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America's obsession with celebrity oozes from our collective identity in multitudinous ways, including the merely disturbing (the activities of gravers on the hunt for the final resting places of the stars) and the alarming and illegal (the behavior of stalkers and iPhone hackers), but the desire to make a physical connection with the demigods who cavort across our stages, laptop screens, and required reading lists also finds expression in one of the most peaceful, pervasive monuments to celebrity culture: the childhood/birthplace museum.
These shrines to the homes (typically, but not always, a modest, semi-rural abode) where a star spent his or her formative years are places where a visitor can stand on the same porch Elvis once played, stare through the same window from which a tiny Nina Simone once looked out on the North Carolina countryside, or run their fingers over the crayoned graffiti in teenaged Kurt Cobain's bedroom. Normal people can't grasp what the white-hot glare of fame feels like, but we were all children once; these shrines put us in touch with celebrity at the last point we have a universal experience in common: growing up.
But enough talk, here's the map:
· All Curbed Maps [Curbed National]