John Brown Wax Museum

Small wax museums have a justified reputation for being a bit laughable with their heightened scenes, so the John Brown Wax Museum’s choice to depict the tragic and racially fraught raid on Harper’s Ferry in overly dramatic waxen tableaus is a strange sight indeed.  

Held in a historic home in the city of Harper’s Ferry, the small museum takes up rooms on multiple floors to offer graphic scenes of violence and rage. Beginning with a display of young John Brown watching a black slave being whipped, the various rooms then tell the tale of Brown’s pivotal raid, making sure to choose only the most bloody moments to recreate. Choice scenes include the shooting death of “free slave” Shepard Hayward, a bloody gunfight complete with fallen wax soldiers covering the ground, and a scene of Brown cradling one of his dead sons. Each exhibit has a button that will also trigger an informative voiceover and often a small animation in the figures. The tour ends finally with John Brown’s death by hanging.

This important time in American history is one that should never be forgotten, and the sensational wax figures in the John Brown Wax Museum make sure that visitors couldn’t if they wanted too.