I recently received a copy of Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can’t or Won’t Show You, written by Harriet Baskas. Harriet and I share many memories together from our time in Munich and at Oktoberfest a few years ago. According to the book jacket, it is “an inside look at the back rooms and locked cabinets of fifty American museums and the special collections and single objects that are rarely displayed.”

This begs the question, why house all these items if not to display? Baskas’s book delves into that very subject, and the stories she tells are fascinating. Among the tales are a number of museums and destinations to add to your list of travel sights to see. Some of the secret items include a slice of 150-year-old wedding cake at the P.T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Conn.; half-heads preserved in jars at Indiana Medical History Museum; Truman’s Portrait on the Head of a Pin at Harry S. Truman Library and Museum; a glass coffin at Corning Museum of Glass; John Dillinger’s gun at Dayton History; poisonous art at Penn Museum in Philadelphia; and Soap Man at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute. That’s just a sneak peek at the hidden treasures.

According to Baskas, her obsession with this subject began years ago. When I ran into her recently in Los Angeles, her enthusiasm about the book made me know I had to check it out. I was so entertained, I had to recommend it. Her other books include Washington Curiosities, Washington Icons, Oregon Curiosities and Stuck at the Airport. She also writes about airports, air travel, museums and other topics for NBC News, USA-Today.com, MSN and AAA Journey. 

— Kim Krol, managing editor