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The Apron Museum - Iuka, Mississippi

I have a form at the bottom of (I think) every page on the website that asks you to submit your favorite museum. I'm always up for hearing about cool places to go even if they aren't in Oklahoma. I'm an Okie, but the museum doesn't necessarily have to be. Thanks to a submission by Mary W., I learned about The Apron Museum in Iuka, Mississippi. The town's name is pronounced 'eye-YOU-kah'. Learned that from my first encounter with a resident from there! It's a small town in northeastern Mississippi and I loved it there. Had breakfast at Cream & Sugar Café and it was very tasty. We walked around the farmer's market that was set up for the day and we bought some whipped honey, one cinnamon and one lemon, from Pigeon Roost Farm and a loaf of cranberry walnut sourdough from Sister's Sourdough (Facebook links for all are below). The honeys and sourdough were all out of this world delicious. I may have put the honey on the bread once or twice. Or eight times. But my main reason for going to Iuka was The Apron Museum.

I told my wife about getting the suggestion that there was an apron museum. Since an apron was her first sewing project with her grandma, and she's currently hunting patterns for a couple of different aprons. She immediately looked it up and said, "It's only 8 hours from here. Well, 8 hours and 50 minutes." I said, "So, 9 hours?" She said, "I bet we could get there in eight." HA! Ever the optimist! She was so excited about it, how could I say no? So we set an alarm for Early:30 and headed out. My wife rarely goes with me on my museum adventures because of work, her own hobbies, and she's not as nuts as I am. But she was over the moon about seeing all the aprons. Don't get me wrong, I was too. I'm always fascinated by the collections I visit. But her excitement made me smile way more than I might have if she hadn't been there. That made the trip so worth it. And we both got to talk to the wonderful owners Carolyn and Henry about every aspect of their collection.

They told us that it was a complete accident that they started the museum. Like me, they love estate sales, auctions, and Ebay. As they were collecting books and other things they were interested in, they started gathering aprons, tea towels, pot holders, and the like. They eventually had enough that they put some on display and the word got out. They started getting donations by people who didn't want their precious items to go into the landfull after they were gone. One by one, aprons started pouring in, then dozens, then hundreds. They have so many now it's difficult to display them all. They have some brand new ones, some really old ones, some that are for sale, and some that only come out on special occasions. Henry and Carolyn could see that we were having a great time in their museum so they got those out for us and showed off a couple that actually required some gloves to handle them. We were honored to see them and they were proud to have them. Since we had called ahead to make sure they would be open, they also let us into their book shop too. We're bookworms too so we rang up an apron, some books, and a couple of other things. All in all, it was a great day because we made new friends, got some books, saw an awesome collection, and then went to sit on the shores of the Tennessee River and forget about the rest of the world for a few minutes. It was a long trip, but it was a great trip.

Thanks to Carolyn and Henry for being so kind and thanks to Mary for the recommendation. If you're ever in northeastern Mississippi, stop in and say hello. Also, if you're interested in acquiring the entire contents of the museum, they're open to negotiation. They love The Apron Museum, but they love the idea of retirement too. They would be happy to see the museum go to a good person who will take care of it as much as they have.

110 W Eastport St, Iuka, Missisippi

662-279-2390 - It's not open all the time so call ahead and they'll come open it for you.

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