Niagara Wax Museum of HistoryĪ sign in the Niagara Wax Museum of History’s entryway promises dozens of life size wax figures, including “explorers, pioneers, and statesmen prominent in the history of the frontier.” Visitors to the museum, which opened in 1968, may be surprised to also see Princess Diana, Julia Roberts, Mother Teresa, and other disparate celebrities (or close-ish approximations), each chosen for their sometimes tenuous connection to the region’s famous waterfalls signs explain how each person either visited the area or simply “exemplified the beauty and grace of the falls.” Open since 1963, the dimly-lit museum also features hand-painted signs, creaky wooden steps, and crude animatronics.įormer Niagara Falls Mayor Mike O’Laughlin. After Brown was captured and tried for treason, murder, and inciting a rebellion, he was found guilty on all counts and hanged.įew historical figures have a wax museum exclusively devoted to telling their story (Jesus has several) the John Brown Wax Museum, located in a Harpers Ferry building that existed during Brown’s raid, contains 87 life-size figures in various displays depicting the controversial figure’s life and death. In 1856, Brown and his supporters killed five pro-slavery settlers in the Pottawatomie massacre in Kansas, but he’s best known for leading a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now a part of West Virginia), in 1859. John Brown was an American abolitionist who believed that armed rebellion was the best way to overturn slavery. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan John Brown at the gallows. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan A massacre in wax. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan Soldiers and a bloodied Brown. Upper floors celebrate the positive contributions and achievements of prominent civil rights leaders, celebrities, musicians, scholars, explorers, sports stars, and their allies, including Marylander Frederick Douglass, Barack Obama, singer Mahalia Jackson, abolitionist John Brown, and the Pullman Porters. The first, and most comprehensive, museum of its kind includes a ship depicting harrowing scenes of the transatlantic slave trade and a lower-level lynching exhibit. Related At Baltimore’s National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, knowledge is power With 150 figures currently on display, the museum illustrates the African American experience from its roots in Africa through slavery and into the present day. National Great Blacks in Wax Museumįounded by husband and wife educators in the early 1980s, the 17,500-square-foot National Great Blacks in Wax Museum now spans several refashioned row homes along East North Avenue in East Baltimore. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan The museum has 150 figures on display.

| Photo: Alexandra Charitan The museum’s founders were adamant about not “whitewashing” history. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan Directional signage on the slave ship. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Wax museums that are still drawing the crowds are Madame Tussaud’s in London and the Hollywood Wax Museum.Frederick Douglass is one of the museum’s newest additions.

In 1835, after 33 years touring Britain with her waxworks, Marie Tussaud established her first permanent exhibition in Baker Street.īy the late 19th century most large cities had some kind of commercial wax museum, but by the late 20th century it had became harder for them to compete with other attractions. He left his collection of waxworks to his protegé Marie Tussaud, who made death masks of the executed royals during the French Revolution. Meanwhile, in Paris, Philippe Curtius, a physician and waxwork modeller, opened his wax museum as a tourist attraction in 1770. Mrs Salmon’s wax works started in St Martin’s Le Grand in 1711, and was relocated to the north side of Fleet Street where it remained until 1795 when it moved across the road to number 17 Fleet Street. And, according to Exploring London Mrs Salmon and her famous waxworks was one of several such establishments in London. This was a museum or exhibition of 140 life-size figures, some apparently with clockwork moving parts. There were a number of wax museums around Fleet Street in the 1700’s.Īccording to wikipedia Mrs Mary was running the ‘Moving Wax Works of the Royal Court of England’ in 1711.

Waxworks museums