Hobby Thread - March 1, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin. Turns out, the Wheel is on the hunt for knowledge and culture. It said MUSEUMS. Let's go see some stuff!

Museums? That is not a hobby, is it? Well, we could sit here all night and debate the definition of "hobby," but what difference would that make? Museums often feature themes or collections that speak to our hobbies.

A painter might appreciate an art museum. A geologist might appreciate a natural history museum. A train buff might appreciate a train museum, just as someone into cars would appreciate a car museum or an aviation enthusiast would appreciate a museum focused on airplanes.

There are a lot of museums out there. Some are large, some are small. Some are well known and famous and others are hidden gems. Some are fancy and others are...less fancy. Many have unique bits or pieces of history that can only be seen there. Many museums feature on our holiday travels or road trips. Some have such unique items that make them worth a special trip - and then hopefully a return trip later when our brain has had a chance to digest what it saw.

We shall together explore museums for this Hobby Thread. Your host will offer some thoughts below, but this thread is going to be all about the Gray Box content. Everyone has favorites or great memories or hidden gems. Share! What are your favorites? What are favorites that others might not know? Any other memorable museum stories (making a donation, doing research, volunteering, etc.)?

Let us abide by these guidelines to keep the topic somewhat focused:

1) Stick to US museums. Yes, there are amazing museums elsewhere, but this is not an international travel theme.

2) Everyone knows about the Smithsonian family of museums. Yes, they are impressive, but give others time in the spotlight.

What are you hobbying these days? As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Your participation does not need to limited to the theme. All hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants, as always, are optional.

Interested in US military history?

Official and quasi-official museums related to the US armed forces are not just repositories of stuff, but they tell the history of those who wore the uniform.

National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio - one day is not enough.

National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida - hidden gem with much more than the Blue Angels.

National Museum of the US Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia (near Quantico) - a former colleague with the 101st Airborne recommended going. When an Army guy says to visit a Marine museum, that speaks volumes.

There are others that we have yet to visit like the National Museum of the US Army.

What others should be on the list?

Interested in World War II history?

Visit The National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

This museum is extraordinary but why is a World War II museum in New Orleans? The answer comes from the efforts of Andrew Jackson Higgins who lived in New Orleans and adapted his shallow water work boats (used for gas and oil exploration in Louisiana) for military use as a landing craft. Higgins Boats changed the way that war was fought because they allowed infantry or small vehicles to exit via a front ramp. Higgins boats were manufactured in quantity by Higgins Industries in New Orleans. Now you know...

Interested specifically in military vehicles AND you are near Wyoming?

The National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois, Wyomind is privately operated. It is located east of Jackson and the Grand Teton National Park but is not near any major population centers. It is an enormous facility with full-size dioramas inside and a fleet of vehicles outside.

Founder Dan Starks started collecting military vehicles and his hobby got out of control. His collection took up two storage barns and word of mouth brought people asking for tours. Fortunately, he had the vision and resources to create a much larger facility. It opened for the first time in 2020 and had its official grand opening in 2022.

The museum has an extensive collection of firearms. Most notable is the actual musket which PVT John Simpson used to fire the first shot at the Battle of Bunker's Hill on June 17, 1775. (No, I don't know how one authenticates firing the "first" shot.)

Are you an art lover?

Los Angeles has the Getty (old and new), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Broad. The hidden gem in Southern California is The Norton Simon Museum.

The museum is located in Pasadena and has a center-stage position at the beginning of the Rose Parade. Rodin's Thinker sits outside the front door and watches the Colorado Boulevard pass by. It is not an enormous museum but the quality of the collection is impressive.

Interested in art made of glass?

Chihuly Garden and Glass is an exhibit in the Seattle Center directly next to the Space Needle. As the name says, the art on display is the very distinctive glasswork from Dale Chihuly. Even if you do not know Chihuly glass by name, you would recognize it immediately.

Do you prefer art in egg form?

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia has the largest public collection of Faberge and Russian decorative arts in an American museum. Seeing one Faberge Imperial egg is rare. Seeing five at the same time in the same place is an event.

Santa Claus is coming to town...in Columbus, Texas

The Santa Claus Museum displays nearly 5,000 Santas. It is not fancy but is a lot of fun. The museum opened in 1990 and is comprised of several extensive personal Santa collections that were donated.

When you're done seeing the Santas, walk across the street and check out the Columbus Courthouse. The green glass interior dome above the main courtroom is beautiful.

Are you into dinosaurs? Of course. Isn't everybody?

The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana has one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world. One of the most complete full size TRex skeletons ever discovered? Yes. TRex skulls? Yes. A series of the horned Triceratops skulls which ranges from juveniles to adults? Yes. And much more. The place is amazing.

Are cars your thing?

Car lovers know about places like the Petersen and Nethercutt Museums in Los Angeles or the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. You may even know about the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia and the National Automobile Museum in Reno (formerly the Harrah collection).

Did you know one of the world's best automobile museums lives in Naples, Florida? It comes from the personal collection of Miles Collier, but is now known as the Revs Institute. It is part collection and part research library. They honor preserve the cars but do not over-restore them. Cars are only original once. They also drive their cars rather than let them solely sit as static displays. The race cars are driven hard at vintage racing events, especially the Porsche collection.

The first Ferrari to win a race (which was also the first Ferrari in the US)? Yes.
1939 Mercedes Silver Arrow grand prix car? Yes.
1963 Corvette Grand Sport coupe? Yes.
1995 McLaren F1? Yes.
Revs has cars the Porsche museum would like to have.

Captivated by carpentry?

The Museum of Hammers in Haines, Alaska has six galleries with over 2,500 hammers. From ancient times to the present day, the hammer tells the story of progress and ingenuity. You can also get a shirt that says "I got hammered in Haines." No, we have not visited but sounds like fun.

Happy Texas Independence Day tomorrow!

The Gonzales Memorial Museum deserves attention. After all, it is the only place you can see the famous "Come and Take it!" cannon.

Horde Hobbying from lurker Neon Madman:

My particular hobby superpower lies in turning money into sawdust, generally in the making of small decorative boxes (dresser or desktop sized). In the distant past, we used to call these "stash boxes," because they would be used to "stash" valuable or useful things.

I like to use thin, very highly figured wood, which can be difficult to work with. While decorative walnut, maple or cherry can be pricey, the pieces that I use are fairly small so I can save a few bucks that way. I call this hobby "cheap therapy," while my wife points out that my tools certainly aren't cheap and the value of the therapy is still open to question.

The body of this particular box is box jointed spalted maple, while the top and bottom are some nice pieces of black walnut. I have quite a few hours into this one. You might be surprised, but often the smaller an item is the more exacting things have to be. Also, the more exacting the finish is, the more readily any small flaw shows up.

Thank you! Well done!

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week with a theme of jigsaw puzzles? The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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