Antique Vibrator Museum
The Good Vibrations Antique Vibrator Museum is located in San Francisco that showcases a collection of vintage sex toys, with items dating back to the 1800s. The museum is located inside the Good Vibrations store, a sex toy company that specializes in high-quality pleasure aids.
The museum tells the history of the vibrator, which was initially marketed as a medical device for the treatment of “hysteria,” a condition that was believed to afflict women and was characterized by emotional or mental distress. Doctors used to treat this condition by sexually stimulating their patients to orgasm using vibrators, which were invented to make this “treatment” easier.
By the 1950s, the American Psychiatric Association dropped the term “female hysteria” altogether and vibrators became a household product, marketed as a beauty device, massager, or panacea for women’s health concerns. The museum contains a variety of vintage vibrators and advertisements for these devices, as well as a collection of modern sex toys available for purchase in the Good Vibrations store.
The museum offers free, docent-led tours every third Sunday of the month, and is open to the public daily with extended hours on Thursdays.