MuseumOfQuackery.com

This is the website for Bob McCoy

World-renowned expert on Medical Quackery and Health Fraud,
and founder of The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices.
(which is now located at the Science Museum of Minnesota)

Robert W. McCoy
1927-2010

Bob McCoy passed away on May 23, 2010 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. (Bob's Obituary)

Bob lived a life dedicated to exposing nonsense and pseudo-science, while advocating rational living and humanist ideals.

Please help us keep his principles alive.

Click
HERE to leave a comment about Bob
or a message of support for Bob's family

Curator McCoy in antique phrenology machine.

Watch clips of Bob's past TV appearances in our:
Video Vault!

Voice of America story about Bob's Museum:
"Only in America: Quack Quack" CLICK HERE

NPR Story about Bob McCoy's retirement
CLICK HERE
Story from the
BBC...
CLICK HERE


Come One! Come All !!!

Devious Displays of Quackery, Fraud, Deceit and Deception!
The largest collection of medical chicanery and mayhem ever assembled under one roof !!!

Step right up !! .........

Curator McCoy in antique phrenology machine.

Sound like a carnival barker? A snake oil salesman? A sideshow shill?

Well, you're close .....
Map of the Brain per Phrenology.  Pre-psychology.

It's the

Museum of Questionable
Medical Devices

Proprietor Bob McCoy was a veritable encyclopedia of the world's most inane and useless information about how to cure and/or comprehend what may ail or puzzle you. Author of Quack!: Tales of Medical Fraud from the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, he's the guy pictured at left getting a "phrenology" reading on a "psycograph" (the machine measures the size of bumps on the head to determine his personality). The reading lets you know how you're doing on any of 35 character traits like intelligence, spirituality,suavity and chastity (all the bumps can be mapped -- above right).

Dubbed "The Quackery Hall of Fame" by the Copley Wire Service, the museum was the world's largest display of what the human mind has devised to cure itself without the benefit of either scientific method or common sense. It comprised the major collections on loan from The American Medical Association, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, The St. Louis Science Center, The Bakken Library, The National Council Against Health Fraud .  Visit us at 201 SE Main Street, Minneapolis, MN 55414 across the Mississipi River from downtown Minneapolis.

 

Bing

 Named one of the
12 Wierdest Museums in the World

by FOX NEWS!



A sampling of the amazingly useless gadgets that await you:

Curator McCoy displays the 1918 Prostate Gland Warmer.


"A few volts of electricity appropriately applied will put the sparks back into your love life!" , says McCoy holding a machine that claimed to increase virility (and cure prostate problems).






From the mid-1970's:  the Breast Enlarger Pump! $9.95 US retail.  The device caused bruising.And for the ladies ... a foot powered breast enlarger!!

Then we have soap that sudses off pounds. And if the soap doesn't work for you, how about a pair of weight reduction glasses ? Stand in front of lights flashing prismatic colors that "guarantee" health and well being. Expose yourself to the "magic" of radio waves ... yes, quackery is alive and well on the banks of the mighty Mississippi........


Your Ad Here

See for yourself, stop in and "take the cure!"

 

Tour the Museum


Learn the stories of
Great American Quacks
Check out our on-line
Device Collection
See graphics from the
Ephemera Collections
Watch Bob's TV appearances in our:
Video Vault
Buy Bob's Book:
Quack!: Tales of Medical Fraud from the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
Don't leave without seeing our
Quack Links

The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
Click here to contact us by email

May 2010, Star Tribune : Bob McCoy obituary and news story

St. Anthony Main location closed as of January 2002.

Website moved to www.museumofquackery.com May 2007*

READ and LISTEN to the Voice of America article about Bob McCoy's retirement HERE



Page last modified 5/12/11

*formerly http://www.mtn.org/quack/

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