The best places you've never seen : Pennsylvania's small museums : a traveler's guide / Therese Boyd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boyd, Therese.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Museums--Pennsylvania--Guidebooks.

Museums.

Pennsylvania--Guidebooks.

Pennsylvania.

Genre:

Guidebooks.

Physical Description:

ix, 209 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, [2003]

Summary:

You 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. Read Therese Boyd's guide, however, and 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 might otherwise be thrown away and forgotten -- everything from spittoons to high button shoes to trolley cars. Often someone's personal collection just got out of hand and a museum was born. 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.

Boyd, who has visited small museums throughout Pennsylvania, concentrates on the forty-two she considers most 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). Whether you're taking a day trip, a week's vacation, or never leaving your armchair, this book makes a great travel companion for some of the most memorable destinations in Pennsylvania.

Contents:

Better in the Poconos

Bill's Old Bike Barn, Bloomsburg 3

Houdini Tour and Show, Scranton 7

White Christmas Chalet and Tree Farm, Slatington 11

Yuengling Brewery, Pottsville 15

Zane Grey Museum, Lackawaxen 20

Around the City of Brotherly Love

Boyertown Museum of Historical Vehicles, Boyertown 29

Christian Sanderson Museum, Chadds Ford 34

The Insectarium, Philadelphia 39

Lost Highways Archive and Research Library, Philadelphia 44

Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Doylestown 48

Mummers Museum, Philadelphia 52

Museum of Mourning Art, Drexel Hill 57

Richard Allen Museum, Philadelphia 61

The Shoe Museum, Philadelphia 65

Wharton Esherick Museum, Valley Forge 69

Deep in the Lower Susquehanna Valley

Bob Hoffman Weightlifting Hall of Fame and Museum, York 77

First National Bank Museum, Columbia 81

Kready's Country Store Museum, Lititz 86

Le Petit Museum of Musical Boxes, Marietta 90

The New Holland Band Museum, New Holland 93

Toy Robot Museum, Adamstown 97

Heart of the Alleghenies

Gardners Candies, Tyrone 105

Grice's Clearfield Community Museum, Clearfield 109

Horseshoe Curve, Altoona 114

The Johnstown Flood Museum, Johnstown 120

Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum, Ortanna 124

Pasto Agricultural Museum, State College 128

Rockhill Trolley Museum, Rockhill Furnace 131

Iron City Environs

Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Uniontown 137

George Westinghouse Museum, Wilmerding 142

Jimmy Stewart Museum, Indiana 146

Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh 151

Photo Antiquities, Pittsburgh 155

Heading for Lake Erie

John Brown Museum, New Richmond 163

Vocal Groups Hall of Fame and Museum, Sharon 167

Wild West Museum, Franklin 172

Top of the World

Eldred World War II Museum, Eldred 179

Ole Bull Museum, Oleana 183

Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Galeton 188

Piper Aviation Museum, Lock Haven 192

Tom Mix Birthplace and Museum, Driftwood 195

Zippo Case Museum, Bradford 199.

Notes:

"A Keystone book."

ISBN:

0271022760

OCLC:

51009248