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I knew about the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft before I wrote about the William Mortensen Witches exhibit, but I hadn’t written about just the museum yet. And it really deserves a post of it’s own so…seeing how it’s Monday (also known on some social media platforms as Museum Monday), why not cover that today?
A Museum is Conjured
The museum and its collection has interesting roots.
Raymond Buckland, an author and perhaps the first openly Wiccan in the U.S., opened his museum in 1966 from his home in Long Island, New York. He had been inspired to start a witch collection after visiting Gerald Gardner on the Isle of Man.
Buckland worked for British Airways, which enabled him to jaunt all over the world. That’s how he was able to acquire many of the artifacts in his collection.
Firsts
In addition to perhaps being the first person to openly admit practicing Wicca in the U.S., Buckland’s museum was also a first of its kind. Until his, no other witch museums existed.
It was also “the first museum of its kind in the United States with an anthropological approach to the world of folklore and the supernatural.”
Museum On the Move
The museum moved a couple of times –when Buckland did.
First to New Hampshire, where he operated it from 1977-1980. Then he stored it for several years due to a rigorous writing and lecture schedule.
In 1999 the collection was briefly reestablished in New Orleans, but then it changed hands multiple times until Rev. Velvet Reith salvaged it.
In 2015, it found its way to Cleveland, Ohio, where it is currently being both displayed and restored.
Visiting the Museum
The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick is in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio: 2155 Broadview Rd.
It is open from noon-7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. (As of this post. Always be sure to check before visiting.) They say it’ll take you about 45 minutes to go through.
Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors 60 and over, and $5 for kids aged 3-12.
For more info, visit their website: https://bucklandmuseum.org/
Jaunt with them Socially
Find the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick on Facebook and Instagram.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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