Hi all,

I'm working on a writing assignment for I.B.M. and would like to know if anyone has ideas of objects related to the magical arts found in museums? I'm not interested in museums devoted to magic, but rather museums established for other purposes. An example would be the ongoing exhibit at the Whittier Museum - https://whittiermuseum.org/exhibits/magic-exhibit/, or the Houdini collection at the Library of Congress - https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/970224/houdini.html. Whittier and LOC aren't devoted to magic, but they have those objects in their collection. Posters, art (either from a performer or featuring magic in general), apparatus, personal items, etc. are all of interest.

I'm particularly interested in museums not in the U.S. or France, or England because I've already found some ideas for those. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Regards,

Jason

Good luck! There is probably a lot of museums out there that have never gone through to inventory what they have.

I know there are some items in a museum in Youngstown, Ohio. A few props and some linking ring magazines.

Magic’s Theater in Austin Texas. Magicstheater.com

A few years ago, while I was living in Washington State. The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma had an exhibit about Alexander (The Man who Knows). Evidently he had some ties to the area, and is buried in Seattle. Was surprised to find out how wildly successful he was (The highest paid mentalist, and some think the highest paid magician), and what a scoundrel he was...did some bad things (married seven or elven times, jail time, escape from jail, and admitting to killing 4 people).

In addition to various posters and playbills and a few personal items of Alexander, they had assorted magic items from the early 1900s to the 1940s or 50s. Mainly magic kit items. It was small, but nicely curated and very informative.