Niagara Wax Museum of History

I have so many thoughts about Niagara Wax Museum of History in Niagara Falls, New York, which I visited for over two hours on a rainy September evening, that I hardly know where to start.

This brochure gives you a pretty good idea of what I saw.

And this sign outside will help.

Who knew there was a National Wax Museum Association. I haven’t been able to find it, but maybe there used to be one? Aha, no, in fact, there was an International Association of Wax Museums, headquartered in Chicago, per this 1975 New York Times article, Wax Museums are Not on the Wane. And indeed, the article lists Niagara’s Wax Museum at 333 Prospect Street as a member. So there you go.

Well, it was Interesting! Educational!! and yes, Historical!!!

It featured Mother Teresa, who visited Niagara Falls in 1982! The caption says, “Mother Teresa is Revered Because of Her Inner Beauty, and Like the Falls of Niagara Proves-: God’s Beauty and Grace commands the World.”

Next to her was Princess Diana of England, who visited Niagara Falls in 1991! (I can attest to the veracity of this, as she and Prince Charles also visited Kingston, Ontario, up Lake Ontario, where I was at school at the time.) Princess Di’s caption reads, “An Aristocrat and Beauty – Affirms: That Beauty is not in the Eye of the Beholder, But in the Love You Have for God, Your Country, and Your Fellow Man.” So there you go.

Mother Teresa looks much happier than Princess Diana, which is probably about right

The labelled section of the 960-year-old giant red wood tree was amazing! The 2-inch core sample (photo at top) of the kinds and thickness of the rock strata along the wall of the Niagara Gorge was amazing! The hydraulic development of electricity at Niagara Falls part was amazing! The completely irrelevant racist Native American cartoons … not so amazing!

I’m just going to leave you here with the Pictorial Hall of the Presidents. Which stops rather conspicuously at President Obama. (Which is kind of amazing.)

I took 85 pictures. I truly enjoyed it. For the most part. It was certainly interesting, educational, and historical. I think I’m going to leave it at that.

Niagara Wax Museum of History is museum no. 65 in my #100museums challenge (see 100 Museums Challenge).