The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum began when its founder, Barry Levenson, started collecting mustards on October 27, 1986. His beloved Red Sox had lost the World Series to the New York Mets that night and Barry was very depressed. He went to an all-night supermarket to wander the aisles. He turned down the condiment aisle and heard a deep resonant voice as he passed the mustards: “If you collect us, they will come.” Barry bought about a dozen jars of mustard that evening and resolved to amass the world’s largest collection of prepared mustards.

At the time Barry was employed as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin. As his collection grew, he became aware that his calling was to devote his passions full-time to Mustard. He left the practice of law in 1991 and opened The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum to the general public in Mount Horeb, WI on April 6, 1992. Subsequently, the Museum moved to its new spacious facility (across the street from the old site) in October of 2000. From those few jars of mustard that Barry found in 1986, the Museum collection has grown to more than 4,600 mustards and hundreds of items of mustard memorabilia.

The Mustard Museum has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, The Food Network, HGTV’s “The Good Life,” and in the pages of dozens of national magazines and newspapers.