Cabinet of Curiosities

April 11, 2008 10:40 AM

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities features strange and surprising things from the rare book and manuscript collections of the Beinecke Library in Yale, including death masks, the philosophy of origami, the real adventures of Tintin, famous people and their pets, and American transvestite magazines from the 1960s.
posted by verstegan (12 comments total)

I want to live the real adventures of Tintin.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:10 AM on April 11, 2008

I can't tell if that origami philosophy book is real¹, but it would be awesome.


¹What is the English version of this note: Translated into French, after the 1902 Spanish original in Unamuno’s Amor y Pedagogia, a satirical novel on the excesses of positivism.
posted by DU at 11:13 AM on April 11, 2008

I'm a sucker for famous people and their pets, but the Punch and Judy dolls and German Posters are nifty too.
posted by annaramma at 11:17 AM on April 11, 2008

Thanks a lot. Like I really need something else unproductive to do with my time. Damn you!
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:19 AM on April 11, 2008

Links like this are why I still read Metafilter after all these years. Thanks so much for posting this.
posted by anastasiav at 11:32 AM on April 11, 2008

This is great. According to my stepdad, Beinecke has an immense collection of rare and ancient pornography, rivaling only that of the Vatican.
posted by jtron at 11:54 AM on April 11, 2008

thanks very much -- best of the web, a real metafilter post, [this is good], all at one.....
posted by Rumple at 11:56 AM on April 11, 2008

ooh, those playing card backs, properly rotated and color-corrected, are gonna make great backgrounds on my laptop.
posted by jtron at 12:05 PM on April 11, 2008

I totally love the collection of oratorical gestures.
posted by scody at 12:48 PM on April 11, 2008

This is great.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 4:28 PM on April 11, 2008

I've been following Room 26 since it started and they do post some great things. I do sometimes wish they would add a bit more background though.

Something along the same lines which hasn't being going too long but is excellent is the blog from the Grahic Arts Division at Princeton University. It's one of the best cultural blogs to emerge in ages for mine.
posted by peacay at 9:24 PM on April 11, 2008

yet another smorgasbord of strangeness from my favorite foreign country

so very excellent - thanks for this
posted by jammy at 4:15 PM on April 12, 2008