Lost Museums

by Brian Armstrong

The twenty-one closed museums (lost museums) discussed in this book were in various locations in North America. These museums usually had a single theme or subject that dominated the nature of their collection. Museum subjects included classic movies, stock car racing, HMS Bounty, Elvis, Hopalong Cassidy, Forry J. Ackerman and Famous Monsters of Filmland, baseball, JFK assassination, holography, football, Barbara Mandrell, conservation, Lincoln assassination, Civil War, Liberace, B’nai B’rith, funeral practices, US presidents, and the African American experience in America. Nineteen of these museums are gone, one was rebranded with a new name, and one reopened after eight years of maintaining a virtual presence. Museum locations included Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Mississippi, Nashville, New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Ohio, St. Augustine, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
Although some of these museums have been discussed in websites and books, new sources of information have been used to provide an extensive and fresh overview of each museum. Extensive searches of digital newspaper archives using newspaper.com and newspaperarchives.com discovered articles written about these lost museums which usually included great promotion pieces with museum owner interviews. Other museums were featured in newspaper community interest stories. New unpublished photographs are used in the book to create a unique experience for the reader. When possible, the location of the surviving artifacts from each collection was tracked and their new museum or other location is specified.
The museums discussed in this book are an eclectic group. Some are museums where potential visitors have aged out or the subject of the museum lacks relevance to current generations. Some were driven by individuals whose collections were auctioned off when they passed since the energy of the museum was gone. Others were based on professions and the museums were used as a support to their vocation. Most show the essential participation of passionate individuals or groups to establish and maintain the museum. Some were marginalized due to the changing tastes of society where the museum is viewed as outdated, insensitive, or too shocking for current generations. A few were personal experiments with collections in residences that succeeded when people went along with the strange creation as enjoyably weird. When it comes to the non-museums in the book, these restaurants and other visited places had an important place in people’s lives that patronized them and were considered special display areas during their years of operation.
When a film is lost it is called a “lost film.” Although a museum is not a film, both films and museums are cultural works of art. A loss of either a film or a museum is a “lost” valuable piece of human history and culture. All the lost museums in this book were important and truly the world was a better place when they were still entertaining visitors. This book will ensure that these lost museums are never forgotten.

381 pages, Paperback

Published July 13, 2022

About the author

Brian began writing plays in college and had several productions in Texas and New Mexico. He went on to study writing plays, screenplays, television and radio drama at the University of London. In 2010, Brian published his first poetry book, Pangaea: Transforming the Landscape (available now from Amazon.com). He has had publications in literary magazines including poetry quarterly and the Hoot & Hare Review vol. 1&2.