A Pincushion, Complete With Tiny Children's Heads
April 21, 2020 3:08 PM   Subscribe

The topic of the current #CURATORBATTLE on Twitter, initiated by the Yorkshire Museum, is #CreepiestObject.
posted by carter (18 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow, this is endless. The dolls! The taxidermy! The dolls made from taxidermy!
posted by q*ben at 3:49 PM on April 21, 2020


Lovely!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:59 PM on April 21, 2020


I love imagining that they all have catalog numbers. I'm imagining a Poe style short story about The Terror of MC 294
posted by Horkus at 4:22 PM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


When is the Museum of English Rural Life going to step in??
posted by zompist at 4:25 PM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Somehow the phrase “weird flex but ok” doesn’t work here even though it is by definition the weirdest possible flex.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:26 PM on April 21, 2020


Whole canned duck. In natural juices, of course.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:32 PM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


If you're starting a Black Metal band, do I have the band name for you...

"As the Icelandic museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft isn't on twitter I'll post for them this - Necropants." [maybe NSFW if you are not WFH]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:33 PM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Some of these things look like candidates for SCP.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:52 PM on April 21, 2020


Whole canned duck. In natural juices, of course.

Oh dear. The exchange that follows:

"Is the duck still inside it?"

"I'm afraid so. We know by the sound and weight of it!"

posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:04 PM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Rat kings. Many rat kings.

Rat kings, previously.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:06 PM on April 21, 2020


The Necropants Monster. I like it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:44 PM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


The old Niagara Falls Museum (opened in 1827) in Niagara Falls, Ontario was super creepy. It closed in the 1990s, but when I saw it in the 1970s it showcased bad taxidermy, horrifying esoterica, poorly conserved historical objects and general weirdness alongside items of serious interest. An ancient, unidentified mummy in the collection, sold in 1999, turned out to be Pharaoh Ramesses I; he’d been gawked at in Niagara Falls for 140 years unknown to anyone.

My own favorite exhibits included “things people used to go over the falls” such as a big melty pile of rotten leather and rubber that had once been a “rubber ball”, and corroded metal tanks and boxes in which in some cases, occupants died. Dusty cases held plaster casts of bound feet and shrunken heads. A highlight: a very poorly stuffed collection of deformed farm animals.

Gosh, I really miss that place. The entire museum was the stuff of nightmares.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:03 PM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]


I think I've posted this before, but I have a pill bottle somewhere full of children's teeth that was inside the lining pocket of an old suitcase that I bought from an antique store. There are definitely more teeth in there than should be in one person's mouth. I've always been curious about how old it might be. The bottle is the classic orange plastic with a white plastic cap, but there's no child safety feature on it whatsoever.
posted by Krazor at 7:58 PM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


kinnakeet, i seem to have a very dim memory of a childhood visit there. Was it near Louis Tusseaud's, or am I just remembering going to them both on the same day?

Also, from a junior high whale watching trip that took us from Western NY to Cape Cod, I have a slightly less dim memory of a museum display of late 18th- and early 19th- century chamber pots with portraits of politicians painted on the bottom, so you could "go" on your least favorite public figure. I want to say it was the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, but it was so long ago.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:39 PM on April 21, 2020


The Underpants Monster, I recall quite a few gritty, great attractions including the wax museum, the Houdini Museum (I was heartbroken when it burned), and the Niagara Falls Museum/Daredevil Hall of Fame—mostly along Clifton Hill but I think the latter was closer to the formal gardens and gorge. It was a big white-painted brick building.

There was a hollow section of a big old sequoia inside somewhere, completely covered with the initials of visitors. Loved “Annie’s Barrel”—nobody talks about going over the falls in a barrel anymore, funny thing.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:27 AM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]


lol, I love this comment from Thackray Museum:
"omg look it's us in quarantine"
posted by Glinn at 8:43 AM on April 22, 2020


I have 2nd the Niagara Falls Museum. It was creepy but also one of the more amazing field trips for a 12 year old me - though the stuffed barnyard freaks made me sad.

Nice to see that Ripley’s Believe it or Not can still shock - hard to beat the guillotined/split-in-half/mummified head of a serial killer who was known as the Vampire of Düsseldorf.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:44 AM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]




« Older Canada's Sweetheart   |   Look to the skies, the Lyrids are back! Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments