My First Visit to the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers in Gatlinburg

May 19, 2024

For months I’ve been wanting to visit this unique little museum in Gatlinburg. I say months and not years, because it was never a big priority as tourists, but now that we’re locals, strangely, I needed to see what all the fuss was about with my own eyes. I probably watched it on one of the many television programs it was featured; I just can’t remember which one. It was long enough ago that it never stuck with me. However, I finally managed to visit this rare collection of table top seasoning containers. First, let’s sprinkle in some history of The Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers!

The story begins with a lady and her fascination with salt and pepper shakers. As an archaelologist from Belgium, Andrea Ludden was no stranger to studying ancient artifacts, so you could call it fate that she became enamored with unearthing salt and pepper shakers. Her quest to find the right ones led her on an entertaining journey that gave Gatlinburg this museum. She was interested in how they were created, used, and stored, amassing an amazing collection. She meticulously calculated and cataloged each one until finally, her husband Rolf, told here she needed to do something with them other than storing them in boxes underneath the house. Then, the seed was planted.

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They were living in Central Texas and decided to move to the Smoky Mountains in order to open a shop never before seen in these United States. The museum was first opened in nearby Cosby in 2002, but settled into its current location at Winery Square off 321 in Gatlinburg in 2005. Chances are excellent you’ve discovered this museum from your television-watching habits. They have been featured in numerous programs across the television and print media spectrum. Here is a list of media that have featured the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers:

The museum was featured in 2006 in the Food Network's Unwrapped with Marc Summers, Episode 1402.
Rob Wilds interviewed Andrea for the TV program Tennessee Crossroads.
On July 18, 2009 the museum was mentioned in a skit on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (NBC).
For the opening of the museum in Spain, Andrea was interviewed on the Valencian TV station Canal Nou.
In 2012, the museum appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine online.
Also in 2012, the museum was featured in the book "Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus", by Joyce Magnin.This very entertaining book relates Harriet Beamer's visit to the museum, and her growing collection of salt and pepper shakers.
The American Profile article was syndicated to the Sunday section of many newspapers throughout the country.
There have been several radio interviews, such as Australia's ABC Radio,PBS Radio KCBX Podcast,American Voices - Senator Bill Bradley interview on Sirius (9/19/2015).
The Associated Press article by Caryn Rousseau appeared in many newspapers around the country, such as the News-Herald, Deseret News,South Coast Today.
In 2015 the museum was published in The Guardian.

My experience was a first for me. We just never were interested enough to stop and look around, so I ended that with this visit. Before walking in, you can read different reviews from visitors near and far, including the inside. The friendly lady at the front will inform you of your $3 admission fee, and that you can use it toward a souvenir in the shop to the right. But first, to walk through the displays, you will take a left.

There’s a short video on a loop to begin the self-guided tour, and the first cases of containers will greet you. They are organized, just as Andrea would’ve done herself, according to their themes: Food, Transportation, Animals, Vegetables, Cartoon Characters, Chefs, (yes, the creators of the food we eat) and even a Vault near the end, which shows the oldest, most unique shakers in the entire museum. There is also a fair amount of education to be read in all the glass cases, including some fascinating history of a few companies that produced them. There’s cheap plastic ones and fancy glass handhelds you’d probably be scared to touch for fear of breaking them. But never fear, they are protected and only seen by visitors, not to be touched.

In total the museum has over 20,000 of the kitchen collectibles, and at the end, there’s a map board where each visitor can pin where they’re from. You can view each year’s pins from their first year, which really shows you the increase in tourism this area has seen. Also, there’s some neat history about salt and pepper that many of us probably didn’t know about. You can absolutely appreciate the amount of love that Andrea Ludden had in order to curate this museum full of antique, vintage, and more modern salt and pepper shakers. Andrea passed away in 2015, but the many, many visitors from all over the world thank you for bringing this incredible collection to light. It is a lasting memory of her legacy that lives on.

Although I didn’t purchase any of the shakers that were for sale in the gift shop, I look forward to returning again to show my wife and son how cool it is to truly experience the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers here in Gatlinburg. You can spend as much time admiring these items as you like, and there’s quite a few to scan through! I highly recommend you take at least 30 minutes to an hour or more of your vacation time to look through Andrea’s collection. I had to smile and laugh a little on the inside when the nice lady at the entrance told me to enjoy the rest of my vacation. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I lived here, but the reminder always hits me in the feels.

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My First Visit to the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers in Gatlinburg

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