January 4, 2024 • 10 mins
Today's stories are deeply curious—and almost became larger than life as a result.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. If you talk to the
(00:37):
residents of Pontianac, Indonesia, many of them will tell you
that their city is haunted, and it has been for
over two hundred and fifty years. Situated near the western
coast of Indonesian Borneo, in between Singapore and the Philippines,
Pontianac used to be a vast expanse of forest. It
wasn't until seventeen seventy one that the contemporary Indonesian leader
or Sultan, led a group of explorers to the area.
(01:00):
He instructed them to start chopping down trees so that
they would have a place to build his palace. And
the Sultan, well, he didn't exactly believe in the eight
hour workday. He made his employees work around the clock.
The men chop trees at all hours of the night,
making their way through the dense forest by the light
of the moon. And then one night, when the moon
was full, they heard something strange. It sounded like a
(01:23):
baby crying, but it was so quiet that they couldn't
be sure. A sour, putrid scent wafted on the breeze.
Suddenly they heard a woman laughing, and then they saw
a figure clad in a long white dress darting between
the trees. They knew exactly what it was too. The
Kuntilanak one of the most famous and fearsome creatures in
Indonesian folklore. The Kuntilanak is said to have pale skin,
(01:46):
black hair, and blood red eyes. Her fingernails are as
long and sharp as knives, her canine teeth looked like
fangs of a lion. Now, depending on the version of
the myth, the Kuntilanach either died in childbirth or suffered
a miscarriage. The loss transformed her into a vengeful, vampiric
spirit known to hunt and eat men, and as her
(02:07):
eerie laughter reverberated through the forest, the men ran to
the Sultan and told him that there was a ghost
in the woods. Now, I don't know about you, but
if I was being hunted by a bloodthirsty spirit, I'd
get a one way ticket out of town, but not
the Sultan. He was determined to build his palace, so
he took two anti ghost measures. First, he fired a
few canons to scare the Kuntilanak away. Second, in case
(02:30):
she ever came back, he named the settlement after her
in the hopes of appeasing her anger, and that's where
Pontianac came from. It's another name for the spirit. Whether
or not the Sultan's methods worked is still up for debate.
Some people think that Kuntilanak is just a story, but
others believe the vampire spirit continues to haunt the city.
Either way, the legend is an important part of local culture.
(02:53):
A festival is held each year to commemorate the end
of Ramadan and also to set off cannons then make
sure the Kuntilanaks far away. Now, while most people would
like the malevolent spirit to keep her distance, one man
suggested that they embrace her. In twenty seventeen, the head
of the city's tourism agency pitched an idea for how
to bring more visitors to the area. Why not build
(03:14):
a statue of the Kuntilanak right outside the local recreation center. Oh,
and to make things even better, how about the terrifying,
bloodthirsty ghost be three hundred feet tall. As you might imagine,
people were not enthused about the prospect of seeing their
nightmares brought to life.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
In fact, as news about the statue spread, locals were pulled,
and ninety eight percent said that they were opposed to
having a murderous spirit literally looming over their city. Within days,
a group of citizens organized and gathered outside the city's
parliament building, holding a banner that read community movement to
reject ghost statue. Before long, the demonstrators were invited inside.
(03:53):
Members of parliament said that they didn't understand why the
protest was even happening. The city's head of tourism was
known to have a sense of humor. It turned out
the media had taken his joke about building a three
hundred foot tall ghost statue and spun it into a
story that ignited national outrage. The following month, the mayor
of Pontianac issued a statement to put people's minds at ease.
(04:14):
There would be no statue of Kuntilanak gracing their city.
As for her spirit, though, well, that was something he
couldn't guarantee. When you hear the word dinosaur, an image
(04:39):
of a t rex probably springs to mind. In this
post Jurassic Park era, where kids grow up playing with
miniature versions of prehistoric beasts. Dinosaurs are well known, but
if you lived in eighteen forty and someone said dinosaur,
you would have absolutely no idea what they were talking about.
The word didn't even exist yet. Although the first dinosaur
bone was discovered in the seventeenth century, it wasn't until
(05:01):
eighteen forty two that English biologist Richard Owen coined the
term dinosauria, which means terrible lizard. Owen was a leading
paleontologist during his time, and he aimed to educate the
public about these so called terrible lizards. That's why in
eighteen fifty one, Owen teamed up with famous sculptor and
natural history artist Benjamin Hawkins. The pair hatched a plan
(05:24):
to bring lifelike dinosaurs to London. Using Owen's scientific background
and hawkins artistic skill, the men created dozens of life
sized dino sculptures, which were put on display at Crystal
Palace Park in South London on the day the dinosaurs
were unveiled in eighteen fifty four, Over forty thousand people
crowded into the park to get a look. The display
(05:45):
was so groundbreaking that one modern paleontologist credits Owen and
Hawkins with making dinosaur's mainstream. Fast forward to eighteen sixty eight.
While Owen continued his work in England, Hawkins moved to America.
He worked on a few different projects, like a series
of lectures on paleontological art. During one of these talks,
(06:05):
he mentioned how much he'd liked to create more dino
sculptures like those in London. The next thing he knew,
he was contracted by the Administrative Board of New York
City's Central Park. It seems that they had a project
that was right up Hawkins Alley, an American equivalent of
London's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in true American fashion. The board
wanted Central Parks display to be bigger and better. With
(06:27):
a budget of seven point five million in modern day dollars,
they dreamed of an exhibition chronicling life in North America,
including sculptures of the dinosaurs that once lived in the region.
Then it would be called the Paleozoic Museum. For Hawkins,
the commission was a dream come true. He spent the
next two years hold up inside his studio. He made
(06:47):
the Hadrosaurus, a long tailed bipedal dinosaur with a beak
like nose, and the Dryptosaurus, which looked kind of like
a mini t rex, but many is a relative term.
The Dryptosaurus was still twenty five five feet long. When
you consider the scale of these sculptures, you realize that
Hawkins really had his work cut out for him, and
the process wasn't all smooth sailing. He got kicked out
(07:09):
of his original studio and had to move all of
his work into a temporary shed. Just imagine a middle
aged guy trying to get his twenty five foot dinosaur
statue into a U haul. And then there was the
issue of Central Park's administrative board, which was full of drama.
In eighteen seventy, a man named William Tweed was one
of New York's state senators, but he was also the
(07:30):
de facto leader of New York City. One of the
most corrupt politicians in state history, William Tweed was more
commonly known as Boss Tweed. He ruled the city like
a mafioso, and he placed his cronies in charge of
Central Park administration cronies like Henry Hilton and Tweed and Hilton, well,
they weren't fans of the Paleozoic Museum. Now. The exact
(07:51):
reasons why are still up for debate. Some people think
that Tweed had a religious opposition to science, while others
believe that he simply thought the project was too expensive.
But perhaps the most interesting theory surrounds another museum entirely.
You see, at the very same time that the Paleozoic
Museum was in the works, so was the American Museum
of Natural History, which is obviously still up and running today.
(08:13):
The Museum of Natural History was to be built right
next to Central Park, and it also featured dinosaurs, which
wouldn't necessarily be a problem. I mean, the more dinos
the merrier, right, Well not if you were Henry Hilton.
You see, Hilton had been a very vocal proponent of
the Museum of Natural History, and he didn't want any
competition hindering its success. In December of eighteen seventy, Benjamin Hawkins,
(08:37):
our dinos sculptor extraordinaire, received a letter from the Administrative
Board letting him know that the entire project had been canceled.
The note wasn't signed by Tweet or Hilton, but it
was pretty clear what had happened. Hawkins, as you might imagine,
was bitterly disappointed and as if things couldn't get worse.
One day in May the following year, he arrived at
his workshop to find the floor littered with shards of plats,
(09:00):
master and cement. Someone had broken into his shed and
smashed every dinosaur to bits. As for the culprit, while
there's no definitive proof, it is believed that Henry Hilton,
who had a pension for bizarre and violent behavior, committed
the assault himself. Soon after this final blow, Benjamin Hawkins
returned to England, where he lived out his final years
(09:21):
as a recluse. But despite this sad ending, he still
made his mark on New York City. According to one historian,
the broken pieces of hawkins dino sculptures didn't remain in
his warehouse. There's evidence that the material was ground down
and used to pave parts of Central Park. And that's
history for you, right. Even a sidewalk can tell you
(09:42):
a curious tale. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
(10:05):
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. If you talk to the
(00:37):
residents of Pontianac, Indonesia, many of them will tell you
that their city is haunted, and it has been for
over two hundred and fifty years. Situated near the western
coast of Indonesian Borneo, in between Singapore and the Philippines,
Pontianac used to be a vast expanse of forest. It
wasn't until seventeen seventy one that the contemporary Indonesian leader
or Sultan, led a group of explorers to the area.
(01:00):
He instructed them to start chopping down trees so that
they would have a place to build his palace. And
the Sultan, well, he didn't exactly believe in the eight
hour workday. He made his employees work around the clock.
The men chop trees at all hours of the night,
making their way through the dense forest by the light
of the moon. And then one night, when the moon
was full, they heard something strange. It sounded like a
(01:23):
baby crying, but it was so quiet that they couldn't
be sure. A sour, putrid scent wafted on the breeze.
Suddenly they heard a woman laughing, and then they saw
a figure clad in a long white dress darting between
the trees. They knew exactly what it was too. The
Kuntilanak one of the most famous and fearsome creatures in
Indonesian folklore. The Kuntilanak is said to have pale skin,
(01:46):
black hair, and blood red eyes. Her fingernails are as
long and sharp as knives, her canine teeth looked like
fangs of a lion. Now, depending on the version of
the myth, the Kuntilanach either died in childbirth or suffered
a miscarriage. The loss transformed her into a vengeful, vampiric
spirit known to hunt and eat men, and as her
(02:07):
eerie laughter reverberated through the forest, the men ran to
the Sultan and told him that there was a ghost
in the woods. Now, I don't know about you, but
if I was being hunted by a bloodthirsty spirit, I'd
get a one way ticket out of town, but not
the Sultan. He was determined to build his palace, so
he took two anti ghost measures. First, he fired a
few canons to scare the Kuntilanak away. Second, in case
(02:30):
she ever came back, he named the settlement after her
in the hopes of appeasing her anger, and that's where
Pontianac came from. It's another name for the spirit. Whether
or not the Sultan's methods worked is still up for debate.
Some people think that Kuntilanak is just a story, but
others believe the vampire spirit continues to haunt the city.
Either way, the legend is an important part of local culture.
(02:53):
A festival is held each year to commemorate the end
of Ramadan and also to set off cannons then make
sure the Kuntilanaks far away. Now, while most people would
like the malevolent spirit to keep her distance, one man
suggested that they embrace her. In twenty seventeen, the head
of the city's tourism agency pitched an idea for how
to bring more visitors to the area. Why not build
(03:14):
a statue of the Kuntilanak right outside the local recreation center. Oh,
and to make things even better, how about the terrifying,
bloodthirsty ghost be three hundred feet tall. As you might imagine,
people were not enthused about the prospect of seeing their
nightmares brought to life.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
In fact, as news about the statue spread, locals were pulled,
and ninety eight percent said that they were opposed to
having a murderous spirit literally looming over their city. Within days,
a group of citizens organized and gathered outside the city's
parliament building, holding a banner that read community movement to
reject ghost statue. Before long, the demonstrators were invited inside.
(03:53):
Members of parliament said that they didn't understand why the
protest was even happening. The city's head of tourism was
known to have a sense of humor. It turned out
the media had taken his joke about building a three
hundred foot tall ghost statue and spun it into a
story that ignited national outrage. The following month, the mayor
of Pontianac issued a statement to put people's minds at ease.
(04:14):
There would be no statue of Kuntilanak gracing their city.
As for her spirit, though, well, that was something he
couldn't guarantee. When you hear the word dinosaur, an image
(04:39):
of a t rex probably springs to mind. In this
post Jurassic Park era, where kids grow up playing with
miniature versions of prehistoric beasts. Dinosaurs are well known, but
if you lived in eighteen forty and someone said dinosaur,
you would have absolutely no idea what they were talking about.
The word didn't even exist yet. Although the first dinosaur
bone was discovered in the seventeenth century, it wasn't until
(05:01):
eighteen forty two that English biologist Richard Owen coined the
term dinosauria, which means terrible lizard. Owen was a leading
paleontologist during his time, and he aimed to educate the
public about these so called terrible lizards. That's why in
eighteen fifty one, Owen teamed up with famous sculptor and
natural history artist Benjamin Hawkins. The pair hatched a plan
(05:24):
to bring lifelike dinosaurs to London. Using Owen's scientific background
and hawkins artistic skill, the men created dozens of life
sized dino sculptures, which were put on display at Crystal
Palace Park in South London on the day the dinosaurs
were unveiled in eighteen fifty four, Over forty thousand people
crowded into the park to get a look. The display
(05:45):
was so groundbreaking that one modern paleontologist credits Owen and
Hawkins with making dinosaur's mainstream. Fast forward to eighteen sixty eight.
While Owen continued his work in England, Hawkins moved to America.
He worked on a few different projects, like a series
of lectures on paleontological art. During one of these talks,
(06:05):
he mentioned how much he'd liked to create more dino
sculptures like those in London. The next thing he knew,
he was contracted by the Administrative Board of New York
City's Central Park. It seems that they had a project
that was right up Hawkins Alley, an American equivalent of
London's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in true American fashion. The board
wanted Central Parks display to be bigger and better. With
(06:27):
a budget of seven point five million in modern day dollars,
they dreamed of an exhibition chronicling life in North America,
including sculptures of the dinosaurs that once lived in the region.
Then it would be called the Paleozoic Museum. For Hawkins,
the commission was a dream come true. He spent the
next two years hold up inside his studio. He made
(06:47):
the Hadrosaurus, a long tailed bipedal dinosaur with a beak
like nose, and the Dryptosaurus, which looked kind of like
a mini t rex, but many is a relative term.
The Dryptosaurus was still twenty five five feet long. When
you consider the scale of these sculptures, you realize that
Hawkins really had his work cut out for him, and
the process wasn't all smooth sailing. He got kicked out
(07:09):
of his original studio and had to move all of
his work into a temporary shed. Just imagine a middle
aged guy trying to get his twenty five foot dinosaur
statue into a U haul. And then there was the
issue of Central Park's administrative board, which was full of drama.
In eighteen seventy, a man named William Tweed was one
of New York's state senators, but he was also the
(07:30):
de facto leader of New York City. One of the
most corrupt politicians in state history, William Tweed was more
commonly known as Boss Tweed. He ruled the city like
a mafioso, and he placed his cronies in charge of
Central Park administration cronies like Henry Hilton and Tweed and Hilton, well,
they weren't fans of the Paleozoic Museum. Now. The exact
(07:51):
reasons why are still up for debate. Some people think
that Tweed had a religious opposition to science, while others
believe that he simply thought the project was too expensive.
But perhaps the most interesting theory surrounds another museum entirely.
You see, at the very same time that the Paleozoic
Museum was in the works, so was the American Museum
of Natural History, which is obviously still up and running today.
(08:13):
The Museum of Natural History was to be built right
next to Central Park, and it also featured dinosaurs, which
wouldn't necessarily be a problem. I mean, the more dinos
the merrier, right, Well not if you were Henry Hilton.
You see, Hilton had been a very vocal proponent of
the Museum of Natural History, and he didn't want any
competition hindering its success. In December of eighteen seventy, Benjamin Hawkins,
(08:37):
our dinos sculptor extraordinaire, received a letter from the Administrative
Board letting him know that the entire project had been canceled.
The note wasn't signed by Tweet or Hilton, but it
was pretty clear what had happened. Hawkins, as you might imagine,
was bitterly disappointed and as if things couldn't get worse.
One day in May the following year, he arrived at
his workshop to find the floor littered with shards of plats,
(09:00):
master and cement. Someone had broken into his shed and
smashed every dinosaur to bits. As for the culprit, while
there's no definitive proof, it is believed that Henry Hilton,
who had a pension for bizarre and violent behavior, committed
the assault himself. Soon after this final blow, Benjamin Hawkins
returned to England, where he lived out his final years
(09:21):
as a recluse. But despite this sad ending, he still
made his mark on New York City. According to one historian,
the broken pieces of hawkins dino sculptures didn't remain in
his warehouse. There's evidence that the material was ground down
and used to pave parts of Central Park. And that's
history for you, right. Even a sidewalk can tell you
(09:42):
a curious tale. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
(10:05):
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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