The Lure of the Local
Provincial museums, easy to overlook, remind us that everywhere matters.
I recently visited a local history museum in a small English town. It does not exactly matter where; there are some features that all such museums have in common. If you think of one you know, you are probably imagining a place much like this. As I wandered through the quiet corridors of neatly arranged exhibits, I counted up how many similar museums I had visited and began to think about what special places they are.