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.
Hampton, VA
This free city park displays aircraft, rockets, missiles and space hardware outdoors in a landscape tied closely to Hampton's aerospace history. The outdoor collection is accessible daily during park hours, while the indoor museum adds exhibits on aviation and space exploration.
Quicksburg, VA
A warehouse beside Shenandoah Caverns is packed with enormous retired parade floats from presidential inaugurations, Rose Parades and other major celebrations. Visitors walk among giant genies, animals, patriotic displays and repurposed float pieces on seasonal guided tours, generally from Memorial Day through Labor Day with selected additional dates.
Staunton, VA
This independent museum has assembled thousands of cameras spanning the history of photography, including espionage cameras disguised as everyday objects, early daguerreotype equipment and hundreds of Brownie models. The collection also includes historic photographs and material connected to figures such as John Wilkes Booth.
Arlington, VA
The Drug Enforcement Administration's museum documents the history of illicit drugs, federal enforcement and major investigations through seized objects, undercover material and unusual artifacts. Admission is free, but the museum is inside a federal building and adult visitors must meet current government identification and security-screening requirements.
Richmond, VA
Richmond's Poe Museum holds the world's largest collection of Edgar Allan Poe manuscripts, letters, first editions, personal belongings and memorabilia. The museum opened in 1922 in Richmond's oldest surviving residential building and includes the atmospheric Enchanted Garden inspired by Poe's writing.
Fredericksburg, VA
This restored 18th-century apothecary interprets medicine from an era when treatments included bloodletting, leeches, lancets, snakeroot and other remedies that look alarming by modern standards. Costumed interpretation and demonstrations make the small museum much stranger than a conventional colonial house tour.
Lexington, VA
Stonewall Jackson's small sorrel horse survived the Civil War and lived for decades after the general's death before being preserved by a taxidermist. Little Sorrel is now displayed at the VMI Museum, where visitors can see the actual mounted horse rather than a replica.
Saltville, VA
Saltville's museum tells an unusually broad story that stretches from Ice Age animals and archaeological finds to salt production, Civil War battles and the town's chemical industry. Fossils and prehistoric remains from the region make it especially useful as an OddWay stop rather than a standard local-history museum.
Lynchburg, VA
Lynchburg's Pest House served as a quarantine facility for contagious patients and later became closely associated with Civil War-era medical history. The building was moved to Old City Cemetery in 1987 and now contains period medical displays that visitors can examine as part of the cemetery's historic grounds.
Pocahontas, VA
Coal mining began at Pocahontas in the 1880s, helping launch the region's industrial boom and feed the Norfolk and Western Railway. Part of the historic mine is now preserved as the Pocahontas Exhibition Mine, where seasonal tours take visitors underground to see mining equipment, coal seams and the working environment of early miners.
Roanoke, VA
The Roanoke Pinball Museum preserves dozens of playable machines tracing pinball from early mechanical games through modern electronic tables. Admission is built around actually playing the collection rather than viewing it behind glass, making it an interactive history of arcade technology.
Chatham, VA
Tucked into a working funeral home, this small museum preserves antique caskets, embalming equipment, hearses, burial clothing and other artifacts from the funeral profession. Because it is attached to an active business rather than a conventional attraction, visitors should verify hours before making a special trip.
Alexandria, VA
This remarkably preserved pharmacy operated from 1792 until 1933 and reopened almost immediately as a museum, leaving shelves, bottles, medical ingredients and equipment largely frozen in place. Visitors can see thousands of historical medical and commercial objects on scheduled museum tours.
Smithfield, VA
A Smithfield ham cured in 1902 was forgotten in storage until meat magnate Pembroke Gwaltney Jr. turned it into a publicity object and carried it to events. The famously ancient ham is now displayed at the Isle of Wight County Museum alongside the museum's equally odd World's Oldest Peanut.
