I'm researching a book of quotations and keep coming across new museums in the birthplace of somebody famous - or where they lived and died. You can visit Trotsky's house, where he was murdered, in Mexico. You can see exiled author Stefan Zvieg, home, where he supposedly committed suicide with his wife - although conspiracy theorists think he was murdered in the Rio area, Brazil.
Sometimes you visit a country or place and the most interesting or mysterious part, such as the controversy about how the person died, is not mentioned at all. Instead you are shown only the verifiable facts, such as this was his pen or Freud's spectacles. I imagine guides are wary of giving misleading information or being negative when people are trying to have a happy holiday.
I went to Molly Brown's house in the USA and heard not a word about the Titanic. Then when I visited Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok, twice, I had to buy a book in the bookshop to find out the theories as to where or why he disappeared on his last walk through the jungle.
Today I've added more places to visit to my wish list.
Here are the ones I have done and my most significant memories:
My Been There Top Ten:
1 Anne Frank House,
2 Bronte Museum,
3 Disraeli,
4 Dickens, London
5 Rothschild,
6 Freud, London
7 Jefferson, USA
8 Webster, USA
9 Poe, USA
10 Scott, Scotland.
Sometimes you visit a country or place and the most interesting or mysterious part, such as the controversy about how the person died, is not mentioned at all. Instead you are shown only the verifiable facts, such as this was his pen or Freud's spectacles. I imagine guides are wary of giving misleading information or being negative when people are trying to have a happy holiday.
I went to Molly Brown's house in the USA and heard not a word about the Titanic. Then when I visited Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok, twice, I had to buy a book in the bookshop to find out the theories as to where or why he disappeared on his last walk through the jungle.
Today I've added more places to visit to my wish list.
Here are the ones I have done and my most significant memories:
My Been There Top Ten:
1 Anne Frank House,
2 Bronte Museum,
3 Disraeli,
4 Dickens, London
5 Rothschild,
6 Freud, London
7 Jefferson, USA
8 Webster, USA
9 Poe, USA
10 Scott, Scotland.
My Wishlist Top Ten:
1 Elvis Presley's Graceland,
2 Mob Museum Las Vegas,
3 Jane Austen, UK
4 Mark Twain, USA
5 Jim Reeves, TN< USA
6 Robbie Burns, Scotland
7 Abraham Lincoln (I've done the theatre in DC, a battlefield with explanation of how he wrote his Gettysburg address speech, but not the birthplace area),
8 Trotsky, Mexico
9 Chagall, France (or Eastern Europe)
10 Robben Island
BEEN THERE _ DONE THAT
USA - BEEN THERE
Elvis Presley museums/souvenirs -
when living in the USA I seemed to find an Elvis souvenir such as a car in every city.( But I still haven't done the big Elvis centre Graceland.)
President Jefferson home, Washington DC.
Fallingwater designed by architect by Frank Lloyd Wright
Edgar Allan Poe House Museum, Baltimore.
Home of Jack London, California.
Home of Molly Brown.
Home of Pearl Buck.
Home of Clara Barton.
Buffalo Bill Cody Artwork museum.
Hearst Castle, California.
Noah Webster. The man who wrote the dictionary, revised spelling, and made a grammar book.
Noah Webster House 227 Main St W Hartford CT 06107
noahwebsterhouse.org
(NB on the web your search for Webster will probably bring up a different Webster, Daniel,danielwebsterestate.org and Tripadvisor you'll see Daniel Webster House.)
Winchester Mystery House
Deadwood, reproduction of poker table with Wild Bill Hicock's dead man's hand
CHINA
Sassoon hotel in Shanghai - not much to see. Great place, with small plaque in hall, but having been there made me read about Sassoons.
UK
London - Dickens house.
Keats House.
Freud's house - highly recommended.
Bronte's house in Haworthy, Yorkshire - highly recommended. Loads of info and shop.
Rothschild home Waddesdon. National Trust.
Disraeli's house.
Portsmouth - another Dickens' house.
SCOTLAND
Home of Walter Scott;
David Livingston.
WALES
Dylan Thomas (3 locations).
EUROPE
Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Highly Recommended.
Hans Andersen Museum, Denmark.
Puccini's house, Italy.
Bialik's house, Israel.
ASIA
House of American, Jim Thompson, who started Thai silk industry, Bangkok, Thailand.
Gandhi's House, Delhi, India.
Sun Yat-Sen's home, Shanghai, China.
AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
Katherine Mansfield Birthplace museum, Wellington, New Zealand Katherinemansfield.com
SOUTH AFRICA
A former home of Nelson Mandela was included in a tour I took around Soweto. You can also visit Robben Island.
*****
TODO - WISHLIST
England
London: William Morris house. Hogarth house.
Jane Austen.
Scotland
Robbie Burns House.
USA and North America
Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Connecticut. marktwainhouse.com
Niagara - Houdini Museum
Graceland - Elvis
Hemingway
Cemetery with Al Jolson statue.
Replica of White House President's room in Boston.
Homes of Country Music stars: Jim Reeves near Nashville, TN.
Abraham Lincoln museum.
Several halls of fame - though most are online and some are only online with no premises.
Whitehouse tour, Washington DC.
Las Vegas Mob Museum.
MEXICO
Trotsky museum.
S AMERICA
Stefan Zvieg museum near Rio, Brazil.
PACIFIC
Robert Louis Stevenson home and hilltop grave in Pacific.
EUROPE
Birthplace home of Levi-Strauss in Buttenheim, Germany.
Brothers Grimm fairytale trail.
Chagall Museum - Eastern Europe.
Chagall Museum, France.
I'll add some more details and books later this week so keep checking this post daily.
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