Museums are our gateways to the past, housing treasures from ancient relics to natural wonders. They’re places where history, culture, and science come together under one roof. But not all museums are sleek, modern institutions with well-organized exhibits. In fact, early museums were often a strange mix of curiosity cabinets and scholarly collections, where the line between education and eccentricity was delightfully blurred.
Related: 14 Fascinating Museum Treasures That Stole the Show
Back before today’s ethical standards and scientific methods, museums had an even weirder edge. From odd displays to peculiar preservation techniques, some of the photos from these bygone institutions look more like scenes from a bizarre dream than a place of learning. So, buckle up! We’re taking a trip through time to explore 12 of the weirdest and most bizarre museum photos from years past. Trust us, these images are as fascinating as they are strange.
1. Spanish Egyptologist Eduardo Toda y Güell, who uncovered and revealed the untouched tomb of Sennedjem, poses beside the ancient Egyptian mummies at the Bulak Museum in a rare 1885 photograph.
2. In 1954, a confident visitor at the American Museum of Atomic Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has her lipstick adjusted by the museum's robotic arm exhibit.
3. Fire drill in Cloth Hall Museum in Kraków, Poland. The painting is "Prussian Homage" by Jan Matejko. Poland, 1930.
4. Installing the forest floor exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, 1958.
5. A dinosaur being delivered to the Boston Museum of Science, 1984.
6. Model of the Moon, Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 1894.
7. Barbra Streisand as Nefertiti at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1966.
8. At Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum storage, retired world leaders find themselves side by side with famous and infamous personalities, all in wax form. October, 1979.
9. As German troops approached Athens in 1941, the National Archaeological Museum of Greece hid the Sounion Kouros statue under its floor, a tactic employed to shield all major statues throughout WWII.
10. Rat king found in 1885 kept in a French museum.
11. Queen Elizabeth looks at the skeleton of 7ft 7in Charles Byrne, "The Irish Giant." Royal College of Surgeons, London, 1967.
12. Baron Hans von und zu Aufseß, Founder of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, Posing in a 15th Century Suit of Armour, 1864.
