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22
Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
Boscastle, England. Objects associated with folk belief and ritual make more sense beside the museum’s history of the people who used or feared them. It’s a close look at practices and beliefs that often get flattened into a few Halloween props.
23
Taiwan’s Socks Museum
New Taipei City, Taiwan. In Linkou, a hosiery museum traces one familiar garment from thread to finished pair. Look for the machines and processes behind a sock you would otherwise decide on by nothing more than size and color.
24
Shipwreck Museum
Bredasdorp, South Africa. Look for items recovered from ships along the southern Cape coast. The collection becomes more personal when a piece of cargo or a shipboard object has a wreck and a place to connect it to.
25
Museum of Bread and Art
Ulm, Germany. Follow the tools and imagery around bread to see how one daily food can carry stories about work and scarcity. The interest is in the machinery, ingredients, and art surrounding a loaf, so leave room for a second look at the objects.
26
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Kyoto, Japan. The Wall of Manga fills the former school with books visitors can take off the shelves to read on site. Go for one title you remember and leave enough time to see how many kinds of stories fit the same printed format.
27
Devils’ Museum
Kaunas, Lithuania. See how differently artists have pictured devils in sculpture, masks, and other folk objects. Comparing playful figures with their grim neighbors makes the collection more revealing than a roomful of things meant to scare you.
28
Kazoo Museum and Factory
Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. Look for familiar-looking kazoos alongside versions that turn the body into a novelty shape. It’s one of the rare factory visits where humming into a little resonator counts as fieldwork.
29
Museo Textil Precolombino Amano
Lima, Peru. Take time with the pre-Columbian textiles to see how complex images are built into the cloth. Look closely at the techniques and colors, then use the associated ceramics to put the fabrics in place and time.
30
Teddy Bear Museum Jeju
Seogwipo, South Korea. See different kinds of teddy bears interpreted through collecting and elaborate scenes. The toy’s recognizable shape gives the displays a common thread, even when the scale and costumes change sharply.
31
Singapore Musical Box Museum
Singapore. Look at the mechanisms to see how a small object can repeat a tune. The museum’s focus on musical boxes makes it easy to compare what different makers changed and what they kept. Request a spot on a scheduled open-day tour before going.
32
Malta Postal Museum
Valletta, Malta. Small details on stamps and old letters give you a way into the islands’ postal history. Look for the equipment and postboxes used to move those letters alongside the pictures that made it onto the stamps.
33
Museum of Drinking Water
Taipei, Taiwan. The old pumping station gives a public utility the stage. Look for the pump room and its preserved equipment to see what it took to move clean water through a growing city.
34
Musée de la Cloche et de la Sonnaille
Hérépian, France. Compare the shapes of hanging bells and livestock bells at a museum devoted to their casting and use. The tools and foundry displays give you a glimpse of the work behind an object you normally notice only by ear.
35
Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum
Leavenworth, Washington, United States. Compare a plain tool that cracks a tough shell with a carved figure whose hinged mouth does the same work. The practical and decorative designs are both worth looking at from the side, where their mechanisms make more sense.
36
Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum
Logan, Ohio, United States. This small collection near the Hocking Hills visitor center is full of pencil sharpeners disguised as other things. Look for cases that make you study an object for a moment before you can see where the pencil goes.
37
Dog Collar Museum
Maidstone, England. The collection at Leeds Castle shows the difference between a showpiece collar and a spiked collar meant to protect a working dog. Start with the older examples to see how much the object says about the animal’s job.
38
Museum of Historical Chamber Pots and Toilets
Ovčáry near Kolín, Czechia. Compare chamber pots made in different shapes and materials. Look for the French wedding chamber pots if you’re curious about a household object with a ceremonial role. Check the posted dates for a guided visit.
39
Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
Yokohama, Japan. Visit for a reconstruction of streets from 1958 and small ramen bowls from different regional shops. The neighborhood setting makes a good counterpoint to the Cup Noodles Museum, where the focus is on instant noodles and their packaging.
40
SPAM Museum
Austin, Minnesota, United States. Look for the wartime history of the canned meat and follow how different countries made it part of their own food traditions. The museum gives a single supermarket can a surprisingly long itinerary.
41
Pinball Hall of Fame
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The machines are arranged for playing as well as looking. Try a game with a relatively simple field, then one with ramps and more complicated shots to see how a single format kept changing.
42
National Museum of Roller Skating
Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Compare old skates and modern examples by looking at wheel arrangements and the boots they’re attached to. The displays show how a way to get around became a sport, a performance, and a Saturday-night outing.
