Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata

Very lovely couple with a unique collection of items and more importantly, the stories behind them!

If you feel like Austin is becoming less «weird» and losing what makes it unique, go visit the Museum of Ephemerata. The museum is dedicated to the history of collecting, and it’s full of interesting things with crazy stories. It all takes place in a family’s living room, but Jen and Scott, the owners, are happy to welcome you into their home and show you their garden/​menagerie.
When I have out-​of-​town visitors, I bring them here. It is a quintessential Austin experience!

Go here! Bring your friends and family! This small museum, housed in an East Austin family room, is a great collection of oddities, mysteries, and jokes. The exhibits are interpreted by the residents with humor and flexibility to suit the tour-​goer. The «Impermanent Collection» is enhanced by special themed exhibits, back yard gardens and art, and a bevy of family pets (Siamese guppy!!).
The museum is supported by your donation or purchase of memorabilia.

I loved the Museum of Ephemerata. I had no expectations when I went and I was blown away. Scott showed us around the museum, which is in the front portion of their home. What is truly amazing about it, are the details and the way they go from exhibit to exhibit is seamless. Going through the museum is more like floating on a stream of consciousness than going from one thing to the next. It was very dreamlike when one of their cats sat on the floor and the floor happend to be sponge painted the exact colors of the calico cat. It may not be for people looking for a typical city/​state museum but it’s great for a unique experience. I liked that they demonstrated different ways «artifacts» can be displayed.

I had no idea what to expect when I drove up to this charming house surrounded by yard art. Two of their felines met me at the gate and walked me to the door– I knew I was in a good place!
I felt like I was at Ripley’s Believe It or Not, but I believed everything I was told. It is apparent that the museum is Jen’s and Scott’s labor of love. Besides their collection, I got a tour of the winter garden that has survived well during the winter’s freezes. Then Mia the cat jumped the hoop.
The museum is truly one of our city’s hidden treasures.

I visited the museum last week (Oct 2010) and saw the amazing front and backyard gardens, the Underground exhibition, and pieces of the permanent collection. The curators are welcoming, knowledgeable, and engaging! Austin natives and visitors: make this a destination!

In another life (or, perhaps another economy), I would have gone into museum work. I love discovering places that really care about creating an excellent experience for visitors, and the Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata has to be one of my favorite ‘museum’ experiences in Austin.
I don’t know what sort of truths lie in this museum, but the tours make the place. Jen and Scott give tours that are humorous and I have a feeling the content is different every time. I spent the entire time entranced by their amusing docenting and left feeling giggly and like I was in on a twee East Austin secret.

Loved this place! This is one of the weirdest museums I’ve ever been to. It’s owned by a very nice couple (never caught their names, but apparently they are Jen and Scott), and entrance fee is basically donation-​based. When we first entered, Jen had just begun the tour. They have a collection of the oddest and most random objects. To name a few, contraband stalagtite, train tokens from around the world, a pygmy kangaroo, venezuelan ants, a group of shells sitting around a table playing cards, a huge banana spider, and chickens and rabbits running around in the backyard. Their cat was SO CUTE and friendly! They also have a pet garter snake that they let us hold. This place was very quirky and fun to visit, and I had a great time.

«Gosh! What crafty, entrepreneurial, capitalistic hippies.» That’s the thought that kept running through my mind the entire time I was at this museum. I was also a little jealous, I wish I could get people to pay me to look at all the weird stuff I have collected. We paid to look at their eye boogies for god’s sake! Genius! This museum is a house full of really weird stuff, entrance fee is a donation of anything from a dime to four dollars so you’ll definitely get your money’s worth of entertainment. My friend and I loved the roughly 45 min we spent gawking at weird things, listening to descriptions of their items & stifling our laughter like little kids in grade school and I think *that* is what makes it worth visiting. This is the epitome of the Austin vibe and definitely a place you should take out-​of-​towners to give them a good dose of Austin culture shock (Take them here first and they’ll take meeting Leslie a little easier). Don’t miss the circus cat’s trick at the end. As a crazy cat lady myself, I thought it was awesome that they could get their cat to do a trick and work for it’s food, mine just lay around on my bed pillows waiting to get their free premium kibble like the lazy little communists they are.

I went on Valentine’s Day to the Wondrous Instruments exhibit.
So, it’s a museum collection of bizarro stuff in a couple’s house. It is one of the WEIRDEST collections I have ever seen. They had musical instruments (player piano, cigar box guitars) and scientific instruments (x ray machines, ghost detectors). There was live music and wine and beer. Wild times. I saw Vince from the Cathedral of Junk there too!
If you want to walk on the weirder side, just check out the website and go there.

The Museum of Natural and Artificial Emphemerata («MNAE») holds AWE-​inspiring exhibits of weirdness. From Liberace’s ghostly piano keys to the Kombacha Research Station, this small museum has something to impress even the most jaded emphemerata museum goer. Please email or check the website before visiting as the MNAE has limited hours (mainly weekends). 5 Stars. Major fu atmosphere. Check it out!