American Toby Jug Museum

In case you're wondering, a Toby jug is a ceramic pitcher shaped like a chubby old guy wearing a tri-cornered hat and 18th-century garb. Or at least that's how they looked originally. Over the centuries the jugs took on other personas, say John F Kennedy, Joseph Stalin or a sad-eyed puppy. Some 8400 jugs – the world's largest collection, born of one man's passion 71-year-old passion and counting – hide in an apartment building basement in Evanston.