A Visit to the American Sign Museum
in Cincinnati, Ohio
For some time I have wanted to visit the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, but over and over again it just never worked out! The American Sign Museum is a world class museum that displays restored vintage signs in a massive converted warehouse that is not only astonishingly beautiful, but also educational! The museum was founded in 1999, which is the same year that I moved away from Ohio after graduating from college, and opened to the public in 2005. It went under my radar for a little while, until I started collecting signs and advertising for my own home which was around the time they opened publicly. I started seeing it pop up on various social media sites over the years, and I knew it was a place I needed to visit! Unfortunately, year after year it seemed like EVERY time I was going though Cincinnati it was either really early in the morning as I was making a ten hour drive home, or simply on one of their closed days! A trip was going to have to be made with the American Sign Museum as the reason to go… and it so happens that this summer we also have Six Flags Prestige Passes which work at King’s Island. So a fun weekend trip came together really fast this past weekend. We drove up to the Queen city after work on Friday, rode roller coasters on Saturday, and visited the museum first thing Sunday morning before returning home.
Oh my gosh! This place is simply stunning! I knew it would be from what I have seen online, but to see it in person is really incredible. Founded by Tod Swormstedt, the museum has signs ranging from massive roadside advertisement to smaller pieces that you might find on the wall of a country store. It is a place where restoration, preservation, and display all collide in a kaleidoscope of neon color and shimmering glass as you walk through the massive complex. For me the centerpiece of the museum is the replica “small town” that they have built that lets you walk through the streets and admire all of these masterpieces of American advertising! It reminds me of walking through the “Streets of Yesteryear” at the old COSI science museum in Columbus, Ohio that I grew up with – except now it is gleaming with bright neon colors and flashing incandescent bulbs! It’s truly an eye-popping visual experience.
And walking through the “town” isn’t everything, as there are large rooms that are dedicated to advertising that educate you about how the medium picked up in the 1800s and how it changed with the development of new technology and new materials to work with – and of course how art styles changed with the times. You are not only looking at art designed and made by American craftsman in the past, but you are learning about how the craft evolved over time. A current exhibit that is showing while we were there is called “Back to the Drawing Board – The Art of the Sign Sketch 1925-1975” (ran March 12-June 11, 2026). This temporary exhibit has you walking through a maze of walls telling and showing the story of some prominent sign maker’s artists while showing their sketches and art as they developed projects that came to fruition and some that never made it past the paper. It was a nice surprise to walk up to a sign sketch from one of the long gone banks in the town my parents are from – a sign that I have seen when I was younger and in many old photos, as well.
We spent about an hour and a half here basking in the neon glow before buying a shirt at the gift shop and making our way south to get back home. If you are in to art, adverting, antiques, or just miss the way towns USED to look this place should be on your “must do” list!
Below are a few of my photos and check out their website here for more information: www.americansignmuseum.org
Questions? Comments? Please email me at [email protected]
