The Secret Museum

The Secret Museum
Molly Oldfield

The Secret Museum is a unique treasure trove of the most intriguing artifacts hidden away in museum archives from all over the world – curated, brought to light, and brought to life by Molly Oldfield in a beautifully illustrated collection.Who knows what’s hidden from view? Locked away in cabinets, secure storage and aircraft hangars.Most of a museum’s collection never gets seen. It sits in the quiet dark of an archive waiting for a treasure hunter or obsessive researcher to root out its very existence. Under the streets of Manhattan priceless books are shelved; brick outbuildings in London’s East End house drawers of Victorian embroidery remembering foundlings long ago dead; body bags in Washington clothe space suits covered in real moon dust and in an unvisited aircraft hangar sits Auguste Piccard’s extraordinary invention, the balloon gondola…This and many other extraordinary inventions, legacies, discoveries and artefacts have been visited and curated by Molly Oldfield into a Secret Museum. Rich in atmosphere and anecdote, suffused with the surprising emotion of a personal discovery, but grounded in fascinating factual detail, this is a unique and beautifully illustrated book.The Secret Museum reveals sixty unknown artefacts and stories from all five continents, from Rome to Rio and Boston to Berlin. And like the very best mornings spent at a museum it promises to be idiosyncratic, surprising and enormously good fun.The Artefacts in the book include: An original Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum, Harrison Schmitt’s Space Suit, A piece of Newton’s Apple Tree, Van Gogh’s Sketchbooks, The original drawings of Wimbledon’s Centre Court, Dickens’ letter opener,Three pieces of Mars, and much more…

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION (#u722aa0ae-2074-5199-a92e-0cc1a5c3836d)

A GUTENBERG BIBLE ON VELLUM (#uaf2f0b98-9cad-5bfa-a8bc-820123b44ef0)

HARRISON SCHMITT’S SPACE SUIT (#u0566066f-b734-57d9-9e61-4ff6be4cff6d)

THREE PIECES OF MARS (#u29d3ebb6-7cdd-552f-a6d3-cdf67e5b8860)

A PIECE OF NEWTON’S APPLE TREE (#u5cf7f33e-a148-5d87-a079-96d249d1bf9f)

THE FIRST CULTIVATED PEARLS (#ufbf3e7c1-4b8f-5589-bc84-f1bdaa294b6e)

LAMOUROUXIA VISCOSA SEED FROM MEXICO (#u427b9801-fc5c-560b-bea7-8401ad0f49f6)

THINGS BENEATH THE FLOORBOARDS (#u023ac3d7-0129-5359-bceb-d18b1072af19)

A BEJEWELLED CROSS (#uf7148c53-452a-5fa6-b8fe-c893b7fef1f8)

A HAIDA SHAMAN’S RATTLE (#uf5d78b77-edcb-5ad5-a59a-12fd2ff30bb7)

FRANCIS CRICK’S SKETCH OF DNA (#u7ba3fb64-b6b3-5a7b-978d-b25da3f519ce)

TABLET K.143, SCHOOL EXERCISE BOOK OF ASHURBANIPAL, KING OF ASSYRIA (#u8073c4e2-f892-59ed-8c72-7564a23a447e)

VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S BUTTERFLY GENITALIA CABINET (#u1f32da2f-2a83-5d81-8445-028cb7de0fe9)

CHARLES DICKENS’S FELINE LETTER OPENER (#uc88fd59d-03d2-5afd-bbe5-035ad22ecaff)

THE HEART TOKEN (#u5059c6dd-6db9-5dac-97b6-181f49aa52c0)

ITEM RDMSC RD 1/1/1 (#litres_trial_promo)

AUGUSTE PICCARD’S BALLOON GONDOLA (#litres_trial_promo)

JASON JUNIOR (#litres_trial_promo)

UNDERWATER PAINTING BY ZARH PRITCHARD (#litres_trial_promo)

ANGLERFISH COUPLE (#litres_trial_promo)

THE FIRST GIRAFFE IN FRANCE (#litres_trial_promo)

A GREAT AUK EGG (#litres_trial_promo)

A GLASS JELLYFISH (#litres_trial_promo)

THE INTERIOR OF VASA (#litres_trial_promo)

FLAG FROM THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (#litres_trial_promo)

A BLUE WHALE (#litres_trial_promo)

LOGBOOK OF THE KON-TIKI EXPEDITION (#litres_trial_promo)

WALLY HERBERT’S SLEDGE (#litres_trial_promo)

SONG 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

EXU BOCA DE FOGO (#litres_trial_promo)

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY’S HATS (#litres_trial_promo)

HAWAI’IAN FEATHER HELMET (#litres_trial_promo)

THE LIENZO OF TLAPILTEPEC (#litres_trial_promo)

MIXTEC TURQUOISE MOSAIC SHIELD (#litres_trial_promo)

ALICIA (1965–67) MURAL BY JOAN MIRÓ AND JOSEP LLORÉNS ARTIGAS (#litres_trial_promo)

AN UNOPENED BOOK (#litres_trial_promo)

THE DIAMOND SUTRA (#litres_trial_promo)

TIBETAN ABBOT’S COSTUME (#litres_trial_promo)

TWO GOLDEN BEES, FROM THE GLASS PALACE IN BURMA (#litres_trial_promo)

SLAP-SOLED SHOES (#litres_trial_promo)

BLOOD’S DAGGER (#litres_trial_promo)

TELL HALAF SCULPTURES (#litres_trial_promo)

ALFRED NOBEL’S WILL (#litres_trial_promo)

SKETCHES OF CHURCHILL (#litres_trial_promo)

FRIENDSHIP BOOK (#litres_trial_promo)

TORAH ARK CURTAIN (#litres_trial_promo)

THE TOWER OF THE BLUE HORSES BY FRANZ MARC (#litres_trial_promo)