Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Crime Museums: International Museum Day

I'm all about holidays, and May 18 is International Museum Day. Planning a trip to an Art Museum? How about a specialty Crime Museum? The following are a few you can visit. This is not a definitive list by any means. Feel free to add your favorites or comment on Museums you've visited.

Crime & Punishment Museum: Washington D.C.
This museum includes a crime lab, the filming studios for America's Most Wanted,  a simulated shooting range, a high-speed police-chase, and hundreds of interactive exhibits and artifacts pertaining to America's favorite subject.

The Mob Museum, Las Vegas: Opening December 2011: The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement — aka The Mob Museum — will be an interactive museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement. The museum will focus on organized crime's impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on America and the world.

The Black Museum, London, England: The Black Museum of Scotland Yard is a famed collection of criminal memorabilia kept at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London, England. Started in 1874, although unofficially, by 1875, it had become an official museum of the force, with a police inspector and a police constable assigned to duty there.

Art in the Streets: MOCA, Los Angeles. America's first major graffiti show celebrates urban sabotage. The Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles has just opened what it bills as America’s first major museum survey of graffiti. Read a scathing review of this exhibit here. Then go and see it yourself.

American Police Hall of Fame & Museum: Titusville, FL The American Police Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1960. It is the nation's first national police museum and memorial dedicated to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

New York City Police Museum: Newest exhibit: The NYPD Motorcycle Squad: A Century of Service to NYC

Other Police Museums:
Cleveland Police Museum
Phoenix Police Museum
Houston Police Museum
Portland Police Museum
New Jersey State Police Museum & Learning Center
Security Forces Museum (San Antonio, TX)
Los Angeles Police Historical Society Museum & Community Education Center

Spy Museum, Washington, D.C. The only public museum in the United States solely dedicated to espionage and the only one in the world to provide a global perspective on a profession that has shaped history and continues to have a significant impact on world events. The Museum features the largest collection of international espionage artifacts ever placed on public display.

Edgar Allan Poe Museum

Any favorite crime museum I've forgotten? Make a comment? Any Museum Mysteries you'll be reading today?

5 comments:

Lidian said...

Sadly, I won`t be visiting any museums of crime today - just the sort of thing I`d like to do, though. There`s a murder mystery in my family (circa 1866) - it is not in any museum, though I think the Brooklyn police station which captured my ggg uncle (by marriage) had a small exhibit, to which they added the murder weapon (an air gun).

Samantha said...

I went to a local history museum today, but I have been to the Spy Museum (see review below). As a museum studies student, intern and avid museum visitor everyday is Museum Day :)

Samantha
http://museuminternmusings.blogspot.com

http://museuminternmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/visiting-museums-in-dc.html

Bobbi Mumm said...

I'd love to visit the Spy Museum in Washington. I saw a section of the war museum in Paris that was dedicated to the Resistance and the spies of WWII and it was fascinating.

Nancy Lauzon said...

This isn't a museum per se, but it's a place I'd love to see - the Tower of London. So much history, torment, and death. In particular, I'd be interested to see the place where Anne Boleyn was bured.

Nancy
www.nancylauzon.com
The Chick Dick Blog
http://nancylauzon.blogspot.com/

Priscilla said...

I seem to remember that someone wrote a mystery set in the Black Museum of Scotland Yare but I can't for the life of me remember author or title. Was it PD James?