• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

mobopan

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
4
Wondering what "inconvenient" artifacts the Smithsonian Institute is said to have or to have "lost" over the years.
 
A couple of years ago I was privileged to get a tour of the super secret Smithsonian storage facility in MD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Museum_Support_Center

We saw such delights as a ton of samurai armour, a stuffed polar bear and easter island type head on a shelf, and Roosevelt's favourite dog.

Some of the tags had double digit serial numbers and we were told that a lot of this stuff will probably never be displayed in public due to the sheer size of the collection.

I'll see if I can find the pictures.
 
A couple of years ago I was privileged to get a tour of the super secret Smithsonian storage facility in MD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Museum_Support_Center

We saw such delights as a ton of samurai armour, a stuffed polar bear and easter island type head on a shelf, and Roosevelt's favourite dog.

Some of the tags had double digit serial numbers and we were told that a lot of this stuff will probably never be displayed in public due to the sheer size of the collection.

I'll see if I can find the pictures.
I’ve been behind the scenes at the National Museum of Scotland, the Natural History Museum and a Finnish Museum as well. It’s fascinating to see these things, I’ve seen fairy coffins, mermaids, giant squid and many other wonders. There just isnt enough space to display all of these beauties! Was it a full size Easter Island head you saw?
 
I found them! These were taken in October 2012 in the non-public part of the Smithsonian.

Please assume that anything you can't identify is where they keep the Arks of the Covenant.

A mysterious corridor
58817_10151316346641844_176913327_n.jpg

A rhino on a shelf
58825_10151316349211844_1682707016_n.jpg

Arks

39294_10151316352221844_164446776_n.jpg

Maybe an Easter Island head?
306682_10151316354036844_757847675_n.jpg

564781_10151316355866844_636038329_n.jpg

Polar bear on a shelf
224571_10151316357506844_1548421212_n.jpg

383396_10151316360076844_1404877241_n.jpg

Big head of some sort
46237_10151316366241844_2129154693_n.jpg

430004_10151316378861844_881160347_n.jpg

I think this is one of Roosevelt's dogs
69713_10151316385616844_1308800688_n.jpg

Finally, some bows and guns
267624_10151316486081844_551605588_n.jpg

579473_10151316487581844_1921279609_n.jpg

315687_10151316489176844_635359018_n.jpg

431600_10151316490216844_866042370_n.jpg
 
Could be. Not my area, and is was 6 years ago!
 
I’ve been behind the scenes at the National Museum of Scotland...

About six years or so ago I did an urgent and somewhat surreal favour for the University of Edinburgh, via a very nice man who, in return, offered me a private viewing of the Anatomical Museum. To my lasting regret I did not have the time to take him up on the offer, and by the time I did, and was back in Edinburgh, it seemed too late to call in the favour (and I've since lost his number).

I've been to the museum as a member of the public, but would have loved a more private nose round - god only knows what's hidden away in the dustier corners of that place.
 
The big head of some sort, surely that’s Olmec?

It's difficult to tell with certainty because the sculpture is partially covered / obscured. I'm 98+ % confident it's Olmec.

It appears to be the 'San Lorenzo Head 1", of which replicas were made and donated by the state of Veracruz. The Smithsonian lists a replica of San Lorenzo Head 4 among their collections, but this one looks more like Head 1 to me.
 
I have been offered those several times by blokes in the gents, who would have thought you would bump into so many curators in public lavatories?
 
a very nice man who, in return, offered me a private viewing of the Anatomical Museum

You're sure this wasn't a metaphor?

Surely such venerable institutions are immune to the euphemistic attentions of ribald and dirty minded personages…

Follow me into the basement, young man, where I will expose the prodigiousness of our hidden artefacts - I will walk behind you and make suggestions. Mmmmm - I'm sure he will! While making gestures at prominent objects with the ceremonial knobkerrie I am holding in my hand. Nice.

Over there we have several dirty old habits discovered stuffed up St Cuthbert the Martyr’s undercroft. And next to them, a rude carving of John the Baptist - nailed to the wall by his acolytes! Ooooooo! (Many visitors used to come to contemplate his agonies, but over the years they’ve dropped off.)

Around this corner is our Egyptian collection. (Tsk, just look at those dusty artefacts! We really must take a broom to our sphinxes.) I beg your pardon?

On these bookshelves are some leatherbound editions once in the possession of royalty: It is said that on lonely nights in the royal bedchamber an old queen found great solace in polishing her Apuleius and looking up her dog-eared Horace (slightly foxed, and with watermarks). Hmmmm - Wonder where she spends her evenings?

Just a little further on you will find another chamber, where our head of antiquities has emptied the entire contents of his tumulus all over the floor. Yeurk!

Nice.

(And, just before you go - if you have a quick gander at this down here you will observe a crude fetish I picked up in the Congo.)




Last night, I have mostly been listening to Round the Horne.
 
I have heard Devizes museum has a genuine Hand of Glory.
Are you sure? I thought the only one on display was at Whitby?

For what it's worth ...

I can't find any source attesting to a second Hand of Glory known to exist - at Devizes or anywhere else.

I can, however, find multiple references to an antique shop in Devizes named Hand of Glory, which seems to be involved with the Wiltshire Museum.
 
Thats interesting; I read it somewhere, -I think a pre internet source.

(But I cant recall what...something that sticks in yor mind, eh?)
 
I remember a TV documentary show back in the 70s - might have been introduced by Jack Pizzey - they had a genuine hand of glory and they lit its fingers, just like candles. It was downright spooky!
Anybody else remember that?
 
Museums hold Twitter showdown to find world's creepiest exhibit...

I know what museum can beat hanged men's hands and toy coffins and the Pitt Rivers and all that amateur stuff.

As described on the Dolls: Evil or Just... Evil? thread some time ago, I give you -

Pollock's Toy Museum...

The DOLL ROOM!

Pollocks.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top