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by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

Woodcut of the Wunderkammer room,
from Ferrante Imperato, “Dell’historia
naturale …” Libri XXVIII (Naples, 1599)
photo: Wellcome Collection

useums, in their many forms, are a universal experience of royalty and the aristocrats in late 16th century England and Europe,
shared by most people in this country, whether it is an art where the “wonders or miracles of the world” were on display.
Mgallery, natural history museum, living history museum, or Cabinets exploded in popularity during the Victorian era and were
historic home. Every state, city, and almost every town in America has a source of both learning and entertainment. The Victorians were
a museum of some sort – a space that contains an assemblage of artifacts storytellers of the natural environment and designed and displayed their
and objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance; Cabinets as physical representations of knowledge as well as theatre and
however, the tradition of collecting and displaying intriguing items works of art. Victorian wonders like the diorama (a miniature or life-
dates back thousands of years, in ways far different than we associate size scene in which figures, taxidermy, and other objects are arranged in
with today’s modern museum. a naturalistic setting) allowed people to experience objects and
specimens in situ. They were, in many respects, a fashionable prelude
THE MUSEUM AT HOME to the modern museums we know today; however, very few who were
In the 18th and 19th centuries, gentlemen gained a higher social outside of the like-minded or “respectable” public had the ability to
status in the world of elites by becoming a naturalist collector of view these never-before-seen objects and oddities, which were mostly
on display in private homes, clubs, and collections. The general public
specimens and curious objects. Many of the items in these early was rarely afforded the same opportunity.
collections were new discoveries, rarities, and oddities, often displayed As many of the early cabinet collectors—naturalists and explorers,
in so-called “Cabinets of Curiosities,” or Wunderkammer, Cabinets of architects and apothecaries—passed away, their collections were either
Wonder, or Wonder-Rooms. Today’s glass display cases called “curio donated to educational institutions, newly-formed museums of the
cabinets” got both their form and their name from the historic Cabinets natural histories and libraries, or they were sold to a new breed of
of Curiosity. businessman looking to start a commercial enterprise by charging
Cabinets of curiosities were limited to those who could afford to create
and maintain them. Wunderkammer first began to appear in the homes admission so that others, too, could finally see these wonders of the
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