The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

a collection of ridiculously interesting art, objects, ideas, and history

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Author Archives: Chelsea Nichols

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Monkey automaton with a severed cat head

17 May 2020 by Chelsea Nichols

A creepy 19th century automaton of a monkey dressed as a pastry chef, serving a severed cat head in a pastry pie

Categories: Curiosities, Unsettling Things • Tags: animal, automaton, cat, creepy, monkey

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GUEST POST: Make your own bat colony with Alice Fennessy

27 April 2020 by Chelsea Nichols

Create your own bat colony: a downloadable art activity designed by curator and museum educator Alice Fennessy

Categories: Contemporary Art, Curiosities, Guest Post, Historical Art • Tags: animals in art, bat, educational, guest post

2

Witch in a bottle

26 January 2020 by Chelsea Nichols

Would you dare open this glass bottle, said to contain the spirit of a witch?

Categories: Curiosities, history, Museums • Tags: curiosities, magic, mystery, witch

2

Mistaken for a nosepicker

26 January 2020 by Chelsea Nichols

Some good life advice: don’t let anyone take a picture of you taking snuff, unless you want to be immortalized as a Victorian nose-picker.  Snuff is a form of tobacco ground into a fine powder, taken by snorting a little pinch up one’s nose. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was a luxury only the rich could afford. So in these pictures, the posh ladies are trying to demonstrate their social standing by posing with a status symbol. But […]

Categories: Curiosities, Strange Photographs • Tags: curiosities, nose, photography, victorian era, weird, women

1

Dispenser of gum and nightmares

20 November 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

Does your chewing gum give you nightmares? If not, the Blinkey Eye Soda Mint Gum Machine is here.

Categories: Curiosities • Tags: automaton, creepy, curiosities, eye, horror

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Syrup jar for oil of earthworms, with image of Saint Ignatius painted above words OL.LUBRI

Syrup jars for earthworm oil

15 July 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

A collection of apothecary jars for storing oil of earthworms, plus recipes for making your own disgusting worm syrup

Categories: Curiosities, history, Museums • Tags: apothecary, curiosities, drugs, medicine, science, worms

7

Prostitutes in the fruitbowl

19 June 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

Explores the use of medlar fruits as symbols for prostitution in 17th century Dutch still life painting

Categories: Curiosities, Historical Art • Tags: art history, food, fruit, Historical Art, prostitute, symbolism

1

Unusual orange perfume bottle

17 June 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

An exquisite and strange perfume bottle from 1925 shaped like orange segments

Categories: Curiosities • Tags: curiosities, fruit, oranges, perfume

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Bizarre picture of a man feeding a doll

11 June 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

Share your best theories about this strange 19th century photograph of a grown man feeding a doll

Categories: Curiosities, Strange Photographs, Unsettling Things • Tags: 19th century, bizarre, creepy, doll, photography

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About the museum

For those with a taste for the peculiar, The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things is an imaginary museum that explores the strange place between art and curiosities.

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Top Posts

  • Women Laughing Alone With Salad
  • Creepy mortuary automaton
  • Oskar Kokoschka's creepy doll girlfriend
  • The Disciples: James Mollison's portraits of music fans
  • Marie Antoinette lost her shoe and then her head
  • A hand-some medieval bat
  • Hidden mothers in Victorian portraits

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