Background

Located in the Catholic Foundation Building first floor is the Museum of Catholic Art and History, the museum was first founded in 1998 by a local priest at the Holy Family School on South Grubb Street.

The current location (link below) was opened in 2020 and purpose built to house the current collection, which is believed to be the largest in the United States of Catholic artifacts.

257 E Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215

Website: https://www.catholicmuseum.org/

Admission Prices are $10 per adult or $5 for seniors or children.

Impression

Religious artifacts can be very interesting, especially ones that are very old. You get to see first hand what was crafted by master artisans from the past. Churches have also historically been very good keepers of records for various things such as marriages and deaths and other census information.

We did not know what to expect going into this museum, with our only other religious museums being the BibleWalk museum and the Pontifical College Building north of Columbus just off of US-23.

There is a large display of texts dating back to the mid 1500’s, statues and nativities from various cultures and nations. Clothing can also be seen from different priests, bishops and other various clergy.

Any museum is only as good as the documentation and the staff that work it. Both can be found here as the displays are documented and the staff working there were able to answer all our questions. They were very cordial as well and made great small talk!

You may not think that this would interest you, but you’d be surprised just how much you can learn from a museum like this.