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All the United States Michigan Marshall American Museum of Magic

American Museum of Magic

Largest magic museum in the United States with more than half a million pieces of memorabilia.

Marshall, Michigan

Added By
Nick Jackson
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About

Presto Change-o! Founded in 1978, the American Museum of Magic has been around for more than three decades, but that's only a blip in the history of the building in which it resides, an old Victorian structure in Calhoun County, Michigan.

Formerly a saloon, a clothing store, and a billiard parlor, the building was constructed in 1868.

Spread across three floors of the restored structure, the American Museum of Magic is filled from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, with props from all of the greatest magicians of the 19th and 20th centuries. It's the largest magic museum in the United States that is open to the public.

Half a million pieces of memorabilia are crammed inside of the museum. Among the pieces are more than 10,000 books, 24,000 magazines, 46,000 photographs, letters, and more than 2,000 handbills. One of the highlights is an escape apparatus used by Harry Houdini: his famous Milk Can Escape.

What makes the collection most impressive is that it was almost entirely assembled by one man, the late Robert Lund. A Detroit-based writer, Lund was obsessed with magic, but learned early on that he didn't have what it takes. Instead of embarrassing himself as a failed magician, Lund decided he would become the foremost student of magic history and collect everything related to the art that he could get his hands on.

The separate research center for aspiring magicians and historians of magic includes more than one million archived pieces, including a 50,000-volume library.

Related Tags

Museums And Collections Wonder Cabinets Collections Magic Houdini

Community Contributors

Added By

nbj914

Edited By

Martin, ahnahfoursure, Allison, Collector of Experiences

  • Martin
  • ahnahfoursure
  • Allison
  • Collector of Experiences

Published

July 22, 2012

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Sources
  • Roadside America: American Museum of Magic: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/12374
  • Wikipedia: American Museum of Magic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Museum_of_Magic
  • Pure Michigan: American Museum of Magic: http://www.michigan.org/Property/Detail.aspx?p=G4805
  • A History of Marshall Michigan: American Museum of Magic: http://www.marshallmich.com/history/MuseumofMagic.shtml
American Museum of Magic
107 E. Michigan Ave.
Marshall, Michigan, 49068
United States
42.272055, -84.958617
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

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Battle Creek, Michigan

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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Michigan

Michigan

United States

Places 268
Stories 28

Nearby Places

Historic Bridge Park

Battle Creek, Michigan

miles away

Graves of the Kellogg Brothers

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miles away

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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Michigan

Michigan

United States

Places 268
Stories 28

Related Stories and Lists

Houdini's Milk Can Escape, Where Failure Meant Death by Drowning

magic

By Allison Meier

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