Six exhibits under the case lights.
Mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries, hundreds of items of memorabilia, antique tins and jars, vintage advertisements, and some very fine pots.
What is on the walls.
Jars and bottles, beautiful pots, a food quiz and a seat at MustardPiece Theatre.
The Great Wall of Mustard
Floor-to-ceiling shelves of jars and bottles, the collection that began with a dozen jars in 1986.
Mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries.
The Gibbons Collection
Mustard pots from the collection of James Arthur Gibbons, “easily the second-most passionate collector of mustard pots ever known.”
Donated by the Gibbons family. In the permanent collection since 2000.
MustardPiece Theatre
Videos about mustard, such as “Mustard: The Spice of Nations”, shown daily on a big screen.
Take a seat.
The Curator’s Food Quiz
An interactive kiosk. Find out how much you really know about the condiment.
The Curator’s own quiz.
How Mustard Is Grown
Where the seed comes from, told through the exhibit “Canada’s Mustard is the World’s Mustard.”
With the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission.
Mrs. Mustard’s Kitchen
Cooking with mustard, and one firm piece of advice: “we recommend refrigerating all mustards (even before opening) for maximum flavor and to keep that characteristic mustard bite!”
Recipes to take home are on the recipes page.
Blame it on the Red Sox.
After the Boston Red Sox lost the World Series, Barry Levenson wandered into an all-night supermarket. It was October 28, 1986. In the mustard aisle came the thought: “If you collect us, they will come.” A dozen jars became a collection, then a museum.
Levenson was an Assistant Attorney General for Wisconsin before he left the law for mustard. The museum opened in Mount Horeb in 1992, moved across the street in 2000, and came to downtown Middleton in 2009. The collection now brings together mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries, with antique tins, jars, advertisements and mustard pots.
“I argued a case before the Supreme Court with a jar of mustard in my left pocket. We won!”
Barry Levenson, founder & curator
- 1986
A dozen jars, bought in the wee hours after the World Series.
- 1992
Opens to the public in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.
- 2000
Moves across the street in Mount Horeb.
- 2009
Moves to downtown Middleton and becomes the National Mustard Museum.
Admission is free. The museum is a nonprofit.
National Mustard Museum Inc. has been a 501(c)3 since 2011. Donations go to the museum; gift shop purchases go to a separate business.