One of the pleasures of visiting museums is discovering something you didn’t expect.

When I visited ¡Puro Ritmo!, the exhibition produced by the National Museum of the American Latino in Washington, DC, I expected energetic music, dance, and interactive experiences. Those were certainly there, but one exhibit offered a completely different kind of surprise.

Standing before Tito Puente’s timbales, I assumed the museum might invite visitors to explore rhythm, play cowbells, or watch archival footage of the legendary bandleader. Instead, a small label read: “Places and scents are connected. Push the lever to smell the scent and imagine a night of dancing. What do these smells remind you of?”

Beside it was a small black cylinder. I pressed the lever, and a complex blend of gardenias, leather, and a hint of tobacco drifted upward. For a brief moment, it felt less like standing in a museum and more like walking into a crowded ballroom on a warm evening as Tito Puente’s orchestra prepared to play.

Smell remains one of the museum world’s most underused interpretive tools, despite its remarkable ability to evoke memory, emotion, and a sense of place. Used thoughtfully—as it is here—it can deepen an experience in ways that labels, objects, and even sound alone cannot.

If your museum is considering experimenting with scent, among of the leading suppliers for museums and cultural organizations is AromaPrime, whose scent technologies have been incorporated into exhibitions around the world (although I’m unsure if they ship to the US). You’ll find the fatty, greasy odor of Tallow Candles and the fragrant aroma of embalming oils in Egyptian Mummy. Perhaps it’s time for more museums to ask not only what visitors should see and hear—but what they should smell.

For a fun look at the smells that can be found in museum collections, see “Discover the Aromas of Ancient Egyptian Mummies, From Orange Peels to Pine to Incense” in Smithsonian magazine.