Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum – Logan, Ohio - Atlas Obscura
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Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum

Logan, Ohio

It took more than 20 years and a sharp eye for one man to assemble this quirky collection. 

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Some of the brass collection alisoni (Atlas Obscura User)
Some of the brass collection alisoni (Atlas Obscura User)
The whole museum is inside the shed Afjsdoiuqnnn (Atlas Obscura User)
Some of the collection alisoni (Atlas Obscura User)
The man himself, and a citation from the Ohio State Senate alisoni (Atlas Obscura User)
A guidebook for the uninitiated pencil sharpener Afjsdoiuqnnn (Atlas Obscura User)
Panorama converting the rectangular interior of the collection into a linear version. This collection includes sharpeners both from the titular collector and a follow on contributor. jsetear (Atlas Obscura User)
Star Wars pencil sharpeners jsetear (Atlas Obscura User)
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Collecting pencil sharpeners and assembling them into a museum dedicated to pencil sharpeners is a kind of eccentric thing to do. Step inside the Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum in Logan, Ohio and it somehow seems perfectly admirable.

The Pencil Sharpener Museum is the result of over 20 years of collecting by Ohio local, Rev. Paul A. Johnson. His wife gave him a couple of car-shaped sharpeners in the late 1980s, and his zeal for collecting was born. The sharpeners lived in a pre-fab shed in Johnson’s backyard, growing over time to over 3400 at the time he passed away in 2010. His family was holding onto them when salvation for the whole collection – and the shed – came calling in 2011. It was the Hocking Hills Welcome Center, happy to take on the job of collection custodian, and everything was moved over to their site in South Logan.  

Just like any museum, the collection has been meticulously cataloged and preserved in protective cases. There are sharpening cars, toys, Garfields, Mickeys, Tweetybirds, tractors, airplanes, trains, U.S. presidents, panda bears. There are old ones and new ones, and some shelf-mounted classics you generally only see at the library. Try to be sharp on your puns though—the staff has heard them all.

Know Before You Go

Logan, Ohio is about 60 miles southeast of Columbus. The Pencil Sharpener Museum is out back at The Hocking Hills Regional Welcome Center in just off Hwy 33 on the way to Lake Logan. They are open every day from 9am to 5pm, Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

pencils niche museums writing collections museums and collections museums
Nearby
The Caves of Hocking Hills State Park
9.26 miles
Nelsonville Brick Park
11.77 miles
Hope Iron Furnace
15.17 miles
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Appears in 1 List
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The Ultimate List of Wonderfully Specific Museums

Delightfully singular collections, from umbrella covers to pencil sharpeners.
Molly McBride Jacobson May 22, 2017
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