Men's Weird Collections Inspired the Modern Museum: Cabinets of Curiosities

https://worldhistory.substack.com/p/how-strange-mens-weird-collections

45 16 1 year ago

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eszed• 1 year ago

I'm always charmed by museums that feel like this sort of "weird collection". The trend seems to be firmly away from it, however. During the time I lived in London, the Horniman museum reorganized itself and became "respectible" in the process. While I was living in Exeter the RAMM did the same thing. If you have a similar taste, I strongly recommend visiting the Pitt-Rivers museum in Oxford: it's a truly bizarre collection of absolutely amazing objects - or it was the last time I was there; if it's since been re-curated along modern lines, then you'll have missed a uniquely odd experience.

teamonkey• 1 year ago

I was going to mention the Pitt-Rivers. It truly feels like a museum from a more imperial age, a mish-mash of curiosities in teak and glass cabinets.

I think it’s still mostly curated as it was (although I believe the shrunken tribal heads are no longer on display).

HansardExpert• 1 year ago

Yes that is correct

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-54121151

The museum is still pretty much curated as it was, I have been going on and off for the last 40 years. The glass roof refurb made a huge difference and they seem to rotate their large animal skeletons more than they did, which my friend's children are always thrilled with.

But it is the subtle bits of the museum I enjoy, the aforementioned roof and things like the fact that on the first floor every 'marble' pillar is actually a made of a different stone (i.e not all marble at all).

It's a joyous way to spend an afternoon.

Suppafly• 1 year ago

I'm always charmed by museums that feel like this sort of "weird collection".

The more interested I am in a subject, the less I like them, because usually they aren't rigorous about data accuracy regarding what the item is and where it was found and how it was used. If it's something I don't particularly care about, I can still feel a little wonderment, but once I'm interested at all, the nagging feeling that it's impossible to actually know anything about the item starts creeping in.

m4632• 1 year ago

There used to be a tank museum in the bay area. How could you criticize that weird collection? :)

m4632• 1 year ago

I've been to a few ripley's believe it or not museums. A little touristy, but it seems like a pro/commercial-level mismash.

Things I remember:

- a picture of Bill Clinton painted in hamburger grease.

- a "roller toilet seat" to prevent people from standing on the seat.

- an image of steve jobs made entirely of black and white keyboard keys (pc keyboards lol)

kurthr• 1 year ago

If you're ever in LA (Culver City), see if you can get into The Museum of Jurassic Technology. Some things are well documented, if not believable.

https://www.mjt.org/themainpage/main2.html

ChrisMarshallNY• 1 year ago

There was an episode of the Connections reboot (can’t remember which one) that mentioned this.

https://curiositystream.com/connections/index.html

spacechild1• 1 year ago

The pathological museum in Vienna (also called "Narrenturm" because it used to be an asylum) has a section with actual historic curiosity cabinets. It's a very interesting museum to visit, but it's not for the faint of heart. They have a paramedic on site because visitors regularly get sick :-D

metalman• 1 year ago

There must be something instinctive about collecting oddities, or perhaps it's a social aspect of extream curiousity, where after examining an object, a desire to get another opinion, requires storing the object, and so it begins. A friend who has turned pro, makes his living partialy through the buying and selling of oddities, often whole collections that are bieng sold/disposed of by exasperated relatives, his pragmatic approach to his own desire to have things he calls "catch and release", and so getting to enjoy some interesting thing, but sell it forward, and aquire the next item. It is a wierd world though, as many people develope specific fetishes and kinks around objects , or just simpler less troublesome obsessions, and then of course movie people, decorators, advertisers, artists, bibliophiles, etc.

moomin• 1 year ago

If you're in London, check out John Soane's museum. And then, on the other side of the square, the Hunterian museum where the original collection has been presented in a more modern style. Some Hunterian artifacts turned out to be useful in the development of modern medical artifacts. Soane's gives you an experience closer to the original. Hunterian shows the evolution described in the article.

JKCalhoun• 1 year ago

Houston, Texas has one (or a nod to the originals) at their museum: https://www.hmns.org/exhibits/morian-cabinet-of-curiosities/

rambambram2• 1 year ago

Nice! I have this little corner in my home where I keep some stones from the Via Appia in Rome, some meteorite (or dinosaur dung, I still don't know) that my aunt found in some desert in Israel, a buddha elephant that my sister brought from India, and the mundane but funny Eiffel tower that I bought on the streets in Paris (I know, it's for tourists, but I have promised myself for years to buy one of these the next visit).

Last year, without asking, my family bought some small stuffed creature (taxidermy?) from a store. It's a flying dragon in a nice picture frame and it's still so weird to look at it.

From this moment on I call this corner my curiosity cabinet (rariteitenkabinet, in Dutch) and I'm looking forward to the next strange or exotic thing that I can add to the collection.

Ancapistani• 1 year ago

My wife and I are slowly amassing a similar collection. So far the centerpieces are a stone that I took from the corner of the hearth of one of her ancestor's homestead, a family Bible from the mid-1800s, and some metal tools that I've found on old family land while metal detecting.

rambambram2• 1 year ago

Cool! The heirloom pieces are a good one, I should add some. I think I will leave my great grandfather's fake eye out of it though.

hodgesrm• 1 year ago

Slightly off topic but if you are looking for a cabinet of curiosities for aircraft, visit the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California. It has a collection that includes some truly marvelous flying machines.

My favorite is a collapsible helicopter that folds up into a duffel bag for transport. [0] It was designed to be airdropped to pilots downed behind enemy lines. The pilot was meant to assemble it and fly back to safety. It could fly but not well enough to see actual service in combat.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiller_ROE_Rotorcycle

Men's Weird Collections Inspired the Modern Museum: Cabinets of Curiosities

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