Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Camden, NJ
The USS New Jersey, one of the most decorated battleships in U.S. history, is preserved as a floating museum on the Delaware River. Visitors can explore gun turrets, crew spaces, command areas and other sections of the enormous Iowa-class warship.
Atlantic City, NJ
Hidden inside Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall is an enormous pipe organ built with more than 30,000 pipes and designed to fill the gigantic auditorium without electronic amplification. Restoration work continues, and public access is mainly through scheduled recitals, tours and events.
Mount Holly, NJ
Designed by Robert Mills and opened in 1811, this stone jail remained in use for more than 150 years. Cells, corridors, graffiti and execution-related history remain inside, and the building has also developed a strong reputation in local ghost lore.
Wildwood, NJ
This seasonal museum preserves Wildwood's exuberant 1950s and 1960s motel culture through neon signs, furniture, architecture and pop-culture artifacts. Its outdoor Neon Sign Garden contains restored signs rescued from demolished or remodeled shore motels.
Trenton, NJ
The New Jersey State Museum displays a skeletal reconstruction of Dryptosaurus, a large predatory dinosaur first discovered in the state. The mount gives physical form to a dinosaur whose fossils helped shape early American paleontology.
Moorestown, NJ
A small display inside the Moorestown Library preserves the history of Samuel Leeds Allen's Flexible Flyer, one of America's most famous sled designs. Vintage sleds, photographs and manufacturing material document the locally invented winter icon.
Franklin, NJ
Franklin sits in one of the world's most famous fluorescent-mineral districts, and this museum preserves thousands of local mineral specimens along with mining and geology exhibits. Its displays make visible the unusual colors and mineral diversity that earned the area an international reputation.
Glassboro, NJ
Glassboro's name reflects the industry that shaped the community, and this small museum preserves bottles, tools and locally manufactured glass from that history. Its specialized collection gives travelers a compact look at an industry that once dominated the region.
Wall Township, NJ
The former Camp Evans military research complex now contains more than 20 museums and exhibits devoted to radio, radar, computing, military technology, spaceflight and other scientific history. The site preserves buildings tied to early wireless communication and World War II radar research.
Toms River, NJ
New Jersey's "Bugseum" is devoted entirely to insects and other arthropods, with live specimens, preserved collections and interactive displays. Scheduled touch presentations give visitors a chance to meet some of the museum's stranger living residents.
New Brunswick, NJ
Rutgers University's geology museum contains fossils, minerals, dinosaurs and an enormous preserved Japanese spider crab with an extraordinary leg span. The nineteenth-century museum is free, but public hours follow the university's schedule.
Lakehurst, NJ
Inside a former Catholic church, this local museum packs together Hindenburg wreckage, airship artifacts, railroad history, a hand-carved Jersey Devil and 'Stuffy,' a taxidermied dachshund whose damaged feet were fitted with little shoes. Public hours are limited.
Newfield, NJ
Collector Everett Marshall has assembled an enormous private museum devoted to Matchbox vehicles, with thousands of miniature cars and related material displayed behind his home. Visits are by appointment, making this a legitimate but deliberately limited OddWay stop.
Millville, NJ
Millville's wartime airfield trained thousands of fighter pilots during World War II. The museum preserves aircraft, uniforms, photographs and personal stories from the base, including the dangerous training work that earned Millville its place in military aviation history.
Morris Township, NJ
The Morris Museum houses the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata. Self-playing organs, music boxes and elaborate moving figures preserve a world of entertainment machinery built before electronic media.
Lower Township, NJ
A preserved World War II hangar houses aircraft, engines, military vehicles and aviation artifacts at the former Naval Air Station Wildwood. The setting gives visitors access to both the collection and an authentic wartime training structure.
Beach Haven, NJ
This shore museum concentrates on New Jersey shipwrecks, maritime disasters, diving and coastal history. Displays include artifacts recovered from wrecks and extensive research material on vessels lost along the state's notoriously dangerous coastline.
Ewing Township, NJ
The State Police museum preserves uniforms, vehicles, forensic material and evidence associated with major New Jersey cases. Its best-known collection covers the Lindbergh kidnapping investigation, including artifacts and investigative material from one of America's most famous crimes.
Raritan Township, NJ
This enormous indoor model-railroad world contains miles of track, hundreds of bridges, miniature cities and an almost overwhelming amount of handmade scenery. The sprawling attraction feels less like a conventional train layout and more like walking around an invented miniature country.
Trenton, NJ
Built in 1758 during the French and Indian War, these military barracks later housed troops during the American Revolution. The surviving complex now interprets eighteenth-century soldier life and Trenton's role in the Revolutionary War.
Paterson, NJ
Housed in the former Rogers Locomotive Works, the Paterson Museum preserves locomotives, industrial machinery, Colt firearms, minerals and objects tied to the city's manufacturing history. The eclectic collection reflects how many different industries once clustered around the Great Falls.
Clinton, NJ
The striking red mill beside the South Branch Raritan River operated in several industrial roles before becoming the centerpiece of a historical museum complex. More than a dozen buildings and thousands of artifacts preserve the site's industrial and local history.
Roebling, NJ
The former John A. Roebling's Sons factory site interprets the wire-rope company responsible for material used in famous suspension bridges including the Brooklyn and Golden Gate bridges. Industrial machinery, photographs and factory artifacts survive inside the company-town museum.
Asbury Park, NJ
Rows of playable pinball machines and classic arcade games fill this boardwalk museum, with machines spanning many decades of amusement history. Admission is time-based rather than coin-operated, so the collection functions as both museum and working arcade.
