Libby Museum

By profession, Henry Libby was a dentist, however his passion was being a collector…of pretty much everything, including natural, anthropological, and historical wonders worth studying for science, cataloging for posterity, and displaying under glass for the general public.

After decades of collecting, in 1912 Libby designed and built a museum to house and display his burgeoning collection. Now, a century later, you can still see his eccentric and personality-driven treasures.

The Libby Museum is a small, plain-looking building, with most all of its collection displayed in a single large room. You can scan the room in mere moments, but you could delve for hours. The first thing you’ll notice is the impressive taxidermy menagerie, which includes a seven-foot-long alligator, a flying fish, a tarantula, a bear, a bobcat, and all sorts of other stuffed creatures and animal skeletons.

Also in the collection are exhibits of cultural worth, including Abenaki Indian artifacts, colonial-era weapons, a necklace made of monkey teeth, and a genuine pair of Egyptian mummy hands.

The Libby Museum is only open seasonally and is across the street from Lake Winnipesauke and about three miles north of the downtown vacationville of Wolfeboro, NH.

Adapted with Permission from: The New England Grimpendium by J.W. Ocker