Museums Are Sharing Their Creepiest Objects on Twitter

Before cursed images, we had museum objects.

 Eden Gordon
28 April 2020

Looking for some distraction during quarantine?

Want to shift the plot of your nightmares away from masks and hand sanitizer and back into the familiar world of taxidermied animals and locks of hair? You are not alone. Fortunately, museums—those gigantic musty houses full of ancient art and glass cases—are stepping forward, offering their awful attractions for our perusal.

A recent viral Twitter thread is exposing some of the spookiest objects of all. Yorkshire Museum, agent of chaos, posted a call asking for curators to share the worst things in their collection with everyone, and things… escalated.

SMT Collections kindly offered a pigeon's heart stuck full of pins, which is apparently a charm that was once used to exorcise a witch.

Hieronymous Bosch couldn't have dreamt up the York Castle Museum's horrible Victorian dioramas, which feature people who have...claws instead of heads.

Naturally, there were plenty of dead objects preserved in jars.

Apparently, this weird painting of a "thunder beast" fell down on the city of Hiroshima during a storm, according to Japan's Mononoke Museum.

These horrifying kids' costumes from the Red Lake Heritage Center will feed your nightmares for decades.

There are a lot of genuinely creepy museums around the world, and in some ways, none of these objects should be particularly surprising if you've ever explored the dread depths of an actual museum.

For example, the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft houses a collection of necropants—AKA pants made from human skin, AKA ancient Icelandic good-luck charms.

There are several cockroach museums across the U.S. and Canada, featuring roaches dressed up as famous people like Elvis and Santa Claus.

Wisconsin has its own clown hall of fame and California and New Orleans have their Museums of Death, which are full of serial killer artwork, Manson family possessions, and the like. Every nation seems to have its own torture museum. New York City's Morbid Anatomy museum was a gem during its heyday, and it's certainly not the only spooky museum of its kind.

If paranormal spooks are more your style, you have plenty of options as well. The Vent Haven Museum in Kentucky has its own collection of ventriloquist dummies, Roswell, New Mexico has a collection of UFO-related objects, and West Virginia has a museum dedicated exclusively to the Mothman, its legendary cryptid. No museum is more rife with cursed objects than Ed and Lorraine Warren's Museum of the Occult in Monroe, Connecticut, which features a number of altars, shrunken heads, and the infamously cursed Annabel doll, among others.

These are only a few of the many, many terrifying museums that fill the world, just waiting to be explored the moment we can all go outside again.

Why are museums (and museum curators) so damn eerie? Perhaps the problem is not with museums, but with life itself. Life is just plain creepy, bizarre, and surreal—perhaps that's what makes its beauty so vivid.

Of course, beauty is subjective, ugliness is often constructed out of fear—often of a manufactured "other" (which is really a fear of our internal subconscious minds).

Many people, therefore, might find these objects immensely beautiful, if only in their uniqueness. If you're one of those folks, sweet dreams. The rest of us will be up all night, though perhaps for once not because of pandemic-related anxieties.

Want to READ MORE?

Haunted and Amused: 6 of America's Creepiest Museums

8 Must-See Virtual Museum Tours to Help Pass Time In Quarantine

Your Complete Guide to New York City's Free Museums

 Eden Gordon
bizarre haunted museum in the world museum tours scary spooky strange twitter.com weird museums plague mask phallological museum creepiest objects egham museum norwich castle bad art roman woman natural sciences nms momofuku ando
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Honestly, I could go on forever about the new year, new me thing but actually getting started is my biggest hurdle. I realized that my motivation comes from my mood which directly relates to my environment … and for the past year, my house has been my habitat. So, it's not looking too great after all the wear and tear. The dirt and the mess have accumulated right under my nose.

It's not that I'm bad at it, I just feel so overwhelmed. When my house is clean, I feel much more in control and motivated, and right now it's far from it. When I was venting about my cleaning woes the other day, my friend recommended Handy.

Handy allows you to book local professional cleaners and sign up for monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly plans. Plus, you can schedule appointments at a time that works for you with availability 7 days a week from 7am-11pm. So to get me in the right headspace to tackle my goals, I'm going to be signing up for Handy. I'm looking forward to letting the experts take over.

Although having people in your home may sound a bit strange right now, Handy has rolled out the Handy Safety Standard to help promote the health and safety of the customers and professionals who use their platform. Some of these measures include requiring Pros to wear face coverings during bookings and mandatory daily in-app check-ups to verify they are in good health before claiming a booking. They even have a section on their site dedicated to keeping customers and professionals updated on the latest CDC health and safety guidance.

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Once my house is in order, the fresh feeling will have a domino effect on so many other areas of my life:

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You can specify exactly what you want to be cleaned before your Pro arrives and if you like them, you can request to have the same Pro come every time. I can already imagine how exciting it will be to walk into my spotless space.

I cannot wait to book my cleaning through Handy so I can get my 2021 resolutions rolling. My New Year is all about my wellness and my environment plays such a big part in it. I'm signing up for bi-weekly appointments. But their plans are super flexible and if I need, I can always change to a weekly or monthly cleaning plan — sometimes they even have bookings available as soon as the next day!

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Here’s What You Need To Know About Getaway

This perfect low-key vacation is not your average camping experience.

Locations

Atlanta, Austin & San Antonio, Boston, Charlotte & Raleigh, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh & Cleveland, Portland, and Washington, DC.

Getaway's outposts are a maximum 2-hour drive from these major cities.

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It's an escape for the always on. Leave your work, technology and worries at home, and lean into an experience that allows you to reconnect and center yourself in nature.

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Book through the Getaway site. Cabins fit 1 - 4 guests and cost as low as $129 a night.

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New York City (New York)

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Cape Cod (Massachusetts)

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Due to the ever-changing nature of certain venues during the pandemic, be sure to regularly check-up on any venues you wish to visit. That way, you can remain in the loop on their availability, activities, and safety precautions upon arrival.