In Photos: The Oddest Museums in the USA

Museum Of Bad Art, Somerville, Massachusetts

Seen the marvels in MoMA, ogled at the artwork in the National Gallery of Art and gawped at the masterpieces in the Getty Center on your travels around the states? Don’t forget to pay homage to the not-so-greats of America’s art world too at the Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA). This quirky little gallery in the basement of a 1912 cinema in the Boston area is dedicated to the duds or “art too bad to be ignored”, as it puts it.

MuseumOfBadArt.org

Mmuseumm 1 and 2, Manhattan, New York

Blink and you’ll miss New York’s tiny Mmuseumm 1 and Mmuseumm 2. These contemporary natural history museums exhibit seemingly random prosaic objects. The original is housed in a freight elevator in Cortlandt Alley, Tribeca, alongside sister Mmuseumm 2. Collections frequently change but they focus on the “overlooked, dismissed, or ignored,” including sunglasses, backpacks and aerosols.

mmuseumm.com

The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans has many eclectic museums but this one dedicated to ancient remedies and potions on Chartres Street in the historic French Quarter is one of the most charming. Set within the apothecary of America’s first licensed pharmacist, Louis J. Dufilho Jr, it’s a treasure trove of curiosities. Count your blessings that medicine has moved on as you explore exhibits that include leech jars and other bloodletting devices, surgical instruments and various questionable medical practices.

Tess Dixon/Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0