ILIllinois field entry
American Oddities Museum
Alton, IL
An Alton museum where haunted-object stories, sideshow relics, medical quackery, funeral artifacts, true crime, magic and witchcraft lead directly into a museum gift shop and the American Hauntings Ink bookstore.
American Oddities Museum combines macabre American history, sideshow and medical material, funerary artifacts and paranormal lore with an expanded gift shop, bookstore and event program at its new Piasa Street home.
Field notes
Why it belongs
Oddities museum, history collection, sideshow archive, medical-quackery exhibit, funerary collection, true-crime museum, magic-and-witchcraft collection, bookstore, gift shop, and events venue.
The shop components are real, but the reason to visit is the collision between retail and an independently assembled museum of America's strangest stories and objects.
American Oddities Museum reopened in a larger Piasa Street location in January 2026, giving Troy Taylor's collection of strange American history substantially more room. Exhibits range through sideshow relics, medical quackery, funeral and mourning objects, true-crime material, magic, witchcraft and objects associated with supernatural stories. The new location also incorporates a museum gift shop and the American Hauntings Ink bookstore, along with events and changing exhibits, making the destination part museum, part bookstore and part macabre cultural clubhouse.
Store contents
What you will find
Directory categories
Known for
- Strange history
- Haunted-object stories
- Sideshow relics
- Medical quackery
- Funeral and mourning artifacts
- True crime
- Magic and witchcraft
- American Hauntings Ink bookstore
- Museum gift shop
- New Piasa Street location
Plan another detour