The story begins with Boaz Frankel, a television personality and self-described kazoo enthusiast who started amassing kazoos in 2007 while living in Seattle. His collection started modestly -- around a hundred instruments, plus patents, sheet music, books, and records tracing the kazoo's history from its murky origins in the 1840s through its appearances in jazz, jug bands, and Saturday morning cartoons. When Frankel relocated to Portland, Oregon, in 2008, the collection went with him but disappeared from public view, accessible only through the museum's website. By 2010, the hoard had doubled to roughly 200 pieces, and Frankel needed a proper home for it -- somewhere with foot traffic, factory charm, and an appreciation for the absurd.

Enter Kazoobie Kazoos, one of the world's largest kazoo distributors. Founded by Rick Hubbard and Gayle Andrus, the company had bounced between Hilton Head Island and Florida before co-owner Steven Murray brought operations back to his hometown of Beaufort in 2009. Kazoobie invited Frankel's collection to take up residence inside their working factory, and on October 6, 2010, The Kazoo Museum officially opened its doors. A ribbon-cutting ceremony brought out local residents, Frankel himself, and the Kazoobie owners for what may have been the most cheerfully buzzing grand opening in South Carolina history. Visitors could now tour the production floor, watch kazoos being stamped and assembled, then step into the museum gallery to see where it all began.

The collection fills a dedicated building at the Kazoobie factory, every item displayed behind glass cases like the treasures they are -- at least to the devoted. There are kazoos over a hundred years old, relics from an era when the instrument was a legitimate fixture in American popular music. There are novelty kazoos shaped like famous cartoon characters, a kazoo used on the set of The Partridge Family, and electric kazoos that amplify the player's hum into something unexpectedly powerful. Beyond the instruments themselves, the museum preserves an old press once used to manufacture kazoo parts, stacks of kazoo sheet music from decades past, and assorted memorabilia that charts the instrument's winding path through American culture. The kazoo's origins remain debated -- a popular legend attributes its invention to an Alabama man named Alabama Vest in the 1840s, though firm documentation is elusive.

Beaufort, South Carolina, is known for its antebellum architecture, its tidal marshes, and its place in Civil War history. A kazoo museum does not appear on the obvious list of local attractions. And yet it fits. This is a town that has always collected stories -- some grand, some quirky, all genuine. The Kazoo Museum sits comfortably among them, a reminder that passion does not require prestige and that the history of even the humblest objects can fill a room if someone cares enough to gather it. Visitors leave knowing more about the kazoo than they ever expected to, and most of them leave humming.