Georgia home to museums with unusual collections

August 6, 2024 Staff

Those who think of museums as stuffy places with boring collections aren’t aware of how diverse and far-ranging museum collections can be.

I recently had a delightful time at the Columbus Collective Museums (CCM) in Columbus, Georgia. It’s a combination collectibles/antique shop with seven “museums” rolled into one. The Lunch Box Museum is the standout with an estimated 5,000 lunch boxes and related lunch box paraphernalia. Metal lunch boxes and lunch pails from the 1930s-1970s are housed in a glass case while colorful plastic and metal lunch boxes line rows upon rows of display space in the venue. Lunch boxes spiked in popularity from the 1950s to the 1970s. At CCM, colorful lunch boxes and thermoses feature images such as Betty Bop, Mork and Mindy, Snow White and Yogi the Bear. One lunch box on the museum’s shelves with five characters from the comic strip Peanuts bore a $70 price tag.

Lunch boxes number into the thousands at the Lunch Box Museum that’s part of the Columbus Collective Museums (CCM). Photos by Gale Horton Gay

When Columbus businessman Allen M. Woodall Jr. purchased a Dick Tracy lunch box and a Green Hornet lunch box in Atlanta in 1987 for the nostalgia, it was the start of his epic collection. He kept buying lunch boxes and other memorabilia and now the collective includes:

• Nehi Drink Museum
• Royal Crown Cola Museum
• Tom Huston Peanut Museum
• Georgia Radio Museum
• Chero-Cola Museum
• Car Museum

CCM is located in a rambling building at 3218 Hamilton Road. Go to columbuscollectivemuseums.com
Here are a few other Georgia museums with one-of-a-kind collections:

Laurel and Hardy Museum
Lovers of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy may want to take a drive to the Laurel and Hardy Museum, located at the Harlem Museum and Welcome Center in Harlem, Georgia. A separate portion of the museum is dedicated to the life, careers, and cultural influences of the comedic pair. The museum includes a cinema room, photos, and an interactive “Where in the world were Laurel and Hardy?” Harlem is the birthplace of Oliver Norvell Hardy. After Hardy met Stan Laurel, a comedy team was born. For more information on the museum, go to harlemmuseumandwelcomecenter.com.

Vintage radios are among the memorabilia in the Georgia Radio Museum.

Billy Carter Service Station
This former service station that also was once a dance studio and child’s playhouse is now described as a museum for “all of the Carter family.” Managed by the Friends of Jimmy Carter National Historic Park, the site is located at 104 E. Church St., Plains. Billy Carter, brother of President Jimmy Carter, acquired the service station in 1972. “It became an important landmark in the history of Plains in 1976 when Billy’s station became famous nationwide, as journalists covering Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign made it their headquarters,” state the museum’s website. “In 1981 Billy sold the station to his son-in-law. In 2008, the Plains Better Hometown program acquired the building, opening it as the Billy Carter Museum.” For more information, go to www.nps.gov and search for the venue.

American Prohibition Museum
The American Prohibition Museum in Savannah covers the 1850s temperance movement, moonshine making in the 1920s, the rise of speakeasies, and the end of prohibition in 1933. It includes restored prohibition era vehicles, more than 200 artifacts, photos, murals, and videos. Guided tours are $35.58, museum and a drink are $29.92, and museum admission only is $17.23. The museum on W. St. Julian Street includes a speakeasy where one must whisper a password to gain entry. For more information, go to americanprohibitionmuseum.com or call 912-551-4054.