Accordionist Nancy 3 Hoffman—Yes, That's Her Middle Name—Tells the Story of Her...Umbrella Cover Museum

On this episode of Our American Stories, meet Nancy 3 (that's the numeral '3' not the word 'three') Hoffman, an accordionist, world traveler, and owner of the world's only Umbrella Cover Museum in Peak's Island, Maine. That's umbrella covers, not umbrellas. Nancy shares the story of how she came to open such a specific museum, what her museum is like, and how her museum taught her to find joy in the mundane aspects of life.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. And now a story about
a lady who curates a very specific kind of museum.
Nancy three Hoffman. Yes, her middle name is the numeral three,
not the word three, the numeral and she lives in

(00:32):
Maine and is the founder and curator of the world's
only umbrella cover museum. Here is Nancy's story on how
she came to open such a unique place.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hi, I'm Nancy three Hoffman.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I am the founder, director, and curator of the world's
only umbrella cover Museum.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Now we're just talking about.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
The sleeves, the she's that come on umbrellas when you
buy a new umbrella, because they fascinate me. So what
happens to most umbrella covers when they're first purchased, that's
the big question. The answer I have found over many

(01:16):
years of doing the Umbrella Cover Museum is that most
people don't know what to do with them, so they
put them in the closet, drop them in the car,
stick them in a pocket, lose them and it's that
particular phenomenon that they are underappreciated and sort of.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Enigmatic that fascinated me.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
So one day I was cleaning out my house I
found a few umbrella covers. I looked at them and said, Hm,
why did I keep these? And what do other people
do with them? So I started asking people, and right
away they gave me their umbrella covers. Not only that,
but they would tell me the story. Like the first
one when I collected was from an umbrella my friend

(02:02):
Becky had. She used to have a duck handled umbrella
because she's an Audubon bird fanatic. So she said, well,
I took this umbrella with me to NASA. I left
the cover at home, and then I forgot the duck
at the dock and the cover was still at home.
So here it is, you can have it. So that

(02:22):
was the first one I actually collected. My family gave
me their umbrella covers. I asked them for a story,
so I would put them up on my kitchen wall
with a sticky note telling me the history, the anecdote,
what we say, the provenance of the umbrella cover itself.
And then one day, maybe a year later, I walked

(02:46):
into a department store in Portland saw a display of umbrellas.
There was a really, really pretty one with flowers on it.
I slipped the cover off the umbrella, put it in
my pocket, and walked out to the store. It was
really the cat list for the Umbrella Cover Museum, because honestly,
I'm a very truthful, honest person and I don't normally

(03:09):
steal things, but I did that day. I call it
my crime of passion, and I didn't want to keep
doing that. So the Umbrella Cover Museum is my penance.
I didn't think of it as a museum at first.
I just thought, oh, I'm collecting umbrella covers. They're kind
of cute. That's kind of a funny thing. So I

(03:30):
put them on my kitchen wall. People came to my house,
they would look, they would say, what are you doing,
And it was just I guess, I'm collecting umbrella covers
at first, and then when I had enough, I was
amusing people. I like to amuse people. They were curious
about the whole idea of collecting them. I decided to
open it up as a museum, and then the following

(03:54):
year I got interviewed by NPR ANDBBC Radio so I
was pretty chuffed about that, and I thought, wow, I
must really have something here. So the collection meanwhile kept
growing and growing and I had to put it in
my living room on my porch, you know. So I
was kind of outgrowing the space in my house and

(04:17):
eventually I was able to rent a space on the
main street of Peaks Island, so I give tours of
the Umbrella Cover Museum. There are exhibits that are all organized.
I play the theme song on my accordion, so it's
always been a really fun and okay, quirky place to visit.
I have a really great international exhibit. There are now

(04:40):
covers from seventy four different countries, so if someone comes
in from Romania, I can point to the Romanian umbrella
cover and I can also sing a song in Romanian,
which not everybody could do. The game Mad for Plaid
is also on the wall this year, where you have
to guess which two covers are really Scotland, and you

(05:01):
would a prize if you do guess. The prizes are
drink parasols. The Art and Umbrella Covers exhibit, which has
famous paintings like The Girl with a Pearl ear Ring
or The Kiss by Gustav Klint on umbrella covers. There
are a lot of really good umbrella cover stories. One
of my favorites is that a young woman from Peaks Island, Eleanor,

(05:26):
was living in Germany and she found a black umbrella
cover on the side of the road next to the
Berlin Wall, and she wrote a great story about how
it was a gray, grizzly day by this symbol of
communism and of repression.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
There were two people kissing.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
By the side of the wall who were ignoring the
whole history, and here was this umbrella cover that she
had just found. The other thing that I realized about
the Umbrella Cover Museum after having it open for a
few years was that it has a deeper purpose. The

(06:13):
mission of the Umbrella Cover Museum is the appreciation of
the mundane in everyday life. It's also about finding wonder
and beauty in the simplest of things, and about knowing
that there is always a story behind the cover. And
if you keep that in mind, it's hard to get bored.

(06:35):
It's hard to not find some joy and beauty in
just about any activity or anything in the world.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
And that's really why.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
I keep going with it, and that's really I hope
what grabs people when they come to see the Umbrella
Cover Museum.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
And a great job by Chrissy and a special thanks
to Nancy three Hoffman. And that's the number three, not
the word. And if you want to learn more about
the Umbrella Cover Museum or want to donate your umbrella
covers to Nancy's collection, go to www. Umbrellacovermuseum dot org.
The museum is only open in the summer, so if

(07:13):
you're in main be sure to visit the story of
the Umbrella Coover Museum here on our American Stories. Here
at our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business,

(07:35):
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(07:56):
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