Cabinets de Curiosités
While researching the history of dime museums a few posts back, I reacquainted myself with Wunderkammer, or Cabinets of Curiousities, which proliferated in the 16th and 17th centuries, and were the precursors of modern-day museums. These cabinets often featured collections of natural history specimens such as skeletons, stuffed animals, and fetuses. Oftentimes, they contained ethnic (or just downright eclectic artifacts), brought from distant lands.
Some even consider the Internet to be a form of Wunderkammer.
Comments
One of the best provincial museums I've ever visited was the one in then Chalons sur Marne (now en Champagne). It was just a large building full of wonders. Not an organizational scheme or catalog to be seen. And not another person encountered during my couple of hours therein. That was in the mid-70s. It's probably been replaced with a MacDonald's. (Actually, now that I think of it, there was a strange museum in Chennai that followed the same anarchic ordering system.)
Posted by: jim | October 2, 2004 3:20 PM
Jim, another great, seemingly random collection can be found at the Sir John Soane's Musuem in London. I visited a couple of years ago, and it's fantastic.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | October 2, 2004 5:10 PM
Thanks, MrBaliHai, I'll put it on our London itinerary for January.
Posted by: jim | October 3, 2004 10:25 AM
It's in an old, poorly marked London townhouse, so it can be a bit hard to find, but it's worth the search. You also have to go up to the door and knock to be admitted, like being admitted to some secret club.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | October 3, 2004 11:36 AM