Looking For The Hundredth Museum

I decided that I would perform a public service. 

I had just signed up on Pinterest, a photo sharing website.  I saw that most people on Pinterest were posting photos of things to do: pictures of intriguing crafts, cool wedding ideas, tempting food with their recipes attached.

I decided that I would perform a public service.  I started posting photos of museums in St. Louis.

St. Louis prides itself on having a world-class art museum, a world-class history museum, and a world-class science museum.  St. Louis is even prouder because the taxpayers voted to tax themselves to support these museums.

I knew about a bunch of smaller museums, such as our Saxophone Museum, our Motorcycle Museum, our Museum of  Historic Torture Devices, our Museum of Transportation, our Mastodon Museum, and I knew that St. Louis is building a museum to honor the founder of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

I then started scouring the Internet to find other museums in St. Louis.  Scouring meant having to ask Big Question #1: what is a museum?  The Museum of Modern Religious Art – yes, it has Museum in its name.  The World Chess Hall of Fame – not so easy, because it does not have “Museum” in its name.  So, I had to make some decisions.

I decided to put photos of Halls of Fame on my Pinterest board for Museums in St. Louis.  The Weldon Spring Nuclear Waste Site has a photo on my Pinterest board because it contains a lovely little museum.  Because 60% of all the migrating birds in North America pass through St. Louis, we have The Audubon Center at Riverlands.  This place calls itself an interpretative center, but it sure looks like a museum to me...it was put on the board.

But historic houses do not qualify as museums, so I created a Pinterest board just for historic houses.

While scouring, I came across Big Question #2: What is St. Louis?  Should I just have photos of museums in St. Louis city?  Should I add in St. Louis County?  What about all those museums just across the Mississippi River in Illinois?

I decided that a museum in St. Louis = a museum within a reasonable driving distance of St. Louis.  “Reasonable driving distance” is defined as a museum close enough to Doug Schneider’s house that he would be willing to drive to it.

So, I answered Big Questions #1 and #2, and I scoured the Internet, and I now have 99 museums on my Pinterest board.

I am now looking for the hundredth museum.  Not sure if it will be in Missouri or Illinois; not sure if it will call itself a museum or a hall of fame or a visitors’ center; but I am sure I will be boasting to people that I have found one hundred museums in St. Louis.

Hopefully, people will not ask me if I have visited all one hundred of the museums.

- . - .- . - . - . 


FOOTNOTE: Pinterest is free to join and does not send out many emails.  It is a site that clearly demonstrates that photos are compelling.  www.pinterest.com

If you are already on Pinterest, search for "Museums in St. Louis, Missouri".

- . - .- . - . - . 

Here is a 2-minute wordless intro to the Great Rivers Museum in St. Louis, a museum built by the Army Corps of Engineers near the confluence of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois Rivers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDgUTlIXSQk

- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  Send an email to ParadiseDouglas at gmail.com to find out how to purchase a copy by mail.

A Place For Neanderthals

I was talking to a college undergraduate, and I decided I needed to sharpen my social media skills.

I asked her, “I am on Facebook and on Twitter.  What am I missing?”

Her answer (“You are missing Pinterest”) came with a warning.  She told me that Pinterest was not word-based, it was photo-based, where women pin photos of food or clothes.

Soon after I talked to the college undergrad, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed an article about Pinterest, noting that the site was used mostly by women who pin photos of food or clothes or design.  

I signed up for Pinterest, and I noticed that most users were women and most photos were about food or clothes or design or wedding ideas. 

However, there were a sprinkling of men on the site, and a sprinkling of travel photos.  I hatched a plan to promote my St. Louis architectural walking tours.  I pinned photos of buildings in St. Louis --- buildings that people would see if they came on one of my tours.  I planted tour info in the caption of each photo.

Once photos are pinned, they can be re-pinned by other Pinterest users.  So, as my photos move around Pinterest, the walking tour info goes with them. 

I am patting myself on the back for being so clever.

I showed off my cleverness to a co-worker who had never heard of Pinterest.  “I have put some walking tour photos on a website full of photos that people have pinned.”  He is a word-based kind of guy, and immediately labeled Pinterest as a place for Neanterthals.  

His comment: "Neanderthals don't read; they grunt and point at photos."

I realized that I needed to convince my co-worker of the power of Pinterest.  And I had one and one chance to convince him.  I asked Pinterest to show me photos of cupcakes.  

I didn't grunt; I just pointed at a photo of a eye-catching Boston crème pie cupcake.  

The visual won out.  At the sight of this cupcake, my co-worker forgot all about Neanderthals and started thinking about cupcakes.

Visuals are compelling; visuals are not just for Neanderthals.

To see my St. Louis western downtown board on Pinternet:

http://www.pinterest.com/PupOutOfBreath/st-louis-downtown-walking-tour-west/

To see my St. Louis eastern downtown board on Pinternet:

http://www.pinterest.com/PupOutOfBreath/st-louis-downtown-walking-tour-east/

To see my St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair board on Pinternet:

http://www.pinterest.com/PupOutOfBreath/1904-st-louis-world-s-fair/

- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com/?page_id=108