Collections in the United States

Discover 560 unusual collections in the United States.

The narwhals live next to the vending machines.

Chicago, Illinois

Narwhals at the Field Museum

To find the "unicorns of the deep" you've got to go downstairs.

Chevak-ish style dolls, unknown maker

Aunt Claudia's Dolls, a Museum

One toy collector's legacy of hundreds of unique items includes the most diverse display of northern indigenous dolls.

Inside Newberry Library is America's largest public postcard repository.

Chicago, Illinois

Newberry Library Postcard Collection

Rifle through images of skyscrapers, Worlds Fairs, and more in the largest public postcard repository in America.

The Estey Organ Museum contains dozens of playable organs, of all shapes and sizes.

Brattleboro, Vermont

Estey Organ Museum

Play everything you see at a museum dedicated to a town's historic organ industry.

Bratmobile performing in London, 1994.

New York, New York

Riot Grrrl Collection at NYU

A collection of fanzines, recordings, and documents detailing the rise and influence of the feminist punk movement.

Permanently Closed

Museum of Whimsy.

Astoria, Oregon

Museum of Whimsy

A delightfully quirky blend of oddities spread throughout an old 1920s bank.

Inside the shop.

New York, New York

Daredevil Tattoo Museum

This iconic tattoo shop has its own onsite museum with artifacts from the early history of modern body art.

The exhibit.

North Adams, Massachusetts

Gunnar Schonbeck Exhibit

More than 200 unconventional musical instruments that anyone can play.

American Clock and Watch Museum.

Bristol, Connecticut

American Clock and Watch Museum

Thousands of American timepieces on display in the former clock-making capital of the country.

Woody Guthrie Center.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Woody Guthrie Center

A museum packed with instruments, lyrics, and other mementos of the American folk icon.

Portland troll bridge

Portland, Oregon

Portland Troll Bridge

Not-so-fearsome tiny trolls live under this wooden train trestle in Portland.

View of the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel.

Lakeland, Florida

'Child of the Sun' Campus

A Florida college boasts the world's largest single-site collection of structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Ichthyology Collection

Seattle, Washington

Burke Museum Ichthyology Collection

This remarkable collection devoted to the study of fish includes 1 million preserved specimens from all around the world.

Gower, Persephone inside

Seattle, Washington

Book Arts & Rare Book Collections

Peruse rare tomes like poetry bound in pearls or books with branches and berries growing out of their spines.

The "Zymo-Xyl," built in 1963.

Seattle, Washington

Harry Partch's Musical Instruments

A collection of odd-shaped and quirky sounding instruments handmade by a midcentury inventor-composer.

B.C. era urn.

San Antonio, Texas

Roman Urn Collection at SAMA

Amazingly detailed marble cinerary urns that once held the cremains of Roman elite.