Cincinnatian Tod Swormstedt’s plans to expand his American Sign Museum got a jolt of electricity recently in the form of a $900,000 check from an out-of-town donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

Next spring, the newly transplanted, 19,300-square-foot museum will welcome guests as they walk beneath a giant genie and enter a fantasy world of American advertising straight out of yesteryear.

It’s going to be like no other place in the country, Swormstedt said. (The Neon Museum in Las Vegas has a large collection of signs from the strip displayed in “bone yard” fashion, but it’s not organized like a traditional museum and is open by appointment only.) (Brent Coleman, Cincinnati Enquirer)