Museums aren’t just for paintings, sculptures, and dinosaurs, as New York has museums for every possible interest. Here are a few you didn’t see on those endless grade school outings.
While New York is one of the world’s best cities for sampling culture of every sort, culture generally requires cash, which is one thing that New Yorkers are likely to have in much shorter supply these days. So at a time when even a worthwhile $20 donation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can give one pause, many of New York’s smaller and more unusual niche museums offer edification and entertainment for significantly less money — or even, more significantly, for nothing at all. With that in mind, here are a few museums that’ll expand your mind without stretching your wallet.
Marvel Comics mastermind Stan Lee at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Comic book geeks for whom the time between Comic-Cons produces shake-inducing withdrawal can sate their hunger at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (594 Broadway, Suite 401; 212.254.3511; moccany.org). The museum, housed in a single room, features rotating exhibits packed with original sketches, rare comic books, and collectables. When I visited, the two exhibitions were “The Art of Watchmen,” and a salute to children’s comic book maker Harvey Comics. The “Watchmen” exhibit included original art from the graphic novel, and on-set photos from the recently released “Watchmen” film. The Harvey exhibit was also heavy on original art from such Harvey classics as “Richie Rich,” “Little Dot,” and “Little Lotta.” Harvey Comics also gave the world Casper the Friendly Ghost, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, and Wendy the Good Little Witch—all vaguely diabolic entities veiled in a chubby-thighed aura of cuteness. Despite the darker feel of the “Watchmen” exhibit, I suspect that it was Harvey who did more to make sinister themes acceptable in American pop culture. Admission to the museum is just a $5 suggested donation, so you won’t have to squander the money you’ve been putting aside to buy that Silver Surfer #1.
Admission to the Forbes Galleries (62 Fifth Avenue; 212.206.5548; orbesgalleries.com), on the other hand, is absolutely free. The museum occupies the first floor of the Forbes Magazine Building, which was designed by noted architects Carrere and Hastings. The bulk of the rooms are given over to rotating installations of fine art and high culture, but the permanent exhibits could give the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art a run for its money on the fun scale, as they feature a vast collection of toy boats from the 1870s to the 1950s, and thousands of toy soldiers spanning over two centuries. The earliest toy soldiers on display are “flats”: two-dimensional soldiers made by German tinsmiths in the mid-18th century. Also on display is a “home farm” figurine set from Britain in the 1920s, in which the war-weary British substituted bucolic rural figures for soldiers after World War I. The collection includes one set with a “village idiot” character, which became a collectors item after it was discontinued for being too politically incorrect even by 1920s standards.
Most fascinating are the museum’s antique Monopoly games, including a generic version from the 1920s called the Landlord’s Game. A man named Charles Todd later introduced the Atlantic City street names theme, and then one Charles Darrow took that idea and sold it to Parker Brothers, thereby making him the first man ever to cheat at Monopoly.
The displays at the Museum at FIT (Seventh Avenue at 27th St; 212.217.4558; fitnyc.edu, click on “my present” and then “The Museum at FIT” for museum info) draw from the institution’s collection of over 50,000 garments and accessories, including some 4,000 pairs of shoes, a hoard rivaled only by the personal stockpile of Imelda Marcos. Admission here is also free. I found this museum one of the most fascinating, which is odd, since the concept of me in a fashion museum is akin to someone going to the Civil Rights Museum in Klan robes. When I attended, the featured collection was “Seduction,” an assortment of provocative outfits from whalebone corsets of the 1750s through 19th century bustles, and up to scant attire from the present day. I got a special kick out of the crinolines, or hoop skirts, that were popular in the mid-19th century: enormous contraptions of stiffened fabric, cane, whalebone, or even steel, that turned the wearer into a virtual parade float. The display noted that the advantage of the crinoline for males of the era was that a woman making a quick turn sometimes gave a “tantalizing glimpse” of a shoe, or even — dare I say — an ankle.
My only quibble with the exhibit was that the 1970s were represented by tasteful designs from Halston and Armani, without a stitch of polyester in sight. Thankfully there were hot pants and enormous red suede boots on display, or I would have suspected that they were trying to gloss over that decade’s fashion crimes. Those who forget the past are condemned to resurrect the leisure suit!
The museum’s next major exhibition, taking place June 17 through September 26, is on Isabel Toledo, the designer who created the dress and coat that Michelle Obama wore on Inauguration Day.
Finally, no article on unique niche museums would be complete without the Museum of Sex (233 Fifth Avenue; 212.689.6337; museumofsex.com). The museum — which, with an admission charge of $14.50, costs more than the others, but isn’t that always the way with sex? — offers a combination of rotating and permanent exhibits concerning all aspects of sexuality. The attendant at the front desk told me that the clientele tilts toward students, and is about two-thirds female. That’s pretty much what I observed, and yes, there was giggling. A sign at the entrance says, “please do not touch, lick, stroke, or mount the exhibits,” a request I did my best to obey.
One of the rotating exhibits was about sex in the animal kingdom, including discussion of the pandas at the Beijing Zoo. In an effort to entice them to mate, the zoo showed them videotapes of other pandas having sex. The tape had no name, but I like “Hot Black and White on White and Black Action.” The “Sex Lives of Animals” display also includes a collection of baculums — or penis bones — which are evidently the rule in most animals other than humans. Frankly, I don’t know why we gave up the penis bone. I can think of times one certainly would have come in handy.
Once you go ape...you might just switch to another animal
The other rotating exhibit was “Action,” a look at how sex is portrayed in film and on television, from old stag films to major motion pictures. Some of the film loops on display were undoubtedly being shown only a few blocks away in Times Square several decades ago, but in those days, you got a private booth. The permanent displays draw from the museum’s collection of over 15,000 items, including an amazing collection of sex machines from elaborate commercial models to bizarre homemade contraptions. The homemade devices just go to prove that one person’s washing machine rotor is another person’s erotic fulfillment. Also on display are examples of “RealDolls, ” which are incredibly lifelike sex dolls. There are even male and female RealDoll torsos which patrons are invited to “please touch gently.” Yes, I was curious, but it’s not something I could bring myself to do with giggling students present.
Every single item on display at the museum is guaranteed to get you thinking about sex, but then again, if Freud was right, you’re doing that all the time anyway. Given the subject matter, the displays are all naturally fascinating, though it did occur to me that if I want to see an antique condom, I can just look in my wallet.
Last 5 posts by Bruce Cherry
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game ... But Which One? - July 20th, 2010
- From Meteors to Marshmallow Men, New York has a Future. - July 20th, 2010
- A Street by Any Other Name... - March 31st, 2010
- WAY Beyond The MBA - November 19th, 2009
- How Green Is My Apple? Pretty Damn Green. - November 19th, 2009
