Iowa Museum Earns World Record with 38,000 Spoons

When Camellia "Cammie" Pohl's great-grandmother gave her a set of spoons before she left for Army basic training, she couldn't have imagined where that gift would lead. Today, Pohl owns the world's largest spoon collection and has turned her passion into a museum that brings history to life.

The Mississippi Spoon Gallery in Davenport, Iowa, officially earned its Guinness World Records title for the largest spoon collection with more than 38,000 pieces. Pohl displays around 10,000 spoons at a time in her gallery, rotating exhibits to showcase different eras and stories.

Her journey began with tragedy and celebration intertwined. When Pohl returned from the Army two years after receiving the gift, her great-grandmother had passed away five months earlier. Opening those carefully preserved boxes in her first home felt like celebrating her great-grandmother's life all over again.

Each spoon in the collection carries a story. A replica of Queen Elizabeth's traveling spoon served double duty as silverware and poison detector, changing color if food was contaminated. The Salem Witch Spoon from 1891 sparked America's souvenir spoon craze, launching a collecting tradition that continues today.

The gallery also preserves Quad Cities history with treasures like Tri-Cities spoons from before the area gained its fourth city. Chief Blackhawk spoons honor the leader born on the cliffs of Rock Island's Rock River.

Sunny's Take

There's something beautifully simple about honoring history through everyday objects. Pohl didn't set out to break records when she carefully stored those first spoons in 1988. She was a young soldier preserving a connection to her great-grandmother. Now her collection welcomes visitors from across the country, proving that the smallest gifts can create the biggest impact.

The gallery opened in August 2023 and continues to grow, with Pohl constantly researching and acquiring pieces that tell America's story one spoon at a time.