When you stop to think about it, a museum is just a collection of neat stuff that's on display for people to see.
This region has plenty of prominent large museums bursting with important artwork and ancient artifacts. But there's also a good deal of small museums, with quirky, fun collections.
Two years ago, LIVE! published an article on "10 Museums You Never Heard Of," which featured such off-the-beaten-track gems as the Black Fashion Museum in Washington and the Maryland State Police Museum in Pikesville.
Of course, back then we couldn't include every museum that deserved attention. So we've put together a second list, of "10 More Museums You Never Heard Of."
One museum has nothing but elephant statues. Another is filled with doll houses. A third is dedicated to beads.
All 10 are within a few hours' drive. Many are free.
Mister Ed's Elephant Museum
No, there are no live elephants at this Orrtanna, Pa., museum. Items on display include a hair dryer shaped like an elephant, cookie jars shaped like elephants and about 6,000 other elephant-shaped items, both large and small.
Owner Ed Gotwalt first developed an interest in elephants more than 30 years ago when he received a small ceramic elephant statue as a wedding gift. Since then, he has traveled the world adding to his collection. He opened the museum in 1975.
Visitors are greeted by a life-sized fiberglass elephant that moves its eyes and ears while delivering three-minute speeches. There is also a candy store and a gift shop on the site.
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Christmas, New Year's Day and Thanksgiving. 6019 Chambersburg Road, Orrtanna, Pa. 717-352-3792, www.mister eds.com. Free.
Waterman's Museum
This small museum, in three rooms of the Haven Harbour Marina in Rock Hall, showcases the lives of the watermen who make their living harvesting the edible sea creatures of the Chesapeake Bay.
One room has photographs dating to the '30s and '40s of watermen at work, one has boats and equipment used by watermen and the third has a reproduction of an oyster-shucking house and a shanty like the ones used by watermen during extended harvesting expeditions.
Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day in the summer, weekends in the winter. 20880 Rock Hall Ave., Rock Hall. 410-778-6697, www.havenharbour.com/hhwatmus.htm. Free.
Bead Museum of Washington, D.C.
An entire museum devoted to beads? Why not? These decorative little baubles "are among mankind's earliest, most universal and most enduring creative achievements," according to museum literature.
Though the museum's bead collection goes back 10,000 years, beads have been around for as long as 90,000 years and can be found in every culture, says Christine O'Donnell, the museum's community-relations director.
The museum, founded by the Bead Society of Greater Washington, features a 35-foot bead time line with more than 2,000 beads placed to show the relationship between beads and culture throughout the history of the world.
Because beads have been used for currency, social status and decoration, "We like to say that the beads tell the story of man throughout history," O'Donnell says.
There are two changing exhibits a year at the museum, as well as demonstrations, seminars, lectures and bead-study groups. The current exhibition, Silver Speaks, which showcases jewelry from Middle Eastern countries, will be on display until May.
Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. The Jenifer Building, 400 Seventh St. N.W., Washington. 202-624-4500, www.thebeadmuseum.org. Free.
Mutter Museum
Among the exhibits at this gross but fascinating museum in Philadelphia are sliced sections of the human head, which were created in 1910 to show the internal anatomy of the head, brain and neck.
The museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, once was popular only with doctors, but in recent years it has attracted thousands of visitors from the general public.
Of the 20,000 items in this mad-scientist's lab of a place, more than 900 are body parts, including bones that have been ravaged by syphilis and organs floating in preservative-filled jars and bottles. Skeletons and models showcase birth defects. And there is even a plaster cast of the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker.
Other exhibits feature medical instruments, some more than 250 years old; slides, pictures and models of medical oddities; and memorabilia from famous scientists and doctors.
Recent exhibits have been on conjoined twins and infectious diseases. The next exhibit, called One Man Died: Medical Adventures on the Lewis and Clark Trail, will open Feb. 19.
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 S. 22nd St. 215-563-3737. Admission is $8 for adults; $5 for children 6 to 18.
Washington Dolls' House and Toy Museum
Although this Washington, D.C., museum is filled with childhood toys, it has a serious mission - showcasing architecture and social history through the playthings of the past. The museum was founded in 1975 by doll-house historian Flora Gill Jacobs, and includes several hundred dolls in original clothes seen in doll houses, shops, schoolrooms and other buildings.
Exhibits include a group of turn-of-the-century Baltimore rowhouses and a German-made tea party in which the party participants move when a handle is turned.
The museum also has a tearoom that is a popular spot for birthday parties. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. 5236 44th St. N.W., Washington. 202-244-0024. Admission is $2-$4.
West Virginia Museum of American Glass
This museum, which focuses on glassmaking from 1900 to 1940, includes beautiful and functional glass products ranging from bottles and jars to paperweights and telegraph insulators.
The exhibits highlight glassmaking houses large and small, and include a glass bust of M.J. Owens of West Virginia, inventor of the automatic bottling machine, and three decorative glass tiles made by Tiffany.
Open noon to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Main Avenue and Second Street, Weston, W.Va. 304-269-5006. Free.
University of Delaware Mineralogical Museum
Ever wanted to see a hunk of sillimanite, the state mineral of Delaware? Or how about a crystal of stibnite, which comes from Japan? If you like to look at minerals, or want to learn more about them, this Newark, Del., museum is for you.
Most of the collection is from Irenee duPont, who started out in 1919 by purchasing the minerals on display at Tiffany and Co. in New York City. When he died in 1963, he stipulated that the minerals must go to a university and be used for education. The University of Delaware accepted the collection.
Blue & Gold, one of the indefinitely running exhibitions at the museum, features minerals that are either blue or gold in color, such as lazulite and azurite (blue), and chalcopyrite and golden calcite.
Open noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is located on Academy Street, Newark, Del., in Penny Hall, the university's geology building. 302-831-8242, www.museums.udel.edu/mineral/index.html. Free.
Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum
This 2-year-old museum in Bethesda is devoted to the study of the Old Testament through sculpture, painting and other visual arts. The permanent exhibits are arranged in chronological order, starting with Adam and Eve, so that a visitor progresses through the Hebrew Bible while walking among the artwork.
The collection was created by Phillip Ratner, who founded the museum with his cousin Dennis, the chief executive officer of the company that owns the Hair Cuttery salon chain.
The museum highlights Phillip Ratner's sculpture, paintings and drawings, says Marcy Kostbar, the museum's executive director.
Also on display are works by a group of artists known as the Artists of the Ratner Museum, as well as changing exhibits - all focusing on the Old Testament. A gallery of children's art features work that is mostly related to fairy tales and other literature.
Open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sundays. Tours for 20 or more people can be arranged to take place Mondays to Thursdays. 10001 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda. 301-897-1518, www. israelbiblemuseum.com. Free.
Delaware Archaeology Museum
The history of Delaware and the science of archaeology are explored in this educational museum in Dover that includes a simulated excavation pit and artifacts that date to the last Ice Age.
The museum focuses in part on the state's Native American population, with an extensive collection of artifacts that include early stone tools. Hands-on programs are available to groups by appointment.
Open 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, except holidays. 316 S. Governors Ave. 302-739-4266, www.destate museums.org/arch/index.html. Free.
Stonestreet Museum of 19th-Century Medicine
Dr. Edward Stonestreet began practicing medicine when he was 21 and didn't stop until he died in 1903, at the age of 73. One hundred years later, his one-room clinic in Rockville is a museum run by the Montgomery County Historical Society.
The clinic was moved a short distance in 1972, from its original location near Stonestreet's home to the grounds of the historical society. It includes medical instruments from the early days of the doctor's practice, a skeleton, a crank phone and photographs of Stonestreet and his family.
Open noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays. 111 W. Montgomery Ave. 301-762-1492 or 301-340-6534. Admission to the museum is $2-$3. The price includes entrance to the Beall-Dawson House, an 1815 Federal-style home at the same location, now run as a museum by the historical society.