 The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum in East Tennessee, Gatlinburg has the world’s largest collection of salt and pepper shakers. In this amazing museum one can find salt and pepper shakers from big ones, small ones, cute ones, quirky ones, glass, plastic and wooden ones, just about any type ever made is on display here. All these salt and pepper shakers are collected by Andrea Ludden over the past 22 years.
Andrea is an archaeologist who fell in love with the salt & pepper shakers and went on collecting all possible shapes and sizes of salt and pepper shakers. By 2001 the family moved from Central Texas to the Smoky Mountains and opened the only Museum of its kind in 2002. They started with just 12,000 salt and pepper shaker sets which now has crossed over 22,000 pairs and 1500 pepper mills!
The museum displays unique salt and pepper shakers by different themes and colors one will also witness the changes in the design of salt and pepper shakers from ancient times to the 1500's, 1800's, 1920's, 40's, 60's all the way to present time. The shakers in the museum look very lively, and are arranged mostly by their visual category, with dozens of penguins, hundreds of chefs, countless variations of every vegetable.
There are miniature Amish farmers, sleepy Mexicans, stoic Indians and glowing space aliens as well. Some shakers honor the Beatles and Mt. Rushmore. One will also find shakers with McDonald's menu items, and the Apollo XI moon landing. A surprising number of shakers are of things that are not normally associated with a kitchen table like the skulls, witches, tombstones even a toilet and human foot.
Andrea Ludden is the museum's curator, but she credits her mother for the collections. Gatlinburg’s Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers is currently for sale, but only to the right buyer but it doesn’t stop Andrea to regularly add to the museum's inventory, as does her daughter, Andrea Jr.
Visitors Information
- Admission Rates: Suggested $3.00 donation per adult
- Hours Open: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- Dates Closed: December - February
Address
Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers
461 Brookside Village Way, Winery Square,
Gatlinburg, TN
Phone: 865-430-5515
Website: www.thesaltandpeppershakermuseum.com |
