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.