Baskas - Hidden treasures: what museums cant or wont show you

HIDDEN TREASURES

WHAT MUSEUMS CANT OR WONT SHOW YOU

HARRIET BASKAS

Copyright 2013 by Harriet Baskas

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

Project editor: Meredith Dias

Text design/layout: Maggie Peterson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Baskas, Harriet.

Hidden treasures : what museums cant or wont show you / Harriet Baskas.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4930-0160-6

1. Museum exhibitsUnited StatesMiscellaneaCatalogs. 2. Curiosities and wondersUnited StatesCatalogs. I. Title.

AM11.B37 2013

069'.5dc23

2013015007

FOR ROSS, PARTNER IN TRAVEL, MUSEUM VISITS, AND ALL ELSE.

And in memory of my mom. She rode along on some visits to unusual East Coast museums early on and I wish she was around for new adventures. And to remind me that Im a person and not a pair of pants.

CONTENTS

Mounted (Non-Radioactive) Walrus Skull
Anchorage Museum (Alaska)

Psychiana Collection and Nude Mozert Painting
Sedona Heritage Museum (Arizona)

Gold Jewelry
San Joaquin County Historical Museum (Lodi, California)

Richard Nixon Arm Wrestling George McGovern
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (Yorba Linda, California)

Lifelike Sculptures
Denver Art Museum (Colorado) / Boca Raton Museum of Art (Florida)

A Slice of 150-Year-Old Wedding Cake
P.T. Barnum Museum (Bridgeport, Connecticut)

Livingstones Medicine Chest
Wellcome Collection (London, England)

Purygins Park of Recreation
Boca Raton Museum of Art (Florida)

Saltshakers and Shrunken Heads
Lightner Museum (St. Augustine, Florida)

Shunga (Japanese Erotica)
Honolulu Museum of Art (Hawaii)

Malvina Hoffman Sculptures
The Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Illinois)

Matchbox Flea Diorama
The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis (Indiana)

Half-Heads Preserved in Jars
Indiana Medical History Museum (Indianapolis)

Ball Jars Collection
Minnetrista Heritage Collection (Muncie, Indiana)

Abraham Lincoln Pole Banner
Wayne County Historical Museum (Richmond, Indiana)

Ghost Dance Shirt
State of Iowa Historical Museum (Des Moines)

In Cold Blood Tombstones and Gallows
Kansas Museum of History (Topeka)

Creepy Things and Live Ammunition
Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History (Frankfort)

Spiro T. Agnew Collection
Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland (College Park)

Masonic Urns
Grand Lodge (Boston, Massachusetts)

Lifelike Glass Sea Life and Historically Significant Insects
Harvards Museums (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Drunken Monkeys Diorama and Ford Model T Violin
The Henry Ford (Dearborn, Michigan)

Invisible Art
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Trumans Portrait on the Head of a Pin
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum (Independence, Missouri)

Human-Skin Wallets
Museum of Osteopathic Medicine (Kirksville, Missouri)

Radiendocrinator
National Atomic Testing Museum (Las Vegas, Nevada)

Hidden Clues in a Music Box
Morris Museum (Morristown, New Jersey)

Our Lady Photo
Museum of International Folk Art (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

Glass Coffin
Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, New York)

Controversial Firefighter Lithographs
FANSY Museum of Firefighting (Hudson, New York)

The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass
Queens Museum of Art (Queens, New York)

Katharine Wrights Knickers
International Womens Air & Space Museum (Cleveland, Ohio)

No Room for the Pig
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (Cleveland, Ohio)

Old Sparky Chair Too Uncomfortable to Exhibit
Ohio History Center (Columbus)

John Dillingers Gun
Dayton History (Ohio)

Battery Notes too Hazardous to Handle
Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Poisonous Art
Penn Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Warhol Time Capsules
Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Wreath from Andrew Johnsons Grave
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site and National Cemetery (Greenville, Tennessee)

John Murrells Mummified Thumb
Tennessee State Museum (Nashville)

Pottery Sherds
Scurry County Museum (Snyder, Texas)

Coded Message in a Bottle
The Museum of the Confederacy (Richmond, Virginia)

Smallpox Scab and Redacted Love Letter
Virginia Historical Society (Richmond)

TSA 9/11 Artifacts
TSA Museum (Arlington, Virginia)

Moon Boots and Space Suits
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)

Condoms and Marie Curies Radium
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)

Repatriated Wampum
National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC, and New York City)

Soap Man
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)

Stolen Art
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, Massachusetts) and Maryhill Museum of Art (Goldendale, Washington)

Barefoot Bandit Evidence
Orcas Island Historical Museum (Eastsound, Washington)

Rock and Roll Artifacts
EMP Museum (Seattle, Washington)

Swastika and KKK Quilts
Yakima Valley Museum (Washington)

Harley-Davidson Beer, Wine Coolers, and Cigarettes
Harley-Davidson Museum (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

INTRODUCTION

My interestokay, my obsessionwith telling the stories of objects that museums rarely or never show to the public began many years ago while I was visiting a small community museum in a rural Oregon town.

I was already producing radio stories about unusual museums and having a great time visiting with people around the country who had amassed the worlds largest collections of everything from lightbulbs and Barbie dolls to mechanical musical instruments, bad art, bananas, and nuts. Then, assigned to create a guidebook listing all of the museums (unusual or not) in the Pacific Northwest, I decided to make a personal visit to as many as I could find.

What I learned right away is that when you are the only guest in a small museum that doesnt get many out-of-town visitors, the volunteer on duty is apt to follow you around. Sometimes its due to a mistrust of outsiders. More often its simply because its nice to have a curious visitoror any visitorcome through the front door.

Partly to be polite, and partly because Im just a nosy person, Id often ask my museum minder to tell me about his or her favorite things on exhibit. That way I would usually learn about a local treasure I might have otherwise overlooked, and I didnt have to feel so uncomfortable having someone following me around. At the end of one of these tours, my guide lowered her voice, looked around furtively (even though no one else was in the museum), and said, If you think thats interesting, you should see what they keep locked away in the back room.