Since antiquity, people have enjoyed collecting objects of all kinds, ranging from ancient
artifacts to exotic plant specimens and more.
Some early museums began as private collections that were owned by wealthy, powerful people.
They tried to impress others with what came to be known as cabinets of curiosities, wonder-rooms,
and Wunderkammer.
Today, you don’t have to be rich to visit a museum.
Many of them are open to the public, and almost anyone can access them for the price of admission.
UNESCO estimates that there are 55,000 museums across the world today, and the good news
is now there are a wide variety of museums that cater to a wide range of tastes.
10.
Matchstick Marvels Museum - Gladbrook, Iowa This museum showcases the work of Patrick
Acton, an artist who has used millions of matchsticks and large amounts of glue for
his creations.
Over the years, his detailed scale models of The International Space Station, Notre
Dame Cathedral, and other famous subjects have attracted worldwide attention.
Some of his models have appeared on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, PBS, and in
several Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums across the world.
The Matchstick Marvels Museum features some of Acton’s matchstick models, model drawings
and plans, model-making tools and equipment, and a video documentary.
9.
Burnt Food Museum -- Arlington, Massachusetts This private museum is dedicated to a common
kitchen mishap – burning food.
Started in the late 1980s by musician Deborah Henson-Conant, it proudly displays once edible
food that has sometimes been charred beyond recognition, including toast, waffles, potatoes,
and even some burned citrus.
The museum also welcomes submissions of accidentally burned food for its exhibit.
A food website called The Daily Meal states that a “few times a year the exhibit opens
to public viewing.”
However, if you can’t wait for those public events, you can arrange for a private 90-minute
interactive group tour of the museum that will allow you and up to 9 other people to
see the burnt food for yourself for a mere $3500.
8.
Museum of Broken Relationships -- Zagreb, Croatia
The Museum of Broken Relationships provides proof that love does not always last.
When it fails, this museum is ready to collect your story and souvenirs of the soured romantic
relationship for its permanent and online collections.
You can peruse some of the bizarre items saved by people who were once in love, such as a
27-year-old “wound crust” (skin scab) from an ex-lover who was in an accident.
7.
MUSA Underwater Museum of Art – Cancun, Mexico
Also known as Museo Subacuático de Arte, MUSA differs from many art museums because
it is completely submerged in the waters off Cancun.
According to National Geographic, MUSA’s “oceanic art doubles as an artificial reef
specially designed to promote the growth of coral.”
Its 500 life-size sculptures of everything from people to houses and even bombs are attached
to the sea floor, so diving and snorkeling are the best way to see them.
If you don’t know how to dive or snorkel, glass bottom boat tours are also available.
6.
The National Poo Museum – Sandown, Isle Of Wight, United Kingdom
This museum features a wide variety of poo, including poo from wild animals such as lions
and some human poo.
The poo has been dried and encapsulated in resin balls, so you don’t have to touch
it or smell it.
An Atlas Obscura article states that the museum also displays “what is considered to be
some of the oldest excrement in the world: fossilized droppings dating back 140 million
years.”
Besides the exhibits, the museum strives to change people’s attitudes about poo.
Its website describes how “poo is all around us but we ignore it” and how the museum’s
mission is “to lift the lid on the secret world of poo - to examine our relationship
with it and to change forever the way we think about this amazing substance.”
According to its website, The National Poo Museum is temporarily closed but will occasionally
open up as a “Plop-up Poo Museum” at their headquarters on Brown’s Golf Course in Sandown.
Plans are in the works for a permanent location that is also located in Sandown, Isle of Wight.
5.
Icelandic Phallological Museum -- Reykjavik, Iceland
Satisfy your curiosity about male sex organs across the animal kingdom with a visit to
the Icelandic Phallological Museum.
The museum is home to “a collection of more than two hundred penises and penile parts
belonging to almost all the land and sea mammals that can be found in Iceland” according
to the museum website.
Along with a wide range of whale, seal, and land mammal specimens, the museum displays
four human penises that were “legally-certified gift tokens” as well.
The staff at the museum share their sense of humor about the contents of their “biological”
collection with another collection featuring a phallic lampshade and other phallic “artistic
oddments and practical utensils.”
You can even buy things like a phallic key ring, designer condoms, and “willy warmers”
in their online gift shop.
4.
Meguro Parasitological Museum – Tokyo, Japan The Meguro Parasitological Museum is a private
research facility that contains a vast collection of 60,000 parasite specimens as well as thousands
of papers and books about parasites and parasitic diseases.
Its museum exhibits take up two floors of its facility and feature about 300 parasite
specimens and supplemental information about them.
While the first floor explores what the museum website calls the “Diversity of Parasites,”
the second floor will probably make some people squirm because it is dedicated to “Human
and Zoonotic Parasites.”
You will learn about what parasites infect humans, how they live and breed inside of
you while you are infected, and the symptoms you will experience when they do.
According to an Atlas Obscura article, the “prize attraction” of the museum “is
undoubtedly the world’s longest tapeworm - all 8.8 metres (28.9 feet) of it - accompanied
by a rope the same length that you can ‘play with’ to get a real ‘feel’ for its dimensions.”
3.
The Museum of Human Disease – Sydney, Australia You may wonder how any of us stay alive after
visiting the Museum of Human Disease, which is located on the campus of the University
of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney . Its collection of over 2,000 specimens of diseased human
tissue presents some of the numerous medical calamities that could befall people, including
gangrene, appendicitis, and malignant brain tumors.
There are also specimens revealing the long-term effects of unhealthy behaviors such as smoking,
heavy drinking, and drug abuse.
Some of the tissue samples are over 100 years old according to the museum website.
2.
Plastinarium – Guben, Germany The Plastinarium features bodies preserved
with the process of Plastination, an embalming technique patented by physician Gunther von
Hagens.
Plastination is a gruesome process that involves removing skin, fatty tissue, connective tissue,
and water from a corpse and using polymers and other chemicals to stop its decay.
The body is also cured to harden the polymers and complete the preservation process.
You can see bodies and body parts being plastinated at the museum lab if you can stomach watching
the procedure.
Over the years, Von Hagens and his team of scientists have plastinated wild animals such
as giraffes and ostriches, but it is the plastinated human specimens positioned in various lifelike
poses that have attracted the most attention both at the museum and in Von Hagen’s “Body
Worlds” traveling exhibitions.
The human specimens have raised ethical concerns.
In 2004, for instance, a Guardian article reported that Von Hagens “agreed to return
seven corpses to China after admitting that the bodies used in his exhibitions might have
come from executed prisoners.”Another source notes that there has “been a good amount
of debate on the ethics involved with twisting and warping post-mortem remains into a such
a creepy sideshow of the macabre, and the show has faced its fair share of lawsuits
and controversy.”
1.
Siriraj Medical Museum – Bangkok, Thailand This museum is actually a complex of 6 small
museums located in Siriraj Hospital, and it is not for the faint of heart.
Not all of the exhibits are shocking, but there are enough disturbing displays to earn
it the nickname of the Museum of Death.
For example, the Congdon Anatomical Museum contains specimens of dead deformed babies,
such as conjoined twins with the skin cut away so you can see their internal organs.
The Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum is particularly creepy.
According to Paste Magazine, it “displays dead people and the things that killed them.”
Some of the unsettling things you can see in this museum include the “preserved head
of an unidentified man who was beheaded in an automobile accident” and the blood-stained
clothing of murder victims.
A well-known display in this museum is the mummified body of Si Ouey, “a Chinese immigrant-turned-serial
child killer and rapist who (allegedly) ate the livers and hearts of his victims.”
One travel website notes that the forensic museum also houses the skeleton of the museum’s
founder, Dr. Songkran Niyomsane.
Do you know of a weird museum that should be on this list?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Scary Internet Websites You Should
Never Visit!
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