Portland, Maine Is Home to an Umbrella Cover Museum
The quirky little spot houses more than 2,000 umbrella covers from around the world.
Museum enthusiasts will know this: If you look hard enough, you'll find a museum for pretty much anything. Not only that, but the more specific that "anything" is, the cooler the museum.
Don't believe me? Well, nestled in Peaks Island, right off the coast of Portland, Maine, the Umbrella Cover Museum is a hidden gem worthy of a visit. Boasting more than 2,000 quirky, eccentric, and colorful umbrella covers coming from more than 70 countries around the globe, the museum was even awarded a Guinness World Record in 2012 for having, at the time, the largest collection of umbrella covers, which then amounted to 730.
Helming the curation and the direction of this tiny yet mighty collection is Nancy 3. Hoffman, who founded the museum in 1996. The way the Umbrella Cover Museum came about almost by mistake. "Having discovered that she had five or six umbrella covers she didn't know what to do with, and eventually stealing one from a local department store, she decided to start a museum," reads the museum's website, referring to Hoffman's light-bulb moment. "People flocked by the tens to see the museum, people were thrilled to donate their old umbrella sheaths, and the international press went bonkers."
Almost 30 years later, Peaks Island's tiny museum is still a cultural hotspot—so much so that TikTok found out about it, and the community is loving it.
"Drove up to Portland, Maine and took the ferry to Peaks Island to hear this song at the Umbrella Covers Museum," reads the overtext in a recent TikTok by @musuems. In the video, Hoffman greets the audience and sings along to the museum's official theme song while playing the accordion. "We have a chorus," she notes in the middle of her performance, pointing at a sign displaying the lyrics. "You can sing along!"
With more than 60,000 views, the TikTok is spreading the knowledge about the Umbrella Cover Museum, and prospective visitors are eager to check it out. "I wanted to go to Maine this summer anyways but this really sold me," reads one comment. "I'm totally adding this to the day trips list for the summer," says another one.
Thrillist reached out to Hoffman to comment on the museum's tourism influx. This story will be updated should the museum's owner respond.
If you're sold on visiting the Umbrella Cover Museum, here are a few things to remember. The museum is only open during the summer and until Labor Day, and you can visit this website to learn more about opening hours. To reach it, take a ferry from Portland to Peaks Island, and you'll get right to it.