Surprises along NYS roads, from kazoos to knives and bottles

Did you know that Eden, NY is the kazoo capitol of the world and home to the Kazoo Museum and the Original American Kazoo Company (established 1916), the only metal kazoo factory in the United States? No. I didn’t know either until a new book from Syracuse University Press was highlighted in the publisher’s latest catalog.

“Unknown Museums of Upstate New York: A Guide to 50 Treasures,” by Chuck D’Imperio, takes us to the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum, to a bottle museum, one devoted to the history of cobblestones–and the Kazoo Museum. The book explores 50 specialized and quirky institutions, all of them north of New York City.

Full disclosure: While I’m not related to the inventor of the kazoo or mother of a cobble-maker, I do love small, narrowly focused museums and historical societies.

For example, on a trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, I spent a couple of hours in the Acadian Museum in Cheticamp–hooked rugs and other crafts upstairs, and a two-room historical museum downstairs. An elderly woman who greeted me as I entered gave me a personal and vivid lesson in Acadian and maritime history.

On another trip to the southwest, we stopped into a storefront filled with regional exhibits and memorabilia. The volunteer on duty told endless stories about wolves and grizzly bears, about high desert survival, and the eccentrics who moved through the landscape over the last few centuries.

That’s the thing about small museums, the volunteers and staff are always passionate about their exhibits.

Back to kazoos…this quote lifted from the Kazoo Museum website:

The kazoo was invented by an American named Alabama Vest and made to his specifications by a German clock master named Thaddeus Von Clegg in Macon, Georgia back in the 1840’s. A traveling salesman by the name of Emil Sorg brought the idea of manufacturing metal kazoos to Western New York in about 1912. He teamed up with Michael McIntyre, a Buffalo tool and die maker, and together they found a way to manufacture the first production kazoos. McIntyre moved to Eden, New York where he went into partnership with Harry Richardson, the owner of a metal forming plant. The kazoo has become as American as apple pie. It is the most democratic of instruments because anyone can play.

So Chuck D’Imperio’s book intrigues me. He’s serious about the places he’s chosen for inclusion in this guide. Like his previous book, “Monumental New York! A Guide to 30 Iconic Memorials in Upstate New York,” this collection directs you to places worth visiting, particularly if you find yourself on a summer drive in an unfamiliar part of the state.

I think Senator Betty Little, who represents our region and chairs the Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee, really nailed it in the “blurb” she provided for the book:

“Whether well-known or unfamiliar, every museum in the state tells us something about who we are and what we’re about as New Yorkers.”

By the way, D’Imperio directs us to destinations located throughout the state, including our neck of the woods, home to The Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage and Museum in Saranac Lake.

Now, share with us your favorite small museums and historical society exhibits.

Tags: chuck d'imperio, historical societies, museums, syracuse university press