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Made in Museums - Travels to Curious Museums

Made in Museums - Travels to Curious Museums

By: Sandy DeWald - Museum Nerd & Off-the-Beaten-Path Traveler
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 In each episode I feature a quirky museum that’s definitely off – and sometimes way, way, off – the beaten path. If you enjoy learning the backstory behind some very curious collections, then join me where we find the answer to the question, “Now, why would there be a museum about that?”©2018 Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
Episodes
  • MiM 010 - Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee

    MiM 010 - Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee
    Apr 29 2019
    Confession:  I am not a car person I’ve always thought of the automobile as just a mode of transportation.  Nothing fancy, totally practical.  However, the marketing person in me completely understands the emotional appeal cars can have on people.  And the product manager in me can appreciate a good design in any form.  So I was completely surprised after my visit to the Lane Motor Museum when I had this strange desire to just pick up one of the microcars in their collection and take it home.  Maybe it’s my recent fascination with all things tiny (no Game of Thrones for me – I binge watch shows about tiny homes).  Or maybe it’s just the mash-up of something so practical in a package that seems so impractical.  Whatever the reason, their vast collection of microcars is just one reason to visit the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.  Home to the largest collection of microcars, and also one of the largest amphibious vehicles – the 60 Ton LARC – the Lane Motor Museum has enough variety to satisfy both the hardcore and casual car enthusiast (and even just the average museum nerd!).  Focused primarily on European cars -- although there are cars from all around the world -- the museum goes beyond the traditional car museum by collecting cars that are odd, unique, or are truly one-of-a-kind.  Most of these cars are models that were never sold in the United States, and most of them are not the type of car you’d find in the typical homeowner’s garage.  Whether it’s a prototype car, a test car, a modified car, a failed innovation, or a product designed for a very specific niche, all of the cars in their collection reflect a specific point in history and a specific cultural influence that drove its development.  So let’s get started traveling through their amazing collection! Museum Highlights:  Lane Motor Museum – starting out with just 80 cars from the founder’s private collection, the building that houses the museum was originally a Sunbeam bread factory.  The original 80 cars have now grown to a total of 545 – with about 150 cars on display at any time -- and the collection now includes scooters, motorcycles, bicycles, a few airplanes and some canoes.  Rumor has it that sometimes on a hot summer day visitors can still smell the faint odor of baking bread.    Restoration & Care of the Collection – listen to the episode to hear about how they “exercise” the cars, the restoration process, and the challenges of finding parts for foreign cars no longer in production and never sold in the U.S.  The “Vault” Tour – when you visit, make sure to take the Vault Tour.  This tour goes down into the basement where you see cars not on exhibit.  I love behind-the-scenes tours and this one doesn’t disappoint.  This area includes vehicles in the queue for restoration, ones that are actively being worked on, and some that are just waiting for their moment to be brought upstairs for an exhibit.     World Flags – don’t forget to look up when you visit.  Hanging from the ceiling throughout the museum are flags from around the world.  Underneath each flag are cars manufactured by that country.  In the U.S. we tend to think of the automobile as only an American invention, but around the world numerous car manufacturers have adapted, modified and developed cars uniquely qualified for their geography, their time in history, or for their specific customers.  1947 Tatra T-87 Saloon – Tatra was a well-known Czechoslovakian automobile manufacturer.  This sleek, silver Tatra T-87 was the luxury car of its day and was regularly used as the chauffer vehicle of Czechoslovakian military officers.  Notice the big fin on the back?  These cars were very heavy, especially in the back end, so the fin was a design feature that helped with stability.  1938 Tatra T-97 – look closely at the front of the T-97.  Does that design remind you of any other car?  Ferdinand Porsche, father of the Volkswagen Beetle, was heavily influenced by the design of the Tatra and incorporated key design elements into the Volkswagen Beetle.    How did the Tatra cars contribute to defeating Hitler?  Listen to the episode for the full story to find out how the design of the Tatra automobiles did their part in the war effort.  If you’ve ever wondered if design can have a direct impact on the world, then this story proves it.  1958 Tatra T-603 – with its unique, 3-headlight design, the T-603 has a very rounded front end.   The back fin seen on earlier Tatra cars is replaced by a rear window for visibility, but the body definitely grew in size.   1962 Citroën 2CV Sahara – the 2CV is an iconic French car.  Developed before World War II, it wasn’t produced until after the war because the engineers wanted to hide it from the Nazis.  When it was introduced at the 1948 Paris Auto Show, journalists laughed at it.  They didn’t get it.  Made from thin sheet metal, with a ...
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    51 mins
  • MiM 008 - Worlds of Puppetry Museum in Atlanta, Georgia

    MiM 008 - Worlds of Puppetry Museum in Atlanta, Georgia
    Feb 16 2019
    Confession:  I am a secret puppet person (I just didn’t know it) I certainly didn’t think of myself as a puppet person before I visited the Worlds of Puppetry Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.  But after visiting and talking to Jill Malool, Director of the museum, I realized I’ve been a closet puppet person for years.  Roaming through their amazing collection, I kept seeing puppets that reminded me of various times in my life.  Of course, there’s the classic Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street (sorry, Big Bird, Oscar is still my favorite).  And we all know Kermit and the fabulous Miss Piggy from The Muppets.  I then remembered that my sister Vicki and I had Ernie and Cookie Monster hand puppets when we were little that I had totally forgotten about until I was walking through the Jim Henson Collection (strangely, I don’t remember having a Bert).  I turned the corner and saw Gumby and The Corpse Bride characters showcasing stop motion puppetry.  I remember watching Gumby on Sunday mornings before church.  There are puppets from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (that show still cracks me up!).  Then I wandered over into the Global Collection and saw marionettes, which reminded me of all the puppet shows I’ve seen growing up.  At the time I visited was also the opening of the Dark Crystal exhibit.  I hadn’t thought about that movie in years, but seeing the Mystics, Skeksis, Garthim and Jen reminded me of what a fantastic movie that was and how it was all created with puppetry.   I also saw puppets I had never seen before:  shadow puppets from India, puppets that “walk on water” from Vietnam, and almost life-size puppets from Japan.  And in a variety of materials:  wood, fiberglass, leather, paper, felt.  And I think they have puppets from every country and region in the world:  Italy, Central Europe, Indonesia, Myanmar, Turkey, China, Taiwan, Egypt, Korea, Japan and Mali.  Puppetry can be traced back hundreds, and even thousands of years in some regions.  It didn’t hit me until I stood in the middle of the Global Collection and saw all the creativity around me that The Worlds of Puppetry Museum showcases how cultures around the world and throughout time have expressed themselves through puppetry to tell their stories and share their history.  So let’s get started in traveling through their amazing collection! Museum Highlights: The Worlds of Puppetry Museum – the original museum started out in an old elementary school building, but then has been added on since then.  On the behind-the-scenes tour you get to visit the old classrooms upstairs where they offer puppetry making classes for kids.  Jim Henson Collection: Muppet Workshop – when you enter the Jim Henson collection there are a series of workstations with corkboards on the wall covering a specific aspect of how to make a puppet.  Pinned to the board are hand sketches showing how a particular puppet moves, photographs of Jim Henson, little pieces of fur and felt, and some of the most interesting notes about how to make a puppet come to life.  Big Bird – since his debut in 1969, Big Bird has remained as curious as an inquisitive six-year-old.  So how do you animate a giant puppet like Big Bird?  Listen to how the puppeteer works his mouth, and both wings, while at the same time being able to see where he’s going inside this giant puppet.  Jill, the Director of the museum, shares a wonder story between two generations and how they connect through this yellow bird.  Oscar the Grouch - my favorite Sesame Street character.   The same puppeteer, Caroll Spinney, made both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch come alive.  We all know the green Oscar of today, but you can see the original drawings for Oscar that pink was his original color.  Another fun fact about Oscar’s color from the behind-the-scenes tour?  In the first season on Sesame Street Oscar was actually orange, but the orange color didn’t show up very well on television so he became green.  How did they explain on the show how Oscar suddenly changed colors?  Well, he visited a swamp and liked it so much he never showered again.  Kermit the Frog – Kermit came from humble beginnings as a “found object” puppet because he started from Jim Henson’s Mom’s old coat and a couple of ping pong balls, but has developed over time into the iconic Kermit we know today.  Miss Piggy – fabulous in feathers, satin and diamonds, Miss Piggy was the ultimate diva with a mean “harrumph” karate chop.  Don’t mess with Miss Piggy.  I always liked that about her.  The museum also had a picture of Miss Piggy from the Pigs in Space skit.  Who else remembers that?  I absolutely loved that skit because my family were also sci-fi fans.  Global Collection: Shadow Puppets from India – I think these were my favorite puppets in the museum.  The texture and details on each puppet is amazing.  With the light shining behind the ...
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    42 mins
  • MiM 007 - Pinball Hall of Fame Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada

    MiM 007 - Pinball Hall of Fame Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada
    Dec 27 2018
    Confession:  I am not a gamer. I mean, I’ve played games in arcades.  I’ve played pinball machines in the local Four Thieves bar when I was growing up (don’t worry, it was small town Nebraska and the family-friendly bar was also the only place in town that served food).  We even had an Atari when I was a kid (Space Invaders Rock!), but that pretty much was the peak of my gaming experience.  I flirted with various handheld games over the years – and definitely spent too much time playing Tetris.  However, my recent gaming experiences have been with my nephew at the holidays where he basically challenges me to play video games just so he can see how badly he can beat me.  I’m definitely a casual gamer, but even I was hooked on the excitement of the lights and sounds of The Pinball Hall of Fame Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Sitting down with Tim Arnold, founder of the museum, allows us to peek behind-the-scenes and experience what it takes to keep this type of museum open.   This museum is unique for a couple of reasons:  It features pinball machines from every decade starting in 1933 when pinball machines were a small, countertop game played with marbles to the modern pinball machines known today.You can actually play every single machine in the museum. Set up like an arcade, the 250+ machines on display have been fully restored and you can play every single one of them for either a quarter or fifty cents.  Tim rescues pinball machines and always restores them with the “designer’s intent” in mind.  As Tim puts it, “We've got a strict set of rules here about designer’s intent and also the flavor of the game when we're rebuilding a game. I could make all the old games just as powerful as the new games and make it really thrilling and make the ball go fast, but we don't do that because that was not the designer's intent and it's not the original flavor of the game.”  That craftsmanship and attention to the spirit of the games really highlights the authenticity of every machine in the museum.  Museum Highlights: 1933 Jigsaw Pinball Game – the “original” pinball game was a countertop game found in bars.   The main board would have metal pins and balls (hence the name “pinball”).  The goal is to shoot the balls into the pockets.  You add up your score and either win definitely adult prizes like a free beer, cigar or money. This game is how the entire pinball industry started.  Who would have thought that this simple game in 1933 would grow into the $80 million industry it is today?  Bowling Game  – this game used to be in every bar in America.  According to Tim, instead of going home after work and watching your big screen TV, you would go to the bar and play your friends on a bowling machine. Joker Ball  – the game that every video poker machine in the world is based on.  The original “random number generator” is the rubber balls, which bounce around and determine which cards you get.  They made 200 of these machines in 1959 – only two are still known to exist.  An incredibly rare machine that you can still play at the museum.  5th Inning Baseball Game  – similar in design to a traditional bowling game, this game is housed in a solid oak cabinet and features baseball instead of bowling.  Listen to the episode to find out about “the one that got away” and how a collector’s ex-wife strong-armed Tim into buying this game.    SEGA Basketball Game  – one of the very first games produced by the Japanese video game manufacturer was an arcade basketball game wth an actual court and a rubber ball.  Whoever punches their number in first makes the ball go in that direction.  “Wedge-Head” Pinball Machine Design – a sub-genre of pinball machine design are “wedge-head” machines versus the standard, square head.  The head is shaped like a wedge – wider at the top and tapering down towards the bottom – so you can put them in a row and still have room to touch the sides without getting too close.  2-Player Games versus Single-Player Games – 2-player games require the game to re-set every time the players change, so you have basically a one-ball game that you’re playing three or five times.  On single-player games, you have five balls to get through an amazing series of quests to get to the prize at the end.  Single-player games are more sought after by collectors than 2-player games.  Back Glass Artistic Styles – the back glass art of a pinball machine are truly works of art by themselves, and can also provide valuable clues about the machine itself.  First, you can pretty much date a game based on the clothing and hair styles of the artwork.  1970s machines show people with long shaggy hair.During the 1960s, the women all had miniskirts.In the ‘50s, the men wore hats and the women’s dresses were below their knees.And any game from the 1980s pretty much has aliens on it as influenced by the Star Wars Second, ...
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    49 mins

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