#strange collections

[whywouldyouaskthatpod]

This is from the HORG website, and I love this. If any of you listened to this mini and wondered why people might collect bread tags, remember that the Occlupanids include more than just them! This image shows the HORG proposed fictional classification for the various types of these things. We've all known someone who collects something in this category of stuff. I used to really like those little cocktail swords, but lots of people know bottle cap and rubber band collectors.

If you want to hear M talk about this topic on the podcast, click the link below for resources and the full episode!

Small Sciences: Occlupanology

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HUNTERIAN MUSEUM -Glasgow, Scotland

An extensive and eclectic collection of natural history specimens, ethnographic artifacts, and zoological items along with a plethora of miscellaneous oddities, the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow is the oldest public museum in Scotland, and the brother to the famous Hunterian Museum in London. The Glasgow museum was founded and built on the collections of 17th century physician, anatomist, and oddities collector William Hunter, the older brother of the physician, anatomist, and oddities collector John Hunter, of the London collection.

Visit atlasobscura.com for more about the life and times and collections of William Hunter.

[atlasobscura]

The World Through Wooden Eyes - Glasgow, Scotland

Hidden away within Glasgow's impressive Victorian Mitchell Library lies a collection of puppets and masks from across the history of the puppet arts from the earliest days to modern times.

The dramatically named The World Through Wooden Eyes is a collection of puppets, masks, toys, prints, and books which have been amassed over the last fifty years by puppet-master, director, and designer John M. Blundall. Blundall's collection focuses on the long tradition of puppetry on a global scale, featuring examples from ancient Japan, India, the New World and Continental Europe including the famous "Punch and Judy" marionette traditions. The museum places a specific emphasis on the theatrical nature of the creations, essentially espousing that the artistry of the puppets cannot be understood without a performative context. To this end, the "Ideas Store" as the collection is also known, not only provides workshops on the construction of puppets, but also stages historical performances. The World Through Wooden Eyes is an impressive collection for fans of puppetry and history, but it may be terrifying to visitors with pediophobia (fear of dolls).

Visit The World Through Wooden Eyes on Atlas Obscura!

[atlasobscura]

House on the Rock - Spring Green, Wisconsin

During the 1940s, a man named Alex Jordan discovered a 60-foot chimney of rock in the beautiful Wyoming Valley - it was here he decided to build a house on the sandstone formation called Deer Shelter Rock.

Jordan built the house as a weekend retreat and never intended it to be a tourist attraction. However, people kept coming to see the architectural wonder they had heard about. Jordan eventually started asking for 50-cent donations. That was only the beginning. The 14-room house is the original structure of what is now a complex of many buildings, exhibits and garden displays.

It can take many hours to walk through the House on the Rock, and it's nearly impossible to see it all in one day. Among the collections of collections within is the world's largest carousel, boasting 269 carousel animals,  182 lanterns, over 20,000 lights, and hundreds of mannequin angels hanging from the ceiling all around it.

Alex was a collector all his life and enjoyed visiting museums; however, he did not want The House on the Rock to be a museum. He intended it to be much more than that. Though parts of the collections could have easily found their way into museums, The House on the Rock is more of a trip through the wild and fantastic imagination of Alex Jordan than a visit to a dusty, lifeless museum.

For more on Alex Jordan and his House on the Rock, visit Atlas Obscura…

[atlasobscura]

All the secrets of human consciousness may be embedded somewhere in the squishy brains nestled in our skulls. This drive to find out what's hidden in our mental anatomy has resulted in medical specimen collections of brains all over the world. The Wilder Brain Collection in Ithaca, New York, has around 70 brains; the Cushing Brain Collection in New Haven, Connecticut, has around 550. But this is nothing compared to the around 3,300 brains kept at the Brain Museum in Lima.

Curious Fact of the Week: Biggest Brain Collections

[atlasobscura]

The world’s only public museum dedicated solely to globes contains an astonishing collection. (The Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, also has an extensive globe collection.) There are folding fabric globes (which were inflated with a bellows), giant man-sized globes, and tiny plum-sized globes, each exquisitely made with dark wood, fine lines, and rich colors.

Some of the most interesting items in the museum are the brass tellurions. A tellurion is a mechanical demonstration of the earth's movement about its axes, consisting of a long arm at the end of which is a small rotating globe with a moon spinning around it. At the other end of the arm is a charmingly simple sun: a candle and a brass reflecting disc. With a turn of the crank, the system comes alive. As the earth and moon spin, the tellurion shows seasons, eclipses, tides, precessions of the equinox, and other astronomical phenomena.

Fun fact: most globes were originally sold in pairs, with a celestial accompanying Earth's model!