Yes, There's a Museum for That!

These collections are wacky, wonderful and worth a visit

- Bob Eckstein

MUSEUMS HAVE CHANGED. We'll always have the Met in New York and the Louvre in Paris, but nowadays you'll find a museum for absolutely everything and everyone. There's the Museum of Love and the Museum of Sex and the Museum of Broken Relationships. One can go to the International Banana Museum or the National Mustard Museum.

The United States is home to more than 35,000 museums. California has more than 700, the most of any state, while Rhode Island, despite having just 44, has the most per square mile. If I tried to include every interesting museum, this would have ended up in Washington state's Brautigan Library, a collection of only unpublished manuscripts.

My criteria-which is a nice way of saying why I left out such-and-such museum—was based on community importance, level of enjoyment, and the beauty of the collections. This is not intended to rate the museums. Otherwise, I would have taken into account the three things travelers are most interested in: the museum cafe, the gift shop and the bathrooms.

Museum of Bad Art

Boston, Massachusetts

The mission of MOBA is to collect, exhibit and celebrate art that will be shown in no other venue. The museum's new location, in the Dorchester Brewing Co., assumes visitors would need a drink after seeing this work.

Highlights include Lucy in the Field with Flowers (above), a painting found in 1993 leaning against a trash barrel, waiting for garbage collection. This painting was the first of the MOBA collection. A low point-and a must-see-is the painting Our Lady of Perpetual Housework.

The Mob Museum

Las Vegas, Nevada