WEB CURATOR: BEN
OSTO
My interest in curio cabinets came from many different roads. The Web Wunderkammer is meant to be an online version of the 19th century “Cabinet of Curiosities”. Small collections and museums of oddities created and maintained by individual collectors was a movement beginning in the 1700s, which then rose to popularity during the 1800s. I, personally, began my interest in cabinets of curiosities after visiting several small, personal museums such as Elisabeth Tashjian’s Nut museum. Elizabeth is a woman who not only collected nut paraphernalia in her large dusty home and painted tributes to this passion, but also sang her self-created songs about nuts to those visitors who graced her home and passion. As I recall, at one point in her self-directed tour of the museum, Elizabeth would don a “nut” mask (one of many she made) and peering though the two small eyeholes would ask. “What kind of nut am I?”
You should also know that there was once a “potato” museum in the basement of one of our constituent’s homes in our nation’s capital. I recall that during my tour of the exhibits, a woman came down the basement stairs, removed the back wall of the museum with exhibits attached and put it to the side, revealing a washer and dryer, from which she transferred a load of wash to dry and left. At another time, in another state (New Jersey) and another curator’s basement (Herman Abrams - archaeologist of himself), I was shown a collection of Thanksgiving Day wishbones (unbroken) from many, many,
Thanksgiving days’ past.
Another road to my interest in curio cabinets was through my desire to collect odd things myself and my wife’s growing collection of strange religious items, outsider art, and Japanese toys. Our combined collecting has been exacerbated by much travel. Our home resembles the inside of a curio cabinet; one that often needs a good dusting, my wife informs me. Some days if a window is open and there is a good breeze you may see a tumbleweed tumble by in our living room. Home sweet home.
I was inspired to create this site because I find so many interesting people with interesting objects and interesting stories that are never seen or heard by many. Please participate.
R
My interest in curio cabinets came from many different roads. The Web Wunderkammer is meant to be an online version of the 19th century “Cabinet of Curiosities”. Small collections and museums of oddities created and maintained by individual collectors was a movement beginning in the 1700s, which then rose to popularity during the 1800s. I, personally, began my interest in cabinets of curiosities after visiting several small, personal museums such as Elisabeth Tashjian’s Nut museum. Elizabeth is a woman who not only collected nut paraphernalia in her large dusty home and painted tributes to this passion, but also sang her self-created songs about nuts to those visitors who graced her home and passion. As I recall, at one point in her self-directed tour of the museum, Elizabeth would don a “nut” mask (one of many she made) and peering though the two small eyeholes would ask. “What kind of nut am I?”
You should also know that there was once a “potato” museum in the basement of one of our constituent’s homes in our nation’s capital. I recall that during my tour of the exhibits, a woman came down the basement stairs, removed the back wall of the museum with exhibits attached and put it to the side, revealing a washer and dryer, from which she transferred a load of wash to dry and left. At another time, in another state (New Jersey) and another curator’s basement (Herman Abrams - archaeologist of himself), I was shown a collection of Thanksgiving Day wishbones (unbroken) from many, many,
Thanksgiving days’ past.
Another road to my interest in curio cabinets was through my desire to collect odd things myself and my wife’s growing collection of strange religious items, outsider art, and Japanese toys. Our combined collecting has been exacerbated by much travel. Our home resembles the inside of a curio cabinet; one that often needs a good dusting, my wife informs me. Some days if a window is open and there is a good breeze you may see a tumbleweed tumble by in our living room. Home sweet home.
I was inspired to create this site because I find so many interesting people with interesting objects and interesting stories that are never seen or heard by many. Please participate.
R
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WUNDERKAMMER A collection of curiosites for study & grins |
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