February 18, 2025 • 39 mins
From the Museum of Mollusks crammed into a hospital kiosk, to the supercool collection housed in a New York City elevator shaft, Mango and Gabe visit some of the tiniest, most delightful, and absolutely strangest museums worth your time. Plus, we dig into why every good host needs to invest in this after-dinner furniture piece.
To see a few of the museums we referenced or hit us up for questions, visit our Instagram @parttimegenius.
Photo by Alina Vilchenko. Thanks Alina!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what, gab?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So for a long time, spider silk has been considered
the world's strongest biological material. It is even tougher than kevlar,
which is used in bulletproof vests. Of course, but according
to engineers in the UK, the substance found in limpet
teeth is actually five times stronger than spider silk. In fact,
the tensile strength of the limpet's tooth material is so
(00:36):
great that a single strand of it could withstand the
same amount of pressure needed to turn carbon into diamonds.
Isn't that insane?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Wow? Yeah, I mean that's pretty incredible. But I think
I speak for everyone when I ask what is a limpet?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah? I feel like limpits aren't the household name they
should be. But a limpit is a kind of mollusk.
It's an aquatic snail, to be precise, and they feed
on the algae that grows along rocky shorelines, which is
why their teeth need to be extra tough to stand
up to all that cutting and scraping. I see.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Okay, So are all mollusc teeth that tough for our
limpets the exception.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, so not every kind of limpet has teeth that strong,
and some mollusks, like cuttlefish, don't even have teeth at all.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Wait, so cuddlefish or molluscs too, I'm just trying to keep.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Up your Yeah, the mollusc family is one of the
weirdest and most diverse in the animal kingdom. Like clams
are technically mollusks, and so are squids, sea snails, sea slugs.
Like all of those animals look so different, but because
they share a few unique traits, they're all categorized as mallus.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Hmmm, well, mango, I hope you don't mind me asking this,
but how do you know so much about mollus.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, for a while, my friend and I were trying
to make a show called America's Next Top Mollusc. That's
a true thing didn't take off. Felt like it would
be a good YouTube show, it would be really funny.
But I also did win two gold medals a year
after year at the Science Olympics in a category called
name that Organism, where you were giving fifty objects and
(02:07):
you had to identify them. Put down their file them
in class. So I weirdly do know a lot about
looks it, But everything else I know about Malis is
thanks to my visit to the world's smallest mollusc museum.
It's only about the size of a refrigerator, but it
is jam packed with eye catching displays, activities, and info
like everything you need to bone up on mallus in
(02:29):
just a matter of minutes.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Is this something you came across in New York? Or
where is this located? Exactly? So that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
There's more than one mollusc museum and you never know
where you might run into it. It's all part of
this ingenious program run by a New York based nonprofit
called micro and they build these compact, modular exhibits and
stock them with three D printed models rather than like
one of the kind artifacts, and the six foot kiosks
are installed in everyday public places like libraries, hospital waiting rooms,
(02:59):
and air So the one I actually saw was at
the Bronx Library, but they're about a dozen participating locations
all over New York and the point of the program
is to extend the learning experience of a museum to
people who might never visit a traditional museum on their own.
So in the coming years, the plan is to roll
out these mini museums to other states, and not just
the major cities, but rural areas too.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That is pretty cool, but I do have to ask
why molluscs like it just seems like such a random
subject to start with.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So there's actually this funny story behind it. So the
co founders of Micro, Charles Phillip and Amandescochet, when they
were first developing the idea, Charles suggested that they visit
the smallest museum in the world for inspiration, and Amanda
misheard him and she thought he said mollusc museum instead
(03:50):
of smallest And so they both like the idea of
a mollusc museum, but when they looked into it, they
realized no such place existed, so they decided they had
to make one for themselves.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I like that, yeah, So not only is this the
world's smallest mollusk museum, it's like the only one.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah. But it's worth noting that since launching its first
museum in twenty seventeen, Micro has added two other offerings
to its Tiny Museum series. There is the Perpetual Motion Museum,
which is all about the Earth's energy system, and the
Museum of Care, which explores the history and impact of
frontline health workers. So if soft bodied marine animals aren't
(04:27):
your thing, you do have options. Well, it is.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Probably good that they aren't restricting themselves solely to mollusks,
But I do like that single subject approach, like to
museum learning. We're so used to carving out a whole
day to visit a museum, and even then you still
have to choose which exhibits to hit because there's just
no way to see them all. But if you shrink
the space and like limit your scope to a single subject,
(04:52):
all of a sudden, visiting a museum becomes a lot
more manageable.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah. Now, of course normal sized museums are great, but
there's something really special about touring a small museum and
feeling like you got to see everything it has to offer.
So with that in mind, we thought it'd be fun
to explore some of the smallest, most niche museums that
have been cropping up all over the world in recent years.
They may not have the square footage of the met
or the prestige of the Smithsonian, but their tiny collections
(05:18):
still have tons to offer, so let's dive in. Hey,
(05:42):
their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm monga
Shigether and Will is traveling today, So instead I've roped
in my friend and our researcher here, Gave Lucier, and
on the other side of that soundproof glass organizing his
own mini museum right there on his desk, that is
our friend and producer Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
All right, so I know I'm the guest, and I
probably shouldn't say this, but that is a pretty sorry
looking collection so far. He's got a coffee sleeve, the
wire fastener from a champagne cork, and some of those
stringy bits you find when you peel a banana. Yeah,
I mean, did you even ask him the name of
his museum. It's called the Museum of Mundane Objects with
(06:24):
whimsical sounding names. So if you look at the little
placards he's posting out there, that paper coffee sleeve is
known as a zarf, the wire cage that holds the
cork in is called a muslet, and the gross strings
inside banana are called floham bundles. Oh okay, well, I
guess I stand correct to then so here you go, Dylan.
Just to show no hard feelings, I'd like to donate
(06:46):
one of my shoelaces to add to your collection. The
plastic tubes at the ends are called agltz, so they
should fit right in there.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I like that you're taking off just one lace here.
But I'm sure like everyone on staff here, I love
cork museums. I know you do. I'm sure Mary does
and will as well. But a few years ago for Christmas,
my sister in law Laura bought me the most wonderful gift.
It's a mini museum that just sits on your desk.
Have you seen these No, It's like tiny, tiny fragments
(07:13):
of things, and they're all sort of like lined up,
and it's everything from like a piece of Steve Jobs's
turtleneck to a slot cloth to like a megalodon too.
It's all in this tiny acrylic display. It is so
nerdy and I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, way to go, Laura. That actually dovetails really nicely
with my first fact here. So obviously, humans have a
long record of collecting and preserving artifacts in small spaces,
and one of the earliest examples of that comes from
ancient Alexandria, where the royal family of the Ptolemys founded
the first temple to the Muses. The Greeks called this
(07:49):
temple the Mushion, which means seed of the muses, and
of course that's where the word museum comes from.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The muscion was mostly a place for scholars to engage
in intellectual pursuits, scholarly type stuff and kind of like
an ancient research institute, but it was also a storehouse
for sculptures and other artistic works that were deemed culturally
or religiously important, and from there the tradition of displaying
these precious objects was carried forward to royal treasure houses,
(08:18):
where kings would show off the spoils of war and
all the fancy swag they received from other rulers.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So I mean, it sounds like there was a brief
period where those kinds of treasures and works of art
were really accessible to the public, like a modern museum,
but then most of it got moved to these exclusive
places like royal palaces or mansions or.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, no exactly, and that private approach to collecting became
the norm in Europe for centuries after that, with most
of the good stuff being hoarded by royals and religious
institutions like the Catholic Church. It really wasn't until the
sixteenth century or so that the general public was finally
able to get their hands on true objects of interest.
So what really caused the change then, well, the put
(08:59):
in blood colonialism. Merchant sailors started bringing back unusual objects
from the far away places they visited, and this influx
of exotic works of art and natural specimens threw European
elites into a collecting frenzy. The merchants, aristocrats, and scholars.
They were all competing with each other to build the
strangest assortment of objects they could find, and as their
(09:22):
collections grew, they began to develop new ways of organizing
and displaying their prized possessions. The pastime proved especially popular
among the growing merchant class in Germany, where they coined
the term wounder commer or room of wonder to describe
these expansive collections.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So these people were just like dedicating an entire room
in their houses for these collections.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I mean the wealthiest collectors did. The majority of them,
though they limited their displays to a smaller kind of
wounder commer it's what we often call a cabinet of curiosities.
And this was a specially designed piece of furniture with
lots of little built in shelves and secret compartments. And
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was common for
European hosts to entertain their guests by giving them a
(10:07):
guided tour of their cabinet's contents.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, that's so funny. Like, I've heard about a cabinet
of curiosities, but I always thought it was just like wordplay.
I didn't realize it was a real thing. So, like,
how good were these tours? Like most people weren't historians
or scientists, right, so like what did they actually know
about this stuff?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, I mean this was like post dinner entertainment, So
I'm guessing most people on the tour were like a
little tipsy by that point. They were probably a little
more open to being told about all this weird stuff.
But filling up a cabinet was more of a hobby
than a scientific pursuit. Yeah, And in fact, the items
weren't even arranged in any particular order, like geographically or chronologically.
(10:44):
The owners mostly went by esthetic appeal, grouping objects in
ways that highlighted their different forms, textures, and colors, and
in that way, a cabinet really revealed more about its
owner than it did the objects on display.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That's really interesting. So every cab and it had like
its own particular set of curiosities.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, for the most part. But the objects did tend
to fall into two main categories. The first was called
naturalia and it was made up of you know, objects
from the natural world, so stuff like preserved animals, plant specimens,
rock samples, you know, Fijian mermaids. And the second category artificialita.
It consisted of all your man made objects, so works
(11:26):
of art, cultural artifacts, and scientific instruments. The best cabinets
out there included a balanced mix of items from both categories,
and that was meant to reflect, you know, the well
rounded intellects of the owners.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I kind of love that this is almost like a
precursor to like showing families, slide shows on the carousel
or something. Right, that's like a way to entertain someone
with like what you've done or what your personality is like.
And these really do feel like many museums, right, Like
it's almost like a personal essay a museum and a
status symbol kind of all rolled into one piece of furniture.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, we right, one giant piece of furniture. Yeah, And
I mean but to be fair, building a cabinet it
like did have a deeper appeal than just showing off
to dinner guests. The real goal was to recreate the
world in miniature as a way to make its true
size feel less overwhelming. So the objects on display were
meant to reflect the complexity and the diversity of the world,
(12:22):
all the strange new things that were coming to light
during the Age of Discovery. So gathering and categorizing these
unusual objects it allowed the owners to feel a sense
of control, like they still had a grip on things.
And it's interesting because you can kind of see a
mindset there where it's not enough to just encounter or
study the exotic you also have to own it and
(12:44):
like make it a reflection of yourself.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Once cabinets and curiosities fell out of fashion in the
nineteenth century, European monarchs and other powerful nobles began gifting
theirs to the public, and these once private collections became
the starting points for institutions like the British Museum and
the Prato, and when it came time to expand those collections,
the museums unfortunately continued to purchase and loot precious artifacts
(13:10):
from colonized countries, just like the cabinet owners before them.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, I mean, that's definitely the ugly side of the
museum model, though obviously institutions have started to reckon with
it and have been changing their practices going forward. Now,
I want to talk about one museum that does not
have any of these issues. It is a tiny museum,
one of the smallest museums I read about. It is
the Warley Museum in Warleytown, England. It is housed inside
(13:34):
a decommissioned phone booth, one of those red iconic phone
booths that I sure you know of, and all of
the items on display there were donated by local residents.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So like, what kind of stuff are they bringing?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, it's really sweet. Like the museum's focus is local history,
so there is a permanent exhibit about the town's founding
and some of the notable people who've lived there over
the years, but there's also a rotating display of personal items,
including things like books, photographs, toy soldiers, antique jewelry. Even
like the items are grouped into themed collections, and they're
(14:07):
displayed inside locked cases that can be viewed from both
inside and outside the booth. And you know, the displays
are switched out every few months to keep things fresh.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I gotta say that's a pretty genius idea to have
like a dual sided display wall, because it's like, I'm
guessing they only let one person in at a time, right, you.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Know what's strange is that you actually let yourself in,
Like the museum is only unlocked on certain days, but
if you happen to be by at the right time,
you can just kind of like open the door and
check it out for free. As for how many people
can fit inside at once, I am not sure there's
an official rule about it, but viewing the museum one
at a time is probably the way to go.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Are you sure about that? Because I think the phone
booth stuffing record is still like twenty five people.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So I love those photos of like when that was
a fat did you see like just like legs and
arms taking out of a phone.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
It's like fifty years later and that record still stands.
I think it's South Africa.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
But yeah, well, don't try to try to break in
Warley Town, because I'm not sure they'd appreciate it, But
I do love how the phone with itself kind of
feels like a throwback to you know something you said
about the Cabinet of Curiosity, which is how they're kind
of expressions of the people who made them, almost like
a personal essay written with physical objects, except in this case,
(15:27):
it's an entire town that's being chronicled along with all
the people who've made it what it is. Yeah, I like.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That, and you know, the chance to tell more individual
stories is probably one of the greatest strengths of a
small museum. I think part of what's so attractive about
them is, you know, how they blur the line between
traditional museums and private collections. Like I was flipping through
a book this week called Cultures of Collecting by Roger Cardinal,
and the main distinction he drew between a museum and
(15:53):
a collection is personal passion. So as he put it, quote,
while the museum is associated prime with the public and
the state and with a condition of permanence, collecting is
usually understood as a private and impassioned pursuit. The museum
expresses a detached mastery over the objects and fields of
knowledge that constitute its strengths. But the collector who may
(16:17):
become the museum's donor as a personal preoccupation.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
That's so funny. I never really thought about museums as
detached from that sort of like you know, feeling of
possession or whatever versus like, you know, collectors are obviously
like obsessed with pet dispensers or toasters or whatever, right,
Like it's a preoccupation.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, they're way into it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, I know we've got lots more to cover, but
before we do, let's take a quick break. You're listening
(16:55):
to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the big
ideas behind the world's smallest museums. All right, lead the way.
What's the next stop on our tour?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So this next one is a little tough to pin
down because it's actually a traveling museum, and it also
has a much longer name than you'd expect from such
a small museum. It's called the World's Largest Collection of
World's smallest versions of World's largest things, or you know, WLCOWSVOWLT.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
For sure, I feel like that abbreviation might actually take
longer to say, or even like more effort to say
So is this like a museum of miniatures or what
is it exactly?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well, yeah, it's basically a love letter to all those
kitchy roadside attractions we have in the US, you know,
like the world's largest ball of twine or the world's
largest frying pan. The museum gives visitors the chance to
see all of those things in one place, just at
a much smaller scale.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I mean, it's still a crazy name, but I guess
I'm starting to get a sense of what.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, well, I mean it is a pretty meta idea,
so it does take a minute to wrap your head around.
But the woman behind it is an artist named Erica Nelson,
and back in the early two thousands, she was road
tripping around the country and felt herself drawn to all
the small towns with an object that they build, as
you know, the world's largest and like any good collector,
she wanted a souvenir from each attraction, but since most
(18:24):
of the stops didn't offer any, she started to make
her own handcrafted replicas, and as Nelson's collection grew, she
started sharing it with others and eventually established a kind
of home base at the Roadside Sideshow Expo in Lucas, Kansas.
A little over two hundred miniatures can be seen there
on weekends from April through October, but the bulk of
(18:45):
her collection is actually out on the road as a
traveling exhibition. You can find its current whereabouts on Nelson's
Facebook page, or you can keep an eye out for
her rig in the wild. It currently includes three red
trailers made up to look like circus wagons. You know,
you'll definitely know it when you see it.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I love this idea. It is so ridiculous, and I
also just love the thought of stumbling across it while
like cruising down I seventy or whatever. You know, I'm
not sure i'd stop for the world's largest as salt shaker,
But like I feel like with this many small, large
things in one place, yeah, is definitely a mussy right, It's.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
More bang for your buck, And I think the randomness
is what really makes this work. Like I read this
interview Nelson did with road Trippers and she pointed this
out herself. She said, quote, people going to a museum
expect to see something and may have already decided what
that's going to feel like. But when you happen upon
something in a parking lot. It's an unexpected little spark
(19:42):
to somebody's day.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, I love that. It's almost like those like little libraries.
When you find them, they're so joyous, you know, especially
when they're filled with books you like. But you know,
one of the things I love about small museums that
same feeling. Right, you don't know when you're gonna come
across an interesting one, and when you do, checking it out,
like I feel like it doesn't eat up your entire day.
That's part of the beauty of them.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, and one thing I really like about WLCOWSVOWLT in
particular is that I have you member or are you
looking at I had to look very carefully to make
sure I didn't leave all a letter. But anyway, the
thing I like about you know that one is that
despite the small scale of the objects, it still has
(20:27):
a massive scope, Like there are hundreds and hundreds of
these replicas. So once again, it's kind of like a
throwback to a cabinet of curiosity, where you had this
whole little microcosm packed into a small space.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, I dig it. So the next mini museum I
want to recommend has a much narrow theme. It is
called the gifts from the c Seashell Museum, and it
is located in a small village of Cherokee Sound in
the Bahamas. Now, there are actually quite a few seashell
museums out there, but this one is considered the world's smallest.
It is also inside a nineteen fifties telegraph office that
(21:02):
was completely renovated and redecorated in twenty seventeen as part
of a community project, and the ribbon cutting was actually
overseen by the original telegraph operator who had worked there
until the late nineteen eighties. Wow. Now it was given
a noon lease on life. This tiny building now boasts
a sizable collection of more than two hundred locally sourced shells,
(21:24):
all of which were painstakingly labeled and cataloged by volunteers.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Wow. Well, you know, I am sensing a theme with
your picks manga, Like you really like these repurposed phone buildings,
don't you.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah. I mean it's not just phone buildings. It's also
like closets, elevator shofts, whatever. But I do have another
one for you that is not phone related. It's called
the Torah Animal World, and it features a taxidermy specimen
of every animal and bird mentioned in the Torah, and
it is all packed into an unassuming Brooklyn townhouse.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
All right, I think I changed my mind. Can we
go back? They're talking about phone booth?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Absolutely not, but if it makes you feel better. Most
of the animals on exhibit died naturally in zoos or
gaming reserves, and they're all depicted in natural poses, so
like you're not seeing any of them like dressed up
in big goofy hats or sunglasses or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Okay, well that sounds very tasteful. So what's the story?
He said, This is like tied to Judaism.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah. So the museum is the brainchild of Rabbi shall
Shimone Deutsche, and he started as a way to provide
visual lessons about the Torah to children with dyslexia and
you know, other learning disabilities, and it was important to
him that visitors be able to touch the animals as well, because,
as he put it, quote, we believe that if you
can touch history, history will touch you.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Huh. And so which stories are being taught there? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So obviously Noah's Ark is probably the big one. And
also you'll you'll find a slew of exotic animals including
like lions, giraffes, zebra, there's even a penguin there. But
there are also special exhibitions, like there's one devoted to
all the animals mentioned in prayers, and each display is
also accompanied with a plaque describing the animal's presence in
(23:07):
the scripture as well as its significance.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Okay, all right, but but wait, so I just pulled
up a picture here and there is a big stuffed
kangaroo hanging out in the front window. Like I don't
I don't think I remember them popping up in the
Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, you gotta read closer. So the museum sometimes get
different translation donations of animals that didn't strictly appear in
the Torah. But you know, there's still interesting for kids
to see close up. Plus the Noah's arc story kind
of as a catch all. But as comprehensive as Torah
Animal World is, there is one animal that you won't
find anywhere in the museum. Do you have a guess?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I'd have to say, like a snake that seems like
an obvious one.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, yeah, I feel like the creepy crawleys might be
might be a good guess, But actually it is a pig,
and so, of course, many non kosher animals are featured
in the museum, but pigs were left out because many
of the more religious visitors would rather not even see
the animal, much less touch it.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, all right, that tracks. I'm not really in a
hurry to touch a dead pig, you know. I do
appreciate the dedication to naturalia in that museum, and in
the seashell entire, like seashells and taxidermied animals, those both
would have been right at home in a cabinet of curiosity.
So maybe now we should switch gears and check out
a couple of museums devoted to the other main category,
(24:29):
all the man made objects.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I love that the name for it is artificialia. Like,
that's just such an amazing name. But so good, let's
get to that right after a quick break. Welcome back
(24:53):
to part time genius. Okay, Gabe. So there's no shortage
of tiny museums dedicated to artificial man made items. England
alone is home to compact collections highlighting pens, cuckoo clocks, lawnmowers,
even dog collars. But for my final entry on our
mini museum list, I thought i'd stay a little closer
to home and tell you about the museum. It's in
(25:15):
Lower Manhattan. The name is spelled just like the word museum,
but it's got an extra M on either side, and
it is currently located in Cortland Dalley, just south of
Canal Street, and it's housed inside a pair of abandoned
elevator shafts, which thankfully are accessible from ground level. Each
shaft is just thirty six square feet in total, which
(25:35):
for reference, is about four times the size of that
telephone box I was telling you about in Britain.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
It all comes back to the phone boots. Yeah, but
I actually think I've heard of this one. Like it
does a lot of conceptual displays, right, it's almost like
an art project.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah. It was actually founded by the Saftie brothers, the
directors who did on Cut Gems, and their friend Alex
Caleman back in twenty twelve, and it was sponsored by
Kate Spade actually she's the initial sponsor. Yeah, but focuses
on what they called object journalism, which the museum's website
describes as quote an exploration of modern humanity and current
(26:12):
events through revealing objects from around the world. And it's
really kind of special The museum's wall to wall with
these glowing shelves, and they're typically stalked with about two
hundred unusual objects that are swapped out seasonally throughout the year.
Previous objects on display have included everything from a broken
lava lamp to the happy meal box from an Iranian
(26:33):
fast food franchise. There was also the shoe that was
thrown at George Bush toothpaste used by various astronauts and cosmonauts.
I mean, like it's a it seems like a bunch
of random garbage, but they actually curate every shelf like
its own wing of a museum. It's really fun to see.
And when my friend Jason English, who was the web
(26:56):
editor at Mental Class and I went down to see it,
the brothers weren't that famous then, and they came downstairs
and I think they'd woken up from a nap because
they were like pulling their shirt on and buttoning their
pants as they came down. But they actually gave it
as the tour and the museum has a tiny gift
shop and a little coffee shop which is just a
coffee pod in the corner.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
But oh wow, I love that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
It is pretty amazing and it's worth checking out if
you get the chance.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, definitely, that's pretty wild. And you know, I like
when mundane objects kind of get to take the spotlight
like that, Like they always wind up being so much
more interesting than you would have guessed, like if you
just came across this stuff on the street or something.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, and it actually has an element of surprise that
we talked about where you never quite know what you're
gonna find inside, and you might even stumble across like
the place by accident. And the best part is that
even when the museum is closed, you can still check
out the collection twenty four to seven by looking through
peep holes in the doors. They keep the lights on
and so it just like basts this incredible glow into
(27:53):
the darkness on that street. It's so neat.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, I'd love to stumble across that one night. But
all right, from my last pick, I'm going to go
with the world famous Crochet Museum in southern California. And
to be clear, while it is pretty well known, the
world famous claim is actually part of the official name.
So I like that the museum is Yeah, well, the
museum is located just outside of Joshua Tree National Park,
(28:17):
and it's housed inside what used to be an old
photo processing.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Booth, which, as we all know, is the next best
thing to a phone booth, right, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, So this one is a little room mirror and
it is thankfully air conditioned since you know it's in
a desert. But just like the phone booth museums, it's
a total labor of love from the person who made it,
and in this case that would be Sherry Elf, a
self described folk artist who bought an old photo kiosk
in Kansas City and then moved it to Joshua Tree
(28:49):
to start her own museum.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Is awesome, It's amazing. So you said this was a
crochet museum, Like, is this a lifelong passion of hers
bring crocheted the world or what you would think? So?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
But actually, so I read an interview she did last
year with a Peppermint magazine, and to hear her describe it,
crochet collecting was something she fell into by accident. So,
as Elf explained, quote, it all started when a fellow
folk artist gave me two crocheted poodle bottle covers for
my birthday many years ago and said you should collect these.
(29:21):
I wasn't that on board with the idea, but I
put them on my shelf and quickly found companion poodles
at a yard sale days later. I guess that's how
collections start. Similar things look good together and they magnetize more,
and soon you have a large collection of crochet poodles
in your bathroom that you have to build a special
shelf flom. And the next thing you know, you have
(29:42):
a roadside attraction. I love that.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I mean, I feel like that's not something that I've
ever done, but I like that that's a thing for collectors. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Well, you know, speaking as a collector myself, she is
absolutely right about the magnetic properties of a collection. I
didn't set out to own a thousand transformers. I'm not
really proud that I do. But twenty years later, you know,
here we are. It just kind of sneaks up way.
I have no idea you've got a thousand transformers. I
haven't counted yet, but I do have a closet full
of like twenty you know, storage tubs full of them,
(30:16):
so it's got to be getting up there.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Wheah, that's incredible. So just going back to the museum
for a second, like does the museum only display crochet poodles?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
No, So I guess Elf branched out over the years
because the collection now includes crochet versions of really just
about everything, like dolls, flowers, cats, There's a complete Nativity
scene in there, and there's even a tiny crochet kitchen sink,
of course there is, although I don't know if I
might like it better if it was just crochet poodles.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
That feels more specific and weird. But it certainly feels crazier.
And so does she make them all herself or does
it come from different artists?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, So that's actually my favorite part about this is
you would assume Elf was like a big crafter, you know,
being that she's the owner of a world famous miss
crochet museum, But she doesn't crochet at all, Like she's
just a big fan of the medium.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I love that. So it actually reminds me of this
Times article I pulled and I want out to quote from.
It's by this writer named someone Subermanium And in twenty
eighteen she visited a small museum in Poland called the Attic,
and she was blown away by how much the displays
revealed about the guy who ran the museum. Her takeaway
actually echoes a lot of what we've been saying today
(31:27):
about the strengths of small museum. So I just want
to read a little bit from it. She writes, quote,
it is a museum of the curator's life, all his obsessions,
all his reading, all his thinking, all accumulated in these rooms.
More than the met or the louver. The attic is
the essence of what a museum could or should be,
a curation of individually ordinary objects that achieve a collective sublimity.
(31:51):
In truth, every person deserves a museum of his or
her own life, because every life is so irreducibly strange,
every mind so infinitely there ought to be seven point
six billion little museums all over the world.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, I mean that's beautiful and amen to that. Like,
I'm not sure where the tally stands today, but given
how many you and I found in our research, like,
I'd say we're well on our way to, you know,
making that reality. I do know a seven point six
billion is a pretty ambitious number. But all right, yeah,
maybe not everybody needs a museum.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
So we've got a whole fact off worth of museum
still left to cover. And I'm so excited to get
to do it, So let's dive in. Okay, so we've
covered some pretty minuscule museums today, but based on name alone,
the World's Smallest Museum is a backyard storage shed in Superior, Arizona.
It is located on Route sixty, right outside of Phoenix.
(32:46):
The museum was opened in the mid nineteen nineties by
the co owners of the Buckboard City Cafe, and they
were looked for a way to lure more travelers to
their restaurant, so they built a small red shed behind
the building and turned it into their own roadside attraction.
It is dubbed the World's Smallest Museum, and it boasts
such offbeat treasures as a nineteen eighty four compact computer,
(33:08):
a Beatles concert poster, and a nineteen sixty letter from
President elect John F. Kennedy to one of the museum's owners.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Okay, so it's just totally stuff they had in their right, Yeah,
but also a few natural wonders in there as well,
like the world's largest apache tier, which is I guess
the kind of rock, and the world's largest piece of chalk,
which is a different kind of rocks.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I know. That'll also keep it in mind that despite
its name, the world's smallest museum isn't actually the smallest.
At one hundred and thirty four square feet, it's larger
than at least two of the museums we talked about earlier,
the Museum in New York and the Warley Museum in England.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I'm pretty sure I've seen bigger pieces of chalk than that,
So I don't know if we can take these guys
at face value. But all right, here's one that might
also qualify as the world's smallest museum. It's called the
William Burke Museum. It's located in a shop in Edinburgh,
and it consists of a single exhibit, small enough to
fit in your pocket, a calling card case made from
(34:07):
human skin.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
What so the only item in the William Burke Museum
is made from William Burke. That's right, But.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I know, I know, but don't feel too bad for him.
Back in the early eighteen hundreds, he and his partner
William Hare actually went on a ten month killing spring.
They murdered sixteen people and sold their corpses to medical
students to use for dissection practice. And you know, Hair
managed to avoid punishment by selling out his accomplice, and
in eighteen twenty nine, William Burke was put to death
(34:37):
for both of their crimes. Local residents celebrated Burke's demise
in a pretty gruesome way. They actually cut bits of
his skin from his body to keep his souvenirs, and
a portion taken from the back of his hand was
used to make that calling card case I mentioned earlier.
It was sold at auction in nineteen eighty eight, and
the case was repurposed as one of the world's smallest
(34:58):
and grossest museum.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, of all the museums we're going to visit, I
don't think that's on my list. But speaking of spooky museums,
there is a much tamer one in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It's
called Edgar's Closet, and it is dedicated to the life
and works of Edgar Allan Poe. Now. The museum was
started by six grade teacher Tommy Flowers as a way
to get his students interested in classic literature, and true
(35:23):
to its name, it's housed in a small classroom closet.
It is loaded with photos, books, and about a thousand
pieces of po themed memorabilia. The museum no longer fits
neatly into its fourteen and a half square foot confines,
but Edgar's closet actually now spills into the classroom itself,
and it's an area that Flowers has coined and refers
(35:44):
to as Edgar's lobby.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
So here's a cute one I found. There is a
former school bus shelter in Velkenhausen, Germany that was converted
into a tiny art museum back in two thousand and two.
Prior to the structure had been used by just one student,
which meant that most of the time, you know, this
building was just sitting empty. And the wasted potential of
(36:08):
that it prompted a local teacher, she actually lived right
across the street from it, to turn that kind of
i sore shelter into a mini museum. And so for
the past two decades, artists from Germany and the neighboring
countries of Belgium and Luxembourg have filled it with paintings,
photography and sculptures that anybody's welcome to come and see,
you know, day or night, and completely free of charge.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Oh that's such a great idea. I feel like every
bus stop should have an art gallery totally. Speaking of
the European arts scene. Did you know that Iceland has
a tiny museum dedicated to punk music? What I know?
I mean the genres Heyday apparently lasted from the late
nineteen seventies to the early nineteen nineties, and the museum
celebrates that angsty moment in music with an underground exhibit
(36:52):
of photos, posters, instruments, and stage equipment. It even has
a pair of headphones built into the wall so you
can listen to Icelandic punk records during your visit. The
best part, though, is that the museum is housed inside
a former public toilet in downtown Reiki, Vic. The exhibits
are built right into the stalls, which feels so punk
(37:13):
rock right.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, I mean that does seem oddly appropriate. And you know,
because the subterranean bathroom in Iceland is about the last
place I would expect to find a museum, I think
you're in the trophy with that one. Congratulations, Mango, I
will take it. But Gave, this was so fun. Thank
you so much for coming on the program, and uh,
anytime till next time.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
From myself, Will Mary Gave and Dylan. Thank you so
much for listening, and be sure to tune in soon
for another brand new episode. Part Time Genius is a
(37:55):
production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by
Will Pearson and me Mongais Chatikler and researched by our
good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and
produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
(38:16):
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Trustee Dara Potts and Vinny Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Gab, did you
(38:41):
know what one of my friends has this collection of
apologies on her wall. She's like framed all these apologies
from famous people and gives it in her back.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Awesome, and that's like one of these famous people that
apologize to.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Her, famous apologists that were like set to other people
that were put up for auction, and she just has
that on her wall in her Bathrot's.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Like a real power move to get all these celebrities
to apologize to you. That's awesome. I love Little niche
collections like that
You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what, gab?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So for a long time, spider silk has been considered
the world's strongest biological material. It is even tougher than kevlar,
which is used in bulletproof vests. Of course, but according
to engineers in the UK, the substance found in limpet
teeth is actually five times stronger than spider silk. In fact,
the tensile strength of the limpet's tooth material is so
(00:36):
great that a single strand of it could withstand the
same amount of pressure needed to turn carbon into diamonds.
Isn't that insane?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Wow? Yeah, I mean that's pretty incredible. But I think
I speak for everyone when I ask what is a limpet?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah? I feel like limpits aren't the household name they
should be. But a limpit is a kind of mollusk.
It's an aquatic snail, to be precise, and they feed
on the algae that grows along rocky shorelines, which is
why their teeth need to be extra tough to stand
up to all that cutting and scraping. I see.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Okay, So are all mollusc teeth that tough for our
limpets the exception.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, so not every kind of limpet has teeth that strong,
and some mollusks, like cuttlefish, don't even have teeth at all.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Wait, so cuddlefish or molluscs too, I'm just trying to keep.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Up your Yeah, the mollusc family is one of the
weirdest and most diverse in the animal kingdom. Like clams
are technically mollusks, and so are squids, sea snails, sea slugs.
Like all of those animals look so different, but because
they share a few unique traits, they're all categorized as mallus.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Hmmm, well, mango, I hope you don't mind me asking this,
but how do you know so much about mollus.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, for a while, my friend and I were trying
to make a show called America's Next Top Mollusc. That's
a true thing didn't take off. Felt like it would
be a good YouTube show, it would be really funny.
But I also did win two gold medals a year
after year at the Science Olympics in a category called
name that Organism, where you were giving fifty objects and
(02:07):
you had to identify them. Put down their file them
in class. So I weirdly do know a lot about
looks it, But everything else I know about Malis is
thanks to my visit to the world's smallest mollusc museum.
It's only about the size of a refrigerator, but it
is jam packed with eye catching displays, activities, and info
like everything you need to bone up on mallus in
(02:29):
just a matter of minutes.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Is this something you came across in New York? Or
where is this located? Exactly? So that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
There's more than one mollusc museum and you never know
where you might run into it. It's all part of
this ingenious program run by a New York based nonprofit
called micro and they build these compact, modular exhibits and
stock them with three D printed models rather than like
one of the kind artifacts, and the six foot kiosks
are installed in everyday public places like libraries, hospital waiting rooms,
(02:59):
and air So the one I actually saw was at
the Bronx Library, but they're about a dozen participating locations
all over New York and the point of the program
is to extend the learning experience of a museum to
people who might never visit a traditional museum on their own.
So in the coming years, the plan is to roll
out these mini museums to other states, and not just
the major cities, but rural areas too.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That is pretty cool, but I do have to ask
why molluscs like it just seems like such a random
subject to start with.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So there's actually this funny story behind it. So the
co founders of Micro, Charles Phillip and Amandescochet, when they
were first developing the idea, Charles suggested that they visit
the smallest museum in the world for inspiration, and Amanda
misheard him and she thought he said mollusc museum instead
(03:50):
of smallest And so they both like the idea of
a mollusc museum, but when they looked into it, they
realized no such place existed, so they decided they had
to make one for themselves.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I like that, yeah, So not only is this the
world's smallest mollusk museum, it's like the only one.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah. But it's worth noting that since launching its first
museum in twenty seventeen, Micro has added two other offerings
to its Tiny Museum series. There is the Perpetual Motion Museum,
which is all about the Earth's energy system, and the
Museum of Care, which explores the history and impact of
frontline health workers. So if soft bodied marine animals aren't
(04:27):
your thing, you do have options. Well, it is.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Probably good that they aren't restricting themselves solely to mollusks,
But I do like that single subject approach, like to
museum learning. We're so used to carving out a whole
day to visit a museum, and even then you still
have to choose which exhibits to hit because there's just
no way to see them all. But if you shrink
the space and like limit your scope to a single subject,
(04:52):
all of a sudden, visiting a museum becomes a lot
more manageable.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah. Now, of course normal sized museums are great, but
there's something really special about touring a small museum and
feeling like you got to see everything it has to offer.
So with that in mind, we thought it'd be fun
to explore some of the smallest, most niche museums that
have been cropping up all over the world in recent years.
They may not have the square footage of the met
or the prestige of the Smithsonian, but their tiny collections
(05:18):
still have tons to offer, so let's dive in. Hey,
(05:42):
their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm monga
Shigether and Will is traveling today, So instead I've roped
in my friend and our researcher here, Gave Lucier, and
on the other side of that soundproof glass organizing his
own mini museum right there on his desk, that is
our friend and producer Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
All right, so I know I'm the guest, and I
probably shouldn't say this, but that is a pretty sorry
looking collection so far. He's got a coffee sleeve, the
wire fastener from a champagne cork, and some of those
stringy bits you find when you peel a banana. Yeah,
I mean, did you even ask him the name of
his museum. It's called the Museum of Mundane Objects with
(06:24):
whimsical sounding names. So if you look at the little
placards he's posting out there, that paper coffee sleeve is
known as a zarf, the wire cage that holds the
cork in is called a muslet, and the gross strings
inside banana are called floham bundles. Oh okay, well, I
guess I stand correct to then so here you go, Dylan.
Just to show no hard feelings, I'd like to donate
(06:46):
one of my shoelaces to add to your collection. The
plastic tubes at the ends are called agltz, so they
should fit right in there.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I like that you're taking off just one lace here.
But I'm sure like everyone on staff here, I love
cork museums. I know you do. I'm sure Mary does
and will as well. But a few years ago for Christmas,
my sister in law Laura bought me the most wonderful gift.
It's a mini museum that just sits on your desk.
Have you seen these No, It's like tiny, tiny fragments
(07:13):
of things, and they're all sort of like lined up,
and it's everything from like a piece of Steve Jobs's
turtleneck to a slot cloth to like a megalodon too.
It's all in this tiny acrylic display. It is so
nerdy and I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, way to go, Laura. That actually dovetails really nicely
with my first fact here. So obviously, humans have a
long record of collecting and preserving artifacts in small spaces,
and one of the earliest examples of that comes from
ancient Alexandria, where the royal family of the Ptolemys founded
the first temple to the Muses. The Greeks called this
(07:49):
temple the Mushion, which means seed of the muses, and
of course that's where the word museum comes from.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The muscion was mostly a place for scholars to engage
in intellectual pursuits, scholarly type stuff and kind of like
an ancient research institute, but it was also a storehouse
for sculptures and other artistic works that were deemed culturally
or religiously important, and from there the tradition of displaying
these precious objects was carried forward to royal treasure houses,
(08:18):
where kings would show off the spoils of war and
all the fancy swag they received from other rulers.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So I mean, it sounds like there was a brief
period where those kinds of treasures and works of art
were really accessible to the public, like a modern museum,
but then most of it got moved to these exclusive
places like royal palaces or mansions or.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, no exactly, and that private approach to collecting became
the norm in Europe for centuries after that, with most
of the good stuff being hoarded by royals and religious
institutions like the Catholic Church. It really wasn't until the
sixteenth century or so that the general public was finally
able to get their hands on true objects of interest.
So what really caused the change then, well, the put
(08:59):
in blood colonialism. Merchant sailors started bringing back unusual objects
from the far away places they visited, and this influx
of exotic works of art and natural specimens threw European
elites into a collecting frenzy. The merchants, aristocrats, and scholars.
They were all competing with each other to build the
strangest assortment of objects they could find, and as their
(09:22):
collections grew, they began to develop new ways of organizing
and displaying their prized possessions. The pastime proved especially popular
among the growing merchant class in Germany, where they coined
the term wounder commer or room of wonder to describe
these expansive collections.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So these people were just like dedicating an entire room
in their houses for these collections.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I mean the wealthiest collectors did. The majority of them,
though they limited their displays to a smaller kind of
wounder commer it's what we often call a cabinet of curiosities.
And this was a specially designed piece of furniture with
lots of little built in shelves and secret compartments. And
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was common for
European hosts to entertain their guests by giving them a
(10:07):
guided tour of their cabinet's contents.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, that's so funny. Like, I've heard about a cabinet
of curiosities, but I always thought it was just like wordplay.
I didn't realize it was a real thing. So, like,
how good were these tours? Like most people weren't historians
or scientists, right, so like what did they actually know
about this stuff?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, I mean this was like post dinner entertainment, So
I'm guessing most people on the tour were like a
little tipsy by that point. They were probably a little
more open to being told about all this weird stuff.
But filling up a cabinet was more of a hobby
than a scientific pursuit. Yeah, And in fact, the items
weren't even arranged in any particular order, like geographically or chronologically.
(10:44):
The owners mostly went by esthetic appeal, grouping objects in
ways that highlighted their different forms, textures, and colors, and
in that way, a cabinet really revealed more about its
owner than it did the objects on display.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That's really interesting. So every cab and it had like
its own particular set of curiosities.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, for the most part. But the objects did tend
to fall into two main categories. The first was called
naturalia and it was made up of you know, objects
from the natural world, so stuff like preserved animals, plant specimens,
rock samples, you know, Fijian mermaids. And the second category artificialita.
It consisted of all your man made objects, so works
(11:26):
of art, cultural artifacts, and scientific instruments. The best cabinets
out there included a balanced mix of items from both categories,
and that was meant to reflect, you know, the well
rounded intellects of the owners.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I kind of love that this is almost like a
precursor to like showing families, slide shows on the carousel
or something. Right, that's like a way to entertain someone
with like what you've done or what your personality is like.
And these really do feel like many museums, right, Like
it's almost like a personal essay a museum and a
status symbol kind of all rolled into one piece of furniture.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, we right, one giant piece of furniture. Yeah, And
I mean but to be fair, building a cabinet it
like did have a deeper appeal than just showing off
to dinner guests. The real goal was to recreate the
world in miniature as a way to make its true
size feel less overwhelming. So the objects on display were
meant to reflect the complexity and the diversity of the world,
(12:22):
all the strange new things that were coming to light
during the Age of Discovery. So gathering and categorizing these
unusual objects it allowed the owners to feel a sense
of control, like they still had a grip on things.
And it's interesting because you can kind of see a
mindset there where it's not enough to just encounter or
study the exotic you also have to own it and
(12:44):
like make it a reflection of yourself.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Once cabinets and curiosities fell out of fashion in the
nineteenth century, European monarchs and other powerful nobles began gifting
theirs to the public, and these once private collections became
the starting points for institutions like the British Museum and
the Prato, and when it came time to expand those collections,
the museums unfortunately continued to purchase and loot precious artifacts
(13:10):
from colonized countries, just like the cabinet owners before them.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, I mean, that's definitely the ugly side of the
museum model, though obviously institutions have started to reckon with
it and have been changing their practices going forward. Now,
I want to talk about one museum that does not
have any of these issues. It is a tiny museum,
one of the smallest museums I read about. It is
the Warley Museum in Warleytown, England. It is housed inside
(13:34):
a decommissioned phone booth, one of those red iconic phone
booths that I sure you know of, and all of
the items on display there were donated by local residents.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So like, what kind of stuff are they bringing?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, it's really sweet. Like the museum's focus is local history,
so there is a permanent exhibit about the town's founding
and some of the notable people who've lived there over
the years, but there's also a rotating display of personal items,
including things like books, photographs, toy soldiers, antique jewelry. Even
like the items are grouped into themed collections, and they're
(14:07):
displayed inside locked cases that can be viewed from both
inside and outside the booth. And you know, the displays
are switched out every few months to keep things fresh.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I gotta say that's a pretty genius idea to have
like a dual sided display wall, because it's like, I'm
guessing they only let one person in at a time, right, you.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Know what's strange is that you actually let yourself in,
Like the museum is only unlocked on certain days, but
if you happen to be by at the right time,
you can just kind of like open the door and
check it out for free. As for how many people
can fit inside at once, I am not sure there's
an official rule about it, but viewing the museum one
at a time is probably the way to go.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Are you sure about that? Because I think the phone
booth stuffing record is still like twenty five people.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So I love those photos of like when that was
a fat did you see like just like legs and
arms taking out of a phone.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
It's like fifty years later and that record still stands.
I think it's South Africa.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
But yeah, well, don't try to try to break in
Warley Town, because I'm not sure they'd appreciate it, But
I do love how the phone with itself kind of
feels like a throwback to you know something you said
about the Cabinet of Curiosity, which is how they're kind
of expressions of the people who made them, almost like
a personal essay written with physical objects, except in this case,
(15:27):
it's an entire town that's being chronicled along with all
the people who've made it what it is. Yeah, I like.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That, and you know, the chance to tell more individual
stories is probably one of the greatest strengths of a
small museum. I think part of what's so attractive about
them is, you know, how they blur the line between
traditional museums and private collections. Like I was flipping through
a book this week called Cultures of Collecting by Roger Cardinal,
and the main distinction he drew between a museum and
(15:53):
a collection is personal passion. So as he put it, quote,
while the museum is associated prime with the public and
the state and with a condition of permanence, collecting is
usually understood as a private and impassioned pursuit. The museum
expresses a detached mastery over the objects and fields of
knowledge that constitute its strengths. But the collector who may
(16:17):
become the museum's donor as a personal preoccupation.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
That's so funny. I never really thought about museums as
detached from that sort of like you know, feeling of
possession or whatever versus like, you know, collectors are obviously
like obsessed with pet dispensers or toasters or whatever, right,
Like it's a preoccupation.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, they're way into it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, I know we've got lots more to cover, but
before we do, let's take a quick break. You're listening
(16:55):
to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the big
ideas behind the world's smallest museums. All right, lead the way.
What's the next stop on our tour?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So this next one is a little tough to pin
down because it's actually a traveling museum, and it also
has a much longer name than you'd expect from such
a small museum. It's called the World's Largest Collection of
World's smallest versions of World's largest things, or you know, WLCOWSVOWLT.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
For sure, I feel like that abbreviation might actually take
longer to say, or even like more effort to say
So is this like a museum of miniatures or what
is it exactly?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well, yeah, it's basically a love letter to all those
kitchy roadside attractions we have in the US, you know,
like the world's largest ball of twine or the world's
largest frying pan. The museum gives visitors the chance to
see all of those things in one place, just at
a much smaller scale.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I mean, it's still a crazy name, but I guess
I'm starting to get a sense of what.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, well, I mean it is a pretty meta idea,
so it does take a minute to wrap your head around.
But the woman behind it is an artist named Erica Nelson,
and back in the early two thousands, she was road
tripping around the country and felt herself drawn to all
the small towns with an object that they build, as
you know, the world's largest and like any good collector,
she wanted a souvenir from each attraction, but since most
(18:24):
of the stops didn't offer any, she started to make
her own handcrafted replicas, and as Nelson's collection grew, she
started sharing it with others and eventually established a kind
of home base at the Roadside Sideshow Expo in Lucas, Kansas.
A little over two hundred miniatures can be seen there
on weekends from April through October, but the bulk of
(18:45):
her collection is actually out on the road as a
traveling exhibition. You can find its current whereabouts on Nelson's
Facebook page, or you can keep an eye out for
her rig in the wild. It currently includes three red
trailers made up to look like circus wagons. You know,
you'll definitely know it when you see it.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I love this idea. It is so ridiculous, and I
also just love the thought of stumbling across it while
like cruising down I seventy or whatever. You know, I'm
not sure i'd stop for the world's largest as salt shaker,
But like I feel like with this many small, large
things in one place, yeah, is definitely a mussy right, It's.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
More bang for your buck, And I think the randomness
is what really makes this work. Like I read this
interview Nelson did with road Trippers and she pointed this
out herself. She said, quote, people going to a museum
expect to see something and may have already decided what
that's going to feel like. But when you happen upon
something in a parking lot. It's an unexpected little spark
(19:42):
to somebody's day.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, I love that. It's almost like those like little libraries.
When you find them, they're so joyous, you know, especially
when they're filled with books you like. But you know,
one of the things I love about small museums that
same feeling. Right, you don't know when you're gonna come
across an interesting one, and when you do, checking it out,
like I feel like it doesn't eat up your entire day.
That's part of the beauty of them.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, and one thing I really like about WLCOWSVOWLT in
particular is that I have you member or are you
looking at I had to look very carefully to make
sure I didn't leave all a letter. But anyway, the
thing I like about you know that one is that
despite the small scale of the objects, it still has
(20:27):
a massive scope, Like there are hundreds and hundreds of
these replicas. So once again, it's kind of like a
throwback to a cabinet of curiosity, where you had this
whole little microcosm packed into a small space.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, I dig it. So the next mini museum I
want to recommend has a much narrow theme. It is
called the gifts from the c Seashell Museum, and it
is located in a small village of Cherokee Sound in
the Bahamas. Now, there are actually quite a few seashell
museums out there, but this one is considered the world's smallest.
It is also inside a nineteen fifties telegraph office that
(21:02):
was completely renovated and redecorated in twenty seventeen as part
of a community project, and the ribbon cutting was actually
overseen by the original telegraph operator who had worked there
until the late nineteen eighties. Wow. Now it was given
a noon lease on life. This tiny building now boasts
a sizable collection of more than two hundred locally sourced shells,
(21:24):
all of which were painstakingly labeled and cataloged by volunteers.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Wow. Well, you know, I am sensing a theme with
your picks manga, Like you really like these repurposed phone buildings,
don't you.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah. I mean it's not just phone buildings. It's also
like closets, elevator shofts, whatever. But I do have another
one for you that is not phone related. It's called
the Torah Animal World, and it features a taxidermy specimen
of every animal and bird mentioned in the Torah, and
it is all packed into an unassuming Brooklyn townhouse.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
All right, I think I changed my mind. Can we
go back? They're talking about phone booth?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Absolutely not, but if it makes you feel better. Most
of the animals on exhibit died naturally in zoos or
gaming reserves, and they're all depicted in natural poses, so
like you're not seeing any of them like dressed up
in big goofy hats or sunglasses or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Okay, well that sounds very tasteful. So what's the story?
He said, This is like tied to Judaism.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah. So the museum is the brainchild of Rabbi shall
Shimone Deutsche, and he started as a way to provide
visual lessons about the Torah to children with dyslexia and
you know, other learning disabilities, and it was important to
him that visitors be able to touch the animals as well, because,
as he put it, quote, we believe that if you
can touch history, history will touch you.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Huh. And so which stories are being taught there? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So obviously Noah's Ark is probably the big one. And
also you'll you'll find a slew of exotic animals including
like lions, giraffes, zebra, there's even a penguin there. But
there are also special exhibitions, like there's one devoted to
all the animals mentioned in prayers, and each display is
also accompanied with a plaque describing the animal's presence in
(23:07):
the scripture as well as its significance.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Okay, all right, but but wait, so I just pulled
up a picture here and there is a big stuffed
kangaroo hanging out in the front window. Like I don't
I don't think I remember them popping up in the
Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, you gotta read closer. So the museum sometimes get
different translation donations of animals that didn't strictly appear in
the Torah. But you know, there's still interesting for kids
to see close up. Plus the Noah's arc story kind
of as a catch all. But as comprehensive as Torah
Animal World is, there is one animal that you won't
find anywhere in the museum. Do you have a guess?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I'd have to say, like a snake that seems like
an obvious one.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, yeah, I feel like the creepy crawleys might be
might be a good guess, But actually it is a pig,
and so, of course, many non kosher animals are featured
in the museum, but pigs were left out because many
of the more religious visitors would rather not even see
the animal, much less touch it.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, all right, that tracks. I'm not really in a
hurry to touch a dead pig, you know. I do
appreciate the dedication to naturalia in that museum, and in
the seashell entire, like seashells and taxidermied animals, those both
would have been right at home in a cabinet of curiosity.
So maybe now we should switch gears and check out
a couple of museums devoted to the other main category,
(24:29):
all the man made objects.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I love that the name for it is artificialia. Like,
that's just such an amazing name. But so good, let's
get to that right after a quick break. Welcome back
(24:53):
to part time genius. Okay, Gabe. So there's no shortage
of tiny museums dedicated to artificial man made items. England
alone is home to compact collections highlighting pens, cuckoo clocks, lawnmowers,
even dog collars. But for my final entry on our
mini museum list, I thought i'd stay a little closer
to home and tell you about the museum. It's in
(25:15):
Lower Manhattan. The name is spelled just like the word museum,
but it's got an extra M on either side, and
it is currently located in Cortland Dalley, just south of
Canal Street, and it's housed inside a pair of abandoned
elevator shafts, which thankfully are accessible from ground level. Each
shaft is just thirty six square feet in total, which
(25:35):
for reference, is about four times the size of that
telephone box I was telling you about in Britain.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
It all comes back to the phone boots. Yeah, but
I actually think I've heard of this one. Like it
does a lot of conceptual displays, right, it's almost like
an art project.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah. It was actually founded by the Saftie brothers, the
directors who did on Cut Gems, and their friend Alex
Caleman back in twenty twelve, and it was sponsored by
Kate Spade actually she's the initial sponsor. Yeah, but focuses
on what they called object journalism, which the museum's website
describes as quote an exploration of modern humanity and current
(26:12):
events through revealing objects from around the world. And it's
really kind of special The museum's wall to wall with
these glowing shelves, and they're typically stalked with about two
hundred unusual objects that are swapped out seasonally throughout the year.
Previous objects on display have included everything from a broken
lava lamp to the happy meal box from an Iranian
(26:33):
fast food franchise. There was also the shoe that was
thrown at George Bush toothpaste used by various astronauts and cosmonauts.
I mean, like it's a it seems like a bunch
of random garbage, but they actually curate every shelf like
its own wing of a museum. It's really fun to see.
And when my friend Jason English, who was the web
(26:56):
editor at Mental Class and I went down to see it,
the brothers weren't that famous then, and they came downstairs
and I think they'd woken up from a nap because
they were like pulling their shirt on and buttoning their
pants as they came down. But they actually gave it
as the tour and the museum has a tiny gift
shop and a little coffee shop which is just a
coffee pod in the corner.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
But oh wow, I love that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
It is pretty amazing and it's worth checking out if
you get the chance.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, definitely, that's pretty wild. And you know, I like
when mundane objects kind of get to take the spotlight
like that, Like they always wind up being so much
more interesting than you would have guessed, like if you
just came across this stuff on the street or something.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, and it actually has an element of surprise that
we talked about where you never quite know what you're
gonna find inside, and you might even stumble across like
the place by accident. And the best part is that
even when the museum is closed, you can still check
out the collection twenty four to seven by looking through
peep holes in the doors. They keep the lights on
and so it just like basts this incredible glow into
(27:53):
the darkness on that street. It's so neat.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, I'd love to stumble across that one night. But
all right, from my last pick, I'm going to go
with the world famous Crochet Museum in southern California. And
to be clear, while it is pretty well known, the
world famous claim is actually part of the official name.
So I like that the museum is Yeah, well, the
museum is located just outside of Joshua Tree National Park,
(28:17):
and it's housed inside what used to be an old
photo processing.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Booth, which, as we all know, is the next best
thing to a phone booth, right, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, So this one is a little room mirror and
it is thankfully air conditioned since you know it's in
a desert. But just like the phone booth museums, it's
a total labor of love from the person who made it,
and in this case that would be Sherry Elf, a
self described folk artist who bought an old photo kiosk
in Kansas City and then moved it to Joshua Tree
(28:49):
to start her own museum.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Is awesome, It's amazing. So you said this was a
crochet museum, Like, is this a lifelong passion of hers
bring crocheted the world or what you would think? So?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
But actually, so I read an interview she did last
year with a Peppermint magazine, and to hear her describe it,
crochet collecting was something she fell into by accident. So,
as Elf explained, quote, it all started when a fellow
folk artist gave me two crocheted poodle bottle covers for
my birthday many years ago and said you should collect these.
(29:21):
I wasn't that on board with the idea, but I
put them on my shelf and quickly found companion poodles
at a yard sale days later. I guess that's how
collections start. Similar things look good together and they magnetize more,
and soon you have a large collection of crochet poodles
in your bathroom that you have to build a special
shelf flom. And the next thing you know, you have
(29:42):
a roadside attraction. I love that.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I mean, I feel like that's not something that I've
ever done, but I like that that's a thing for collectors. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Well, you know, speaking as a collector myself, she is
absolutely right about the magnetic properties of a collection. I
didn't set out to own a thousand transformers. I'm not
really proud that I do. But twenty years later, you know,
here we are. It just kind of sneaks up way.
I have no idea you've got a thousand transformers. I
haven't counted yet, but I do have a closet full
of like twenty you know, storage tubs full of them,
(30:16):
so it's got to be getting up there.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Wheah, that's incredible. So just going back to the museum
for a second, like does the museum only display crochet poodles?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
No, So I guess Elf branched out over the years
because the collection now includes crochet versions of really just
about everything, like dolls, flowers, cats, There's a complete Nativity
scene in there, and there's even a tiny crochet kitchen sink,
of course there is, although I don't know if I
might like it better if it was just crochet poodles.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
That feels more specific and weird. But it certainly feels crazier.
And so does she make them all herself or does
it come from different artists?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, So that's actually my favorite part about this is
you would assume Elf was like a big crafter, you know,
being that she's the owner of a world famous miss
crochet museum, But she doesn't crochet at all, Like she's
just a big fan of the medium.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I love that. So it actually reminds me of this
Times article I pulled and I want out to quote from.
It's by this writer named someone Subermanium And in twenty
eighteen she visited a small museum in Poland called the Attic,
and she was blown away by how much the displays
revealed about the guy who ran the museum. Her takeaway
actually echoes a lot of what we've been saying today
(31:27):
about the strengths of small museum. So I just want
to read a little bit from it. She writes, quote,
it is a museum of the curator's life, all his obsessions,
all his reading, all his thinking, all accumulated in these rooms.
More than the met or the louver. The attic is
the essence of what a museum could or should be,
a curation of individually ordinary objects that achieve a collective sublimity.
(31:51):
In truth, every person deserves a museum of his or
her own life, because every life is so irreducibly strange,
every mind so infinitely there ought to be seven point
six billion little museums all over the world.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, I mean that's beautiful and amen to that. Like,
I'm not sure where the tally stands today, but given
how many you and I found in our research, like,
I'd say we're well on our way to, you know,
making that reality. I do know a seven point six
billion is a pretty ambitious number. But all right, yeah,
maybe not everybody needs a museum.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
So we've got a whole fact off worth of museum
still left to cover. And I'm so excited to get
to do it, So let's dive in. Okay, so we've
covered some pretty minuscule museums today, but based on name alone,
the World's Smallest Museum is a backyard storage shed in Superior, Arizona.
It is located on Route sixty, right outside of Phoenix.
(32:46):
The museum was opened in the mid nineteen nineties by
the co owners of the Buckboard City Cafe, and they
were looked for a way to lure more travelers to
their restaurant, so they built a small red shed behind
the building and turned it into their own roadside attraction.
It is dubbed the World's Smallest Museum, and it boasts
such offbeat treasures as a nineteen eighty four compact computer,
(33:08):
a Beatles concert poster, and a nineteen sixty letter from
President elect John F. Kennedy to one of the museum's owners.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Okay, so it's just totally stuff they had in their right, Yeah,
but also a few natural wonders in there as well,
like the world's largest apache tier, which is I guess
the kind of rock, and the world's largest piece of chalk,
which is a different kind of rocks.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I know. That'll also keep it in mind that despite
its name, the world's smallest museum isn't actually the smallest.
At one hundred and thirty four square feet, it's larger
than at least two of the museums we talked about earlier,
the Museum in New York and the Warley Museum in England.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I'm pretty sure I've seen bigger pieces of chalk than that,
So I don't know if we can take these guys
at face value. But all right, here's one that might
also qualify as the world's smallest museum. It's called the
William Burke Museum. It's located in a shop in Edinburgh,
and it consists of a single exhibit, small enough to
fit in your pocket, a calling card case made from
(34:07):
human skin.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
What so the only item in the William Burke Museum
is made from William Burke. That's right, But.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I know, I know, but don't feel too bad for him.
Back in the early eighteen hundreds, he and his partner
William Hare actually went on a ten month killing spring.
They murdered sixteen people and sold their corpses to medical
students to use for dissection practice. And you know, Hair
managed to avoid punishment by selling out his accomplice, and
in eighteen twenty nine, William Burke was put to death
(34:37):
for both of their crimes. Local residents celebrated Burke's demise
in a pretty gruesome way. They actually cut bits of
his skin from his body to keep his souvenirs, and
a portion taken from the back of his hand was
used to make that calling card case I mentioned earlier.
It was sold at auction in nineteen eighty eight, and
the case was repurposed as one of the world's smallest
(34:58):
and grossest museum.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, of all the museums we're going to visit, I
don't think that's on my list. But speaking of spooky museums,
there is a much tamer one in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It's
called Edgar's Closet, and it is dedicated to the life
and works of Edgar Allan Poe. Now. The museum was
started by six grade teacher Tommy Flowers as a way
to get his students interested in classic literature, and true
(35:23):
to its name, it's housed in a small classroom closet.
It is loaded with photos, books, and about a thousand
pieces of po themed memorabilia. The museum no longer fits
neatly into its fourteen and a half square foot confines,
but Edgar's closet actually now spills into the classroom itself,
and it's an area that Flowers has coined and refers
(35:44):
to as Edgar's lobby.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
So here's a cute one I found. There is a
former school bus shelter in Velkenhausen, Germany that was converted
into a tiny art museum back in two thousand and two.
Prior to the structure had been used by just one student,
which meant that most of the time, you know, this
building was just sitting empty. And the wasted potential of
(36:08):
that it prompted a local teacher, she actually lived right
across the street from it, to turn that kind of
i sore shelter into a mini museum. And so for
the past two decades, artists from Germany and the neighboring
countries of Belgium and Luxembourg have filled it with paintings,
photography and sculptures that anybody's welcome to come and see,
you know, day or night, and completely free of charge.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Oh that's such a great idea. I feel like every
bus stop should have an art gallery totally. Speaking of
the European arts scene. Did you know that Iceland has
a tiny museum dedicated to punk music? What I know?
I mean the genres Heyday apparently lasted from the late
nineteen seventies to the early nineteen nineties, and the museum
celebrates that angsty moment in music with an underground exhibit
(36:52):
of photos, posters, instruments, and stage equipment. It even has
a pair of headphones built into the wall so you
can listen to Icelandic punk records during your visit. The
best part, though, is that the museum is housed inside
a former public toilet in downtown Reiki, Vic. The exhibits
are built right into the stalls, which feels so punk
(37:13):
rock right.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, I mean that does seem oddly appropriate. And you know,
because the subterranean bathroom in Iceland is about the last
place I would expect to find a museum, I think
you're in the trophy with that one. Congratulations, Mango, I
will take it. But Gave, this was so fun. Thank
you so much for coming on the program, and uh,
anytime till next time.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
From myself, Will Mary Gave and Dylan. Thank you so
much for listening, and be sure to tune in soon
for another brand new episode. Part Time Genius is a
(37:55):
production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by
Will Pearson and me Mongais Chatikler and researched by our
good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and
produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
(38:16):
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Trustee Dara Potts and Vinny Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Gab, did you
(38:41):
know what one of my friends has this collection of
apologies on her wall. She's like framed all these apologies
from famous people and gives it in her back.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Awesome, and that's like one of these famous people that
apologize to.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Her, famous apologists that were like set to other people
that were put up for auction, and she just has
that on her wall in her Bathrot's.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Like a real power move to get all these celebrities
to apologize to you. That's awesome. I love Little niche
collections like that
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing with Bob Pittman
How do the smartest marketers and business entrepreneurs cut through the noise? And how do they manage to do it again and again? It's a combination of math—the strategy and analytics—and magic, the creative spark. Join iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman as he analyzes the Math and Magic of marketing—sitting down with today's most gifted disruptors and compelling storytellers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!