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All the United States Maine Portland Umbrella Cover Museum

Umbrella Cover Museum

The world's only and thus largest collection of its kind celebrates everyday wonder through simple umbrella sheaths.

Portland, Maine

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willowbee
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Umbrella Cover Museum   Umbrella Cover Museum
Viewers with prize parasol at Bristol, UK exhibit 2017   UmbrellaCoverMuseum / Atlas Obscura User
After tour, happy patrons at The Umbrella Cover Museum’s traveling exhibition   UmbrellaCoverMuseum / Atlas Obscura User
UmbrellaCoverHenge created for Bristol, UK exhibit in 2017   UmbrellaCoverMuseum / Atlas Obscura User
Happy campers at the Umbrella Cover Museum, Peaks Island, Maine   UmbrellaCoverMuseum / Atlas Obscura User
Nancy explaining the collection   kirstenalana / Atlas Obscura User
Singing and shaking maracas to the museum’s theme song   UmbrellaCoverMuseum / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The work of a single Maine musician, the Umbrella Cover Museum is a small but whimsical collection that revels in the things that most people take for granted, such as the humble umbrella cover. 

The little museum was born in 1996 when oddly named Maine resident Nancy 3. Hoffman found between 5-7 umbrella covers simply laying in her closet with nothing to cover. Inspired by the empty leftovers, Hoffman accumulated more of the sheaths from friends and family, and opened her collection of around 80 covers with an official ribbon cutting.

Since its inception, the charming museum has continued to grow, collecting umbrella covers from over 44 countries around the world. In total, the museum now houses over 700 umbrella covers of all shapes and sizes ranging from doll accessories to patio furniture sized covers. Hoffman's strange accomplishment has even been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest umbrella cover collection in the world.

Tours of the Umbrella Cover Museum are conducted by Hoffman herself who accompanies the walkthrough with a live, accordion rendition of Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella.

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Niche Museums Collections World's Largest World Record

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willowbee

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Molly McBride Jacobson, kirstenalana, UmbrellaCoverMuseum

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • kirstenalana
  • UmbrellaCoverMuseum

Published

August 28, 2014

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  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_Cover_Museum
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_Cover_Museum
Umbrella Cover Museum
62-B Island Avenue
Portland, Maine, 04108
United States
43.656037, -70.198269
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