Amuseum

The Kircher Society has been running a feature on Lesser-Known Museums all week, including today's Frog Museum, "a collection of 150-year-old satirical tableaus of domestic life in the 19th century "“ all involving stuffed frogs." We thought we'd join in:

• Take two trips to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices and call us when you've lost all faith in the medical profession. Those in search of history's quack science can find what they're looking for in the St. Paul tourist attraction, whether it's a collection of 19th-century phrenology machines or some 1970s breast enlargers.
• At the Trash Museum in Hartford, Conn., you can tour the Temple of Trash or visit the old-fashioned town dump. For your recycler-in-training, head to the Children's Garbage Museum [in Stratford], where you can take an educational stroll through the giant compost pile, get a glimpse of the 1-ton Trash-o-saurus, or enjoy the company of resident compost worms.
• What do you get when you combine the loneliness of a pet cemetery with the creepy flair of vaudeville? The Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum, of course -- where dummies go to die. With more than 700 dummies stacked from floor to ceiling, you're bound to feel like you're stuck inside a 1970s horror flick -- albeit a really good one.

There's more in "10 American Museums You Won't Be Visiting on a School Field Trip," from our Jan/Feb issue.