National Mustard Museum
The National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin, is the world’s most comprehensive collection dedicated to mustard in all its culinary, historical, and cultural dimensions, housing more than six thousand mustards from over seventy countries alongside mustard memorabilia, vintage advertising, and antique condiment vessels. Founded in 1992 by Barry Levenson, a former Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General who began collecting mustard jars following the Chicago Cubs’ 1986 World Series loss, it is both a serious repository of condiment history and one of America’s most cheerfully eccentric roadside attractions.
At a glance
- Type
- Specialist food and cultural history museum
- Period
- Founded 1992; current Middleton location from 2009
- Style
- Roadside attraction and serious condiment archive
- Location
- 7477 Hubbard Avenue, Middleton, Wisconsin, USA
- Coordinates
- 43.1027° N, 89.5260° W
Overview
The National Mustard Museum holds the world’s largest collection of prepared mustards — over six thousand jars, tubes, and containers from more than seventy countries — as well as a substantial archive of mustard-related ephemera including antique crocks, advertising posters, condiment sets, and mustard-themed novelties spanning two centuries. The museum operates in a dedicated building on Hubbard Avenue in Middleton, a suburb west of Madison, and also functions as a retail store where visitors can taste and purchase mustards from around the world. It hosts the annual World’s Championship Mustard Competition (Poupon U), which attracts hundreds of entries from commercial and amateur producers.
History
Founder Barry Levenson, a lawyer working for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, has described his collecting origin story with characteristic humour: overcome with grief at the Cubs’ 1986 playoff loss, he wandered into an all-night supermarket at 2 a.m. and, hearing a voice from the mustard shelf say “if you collect us, they will come,” began buying jars. He opened the first version of the museum in 1992 in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, in a space shared with a trolls antique shop. As the collection grew, the museum moved to its own building in Mount Horeb, then relocated to a larger facility in Middleton in 2009. Levenson retired from his legal career in 2000 to run the museum full-time, and the institution has since been featured in hundreds of international media outlets.
What you see
The museum’s displays occupy several rooms filled with jars, crocks, and containers arranged by country of origin, style, and era, with labels explaining the history of mustard production in each region. Vintage advertising lithographs and enamel signs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries line the walls, and glass cases display antique silver mustard pots, ceramic mustard jars from English potteries, and novelty mustard vessels in the shape of animals, figures, and buildings. A tasting bar invites visitors to sample dozens of mustards from around the world, and the adjoining shop stocks the museum’s own branded mustard range alongside an international selection.
Cultural significance
The National Mustard Museum occupies an unusual position in American museum culture: simultaneously a genuine archive of food history — mustard is one of the oldest recorded condiments, used since ancient Rome — and a celebration of the eccentric collector’s impulse that has always driven vernacular heritage institutions. Its collection of vintage advertising and packaging constitutes a serious visual record of American and European commercial graphic design across a century, and its annual competition documents the current global diversity of artisan mustard production.
Practical information
- Address
- 7477 Hubbard Avenue, Middleton, WI 53562
- Admission
- Free entry
- Hours
- Check mustardmuseum.com for current opening hours
- Website
- mustardmuseum.com
Getting there
The museum is located on Hubbard Avenue in Middleton, Wisconsin, approximately 10 km west of downtown Madison. It is most easily reached by car; ample free parking is available on site. Madison Metro Transit routes serve the Middleton area, with connections from the Madison central transit hub. The museum is conveniently close to the Madison Beltline Highway (US-12/18), making it an accessible stop for travellers passing through southern Wisconsin.