Okay, dopers–go up in the attic, open up some of those boxes in the gargage. If you must, go out to your storage unit. What kind of artifacts, wonders, curiousities, or just plain junk would you put on display? What would be in your gift shop?
I have the makings of a decent "Museum of Travel Ephemera, 1960-2006", I think.
With in excess of 13,000 documented records from 1877 up, I have what could reasonably be called a museum of the history of recorded sound. I have a machine of nearly every format that has ever been used to reproduce sound recordings. For those I don’t have, I know a man who could fill in my blanks with a few pieces from his living room.
Museum of Homies and Chick Tracts
What do you mean by “ephemera”? I have a lively collection of brochures from historic sites around the country. From the Birthplace of Elvis Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi to Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico to the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth, Vermont, if someone has taken the time to open up a historic site and print a brochure, chances are I’ve been there and have the brochure. Is that what you’re talking about?
The Museum of Oldschool and Indie Gaming 
It’s not as large it probably should be.
I’ve got the makings for a pretty decent Lego museum. Most of it is packed up in the garage, in ten or so boxes. The last time I set up my medieval village, it filled up a couple of tabletops.
I could also put together a modest Disney library (well, OK, bookcase, but still). I’ve got about 150 books (mostly on Disneyland), plus lots of maps and other theme park souvenirs.
I would enjoy opening a mask museum, but I fear I probably don’t have enough and definitely nothing particularly historic.
Museum of the murder mystery in the 20th century.
Perfume. My collection probably doesn’t match that of a true perfume museum yet, but I’m working on it. It doesn’t help that I’m using up a number of my rarer bottles, either.
I came in here to say that exact thing - including the bit about it not being as large as it should be. My stuff’s not all that old, compared to some, either - but hey, a youngster can dream.
~ Isaac
I’ve actually had more than one person suggest that I open The Museum of Shell Lamps. Back in the '50s, during the dawn of TV, people used to have TV lamps; low wattage lamps that would provide a little ambient light in the room without interfering with the TV. A genre of souvenir rose up in response to this: seashells in a plaster-of-Paris base, with a 7 watt light. These got more and more elaborate; starfishes, etc., were added; plastic palm trees and flamingos joined the fun; etc.
I have about 50 of these puppies. At this point, I only buy unusual specimens – here is last night’s purchase. I’ve got most of them displayed on shelves in my upstairs hall – when they’re all turned on at once, it’s a pretty amazing sight.
The Museum of the Painted Miniature is my offering to the world. All I need are a couple of dust-free display cases (dusting several hundred miniatures and the shelves they sit on is bor-ing), good lighting, and magnifying glasses for visitors.
I would have the Museum of Eclectic interests, Toys and Hand crafted toys.
The centerpiece would be a train layout with 3 levels and 5 loops.
I would have a large complex Brio Train layout.
A Lego Land supplemented by Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys.
A workshop tour, showing off custom designed and built toys.
A 1900 Classic Slate Pool Table.
A 1930’s Monopoly with the old wooded pieces.
A 1970’s Pinball Machine.
Lots of Books on display with the 1900 Century Cyclopedia being the centerpiece.
A strange collection of Classic Rock Posters from the 70’s. {Reprints in the 80’s}
Original D&D, AD&D, Traveler, Space Opera and other Role playing games.
A small Miniature Collection.
A Tea Pot collection and custom Ceramics. (my Wifes)
Some Folk Art and Paintings.
A small Computer exhibit showing the advantages in building your own.
A small baseball card collection and Sports memorabilia.
Jim
Well, being the Bus Guy, obviously it would be The Museum of Toy Buses and Apprently Some Beanie Baby Bears:
This is just my office. There’s another 4-5 sitting in various places around the house.
Books. More books. Um… coat hangers?
Okay. A crystal-ball thing, some scented candles, a plastic lei of coloured flowers, an old desk lamp, some prints, an incense burner, a couple of rocks I picked up off the beach, lots of notebooks, and my fuzzy blue slippers.
Wow, I’m exciting.
I’m sorry, twickster --but that is the ugliest lamp I’ve ever seen! It belongs in a museum (but I bet the light thrown by all of them is nice).
Hmmm. If I were to open a museum, it would really be a library of murder mysteries, travel books, and modern British “lit”, with some American, South Afrikaans, and Old Europe/Australian thrown in.
Legos–got a lot.
Castles–toy and model and bits of and remnants of.
ditto knights.
American Girl stuff–a whole wing of it.
And I have a great dust bunny collection.
Mostly it’d make a junk yard look like the Louvre.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who “get” the shell lamps (total count definitely still in the single digits) and everyone else. 
Ah, well-count me in the unenlightened category, then. It looks broken to me. It also looks like a candle, not a bulb.
I would come to your museum, though. 
Hell, mine’d be an Army/Navy store.
With all of the crap I’ve picked up from either initial issue of stuff [sub]who the hell needs 6 pairs of arctic mittens and 14 “A-Bags”?[/sub], stuff I picked up on TDYs [sub]Ooooh! Desert BDUs[/sub], or just stuff I bought because I thought I’d need or use it [sub] seven different holsters for my pistol[/sub], I’m a regular shop waiting to open up. And that doesn’t include the guns I’ve bought over the years, neither.
Tripler
I could arm a small third-world nation. . . or at least give 'em a good camping trip. :rolleyes:
