It has been a while since I have visited The Little Museum so a few weeks ago I decided to stop back down and take a tour. I hear grumbles all the time from people all the time that aren't native to the area that there is nothing to do around the area. No brain food or nothing culturally important. I find it strange that the back bone of our nation, the little industrial towns that helped build this country are so often forgotten. The Little Museum has a wealth of information about Cameron County's little slice of Americana.
The Little Museum can be a easy to miss if you are driving down 120, but if you are looking it should be easy enough to find. The museum itself is an old school house painted a stereotypical white. After parking I was greeted by one of the Museum's Guides who was quick to welcome me and offered to guide me through the exhibits. Admission appeared to be free, but I placed a $5 bill in a large glass jar with a donations sign on it anyway.
The Museum consists of 3 main rooms all of which are nearly packed with old artifacts of the of the area. The first room on the tour mainly deals with work and industry. Everything from the factory worker to the farmer is covered in the well persevered products and tools of their trades.
The second room is mostly about the daily home life of the people from the 1800s up to the mid 1900s. Everything from school desks to a curling iron that would cause half the people working at the under writer laboratories to have a panic attack. You can look at some of the objects for quite a while and have no idea what it is until the tour guide explains what it is and why it was so important. This room also contains posters and a bit of information about the Western movie star Tom Mix, who was born nearby.
The last room is a Military room. It was much darker than the rest of the museum and as you step into the room you know this room is different. Pictures, models, medals, and weapons of war fill the walls and display cases. Like most little towns Emporium and its satellite towns they are very proud of those who served. The collection was very well preserved and maintained in a dignified manner.
After the tour was over I brought up my phone and tried to check into The Little Museum on yelp and noticed there was no information on it. After talking with the people at the museum they agreed to let me take a few pictures (not normally allowed) so I could let the world know that such an amazing chunk of history existed out in the middle of no where. Staffed and maintained by volunteers and sustained by donations there is no place I have ever visited like The Little Museum. When I walked out of those old school house doors I wanted to world to know that it was here, it has been for a long time, and hopefully always will be to help preserve and protect the history of Pennsylvania. read more