Speaker 1: You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what, gab?
Speaker 2: What's that mango?
Speaker 1: So for a long time, spider silk has been considered
Speaker 1: the world's strongest biological material. It is even tougher than kevlar,
Speaker 1: which is used in bulletproof vests. Of course, but according
Speaker 1: to engineers in the UK, the substance found in limpet
Speaker 1: teeth is actually five times stronger than spider silk. In fact,
Speaker 1: the tensile strength of the limpet's tooth material is so
Speaker 1: great that a single strand of it could withstand the
Speaker 1: same amount of pressure needed to turn carbon into diamonds.
Speaker 1: Isn't that insane?
Speaker 2: Wow? Yeah, I mean that's pretty incredible. But I think
Speaker 2: I speak for everyone when I ask what is a limpet?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I feel like limpits aren't the household name they
Speaker 1: should be. But a limpit is a kind of mollusk.
Speaker 1: It's an aquatic snail, to be precise, and they feed
Speaker 1: on the algae that grows along rocky shorelines, which is
Speaker 1: why their teeth need to be extra tough to stand
Speaker 1: up to all that cutting and scraping. I see.
Speaker 2: Okay, So are all mollusc teeth that tough for our
Speaker 2: limpets the exception.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so not every kind of limpet has teeth that strong,
Speaker 1: and some mollusks, like cuttlefish, don't even have teeth at all.
Speaker 2: Wait, so cuddlefish or molluscs too, I'm just trying to keep.
Speaker 1: Up your Yeah, the mollusc family is one of the
Speaker 1: weirdest and most diverse in the animal kingdom. Like clams
Speaker 1: are technically mollusks, and so are squids, sea snails, sea slugs.
Speaker 1: Like all of those animals look so different, but because
Speaker 1: they share a few unique traits, they're all categorized as mallus.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, well, mango, I hope you don't mind me asking this,
Speaker 2: but how do you know so much about mollus.
Speaker 1: Well, for a while, my friend and I were trying
Speaker 1: to make a show called America's Next Top Mollusc. That's
Speaker 1: a true thing didn't take off. Felt like it would
Speaker 1: be a good YouTube show, it would be really funny.
Speaker 1: But I also did win two gold medals a year
Speaker 1: after year at the Science Olympics in a category called
Speaker 1: name that Organism, where you were giving fifty objects and
Speaker 1: you had to identify them. Put down their file them
Speaker 1: in class. So I weirdly do know a lot about
Speaker 1: looks it, But everything else I know about Malis is
Speaker 1: thanks to my visit to the world's smallest mollusc museum.
Speaker 1: It's only about the size of a refrigerator, but it
Speaker 1: is jam packed with eye catching displays, activities, and info
Speaker 1: like everything you need to bone up on mallus in
Speaker 1: just a matter of minutes.
Speaker 2: Is this something you came across in New York? Or
Speaker 2: where is this located? Exactly? So that's the thing.
Speaker 1: There's more than one mollusc museum and you never know
Speaker 1: where you might run into it. It's all part of
Speaker 1: this ingenious program run by a New York based nonprofit
Speaker 1: called micro and they build these compact, modular exhibits and
Speaker 1: stock them with three D printed models rather than like
Speaker 1: one of the kind artifacts, and the six foot kiosks
Speaker 1: are installed in everyday public places like libraries, hospital waiting rooms,
Speaker 1: and air So the one I actually saw was at
Speaker 1: the Bronx Library, but they're about a dozen participating locations
Speaker 1: all over New York and the point of the program
Speaker 1: is to extend the learning experience of a museum to
Speaker 1: people who might never visit a traditional museum on their own.
Speaker 1: So in the coming years, the plan is to roll
Speaker 1: out these mini museums to other states, and not just
Speaker 1: the major cities, but rural areas too.
Speaker 2: That is pretty cool, but I do have to ask
Speaker 2: why molluscs like it just seems like such a random
Speaker 2: subject to start with.
Speaker 1: So there's actually this funny story behind it. So the
Speaker 1: co founders of Micro, Charles Phillip and Amandescochet, when they
Speaker 1: were first developing the idea, Charles suggested that they visit
Speaker 1: the smallest museum in the world for inspiration, and Amanda
Speaker 1: misheard him and she thought he said mollusc museum instead
Speaker 1: of smallest And so they both like the idea of
Speaker 1: a mollusc museum, but when they looked into it, they
Speaker 1: realized no such place existed, so they decided they had
Speaker 1: to make one for themselves.
Speaker 2: I like that, yeah, So not only is this the
Speaker 2: world's smallest mollusk museum, it's like the only one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But it's worth noting that since launching its first
Speaker 1: museum in twenty seventeen, Micro has added two other offerings
Speaker 1: to its Tiny Museum series. There is the Perpetual Motion Museum,
Speaker 1: which is all about the Earth's energy system, and the
Speaker 1: Museum of Care, which explores the history and impact of
Speaker 1: frontline health workers. So if soft bodied marine animals aren't
Speaker 1: your thing, you do have options. Well, it is.
Speaker 2: Probably good that they aren't restricting themselves solely to mollusks,
Speaker 2: But I do like that single subject approach, like to
Speaker 2: museum learning. We're so used to carving out a whole
Speaker 2: day to visit a museum, and even then you still
Speaker 2: have to choose which exhibits to hit because there's just
Speaker 2: no way to see them all. But if you shrink
Speaker 2: the space and like limit your scope to a single subject,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, visiting a museum becomes a lot
Speaker 2: more manageable.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, of course normal sized museums are great, but
Speaker 1: there's something really special about touring a small museum and
Speaker 1: feeling like you got to see everything it has to offer.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, we thought it'd be fun
Speaker 1: to explore some of the smallest, most niche museums that
Speaker 1: have been cropping up all over the world in recent years.
Speaker 1: They may not have the square footage of the met
Speaker 1: or the prestige of the Smithsonian, but their tiny collections
Speaker 1: still have tons to offer, so let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm monga
Speaker 1: Shigether and Will is traveling today, So instead I've roped
Speaker 1: in my friend and our researcher here, Gave Lucier, and
Speaker 1: on the other side of that soundproof glass organizing his
Speaker 1: own mini museum right there on his desk, that is
Speaker 1: our friend and producer Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2: All right, so I know I'm the guest, and I
Speaker 2: probably shouldn't say this, but that is a pretty sorry
Speaker 2: looking collection so far. He's got a coffee sleeve, the
Speaker 2: wire fastener from a champagne cork, and some of those
Speaker 2: stringy bits you find when you peel a banana. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, did you even ask him the name of
Speaker 2: his museum. It's called the Museum of Mundane Objects with
Speaker 2: whimsical sounding names. So if you look at the little
Speaker 2: placards he's posting out there, that paper coffee sleeve is
Speaker 2: known as a zarf, the wire cage that holds the
Speaker 2: cork in is called a muslet, and the gross strings
Speaker 2: inside banana are called floham bundles. Oh okay, well, I
Speaker 2: guess I stand correct to then so here you go, Dylan.
Speaker 2: Just to show no hard feelings, I'd like to donate
Speaker 2: one of my shoelaces to add to your collection. The
Speaker 2: plastic tubes at the ends are called agltz, so they
Speaker 2: should fit right in there.
Speaker 1: I like that you're taking off just one lace here.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure like everyone on staff here, I love
Speaker 1: cork museums. I know you do. I'm sure Mary does
Speaker 1: and will as well. But a few years ago for Christmas,
Speaker 1: my sister in law Laura bought me the most wonderful gift.
Speaker 1: It's a mini museum that just sits on your desk.
Speaker 1: Have you seen these No, It's like tiny, tiny fragments
Speaker 1: of things, and they're all sort of like lined up,
Speaker 1: and it's everything from like a piece of Steve Jobs's
Speaker 1: turtleneck to a slot cloth to like a megalodon too.
Speaker 1: It's all in this tiny acrylic display. It is so
Speaker 1: nerdy and I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, way to go, Laura. That actually dovetails really nicely
Speaker 2: with my first fact here. So obviously, humans have a
Speaker 2: long record of collecting and preserving artifacts in small spaces,
Speaker 2: and one of the earliest examples of that comes from
Speaker 2: ancient Alexandria, where the royal family of the Ptolemys founded
Speaker 2: the first temple to the Muses. The Greeks called this
Speaker 2: temple the Mushion, which means seed of the muses, and
Speaker 2: of course that's where the word museum comes from.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: The muscion was mostly a place for scholars to engage
Speaker 2: in intellectual pursuits, scholarly type stuff and kind of like
Speaker 2: an ancient research institute, but it was also a storehouse
Speaker 2: for sculptures and other artistic works that were deemed culturally
Speaker 2: or religiously important, and from there the tradition of displaying
Speaker 2: these precious objects was carried forward to royal treasure houses,
Speaker 2: where kings would show off the spoils of war and
Speaker 2: all the fancy swag they received from other rulers.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it sounds like there was a brief
Speaker 1: period where those kinds of treasures and works of art
Speaker 1: were really accessible to the public, like a modern museum,
Speaker 1: but then most of it got moved to these exclusive
Speaker 1: places like royal palaces or mansions or.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no exactly, and that private approach to collecting became
Speaker 2: the norm in Europe for centuries after that, with most
Speaker 2: of the good stuff being hoarded by royals and religious
Speaker 2: institutions like the Catholic Church. It really wasn't until the
Speaker 2: sixteenth century or so that the general public was finally
Speaker 2: able to get their hands on true objects of interest.
Speaker 2: So what really caused the change then, well, the put
Speaker 2: in blood colonialism. Merchant sailors started bringing back unusual objects
Speaker 2: from the far away places they visited, and this influx
Speaker 2: of exotic works of art and natural specimens threw European
Speaker 2: elites into a collecting frenzy. The merchants, aristocrats, and scholars.
Speaker 2: They were all competing with each other to build the
Speaker 2: strangest assortment of objects they could find, and as their
Speaker 2: collections grew, they began to develop new ways of organizing
Speaker 2: and displaying their prized possessions. The pastime proved especially popular
Speaker 2: among the growing merchant class in Germany, where they coined
Speaker 2: the term wounder commer or room of wonder to describe
Speaker 2: these expansive collections.
Speaker 1: So these people were just like dedicating an entire room
Speaker 1: in their houses for these collections.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the wealthiest collectors did. The majority of them,
Speaker 2: though they limited their displays to a smaller kind of
Speaker 2: wounder commer it's what we often call a cabinet of curiosities.
Speaker 2: And this was a specially designed piece of furniture with
Speaker 2: lots of little built in shelves and secret compartments. And
Speaker 2: in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was common for
Speaker 2: European hosts to entertain their guests by giving them a
Speaker 2: guided tour of their cabinet's contents.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so funny. Like, I've heard about a cabinet
Speaker 1: of curiosities, but I always thought it was just like wordplay.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was a real thing. So, like,
Speaker 1: how good were these tours? Like most people weren't historians
Speaker 1: or scientists, right, so like what did they actually know
Speaker 1: about this stuff?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this was like post dinner entertainment, So
Speaker 2: I'm guessing most people on the tour were like a
Speaker 2: little tipsy by that point. They were probably a little
Speaker 2: more open to being told about all this weird stuff.
Speaker 2: But filling up a cabinet was more of a hobby
Speaker 2: than a scientific pursuit. Yeah, And in fact, the items
Speaker 2: weren't even arranged in any particular order, like geographically or chronologically.
Speaker 2: The owners mostly went by esthetic appeal, grouping objects in
Speaker 2: ways that highlighted their different forms, textures, and colors, and
Speaker 2: in that way, a cabinet really revealed more about its
Speaker 2: owner than it did the objects on display.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. So every cab and it had like
Speaker 1: its own particular set of curiosities.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the most part. But the objects did tend
Speaker 2: to fall into two main categories. The first was called
Speaker 2: naturalia and it was made up of you know, objects
Speaker 2: from the natural world, so stuff like preserved animals, plant specimens,
Speaker 2: rock samples, you know, Fijian mermaids. And the second category artificialita.
Speaker 2: It consisted of all your man made objects, so works
Speaker 2: of art, cultural artifacts, and scientific instruments. The best cabinets
Speaker 2: out there included a balanced mix of items from both categories,
Speaker 2: and that was meant to reflect, you know, the well
Speaker 2: rounded intellects of the owners.
Speaker 1: I kind of love that this is almost like a
Speaker 1: precursor to like showing families, slide shows on the carousel
Speaker 1: or something. Right, that's like a way to entertain someone
Speaker 1: with like what you've done or what your personality is like.
Speaker 1: And these really do feel like many museums, right, Like
Speaker 1: it's almost like a personal essay a museum and a
Speaker 1: status symbol kind of all rolled into one piece of furniture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we right, one giant piece of furniture. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: I mean but to be fair, building a cabinet it
Speaker 2: like did have a deeper appeal than just showing off
Speaker 2: to dinner guests. The real goal was to recreate the
Speaker 2: world in miniature as a way to make its true
Speaker 2: size feel less overwhelming. So the objects on display were
Speaker 2: meant to reflect the complexity and the diversity of the world,
Speaker 2: all the strange new things that were coming to light
Speaker 2: during the Age of Discovery. So gathering and categorizing these
Speaker 2: unusual objects it allowed the owners to feel a sense
Speaker 2: of control, like they still had a grip on things.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because you can kind of see a
Speaker 2: mindset there where it's not enough to just encounter or
Speaker 2: study the exotic you also have to own it and
Speaker 2: like make it a reflection of yourself.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: Once cabinets and curiosities fell out of fashion in the
Speaker 2: nineteenth century, European monarchs and other powerful nobles began gifting
Speaker 2: theirs to the public, and these once private collections became
Speaker 2: the starting points for institutions like the British Museum and
Speaker 2: the Prato, and when it came time to expand those collections,
Speaker 2: the museums unfortunately continued to purchase and loot precious artifacts
Speaker 2: from colonized countries, just like the cabinet owners before them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's definitely the ugly side of the
Speaker 1: museum model, though obviously institutions have started to reckon with
Speaker 1: it and have been changing their practices going forward. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about one museum that does not
Speaker 1: have any of these issues. It is a tiny museum,
Speaker 1: one of the smallest museums I read about. It is
Speaker 1: the Warley Museum in Warleytown, England. It is housed inside
Speaker 1: a decommissioned phone booth, one of those red iconic phone
Speaker 1: booths that I sure you know of, and all of
Speaker 1: the items on display there were donated by local residents.
Speaker 2: So like, what kind of stuff are they bringing?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really sweet. Like the museum's focus is local history,
Speaker 1: so there is a permanent exhibit about the town's founding
Speaker 1: and some of the notable people who've lived there over
Speaker 1: the years, but there's also a rotating display of personal items,
Speaker 1: including things like books, photographs, toy soldiers, antique jewelry. Even
Speaker 1: like the items are grouped into themed collections, and they're
Speaker 1: displayed inside locked cases that can be viewed from both
Speaker 1: inside and outside the booth. And you know, the displays
Speaker 1: are switched out every few months to keep things fresh.
Speaker 2: I gotta say that's a pretty genius idea to have
Speaker 2: like a dual sided display wall, because it's like, I'm
Speaker 2: guessing they only let one person in at a time, right, you.
Speaker 1: Know what's strange is that you actually let yourself in,
Speaker 1: Like the museum is only unlocked on certain days, but
Speaker 1: if you happen to be by at the right time,
Speaker 1: you can just kind of like open the door and
Speaker 1: check it out for free. As for how many people
Speaker 1: can fit inside at once, I am not sure there's
Speaker 1: an official rule about it, but viewing the museum one
Speaker 1: at a time is probably the way to go.
Speaker 2: Are you sure about that? Because I think the phone
Speaker 2: booth stuffing record is still like twenty five people.
Speaker 1: So I love those photos of like when that was
Speaker 1: a fat did you see like just like legs and
Speaker 1: arms taking out of a phone.
Speaker 2: It's like fifty years later and that record still stands.
Speaker 2: I think it's South Africa.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well, don't try to try to break in
Speaker 1: Warley Town, because I'm not sure they'd appreciate it, But
Speaker 1: I do love how the phone with itself kind of
Speaker 1: feels like a throwback to you know something you said
Speaker 1: about the Cabinet of Curiosity, which is how they're kind
Speaker 1: of expressions of the people who made them, almost like
Speaker 1: a personal essay written with physical objects, except in this case,
Speaker 1: it's an entire town that's being chronicled along with all
Speaker 1: the people who've made it what it is. Yeah, I like.
Speaker 2: That, and you know, the chance to tell more individual
Speaker 2: stories is probably one of the greatest strengths of a
Speaker 2: small museum. I think part of what's so attractive about
Speaker 2: them is, you know, how they blur the line between
Speaker 2: traditional museums and private collections. Like I was flipping through
Speaker 2: a book this week called Cultures of Collecting by Roger Cardinal,
Speaker 2: and the main distinction he drew between a museum and
Speaker 2: a collection is personal passion. So as he put it, quote,
Speaker 2: while the museum is associated prime with the public and
Speaker 2: the state and with a condition of permanence, collecting is
Speaker 2: usually understood as a private and impassioned pursuit. The museum
Speaker 2: expresses a detached mastery over the objects and fields of
Speaker 2: knowledge that constitute its strengths. But the collector who may
Speaker 2: become the museum's donor as a personal preoccupation.
Speaker 1: That's so funny. I never really thought about museums as
Speaker 1: detached from that sort of like you know, feeling of
Speaker 1: possession or whatever versus like, you know, collectors are obviously
Speaker 1: like obsessed with pet dispensers or toasters or whatever, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's a preoccupation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're way into it.
Speaker 1: Well, I know we've got lots more to cover, but
Speaker 1: before we do, let's take a quick break. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the big
Speaker 1: ideas behind the world's smallest museums. All right, lead the way.
Speaker 1: What's the next stop on our tour?
Speaker 2: So this next one is a little tough to pin
Speaker 2: down because it's actually a traveling museum, and it also
Speaker 2: has a much longer name than you'd expect from such
Speaker 2: a small museum. It's called the World's Largest Collection of
Speaker 2: World's smallest versions of World's largest things, or you know, WLCOWSVOWLT.
Speaker 1: For sure, I feel like that abbreviation might actually take
Speaker 1: longer to say, or even like more effort to say
Speaker 1: So is this like a museum of miniatures or what
Speaker 1: is it exactly?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's basically a love letter to all those
Speaker 2: kitchy roadside attractions we have in the US, you know,
Speaker 2: like the world's largest ball of twine or the world's
Speaker 2: largest frying pan. The museum gives visitors the chance to
Speaker 2: see all of those things in one place, just at
Speaker 2: a much smaller scale.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's still a crazy name, but I guess
Speaker 1: I'm starting to get a sense of what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it is a pretty meta idea,
Speaker 2: so it does take a minute to wrap your head around.
Speaker 2: But the woman behind it is an artist named Erica Nelson,
Speaker 2: and back in the early two thousands, she was road
Speaker 2: tripping around the country and felt herself drawn to all
Speaker 2: the small towns with an object that they build, as
Speaker 2: you know, the world's largest and like any good collector,
Speaker 2: she wanted a souvenir from each attraction, but since most
Speaker 2: of the stops didn't offer any, she started to make
Speaker 2: her own handcrafted replicas, and as Nelson's collection grew, she
Speaker 2: started sharing it with others and eventually established a kind
Speaker 2: of home base at the Roadside Sideshow Expo in Lucas, Kansas.
Speaker 2: A little over two hundred miniatures can be seen there
Speaker 2: on weekends from April through October, but the bulk of
Speaker 2: her collection is actually out on the road as a
Speaker 2: traveling exhibition. You can find its current whereabouts on Nelson's
Speaker 2: Facebook page, or you can keep an eye out for
Speaker 2: her rig in the wild. It currently includes three red
Speaker 2: trailers made up to look like circus wagons. You know,
Speaker 2: you'll definitely know it when you see it.
Speaker 1: I love this idea. It is so ridiculous, and I
Speaker 1: also just love the thought of stumbling across it while
Speaker 1: like cruising down I seventy or whatever. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure i'd stop for the world's largest as salt shaker,
Speaker 1: But like I feel like with this many small, large
Speaker 1: things in one place, yeah, is definitely a mussy right, It's.
Speaker 2: More bang for your buck, And I think the randomness
Speaker 2: is what really makes this work. Like I read this
Speaker 2: interview Nelson did with road Trippers and she pointed this
Speaker 2: out herself. She said, quote, people going to a museum
Speaker 2: expect to see something and may have already decided what
Speaker 2: that's going to feel like. But when you happen upon
Speaker 2: something in a parking lot. It's an unexpected little spark
Speaker 2: to somebody's day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. It's almost like those like little libraries.
Speaker 1: When you find them, they're so joyous, you know, especially
Speaker 1: when they're filled with books you like. But you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things I love about small museums that
Speaker 1: same feeling. Right, you don't know when you're gonna come
Speaker 1: across an interesting one, and when you do, checking it out,
Speaker 1: like I feel like it doesn't eat up your entire day.
Speaker 1: That's part of the beauty of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and one thing I really like about WLCOWSVOWLT in
Speaker 2: particular is that I have you member or are you
Speaker 2: looking at I had to look very carefully to make
Speaker 2: sure I didn't leave all a letter. But anyway, the
Speaker 2: thing I like about you know that one is that
Speaker 2: despite the small scale of the objects, it still has
Speaker 2: a massive scope, Like there are hundreds and hundreds of
Speaker 2: these replicas. So once again, it's kind of like a
Speaker 2: throwback to a cabinet of curiosity, where you had this
Speaker 2: whole little microcosm packed into a small space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I dig it. So the next mini museum I
Speaker 1: want to recommend has a much narrow theme. It is
Speaker 1: called the gifts from the c Seashell Museum, and it
Speaker 1: is located in a small village of Cherokee Sound in
Speaker 1: the Bahamas. Now, there are actually quite a few seashell
Speaker 1: museums out there, but this one is considered the world's smallest.
Speaker 1: It is also inside a nineteen fifties telegraph office that
Speaker 1: was completely renovated and redecorated in twenty seventeen as part
Speaker 1: of a community project, and the ribbon cutting was actually
Speaker 1: overseen by the original telegraph operator who had worked there
Speaker 1: until the late nineteen eighties. Wow. Now it was given
Speaker 1: a noon lease on life. This tiny building now boasts
Speaker 1: a sizable collection of more than two hundred locally sourced shells,
Speaker 1: all of which were painstakingly labeled and cataloged by volunteers.
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, you know, I am sensing a theme with
Speaker 2: your picks manga, Like you really like these repurposed phone buildings,
Speaker 2: don't you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean it's not just phone buildings. It's also
Speaker 1: like closets, elevator shofts, whatever. But I do have another
Speaker 1: one for you that is not phone related. It's called
Speaker 1: the Torah Animal World, and it features a taxidermy specimen
Speaker 1: of every animal and bird mentioned in the Torah, and
Speaker 1: it is all packed into an unassuming Brooklyn townhouse.
Speaker 2: All right, I think I changed my mind. Can we
Speaker 2: go back? They're talking about phone booth?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, but if it makes you feel better. Most
Speaker 1: of the animals on exhibit died naturally in zoos or
Speaker 1: gaming reserves, and they're all depicted in natural poses, so
Speaker 1: like you're not seeing any of them like dressed up
Speaker 1: in big goofy hats or sunglasses or anything like that.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that sounds very tasteful. So what's the story?
Speaker 2: He said, This is like tied to Judaism.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the museum is the brainchild of Rabbi shall
Speaker 1: Shimone Deutsche, and he started as a way to provide
Speaker 1: visual lessons about the Torah to children with dyslexia and
Speaker 1: you know, other learning disabilities, and it was important to
Speaker 1: him that visitors be able to touch the animals as well, because,
Speaker 1: as he put it, quote, we believe that if you
Speaker 1: can touch history, history will touch you.
Speaker 2: Huh. And so which stories are being taught there? Exactly?
Speaker 1: So obviously Noah's Ark is probably the big one. And
Speaker 1: also you'll you'll find a slew of exotic animals including
Speaker 1: like lions, giraffes, zebra, there's even a penguin there. But
Speaker 1: there are also special exhibitions, like there's one devoted to
Speaker 1: all the animals mentioned in prayers, and each display is
Speaker 1: also accompanied with a plaque describing the animal's presence in
Speaker 1: the scripture as well as its significance.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, but but wait, so I just pulled
Speaker 2: up a picture here and there is a big stuffed
Speaker 2: kangaroo hanging out in the front window. Like I don't
Speaker 2: I don't think I remember them popping up in the
Speaker 2: Old Testament.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta read closer. So the museum sometimes get
Speaker 1: different translation donations of animals that didn't strictly appear in
Speaker 1: the Torah. But you know, there's still interesting for kids
Speaker 1: to see close up. Plus the Noah's arc story kind
Speaker 1: of as a catch all. But as comprehensive as Torah
Speaker 1: Animal World is, there is one animal that you won't
Speaker 1: find anywhere in the museum. Do you have a guess?
Speaker 2: I'd have to say, like a snake that seems like
Speaker 2: an obvious one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I feel like the creepy crawleys might be
Speaker 1: might be a good guess, But actually it is a pig,
Speaker 1: and so, of course, many non kosher animals are featured
Speaker 1: in the museum, but pigs were left out because many
Speaker 1: of the more religious visitors would rather not even see
Speaker 1: the animal, much less touch it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, that tracks. I'm not really in a
Speaker 2: hurry to touch a dead pig, you know. I do
Speaker 2: appreciate the dedication to naturalia in that museum, and in
Speaker 2: the seashell entire, like seashells and taxidermied animals, those both
Speaker 2: would have been right at home in a cabinet of curiosity.
Speaker 2: So maybe now we should switch gears and check out
Speaker 2: a couple of museums devoted to the other main category,
Speaker 2: all the man made objects.
Speaker 1: I love that the name for it is artificialia. Like,
Speaker 1: that's just such an amazing name. But so good, let's
Speaker 1: get to that right after a quick break. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to part time genius. Okay, Gabe. So there's no shortage
Speaker 1: of tiny museums dedicated to artificial man made items. England
Speaker 1: alone is home to compact collections highlighting pens, cuckoo clocks, lawnmowers,
Speaker 1: even dog collars. But for my final entry on our
Speaker 1: mini museum list, I thought i'd stay a little closer
Speaker 1: to home and tell you about the museum. It's in
Speaker 1: Lower Manhattan. The name is spelled just like the word museum,
Speaker 1: but it's got an extra M on either side, and
Speaker 1: it is currently located in Cortland Dalley, just south of
Speaker 1: Canal Street, and it's housed inside a pair of abandoned
Speaker 1: elevator shafts, which thankfully are accessible from ground level. Each
Speaker 1: shaft is just thirty six square feet in total, which
Speaker 1: for reference, is about four times the size of that
Speaker 1: telephone box I was telling you about in Britain.
Speaker 2: It all comes back to the phone boots. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: I actually think I've heard of this one. Like it
Speaker 2: does a lot of conceptual displays, right, it's almost like
Speaker 2: an art project.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was actually founded by the Saftie brothers, the
Speaker 1: directors who did on Cut Gems, and their friend Alex
Speaker 1: Caleman back in twenty twelve, and it was sponsored by
Speaker 1: Kate Spade actually she's the initial sponsor. Yeah, but focuses
Speaker 1: on what they called object journalism, which the museum's website
Speaker 1: describes as quote an exploration of modern humanity and current
Speaker 1: events through revealing objects from around the world. And it's
Speaker 1: really kind of special The museum's wall to wall with
Speaker 1: these glowing shelves, and they're typically stalked with about two
Speaker 1: hundred unusual objects that are swapped out seasonally throughout the year.
Speaker 1: Previous objects on display have included everything from a broken
Speaker 1: lava lamp to the happy meal box from an Iranian
Speaker 1: fast food franchise. There was also the shoe that was
Speaker 1: thrown at George Bush toothpaste used by various astronauts and cosmonauts.
Speaker 1: I mean, like it's a it seems like a bunch
Speaker 1: of random garbage, but they actually curate every shelf like
Speaker 1: its own wing of a museum. It's really fun to see.
Speaker 1: And when my friend Jason English, who was the web
Speaker 1: editor at Mental Class and I went down to see it,
Speaker 1: the brothers weren't that famous then, and they came downstairs
Speaker 1: and I think they'd woken up from a nap because
Speaker 1: they were like pulling their shirt on and buttoning their
Speaker 1: pants as they came down. But they actually gave it
Speaker 1: as the tour and the museum has a tiny gift
Speaker 1: shop and a little coffee shop which is just a
Speaker 1: coffee pod in the corner.
Speaker 2: But oh wow, I love that.
Speaker 1: It is pretty amazing and it's worth checking out if
Speaker 1: you get the chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, that's pretty wild. And you know, I like
Speaker 2: when mundane objects kind of get to take the spotlight
Speaker 2: like that, Like they always wind up being so much
Speaker 2: more interesting than you would have guessed, like if you
Speaker 2: just came across this stuff on the street or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it actually has an element of surprise that
Speaker 1: we talked about where you never quite know what you're
Speaker 1: gonna find inside, and you might even stumble across like
Speaker 1: the place by accident. And the best part is that
Speaker 1: even when the museum is closed, you can still check
Speaker 1: out the collection twenty four to seven by looking through
Speaker 1: peep holes in the doors. They keep the lights on
Speaker 1: and so it just like basts this incredible glow into
Speaker 1: the darkness on that street. It's so neat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd love to stumble across that one night. But
Speaker 2: all right, from my last pick, I'm going to go
Speaker 2: with the world famous Crochet Museum in southern California. And
Speaker 2: to be clear, while it is pretty well known, the
Speaker 2: world famous claim is actually part of the official name.
Speaker 2: So I like that the museum is Yeah, well, the
Speaker 2: museum is located just outside of Joshua Tree National Park,
Speaker 2: and it's housed inside what used to be an old
Speaker 2: photo processing.
Speaker 1: Booth, which, as we all know, is the next best
Speaker 1: thing to a phone booth, right, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So this one is a little room mirror and
Speaker 2: it is thankfully air conditioned since you know it's in
Speaker 2: a desert. But just like the phone booth museums, it's
Speaker 2: a total labor of love from the person who made it,
Speaker 2: and in this case that would be Sherry Elf, a
Speaker 2: self described folk artist who bought an old photo kiosk
Speaker 2: in Kansas City and then moved it to Joshua Tree
Speaker 2: to start her own museum.
Speaker 1: Is awesome, It's amazing. So you said this was a
Speaker 1: crochet museum, Like, is this a lifelong passion of hers
Speaker 1: bring crocheted the world or what you would think? So?
Speaker 2: But actually, so I read an interview she did last
Speaker 2: year with a Peppermint magazine, and to hear her describe it,
Speaker 2: crochet collecting was something she fell into by accident. So,
Speaker 2: as Elf explained, quote, it all started when a fellow
Speaker 2: folk artist gave me two crocheted poodle bottle covers for
Speaker 2: my birthday many years ago and said you should collect these.
Speaker 2: I wasn't that on board with the idea, but I
Speaker 2: put them on my shelf and quickly found companion poodles
Speaker 2: at a yard sale days later. I guess that's how
Speaker 2: collections start. Similar things look good together and they magnetize more,
Speaker 2: and soon you have a large collection of crochet poodles
Speaker 2: in your bathroom that you have to build a special
Speaker 2: shelf flom. And the next thing you know, you have
Speaker 2: a roadside attraction. I love that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like that's not something that I've
Speaker 1: ever done, but I like that that's a thing for collectors. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, speaking as a collector myself, she is
Speaker 2: absolutely right about the magnetic properties of a collection. I
Speaker 2: didn't set out to own a thousand transformers. I'm not
Speaker 2: really proud that I do. But twenty years later, you know,
Speaker 2: here we are. It just kind of sneaks up way.
Speaker 2: I have no idea you've got a thousand transformers. I
Speaker 2: haven't counted yet, but I do have a closet full
Speaker 2: of like twenty you know, storage tubs full of them,
Speaker 2: so it's got to be getting up there.
Speaker 1: Wheah, that's incredible. So just going back to the museum
Speaker 1: for a second, like does the museum only display crochet poodles?
Speaker 2: No, So I guess Elf branched out over the years
Speaker 2: because the collection now includes crochet versions of really just
Speaker 2: about everything, like dolls, flowers, cats, There's a complete Nativity
Speaker 2: scene in there, and there's even a tiny crochet kitchen sink,
Speaker 2: of course there is, although I don't know if I
Speaker 2: might like it better if it was just crochet poodles.
Speaker 1: That feels more specific and weird. But it certainly feels crazier.
Speaker 1: And so does she make them all herself or does
Speaker 1: it come from different artists?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's actually my favorite part about this is
Speaker 2: you would assume Elf was like a big crafter, you know,
Speaker 2: being that she's the owner of a world famous miss
Speaker 2: crochet museum, But she doesn't crochet at all, Like she's
Speaker 2: just a big fan of the medium.
Speaker 1: I love that. So it actually reminds me of this
Speaker 1: Times article I pulled and I want out to quote from.
Speaker 1: It's by this writer named someone Subermanium And in twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen she visited a small museum in Poland called the Attic,
Speaker 1: and she was blown away by how much the displays
Speaker 1: revealed about the guy who ran the museum. Her takeaway
Speaker 1: actually echoes a lot of what we've been saying today
Speaker 1: about the strengths of small museum. So I just want
Speaker 1: to read a little bit from it. She writes, quote,
Speaker 1: it is a museum of the curator's life, all his obsessions,
Speaker 1: all his reading, all his thinking, all accumulated in these rooms.
Speaker 1: More than the met or the louver. The attic is
Speaker 1: the essence of what a museum could or should be,
Speaker 1: a curation of individually ordinary objects that achieve a collective sublimity.
Speaker 1: In truth, every person deserves a museum of his or
Speaker 1: her own life, because every life is so irreducibly strange,
Speaker 1: every mind so infinitely there ought to be seven point
Speaker 1: six billion little museums all over the world.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean that's beautiful and amen to that. Like,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure where the tally stands today, but given
Speaker 2: how many you and I found in our research, like,
Speaker 2: I'd say we're well on our way to, you know,
Speaker 2: making that reality. I do know a seven point six
Speaker 2: billion is a pretty ambitious number. But all right, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe not everybody needs a museum.
Speaker 1: So we've got a whole fact off worth of museum
Speaker 1: still left to cover. And I'm so excited to get
Speaker 1: to do it, So let's dive in. Okay, so we've
Speaker 1: covered some pretty minuscule museums today, but based on name alone,
Speaker 1: the World's Smallest Museum is a backyard storage shed in Superior, Arizona.
Speaker 1: It is located on Route sixty, right outside of Phoenix.
Speaker 1: The museum was opened in the mid nineteen nineties by
Speaker 1: the co owners of the Buckboard City Cafe, and they
Speaker 1: were looked for a way to lure more travelers to
Speaker 1: their restaurant, so they built a small red shed behind
Speaker 1: the building and turned it into their own roadside attraction.
Speaker 1: It is dubbed the World's Smallest Museum, and it boasts
Speaker 1: such offbeat treasures as a nineteen eighty four compact computer,
Speaker 1: a Beatles concert poster, and a nineteen sixty letter from
Speaker 1: President elect John F. Kennedy to one of the museum's owners.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's just totally stuff they had in their right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but also a few natural wonders in there as well,
Speaker 2: like the world's largest apache tier, which is I guess
Speaker 2: the kind of rock, and the world's largest piece of chalk,
Speaker 2: which is a different kind of rocks.
Speaker 1: I know. That'll also keep it in mind that despite
Speaker 1: its name, the world's smallest museum isn't actually the smallest.
Speaker 1: At one hundred and thirty four square feet, it's larger
Speaker 1: than at least two of the museums we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: the Museum in New York and the Warley Museum in England.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I've seen bigger pieces of chalk than that,
Speaker 2: So I don't know if we can take these guys
Speaker 2: at face value. But all right, here's one that might
Speaker 2: also qualify as the world's smallest museum. It's called the
Speaker 2: William Burke Museum. It's located in a shop in Edinburgh,
Speaker 2: and it consists of a single exhibit, small enough to
Speaker 2: fit in your pocket, a calling card case made from
Speaker 2: human skin.
Speaker 1: What so the only item in the William Burke Museum
Speaker 1: is made from William Burke. That's right, But.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, but don't feel too bad for him.
Speaker 2: Back in the early eighteen hundreds, he and his partner
Speaker 2: William Hare actually went on a ten month killing spring.
Speaker 2: They murdered sixteen people and sold their corpses to medical
Speaker 2: students to use for dissection practice. And you know, Hair
Speaker 2: managed to avoid punishment by selling out his accomplice, and
Speaker 2: in eighteen twenty nine, William Burke was put to death
Speaker 2: for both of their crimes. Local residents celebrated Burke's demise
Speaker 2: in a pretty gruesome way. They actually cut bits of
Speaker 2: his skin from his body to keep his souvenirs, and
Speaker 2: a portion taken from the back of his hand was
Speaker 2: used to make that calling card case I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: It was sold at auction in nineteen eighty eight, and
Speaker 2: the case was repurposed as one of the world's smallest
Speaker 2: and grossest museum.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of all the museums we're going to visit, I
Speaker 1: don't think that's on my list. But speaking of spooky museums,
Speaker 1: there is a much tamer one in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It's
Speaker 1: called Edgar's Closet, and it is dedicated to the life
Speaker 1: and works of Edgar Allan Poe. Now. The museum was
Speaker 1: started by six grade teacher Tommy Flowers as a way
Speaker 1: to get his students interested in classic literature, and true
Speaker 1: to its name, it's housed in a small classroom closet.
Speaker 1: It is loaded with photos, books, and about a thousand
Speaker 1: pieces of po themed memorabilia. The museum no longer fits
Speaker 1: neatly into its fourteen and a half square foot confines,
Speaker 1: but Edgar's closet actually now spills into the classroom itself,
Speaker 1: and it's an area that Flowers has coined and refers
Speaker 1: to as Edgar's lobby.
Speaker 2: So here's a cute one I found. There is a
Speaker 2: former school bus shelter in Velkenhausen, Germany that was converted
Speaker 2: into a tiny art museum back in two thousand and two.
Speaker 2: Prior to the structure had been used by just one student,
Speaker 2: which meant that most of the time, you know, this
Speaker 2: building was just sitting empty. And the wasted potential of
Speaker 2: that it prompted a local teacher, she actually lived right
Speaker 2: across the street from it, to turn that kind of
Speaker 2: i sore shelter into a mini museum. And so for
Speaker 2: the past two decades, artists from Germany and the neighboring
Speaker 2: countries of Belgium and Luxembourg have filled it with paintings,
Speaker 2: photography and sculptures that anybody's welcome to come and see,
Speaker 2: you know, day or night, and completely free of charge.
Speaker 1: Oh that's such a great idea. I feel like every
Speaker 1: bus stop should have an art gallery totally. Speaking of
Speaker 1: the European arts scene. Did you know that Iceland has
Speaker 1: a tiny museum dedicated to punk music? What I know?
Speaker 1: I mean the genres Heyday apparently lasted from the late
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies to the early nineteen nineties, and the museum
Speaker 1: celebrates that angsty moment in music with an underground exhibit
Speaker 1: of photos, posters, instruments, and stage equipment. It even has
Speaker 1: a pair of headphones built into the wall so you
Speaker 1: can listen to Icelandic punk records during your visit. The
Speaker 1: best part, though, is that the museum is housed inside
Speaker 1: a former public toilet in downtown Reiki, Vic. The exhibits
Speaker 1: are built right into the stalls, which feels so punk
Speaker 1: rock right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that does seem oddly appropriate. And you know,
Speaker 2: because the subterranean bathroom in Iceland is about the last
Speaker 2: place I would expect to find a museum, I think
Speaker 2: you're in the trophy with that one. Congratulations, Mango, I
Speaker 2: will take it. But Gave, this was so fun. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for coming on the program, and uh,
Speaker 2: anytime till next time.
Speaker 1: From myself, Will Mary Gave and Dylan. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening, and be sure to tune in soon
Speaker 1: for another brand new episode. Part Time Genius is a
Speaker 1: production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and me Mongais Chatikler and researched by our
Speaker 1: good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and
Speaker 1: produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
Speaker 1: and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Speaker 1: Trustee Dara Potts and Vinny Shorey. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Gab, did you
Speaker 1: know what one of my friends has this collection of
Speaker 1: apologies on her wall. She's like framed all these apologies
Speaker 1: from famous people and gives it in her back.
Speaker 2: Awesome, and that's like one of these famous people that
Speaker 2: apologize to.
Speaker 1: Her, famous apologists that were like set to other people
Speaker 1: that were put up for auction, and she just has
Speaker 1: that on her wall in her Bathrot's.
Speaker 2: Like a real power move to get all these celebrities
Speaker 2: to apologize to you. That's awesome. I love Little niche
Speaker 2: collections like that