While the Antikythera mechanism (earliest known computer) is housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, there is a smaller museum in Athens called the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, with replicas of the mechanism as well as various greek inventions over the millenia that I knew little to nothing about prior. Lots of times I thought "they never taught me that in any class..."
Highly recommend you add a visit during the busy periods of the more well known tourist attractions in Athens. The personal guide was very engaging, very informative, and I think it was like 5 bucks per person.
For those in the Washington DC area, I really enjoyed the Cold War Museum. The docent working there (in 2015) was really knowledgeable about the material. I enjoyed hearing about how the local area was home to a listening station. Apparently there are large iron deposits in the ground that make for ideal radio reception. During World War 2, a radio operator noticed that he was receiving transmissions from taxi dispatchers in Berlin! The government ended up building a huge ring antenna that could listen to signals from all over the world.
Oh, I hope he comes to Pueblo, CO sometime and checks out the niche museum I volunteer at. We have basically 3 people running it, including Nell Mitchell, who made it all possible: https://coloradostatehospitalmuseum.org/
It's a museum that documents the history of the Colorado State Hospital (Colorado Insane Asylum, when it opened in 1879). I bought a house near it and just walked in one day. Now I'm there two days a week and spend a lot of time doing research for people trying to find out about their relatives that may have been patients.
Was just in the illusions museum in NYC that looks exactly the same, and lo and behold it's a franchiser - https://www.museumofillusions.com/. Wonder if Croatia has the most Museums of Illusion per capita in the world :-)
The Museum of Holography in Chicago was really, really cool. Hopefully someday it can be on this list.
I wish it was still open. I was there last in the early 2000's. The story about the museum's closing is pretty sad[1], but the collection was saved.
It looks like there were some public exhibitions in the last few years but there's no permanent space right now. There's a Facebook page[2] from a group trying to resurrect the museum.
The Terra Museum of American Art[1] was a fantastic collection of art. I was a co-worker of the former director, so got lots of back story. It's sad to see it gone since Dan Terra's passing.
The Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois[2] was another interesting museum that is no more.
The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum was closed when we visited the town (on a Tuesday)... it's since moved and is apparently still alive near Madison, Wisconsin[3]
Further afield - SF-88 is a former Nike Missile site north of San Francisco. The SALT treaty resulted in the removal of Nike sites in protective rings around many industrial centers in the US. This is the one museum site remaining allowed in the treaty.[4]
I recognize and have been to some of these. Very impressive list overall.
The one thing I'd say surprises me, they include the SF cable car museum but not the NYC transit museum. Both are unique and niche in their own way, the cable car for its wholly mechanical implementation of modern rapid transit from a time before there was even electricity, the NYC transit museum for the fact that it is located in a disused subway station which is still directly connected to the system and the exhibit of historical train cars from the past 100+ years is a real, operational train that they sometimes take out on special excursion runs. For both museums there's something special about how these machines are being used the way they were meant to be used, with actual passengers riding them, in the process being kept alive as well as being preserved.
The Museum of World Religions in Taipei, Taiwan is the most uniquely conceived museum I've ever had the pleasure of exploring. The brainchild of a Taiwanese Buddhist monk who died before it was completed, it aims to explore humanity's shared experience from birth through death, aspects of humanity such as being humbled by the vastness of nature, space and time, and the journey of being dependent, independent, and dependent again as we age. It also celebrates, in a non-denominational way, the religious art and architecture of various religious and philosophical traditions around the world. The architecture and curation are first rate: truly a great experience. Go alone. https://www.mwr.org.tw/
I originally thought I'd make it open to submissions, but I've since decided it's much more fun as a hobby project if it's just museums I've been to myself.
Maybe I should add a "suggestions" feature though, since this comes up a lot!
Part of the reason I called the site "Niche Museums" is that it gives me the freedom to have a very loose definition of what a museum is! I very much enjoy covering niche roadside attractions on there as well.
Throwing this out there - The Strong National Museum of Play (https://www.museumofplay.org/), in Rochester, NY, is a museum entirely dedicated to toys. Most exhibits there are meant for children to interact with them.
I live in the city, and grew up in the area. Many fond memories as a child at this museum. If you have a kid, and are in upstate New York or plan to be soon, I would highly recommend it.
> The Revenue Museum provides a unique window on the many and varied activities of Revenue, from tax collection to customs controls over several centuries.
If you're in Rotterdam, the Dutch national Fotomuseum is truly excellent, the best photography-as-art museum in Europe I've seen (Prague's National Technical Museumhttps://www.ntm.cz/ is superior on the equipment side). Also the Wereldmuseum is excellent, showing a tiny portion of the huge number of state-owned artifacts of Dutch empire from far and wide. Many others are stored in an anonymous archive building to the east of town I have had cause to visit, and is truly impressive. Also, the nearby town of Dordrecht has a good local museum and historic wealth driven by tax and customs at a river confluence. https://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl/https://www.wereldmuseum.nl/ The world is truly full of treasures!
USS Intrepid in NYC is a museum dedicated to to the aircraft carrier's time in commission and is definitely worth a visit. I suspect that it's probably a lot more locked down now than it was 20 years ago when you could climb all over the aircraft.
As an aside, the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento is a real treasure. And, going with the "railroad", "silicon valley", and "niche museums" themes here, the original Golden Spike from the Transcontinental Railroad ceremony can be seen at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
Highly recommend you add a visit during the busy periods of the more well known tourist attractions in Athens. The personal guide was very engaging, very informative, and I think it was like 5 bucks per person.
http://kotsanas.com/gb/index.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism