tag: museum

The International Museum of World War II – South Kingstown Rhode Island

My companion’s interest in military history is not one I share and if I am to be brutally honest this is not a destination I would have chosen on my own. Though I respect that WWII happened I didn’t really feel like spending an afternoon reminding myself what shitheads the human race can be especially when my faith in it has already been floundering. But sometimes you just take one for the team… and end up pleasantly surprised.

When we drove up there was a sign for a cobbler sharing the window with the museum entrence posters. My companion looked at me and inquired, “Is this going to be another Titanic Museum, tucked away in the back room behind a shop?” There was only one way to find out.

Inside we were immediately welcomed by multiple staff members (i.e. this place wasn’t run by some lone weirdo out of his basement, which is sorta what I was expecting…) Apparently this place was actually run by a bunch of documentarians who had done a crap-ton of documentaries on various subjects relating to World War II. Some of them were playing as we walked through, others were being offered on a free DVD for patronizing the museum. We were asked if we wanted a guide and we said that was alright, we can poke around by our lonesome. We were then led through the screamy machine (otherwise known as a metal detector.) Not 100% sure if that was to prevent nutjobs from bringing in weapons or sneaking out with them… either way I was only armed with a purse with a metal zipper and had no desire whatsoever to cuddle a grenade within it.

This is when we were met with an army of mannikins, all dressed in various uniforms from the era representing different countries. As I looked closer I noticed some of the mannikins had fake eye lashes on them and one had a Sharpie doodled mustache that was supposed to look like Clarke Gable. I couldn’t contain my snicker at this and of course that’s when a teenage boy appeared, asking us if we’d like a guide. At first we politely declined but then he told us he could “set some things off” if we wanted, a phrase that wasn’t in any way alarming. With raised eye brows and no sense of personal safety we relented and let the teenage boy bring out a big noise maker which he wound until it whirred and screamed. Cool.

I may have wandered off at this point to do some subtle poking on my own. I found a small collection of photos that were the aftermath of the Holocaust. Just stacks of emaciated dead bodies. Honestly, I was expecting more of these soul-crushing images but instead I was met more with a gentle curiosity as in the same area there was a display of folk art made by concentration camp prisoners. For me this is where the connection is, where you find the humanity in the clouds of cruelty. I wandered back to my companion and the guide boy just as he was pointing out Blondie the German Shepard’s diamond swastika bedazzled collar. She belonged to Hitler. I wondered what she did in a previous life to deserve that. “So we’re sending you back to earth as man’s best friend.” “Awesome!” “And your man will be Hitler.” “Seriously?!” As you can see I have taken it upon myself to be ahead of the censors and cover all the swastikas here on out with a begrudgingly AI created poodle because despite having drawn a weekly comic for two and a half years I apparently have forgotten everything I ever learned about how to operate illustration software. SIGH.

After this we wandered with our youthful guide through various rooms with him handing us various grenades, shells, and other implements of war. Eventually we stopped by a mannikin of a Romanian woman in “camouflage” which looked remarkably similar to a floral bedspread. I joked to my companion, with my usual deadpan expression, “It’s not working.” This completely threw our poor guide off as he squeaked, “Why would you say that?” “because I can still see her… I was being silly…” At this point our guide started breathing again and apologized saying he’s autistic and sometimes doesn’t get jokes. I should have probably said it’s OK, I’m also autistic and remember very much what it was like being your age and constantly confused but I didn’t. I just smiled. That’s really all the spoons I had at that moment.

After this our guide got to talking about all sorts of things completely unrelated – horror movies, Disney rides, zombies. Apparently we’d gained his trust. And when we got back on track? Well, that’s when things kinda devolved a bit. First we noticed a heinously racist poster and read it… it was a grotesquely caracturized Japanese man thanking the US troops for not wearing condoms and spreading VD. I guess our guide boy, who had been familiar with most things here, had never looked that hard at this really messed up piece of satire. Honestly, the most racist relics I’ve ever come across on our travels always tend to be anti-Japanese propaganda from WWII. Our boy stuttered a bit as I just commented it was almost as uncomfortable to look as the Donald Duck reel telling soldiers about the horrors of venereal disease.

This wouldn’t be the first or the last time we gave our guide a run for his money. In another room he showed us plastic leeches and snakes hanging off one jungle-beaten manniken but I saw something more interesting peering down at us from a case above my head: a little brick-a-brac of a gleeful infant riding a bomb. “Why is there a baby riding a bomb?” “What? Oh my god, I never noticed that before. What does it say on it?” I looked back at my photo. It read, “Hatched in the USA.” This did not make it any better. More nervous laughter.

Then things really toppled into the weird as we found a case befitting a collection from the Shame Wizard. I’d always though that Nazi dildos were a joke. Nope… here we were face to face with a distressingly wooden dildo with Hitler’s face carved into it. Guess there’s something for everyone here I muttered under my breath. Personally, I couldn’t figure out if the obscene shape of it was more offensive or the fact it could give you splinters. Maybe you’d deserve splinters for that one, I don’t know. I couldn’t help but think about that one manniken in a SS uniform with this crazy shocked expression on his face. I feel like he knew.

And onward we continued to a whole corner of anti-Hitler folk art and propaganda. Really odd things over there, including a little Hitler manniken that our guide boy said no one knew much about but he supposed it was broken because the hand on it was not in the correct position for the Nazi salute it was attempting. This is where us oldies started to feel a bit bad because we couldn’t not tell this poor boy that no, this doll was not broken. It was giving a limp-wristed salute quite purposely. “Oooooh! Like he’s… gay?! I did NOT know that!” Course, then my companion couldn’t help pointing out the pin cushion shaped like Hitler bending over with pins jutting out of his ass. I sighed as the guide boy had another epiphany. This train was thoroughly derailed. And never have I felt older or queerer than in this moment. But I suppose there are worse things.

After this we cycled through on our own again noting different things other than the artillery we got to handle with our guide. I really appreciated a cute little summer dress apparently made by a French woman out of a food supplies parachute. One point for resourceful upcycling. And so we concluded our tour.

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Whydah Pirate Museum – Yarmouth Massachusetts

I know I haven’t been giving my beloved blog much attention lately but it’s only because my chronic fatigue has been working me over like a steam roller this summer so I haven’t been able to make it out of the house very often. So too has my usual travel companion who is currently being pushed to the brink by his capitalist overlords. As such we both desperately needed a more unusual outing, an extra little escape from the bleakness of reality. I pitched the Wydah Pirate Museum because you can’t beat pirates!

The Wydah Pirate Museum is an entire museum based on one very lucky discovery of a sunken pirate ship off the coast of Cape Cod. I’ve always wanted to see an old wooden shipwreck but am also phobic of the ocean so barring that this seemed a nice compromise.

We ended up during peak traffic hours on a gorgeous summer day so by the time we got there I was in no mood to be fighting with the GPS who didn’t feel it was nessassary to tell me which side of the road I was supposed to find this establishment. It is set back from the road with an underwhelming forefront so I drove right past it and ended up turning into a big seemingly abandoned parking lot which turned out to be almost directly across the road. And then I had to dodge two lanes of unrelenting traffic to get across said road which nearly ended in catastrophe when I saw a break in the traffic and slammed the gas to the floor only to have my wussy little Prius bottom out and only kick in a full second or two later. No one died, not even the Prius. Thank God.

As I drove in I was one of several cars there. Outside there was a big banner above the door to what looked like a big metal warehouse. This was almost as sketchy looking as all those salt water fish stores.

Fortunately the inside was completely different. Two teenagers joyfully tended the entrance desk and told us this was a no photo establishment and self guided tours started in an adjoining room where a short video played on a loop. Under the screen was a big gold bell in a tank which was apparently the first thing they found on this wreck.

Travellings into the museum itself we found LOTS of plaques and information, the usual scattering of creepy wax dummies, and a few cases of random things found. We learned this particular ship had a 40% black crew as well as numerous indigenous members and a random twelve year old runaway whose boot and shinbone were found and were currently on display. This was all news to me. I knew black pirates were a thing but I had no idea there were so many and why would an indigenous person want to be a pirate?? I had no answers on that one although the picture was much clearer for the black crew members who through escape and mutiny had chosen the pirate life over slavery. There was also a small display honoring the women pirates who dressed as men to take on this life which to me sounds like some transmen found belonging in a diverse democracy at sea. I’m telling you pirates sound better at governing than our own land based government.

I also got to see some twisted and broken pirate pistols and learned why pirate guns always seemed so cartoonishly large – its because they’re not hand guns, they’re literally sawed off shotguns. Remind me not to get on the bad side of a pirate.

There was even a little station where you could touch some of the coins dredged up during this escavation. They were well polished and worn by being pawed at by thousands of fingers and yet it was still pretty cool to touch someone’s spare change from hundreds of years ago. Also on display were real gold deblooms and pieces of six. They looked so much more primitive than I’d imagined.

But the most unique display was a whole room of various fish tanks filled with large chunks of the wreck that had been encased in mineral deposits and needed to be slowly melted away with the magic of water erosion. There were X-rays revealing what was in these strange rocks. I had always thought corals may take over these sunken vessels, it never occurred to me they’d be slowly enveloped by rock over time, like fossils! Of pirate guns.

Finally there was a slew of displays on what ultimately happened to the pirates who were caught. Spoliers: nothing good. Sort of brought my mood down a bit to be honest. I was rooting for these probably ADHD-addled sea rogues.

We took a moment to play at the knot tying station before scanning the gift shop for morbid loot. There were indeed books a plenty but I left them on this day feeling the $18 entrance fee was already quite enough to spend.

Off we went. I took a selfie outside with one of the wooden pirates so I’d have something to post here, having obeyed the rules of the inside museum.

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Prescott Farm Trail – Middletown RI

It’d been a hell of a few weeks for me and unfortunately, I think my chaos gremlin followed me to Rhode Island on this particular week because my usual travel companion wasn’t having an easy go of it either. We both needed desperately to get out of the house but lacked the energy to actually do so. A compromise was made – to stay in town and go back to a destination we’d already been to before – a destination I remember taking photos of but for some reason cannot find said photos or blog entry?? Shame because I took very few photos this time around thinking I already had plenty!

Prescott Farm is the site of a historic farmstead and gristmill. It has one of very few surviving windmills in here in the US built in the early 1800s and there are several other historic buildings also on the property you can poke at. And “gardens,” lots of “gardens” which appear to be wildly out of control fenced in weeds… which I guess are mostly native and probably were used at some point by locals but I definitely saw some things in there that clearly blew in from somewhere else. A vegetable garden this was not. Although I did find a patch of choke cherry trees along the perimeter. SOMEDAY. Someday I’ll have land and chokecherry trees of my own with which to make jam with.

The location is known for its little duck pond where a gaggle of them wait to be fed. We however were here to check out the hiking trails first so off we went past the old homestead, the historic markers, and the windmill, into the woods! The woods were a well needed respite from the heat. Despite the fact that today was hotter and muggier than a teenage Shrek’s jock strap (sorry) the woods were cool and refreshing! And pretty! We found a bunch of little fairy houses that someone had left at random trees and then I spotted a really fat deer – the first one I’ve seen on island in all my visits here! And just beyond the deer we came across a weird bird sitting at the edge of the water just chilling, giving no mind to us whatsoever. My companion thought it was a hawk because of its coloration and short stubby shape, I thought it was a blue heron because of its beak. Drawing closer to it I realized it wasn’t nearly big enough to be a heron and its beak definitely wasn’t that of a hawk. We were both bewildered by the animal who still didn’t care we were staring at it like leering predators. We’d only later learn its identity by posting photos on FaceBook – it was a night heron. I have never heard of such a thing and am growing increasingly concerned I might be wandering ever closer to becoming a birder, the horror. This goes doubly for my companion who thought he heard an owl. This resulted in us both stalking a mourning dove to the chimney of the farmhouse. To be fair the “mourning” sound of mourning doves does sound a bit owl-like.

The trails were very short and sweet and at times a little messy but it was cute and I was happy to have seen some wildlife. We were however about to approach the famous duckpond. Ooooooph, it was very choked in out in weeds, I don’t think they were native either. However, the ducks still persisted, as did frogs, baby turtles, pond skimmers, diving beetles, and a fantastic orgy of every kind of dragon fly you could think of just finding their love match. It was kind of funny. The ducks showed interest in us only as long as it took to figure out our sorry asses didn’t have any food for them and then they wandered off crankily quaking at each other.

This was a nice little diversion – just the amount of green and activity I needed to get back onto a path of a well-regulated nervous system. So, if you’re in town maybe check it out. It’s rather cute, child friendly, and has a little history. Also, the windmill is nice to take photos of.

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Peabody Natural History Museum – New Haven Connecticut

There’s few things more alluring than the chance to see dinosaurs. Add to that the fact this museum was free and we were all on board. To the dinosaurs!!

Of course being a natural history museum there was a lot more than dinosaurs but they were the first thing we saw – specifically a life size triceratops guarding the outside of the building and several pterodactyl fossils just in the lobby. Already I was endeared. From here we wandered into a large room with mostly prehistoric ice age fossils – all the most beloved creatures from the time – a mammoth, a sabre tooth tiger, even a moa which I lovingly call a “12 foot murder bird.” It was a nice display.

This wasn’t the end of the fossils. There was also marine fossils, including a precambrian section with an anomolocarus, a whole dinosaur room, and even a huge sea turtle in a large sitting area near the bathrooms. Also near the bathrooms was a super cool little water bottle refilling station claiming to have saved the world from thousands of plastic bottles. I liked that!

The museum also had a selection of very well done taxidermy of unusual species – my favorite was an aye aye, as well as displays about how taxidermy is done, as well as a living lab with leaf cutter ants and butterflies. For the more technical minds there were displays of the evolution of various technologies, for history buffs there was a very touching display of archeological finds including a Mesopotamian legal document showing a woman selling her own children into slavery to spare them from starvation after losing her husband, and finally there were several rooms dedicated to rocks and minerals that were far more fascinating than I had anticipated. Things I’d never seen – including one that looked like rolls of fabric and another spikey creation that made me itchy looking at it.

All and all we spent a couple hours in this museum and for being free I was quite impressed! I would definitely recommend it to any curious minds looking for something to do in the area.

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Springfield Science Museum – Springfield Massachusetts

Since we were already at the Dr Suess Museum, we decided it was worth using our ticket to see the Science Museum on premise as well. It was definitely geared for children. And children at heart. I wanted to see the dinosaurs because… dinosaurs. They had a life-size T-rex sculpture, a stegosaurus, and a few modest displays around them. It was… underwhelming but luckily other things in the museum sufficed to keep me entertained!

Most of them were in the basement where no one else seemed to be… But here in this VERY warm abode there were a bunch of cute critters! Native fish, some small reptiles, some non-native marine fish, and more turtles than I could have hoped for (one who was INTENSELY staring at me, not sure why.) My companion found entertainment in front of the snake enclosure because someone had just lobbed two very dead mice in there and the snake was contentedly nomming down on them.

Upstairs there was a TON of taxidermy – both African game and normal New England based critters. Most of the African creatures were superbly done – except for those vaguely wonky lions and the chimpanzee with a… human? ish…. face…. I don’t know what demons were inhabiting that poor chimp but something! Meanwhile the local critters were a real tossup between ‘great job’ and ‘WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE?!’ The winner of the latter category went to muskrat with a wildly contorted face.

There also was a modest Native American exhibit as well as an African peoples exhibit and some replicas of various human ancestor skulls which I found interesting. They also had a planetarium which we did not go to see a show at but we did loiter around their space exhibits for a bit. Pet a meteor, played with a robotic arm, looked curiously at a space suit, and weighed myself on the “How Fat are you on Other Planets?” scale. That one told me I lost a pound so I liked it.

ANYWAY… This was a lovely destination if you have kids, especially under 10 or so. Or if you are a big kid like me! It was a nice bonus to the Dr Suess Museum!

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Titanic Museum – Springfield Massachusetts

Lately we haven’t really gone anywhere different. There’s been a lot of antique stores, some hikes and cemeteries, but we were looking to shake things up a bit when we found the Titanic Historic Society and Museum in a book of local museums. Something about this peaked my companion’s interest and off we went!

Finding this place was difficult because we did not know that it wasn’t a standalone building, it was a museum within Henry’s jewelry store. And it was one of those things where you just are completely unsure of the whole premise. It looked pretty rough! With old clouded up windows housing a half-dead Christmas cactus and a bunch of seemingly random cheap looking things that seemed unrelated to jewelry. When we walked in, we expected to see jewelry cases and a big open-air area. No. This place seemed mostly filled with greeting cards and… clutter. Visions of Cookie’s danced in our heads, and we wondered if we were about to topple down some serial killer’s rabbit hole.

Quietly we walked to the back where an old woman sat at the counter and we requested a ticket, two rather, to see the Titanic Museum. She seemed absolutely thrilled someone had come by for this excitedly exclaiming, “I should turn on the lights for you then!”

And there in two very stuffed back rooms was the museum which we were very graciously led around and told about. She requested we don’t take any photos (but did allow us to take a few shots of the model Titanic in the jewelry store which was built over the course of a year by a model airplane builder before being tested on the water!) These two back rooms contained a lot of things from the Titanic’s “sister ships” as well as memorabilia from the movie Titanic. There were flags, passports, diagrams, a few photographs, photo albums of other museums and the making of the movie. It did have a few pieces of the Titanic but I guess over the years they’d been donated to other museums. What I found most interesting was the radar machine used to find the Titanic which was here.

She told us about locals on the boat, how her Titanic society had consulted on the film and how her relatives got to have a small scene as extras. She showed us photos of the survivors, including three dogs who were smuggled out of the kennels and kept in their owner’s rooms against policy. Not surprisingly they were all lap dogs owned by what I presume to be wealthy white women. I may be wrong. Call it a hunch. But they were all tiny. Another interesting thing I learned is that one of the reasons we have photos onboard the Titanic is because a priest whose hobby was photography took the liner from England to Ireland and was persuaded not to go back on it as it sailed off across the sea. This also explains why all the photos are of the same areas – none of steerage or the coal room for example.

So despite our initial ambivalence of this museum it was actually pretty interesting, quite affordable, and a very unique experience. However, I wouldn’t suggest it to everyone. It was definitely something I think would be more niche. If the Titanic is your special interest by all means find this place! If you’re not already highly interested in this subject matter it’s probably not for you. It’s definitely not set up for children if that’s what you’re looking for in a museum. Although it did inspire us to put down some of the other Titanic museums on our bucket list though they’re not in New England. The one in Branson Missouri for instance you have to enter through a giant fake iceberg! Because OF COURSE that’s the way they’d set that up. It’s Branson! The most mind-fucky town I ever had the pleasure of driving through – a family friendly gambling town where old movie sets go to become a super garish string of tourist traps. The Titanic fits right in! Still… they recreated the master staircase to the T. And that could be fun… perhaps on some future venture when we break out of New England again…

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RISD Museum – Providence RI

Last week my one full day in Rhode Island turned out to be a rainy one so we decided that we should find something to do that was indoors. I didn’t really have any ideas but my travel companion suggested we poke around Providence for the day. We looked up what to do in Providence and found the RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] Museum. The photos of it made it seem very random and if there’s anything we both love it’s really random things.

The cost was steeper than most of my entries here at $17 per adult so it had to have something interesting, right? Well, we were off to find out! I was just hoping there was parking nearby, preferably a garage but alas there was only parallel parking along a busy street. Joy. There’s three things I haven’t learned how to do in life: tie my shoes like normal person, tell my left from my right, and parallel park. Luckily some ways up the road there was a park and I found three empty spots in a row. My travel companion says when this happens it’s not parallel parking, it’s just parking, but I’m not going to let his cynicism cloud what is clearly a win for me.

A hare! GET IT!!

The museum was surprisingly ordinary for being dedicated to design… Just a big plain brick building. Though the lobby by itself was as big as most of the museums I have visited here in New England. It even had a coat room with lockers and a bucket for wet umbrellas. Impressive. This was going to be good…

We entered the museum which… seemed to be a huge mostly empty gallery. There were a few creative dresses on display in one corner, some sort of holographic water fountain in another, and a neat selection of tiles made to look like hands were coming out of the walls. Besides that there was just a ton of white empty walls. The only full display we saw was another student exhibit talking about life in the US as a person of color. It was interesting… but still clearly the early work of students. It was something we were both happy to support buuuut…. we thought maybe there was something more to this? If not we both felt as if $17 was a bit steep. After this we entered another empty gallery that was huge and only contained a set of hand drums. They were curious things and I wanted to read the plaque on the wall but there was a security guard standing next to them with an intense energy that made me way too uncomfortable to want to stay in the room long enough for that so we both wandered off.

From here we finally stumbled into a gallery with something in it. It was mostly full of seemingly random things – a really dangerous looking toaster from the early days of electricity, a bunch of weird chairs, a flapper dress, a TV set from the 1960’s that looked like an astronaut’s helmet. And on the walls a small Jackson Pollock was mixed in. for seemingly no reason.

“I don’t get it.”

“I don’t either.”

“I could barf that up in ten minutes. Maybe he was really good at networking. And selling useless shit to rich people.”

Not too far away there was also a small Georgia O’Keefe painting. At least it looked like something. But didn’t really elicit any emotion from me. Which is probably a good thing. I’d been nearly brought to tears while visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam… which distressed everyone around me.

Demons, Tlazoteotl ‘Eater of Filth’
Martine Gutierrez

I thought this room was the end of the museum but it was actually just the end of this section. Beyond it was where things finally got interesting. We suddenly found ourselves wandering into what looked like a proper art museum. An enormous hall with giant portrait paintings surrounded by two rooms of medieval things. My travel companion finally felt like this was worth the trip. The paintings all seemed to have weird things going on in the background. I fell in love with the bored expression of this one boy and was alarmed by a swarm of Cherubs ripping a hare apart in the corner of another. Well… they do say children and animals don’t mix… and I always have been super creeped out by Cherubs. Maybe even more so than dolls and that’s saying something.

From here there was just a totally random mix of pretty much one or two items from every art movement jumbled with a lot of dishes. I enjoyed the Grecco Roman artifacts (including an ornately carved sarcophagus) and my travel companion seemed to be more keen on the Egyptian mummy complete with canopic jars. Both of us were impressed by the one sweet little Van Gogh they had in the same room as a Picasso. By now even the building was taking on character – most of it emanating from a massive glass bubble chandelier that was a spectacle all on it’s own even without the tentacles that slithered out of it.

When we came back down we realized we missed a room where this photographic portrait of the Aztec “filth-eater” god was. It was the perfect bizarre way to end our visit. By now we both agreed it was totally worth the $17 even if we were a bit skeptical at first…

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The Pirate Museum – Salem MA

After leaving the House of Seven Gables we were on our way to one attraction I never made it to during any of my previous visits – the Pirate Museum! And it was everything I expected and could have ever hoped for… the outside of the building was adorned with murals of pirates climbing ropes to the roof, the entrance was a little gift shop with a literal wooden barrel full of plastic pirate hooks at grabbing level for small children. And to makes it all the more beautiful the tours were guided… by teenagers dressed as pirates… which I can only assume joined the work force after their mom was like, “You LOVE pirates! And the costumes are so cute! Look your friends are already here, it’s the perfect job for you! Go on! Get in there!” Someday twenty years from now they’ll look back at their first job and laugh. Or join therapy.

ANYWAY. Pirates are not something I know a lot about… it seems with all my knowledge of New England I have always been lacking when it comes to coastal history which includes everything from sea monsters, to whaling expeditions, and of course privateers and pirates. What’s the difference? Privateers are given free license to loot enemy ships by the government during times of war. Pirates on the other hand are usually the same people before and after the war being hunted down like dogs by the same government which was turning a blind eye before. I find the distinction… petty. But it must mean something to someone because it’s the first thing we learn about pirates every time.

The pirate museum allows flash photography – none of which I took because it was super dark and that would have not given the right idea of what it was actually like. In the shadows were wax figurines leering at the people walking by. Each dressed as a different pirate in a different situation. We were told about each in a long monotone speech given by our guide who spoke so rapidly I am not sure he remembered to breathe. But that’s OK. I can understand given the circumstance.

I was surprised to learn that the last pirate executed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was a woman. Who knew?! And I can’t say I wasn’t at least a little disturbed when our tour guide uttered, “And this guy over here was a total psychopath. He liked to tie his enemies hands together and light them on fire. He liked watching the skin melt off their bones.” EWE. That was a little more torture that I was really ready for…. especially from a place that looked like it might burst out into a Happy Birthday song at any minute.

The rest of the rooms showed scenes of pirates on ships, in caves, drinking rum and staging mutinies, all surrounded by many many pirate flags. Apparently there were hundreds. And what can we expect from such a rebellious group? WE’LL DESIGN OUR OWN FLAG THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

I had a lot of fun here. Way more than I thought I would. If you come to Salem for the witches you totally have to also give some love to the pirates…

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Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry

Part of the fun of letting my travel companions decide the locations is the fact I end up in even more bizarre places than I would normally. The puppetry museum was definitely one of these! We’d both had an interest in such things but I probably would have avoided being a lone person wandering the halls looking for creepy dolls. Even though I kind of love creepy dolls. And he is particularly endeared to Jim Henson creations. We both appreciate the creativity of this unusual hobby.

Still, neither one of us knew a thing about the museum. As it turns out it’s run by the local college – UCONN which provides classes… for puppetry. I was speachless. I had no idea you could attend college and study puppetry. That seemed soooo…. out there. I could imagine the parents of these kids, “I threw us all into debt to pay for you to study what now?!” What good IS a degree in puppetry? What can you do with that? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Chicken Hamlet puppets.

But first we found ourselves in the city of Storrs, surrounded by campuses, largely empty. Most of the colleges in these parts have been shut down since the pandemic and it’s… a little apocalyptic to look at them so lifeless and sad. There’s a parking garage nearby but I ended up just putting the car in one of the many empty street spaces that I imagine were normally full pre-pandemic. From here we made our way to museum and in typical fashion I decided to make a total scene of myself by diving into the pavement as I crossed the street. I haven’t taken a spill like that since childhood! Ripped a hole in my pants, ended up with two bloodied knees, and two bloodied palms, but I got up without skipping a beat none-the-less. It’s best to do an impression of a cat running headlong into a wall. I did that on purpose! Stop looking at me.

The museum bragged about a collection of 2,500 puppets. Normally I have avoided museums since the pandemic buuuuut who would even be here? I was expecting a tiny little place devoid of human life except perhaps one lonely guy who really loves them puppets and probably hasn’t seen other human life in quite some time… I wasn’t far off.

The museum is free but they do ask who you are at the door and donations are always welcome. Part of me wanted to donate a puppet but I’m sure that’s probably not what they mean.

As we walked in there was a large display of all sorts of culturally diverse creations. There was a Sesame Street character and another Muppet I didn’t recognize that called to my travel companion. I didn’t realize how small they were in real life! Surrounding them was a metal mask of a goat man, a bunch of marionettes, and something called a water puppet which confused me greatly. A shadow puppet also shyly dangled from above. It was a nice display!

Send in the clowns… puppets.

In the next room we found a disturbing display that seemed to be two probably haunted ventriloquist dummies, a plastic baby doll “Cherub” with cheap butterfly wings glued to it, and two partially decapitated dolls, one with no arms, and the other with a sword through it’s head. The plaques didn’t offer much in what was going on other than these were somehow supposed to be puppets used to tell the story of Hamlet. I’ve seen a production of Hamlet before… I remember none of these. In fact the whole room was dedicated to Shakespearean puppets which was hard not to laugh at but I would totally go see Hamlet as portrayed by two anthropomorphic chicken puppets. Who wouldn’t?!

The final room was filled with soulless black dead eyes staring at me from beyond vibrant clown make up. It was the stuff of nightmares. So much so that it threw me off and I didn’t take a photo of the eyes. Those piecing black iris-free eyes…

We were a bit sad this place didn’t have more. But the neighboring bookstore did. They had a bunch of garish giant papier-mâché heads all over the place, spill over from the puppetry museum. The cashier there told us the puppetry museum is in fat larger, that beyond the displays is a performance space used for puppet shows. We made a note to come back to see one after covid blows over…

And so ended our adventures to the day as I left with still-bloodied hands to go wash up with hand sanitizer in the car. Woot woot!

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Hudson Museum – Orono Maine

After being laid up for two days with a migraine I was just about crawling out of my skin this morning, desperate to go somewhere, anywhere. I’m still in central Maine with my mother and she’s still none too keen on going for a hike in 85 degree weather soooo I offered to bring her to a museum, which I figured had to be climate controlled. Usually I drive but since we were so close anyway, and she does need practice driving, I climbed into the passenger seat and off we went.

It was an uneventful drive until we were almost there. Then the GPS insisted we had to go down Rangeley Road to get there. Only problem was the road was closed due to construction. So I took the GPS down, zoomed out, and found an alternate route through the college campus. It was, after all, a museum on the college campus. And wow. I don’t want to sound critical but all I ever knew of  Central Maine was poverty and a lack of education, so to stumble upon such a crazy expansive campus here, nestled in such a well kept little town…. well I was shocked. This was not the Maine I grew up with. I must have fallen through the Twilight Zone again.

I spent some time circling the damn building because I didn’t know what I was looking for (The Collin’s Center for the Arts) but after that it was all pretty easy. The  museum is free but does have a nice donation box I fed a dollar to. No one seemed to care I was ambling in on my own – granted I probably look like a college student with the orange hair and a baby face. Truth be told college campuses make me a bit uneasy since I never attended one. I always feel like a bit of a fraud but no matter!

The museum has a range of art and utilitarian items from the native peoples of both North and South America, everyone from the Inuits of Canada all the way down to the Mayan and Aztec Empires. It was actually quite impressive! Funerary dolls, textiles, baskets, and a series of interactive displays for children that my mother kept herself entertained with (as she forgot her reading glasses at home and couldn’t read any of the plaques anyway.) They even had a bunch of South American dress up clothing and a wee wigwam. OK, even I went inside that one… Because when else do you get to play a wigwam? All and all it was a lovely little trip and was happily surprised. If you’re in the area and into museums its well worth a look!


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