Cabinets of Curiosities, or wunderkammer, began as rooms full of weird and wondrous artifacts representing ancient and natural history. They were filled with skulls and bones, taxidermy, historical relics, occult artifacts, art, fossils and more. Today, they’re intertwined with oddities collecting and vulture culture.
Explore the stories of weird antiques, quack medical devices, funeral ephemera, creepy museum collections, haunted objects and oddities collectors.
What’s in your cabinet? We want to feature your oddities collection. Show us what you got!

Odd Fellows Skeletons
The macabre legacy of the Odd Fellows lurks in the secret spaces, closets and attics of historic buildings around the country.
Haunted Cauldron
Was this cauldron used by Ed Gein to hold human remains? The object that now rests on display at Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum in Las Vegas has a dark and weird history.
Coffin Screws
Coffin hardware, especially from the “golden age of death” in the Victorian era, has become highly collectible. Here’s a brief history of coffin screws.
Fingerprints from Purgatory
The Purgatory Museum exhibits relics like this book that the church claims are proof of the existence of purgatory.
Rasputin’s Penis
This massive member in the St. Petersburg Museum of Erotica may be the legendary penis of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin.
Guillotine Earrings
During France’s Reign of Terror, these guillotine earrings celebrating the beheading of King Louis XVI in 1793 were all the rage.
Creepy Board Games
Ghosts, tombs, and haunted mansions: Try out these 13 vintage spooky board games next time you need some fun chills and thrills.
Weird Couture
After eating the meat from the day’s catch, frog hunter Fabiana LaFluer decided to make her own taxidermy frog bikini.
House of Curiosities
The Malplaquet House in London is an enormous cabinet of curiosities, filled with Victorian taxidermy, articulated skeletons,