MuseumOfQuackery.comBANNER

Come One! Come All !!

Devious Displays of Quackery, Fraud, Deceit and Deception!
The largest collection of medical chicanery and mayhem ever assembled under one roof !!!

Step right up !! .........

Curator McCoy in antique phrenology machine.

Sound like a carnival barker? A snake oil salesman? A sideshow shill?

Well, you're close .....
Map of the Brain per Phrenology.  Pre-psychology.

It's the

Museum of Questionable
Medical Devices

Proprietor Bob McCoy was a veritable encyclopedia of the world's most inane and useless information about how to cure and/or comprehend what may ail or puzzle you. Author of Quack!: Tales of Medical Fraud from the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, he's the guy pictured at left getting a "phrenology" reading on a "psycograph" (the machine measures the size of bumps on the head to determine his personality). The reading lets you know how you're doing on any of 35 character traits like intelligence, spirituality,suavity and chastity (all the bumps can be mapped -- above right).

Dubbed "The Quackery Hall of Fame" by the Copley Wire Service, the museum was the world's largest display of what the human mind has devised to cure itself without the benefit of either scientific method or common sense. It comprised the major collections on loan from The American Medical Association, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, The St. Louis Science Center, The Bakken Library, The National Council Against Health Fraud. The famed collection was donated to the Science Museum of Minnesota in 2002 with items featured in their Collections Gallery until 2016 when the entire collection was put on display in their fantastic Weighing The Evidence exhibit.

View Photos of our Riverplace and St. Anthony Main locations here.

 Visit us at 201 SE Main Street, Minneapolis, MN 55414 across the Mississipi River from downtown Minneapolis.

 

A sampling of the amazingly useless gadgets that await you:

Curator McCoy displays the 1918 Prostate Gland Warmer.


"A few volts of electricity appropriately applied will put the sparks back into your love life!" , says McCoy holding a machine that claimed to increase virility (and cure prostate problems).






From the mid-1970's:  the Breast Enlarger Pump! $9.95 US retail.  The device caused bruising.And for the ladies ... a foot powered breast enlarger!!

Then we have soap that sudses off pounds. And if the soap doesn't work for you, how about a pair of weight reduction glasses ? Stand in front of lights flashing prismatic colors that "guarantee" health and well being. Expose yourself to the "magic" of radio waves ... yes, quackery is alive and well on the banks of the mighty Mississippi........

See for yourself, stop in and "take the cure!"

 

Tour the Museum


Bob on Letterman

Watch Bob McCoy's TV appearances in our:
Video Vault
Learn the stories of
Great American Quacks
Check out our on-line
Device Collection
See graphics from the
Ephemera Collections
Don't leave without seeing our:
Quack Links

Buy Bob McCoy's Book and MORE in our:
Gift Shop

 

Bob McCoy
World-renowned expert on Medical Quackery and Health Fraud,
and founder of The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices.
(which is now located at the Science Museum of Minnesota)


Robert W. McCoy
1927-2010

Bob McCoy passed away on May 23, 2010
after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
(Bob's Obituary)

Bob lived a life dedicated to exposing nonsense and pseudo-science, while advocating rational living and humanist ideals.

Please help us keep his principles alive!

Quack!: Tales of Medical Fraud from the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices


 

Named
"Best Collection"
by Minnesota Monthly in their Best of the Twin Cities issue
November 2013

best of twin cities

Also named one of the
18 Weirdest Museums in the World

by FOX NEWS!

The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
Click here to contact webmaster by email

May 2010, Star Tribune : Bob McCoy obituary and news story

St. Anthony Main location closed as of January 2002.
Collection currently on display in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Science Museum's "Weighing The Evidence" exhibit.

READ and LISTEN to the Voice of America article about Bob McCoy's retirement HERE

INDEX | DEVICES | GIFT SHOP |QUACKS | EPHEMERA | VIDEO

Page last modified 1/13/17

*formerly http://www.mtn.org/quack/

All Photographs, Images and Written Material on this website are the Exclusive Copyright of The Museum of Questionable Medical Decices (museumofquackery.com) and my not be duplicated, linked to, or reused in any form without our express permission. Not responsible for content of all links, please use discretion and common sense when clicking on them. Please refer to our privacy policy for details.