With more than 3,000 vintage lunchboxes and 1,000 thermoses littering the walls and shelves of this unsuspecting museum, the Lunchbox Museum in Columbus Georgia is the largest collection in the entire world.
The Lunchbox Museum has an extremely interesting origin story (well, everything about it is interesting). One day, Allen Woodall, the collector and founder of the museum, bought two vintage lunchboxes at an antique show in Atlanta in the mid 1980s. From there his collection grew to include some of the rarest pieces in the world. One-of-a-kind lunchboxes, artifacts of a childhood tucked away gently in the square edges of a metal lunchbox.
You wouldn’t expect to see a giant, colorful lunchbox museum when you walk through the doors to The River Market Antiques, which houses not only the Lunchbox Museum, but seven completely unique museums. But this spot teaches us to expect the unexpected. And prepare to be in awe!
The seven museums of the Columbus Collective Museums
Other than the world-famous Lunchbox Museum, the Columbus Collective has six completely unique museums you can’t miss out on.
Crown Royal Cola Museum
Step into a soda shop of the past and check out the origins of RC Cola, which began in 1905. Read up about the history and see relics of a bygone era that you can’t see anywhere else. Old cola calendars cover the walls, and bottles show you what the past looked like.
Nehi Drink Museum
If you’ve ever had a Nehi, you know the delicious flavors are unbeatable. This tasty drink has an interesting history, though, and you can really only find it out by stopping by the museum!
Chero-Cola Museum
In 1910, Chero-Cola came onto the scene, forming the foundations of RC cola and the cola industry itself. With a legacy that we all enjoy today (but don’t always recognize), Chero-Cola paved the way for the cola industry.
The Georgia Radio Museum
The Georgia Radio Museum preserves a little bit of long-forgotten history: the radio. With shelves lined floor-to-ceiling with ancient relic radios, you’ll be transported back into a time where information was much less available, and the only way to get it, really, was the radio. This piece of history is incredibly important, and is so beautifully preserved at the Columbus Collective.
The Tom Huston Peanut Museum
You would probably never even think about how much history there is being shelling peanuts… but the Tom Huston Peanut Museum has so much information and incredible history to share!
Car Museum
With pieces you can’t find anywhere else, the Car Museum showcases relics of the past that will have you feeling nostalgic for fast, fancy cars! You can even get inside a completely restored 1953 Airstream Bubble, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Other Pieces
The museum also includes some more miscellaneous art pieces that are incredible pieces of history, but don’t fit into any of the specific museums.
You might’ve seen some of the incredible work of the enslaved Black potters of Edgefield, SC at the High Museum of Art–well, the Columbus Collective has some of those pieces permanently. With a signed David Drake pottery piece, you can look into the true beauty and bravery of a Black potters and poets from the mid 1800s.
There’s also a collection of “Blood Life,” a pseudo-medicine that claimed to be “the greatest blood remedy known,” which would make “rich red blood” just by drinking it.
Details
Address: 3218 Hamilton Rd, Columbus, GA
Tickets Prices (includes all 7 museums):
- General Admission: $10
- Military/Seniors: $9
- Students: $7.50
- Children 6 and under: FREE
Don’t miss out on this incredible history, right outside of Atlanta. And remember–don’t judge a book by its cover. Sometimes the most unassuming places are hiding the most incredible secrets.