Museum of the Strange and Unusual

Please refrain from defacing the sign in the future.

"Everything you see in here is either haunted, cursed, or has been used in some kind of ritualistic practice."

— Ed Warren, The Conjuring

Welcome to Professor Tropington's Museum of the Strange and Unusual. Within these halls, you will find exhibits dedicated to the mysteries of the world. For example, you will find the UFO displays up the stairs, next to the planetarium. To see the cryptid exhibits, take the hall to your left. To visit the Psychic Powers exhibit, well, you should know where that is. And yes, we prize the eclectic range of our collection over any benefits that might be gained from consistent themes.

May I point out at this moment that the laboratories are strictly off-limits to unauthorized personnel. In addition, emergency exits are in place should anything happen. We also guarantee that none of the exhibits will come to life, drive you insane, or open a portal to another dimension. After you leave, you may want to visit the Bazaar of the Bizarre, the Artifact Collection Agency (or the one-man Collector of the Strange), or the Superhero Trophy Shelf. Now, feel free to peruse our fine museum, but beware... You never know what may happen.

If you were looking for the Museum of Boredom, you'll find them just across the commons. Ours has much better exhibits, though, if I may say so myself...

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In this exhibit you may find:

Anime & Manga

• In ×××HOLiC, in the movie, there was the house of the collector... he collected collectors. To specify, each room of his gigantic house was full of a different collection (birdcages, coins, etc), the soul of whose original collector is supernaturally trapped alongside said collection.

Comic Books

• In Dell (yes, Dell) Comic's Superheroes published in 1967, a group of teens visited the Dell Hall of Heroes where they discovered an unguarded exhibit of android superheroes. At that exact moment, an evil ex-Dell employee experimented on an evil robot elsewhere in the city, creating a power surge that zapped the teen's minds into the superhero androids. (Dell was not known for superhero books, hence the title and loony-even-for-Silver-Age plot.)
• In Dollicious, Pumpkin, the horror geek, runs a small museum of odd and scary objects, just outside of her farm.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: Lotsa Dough's museum collection is almost entirely made up of a jaw-dropping number of taxidermied reptiles, though she's also got a suit of armor, and life-sized mannequins of a Neanderthal and T-Rex.

Fan Works

• Child of the Storm: In the sequel, the New York Museum of Natural History has a new wing for various additions, including HYDRA gear from WWII, a model of the Valkyrie, models of the Chitauri, a Leviathan, various Iron suits, Doombots (less distinctive than their comics counterparts), and a literal Rogues Gallery. There's also an invitation only wing about magic and magical creatures, which features dragon skeletons, vampire skeletons and models, magical artefacts, and a mannequin with a set of metal wings suspiciously like Warren's.

Film — Live Action

• The Conjuring depicts the Warrens' public collection of cursed items, including the infamous Annabelle, just as in real life.
• Most of Cry of the Werewolf is set in the LaTour Museum, a former mansion converted into a Museum of the Strange & Unusual "restored and maintained by the Society of Psychic Research New Orleans" (per the sign on the front door). Inside are exhibits about Vampires, Voodoo, and Werewolves- including former resident Marie LaTour, who murdered her husband in her private drawing room. Unfortunately for the museum curator, Dr. Charles Morris, his digging around the building is considered unwanted attention by Marie's daughter Celeste, who sneaks into the museum, turns into a Werewolf, and then murders him in a hidden room, kicking off the main plot.
• Discussed in a Gallows Humor manner in The Fly (1986). As Seth Brundle's Slow Transformation into a Half-Human Hybrid nears its apotheosis, it's revealed he's decided to keep his molted-away body parts (ears, teeth, etc.) as "relics of a bygone era". Upon an unexpected visit from his lover, he tells her "My teeth have begun falling out. The medicine cabinet is now the Brundle Museum of Natural History — you wanna see what else is in it?"
• The Library in The Librarian. Within this building, you have Excalibur, the Shroud of Turin, Poseidon's Trident, Pan's flute, and multiple other legendary artifacts.
• Night at the Museum. At night, an Egyptian artifact brings all the exhibits to life.

Literature

• In Black Legion, the Hall of Titans aboard Vengeful Spirit houses a variety of trophies and curiosities collected by Abaddon during his pilgrimage through the Eye. He even gives Khayon and Lheor a tour of it.
• In Book of Bantorra, despite its name, the Library of Bantorra is better described as a museum since the "books" it deals with are not ordinary paper books written in any alphabet; they are stone tablets spontaneously appearing when someone dies recording the memories of their whole life, that anyone can experience simply touching the tablet. The librarians' job requires having combat training and some kind of super power since monsters prowl the vaults, too. In fact, the only thing that shares with a regular library is that the Library has a Customer Service that borrows the books to the general public (well, most of them).
• The central location of Curiosity House is Dumfrey's Dime Museum, a museum full of bizarre items like skeletons and masks. Many of them are fake, but the freak show is very real.
• Perhaps the Trope Maker is Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story A Virtuoso's Collection, where the titular collection is shown to be filled with books, animals, and artifacts from mythology, religion, and folklore... with the kicker being that the collection's proprietor is the Wandering Jew.
• A Walking Tour Of The Shambles, by Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, includes a brief description of the House of Clocks, of which perhaps all that need be said is that its (actual) website is preserveusfromthehouseofclocks.com.

Live-Action TV

• Black Mirror: In the Season 4 finale "Black Museum", a tourist decides to burn time at the eponymous Black Museum — a collection of dangerous technology associated with high-profile crimes, some of which have actually been featured in previous episodes.
• Doctor Who: Henry Van Statten's personal museum in "Dalek" contains pieces of alien artifacts and, in some cases, pieces of actual aliens. Van Statten is smart enough to try to reverse-engineer and patent any devices he finds, or even some things that shouldn't be patentable, like a Time Lord's dual cardio-vascular system.
• Night Gallery: The Framing Device involves paintings in a museum that represent the various stories in the show.

Magazines

• Fortean Times is pretty much the printed-word version of this trope. But it's visited and reported on quite a few real-life locations around the world.

Music

• Emerson, Lake & Palmer: "Karn Evil 9: First Impression Parts 1 and 2" depicts modern life as a funhouse museum of the strange and grotesque.

Professional Wrestling

• WCW: In 1997, Heel manager James Vandenberg^note Daryl Van Horne/the Sinister Minister/Father James Mitchell, the manager for Mortis (Kanyon) and Wrath (Bryan Clarke), was supposedly the curator of the Museum of Medical Abnormalities in Taipei and a collector of "rare oddities".

Radio

• Doctor Who Expanded Universe: The Cromer Palace of Curios in the audio drama Hornets' Nest: The Dead Shoes, which comprises a mish-mash of stuffed animals, mummified human remains and Creepy Dolls. All of which are possessed by the hornets, as is the curator.

Tabletop Games

• Elder Sign: Navigating the unnamed museum may result in insanity, death, the End of the World, or all three.
• In Nomine: Beleth, the Demon Princess of Nightmares, keeps a museum of the nightmares of murderers. Its halls are stocked with minor, functionally mindless dream-figures spirited out of the night terrors of mortals who stained their hands with blood, endlessly repeating scenes of horror, fear and alienation while the souls of their dreamers cower in chains next to them. Demons of Nightmares often visit this place as a source of inspiration, and view having one of their creations accepted in its halls as a great honor.

Toys

• BIONICLE: The Onu-Metru Archives, home to many dangerous living "exhibits". During the Visorak Horde arc, as the entire island experienced a destructive earthquake during the middle of a massive evacuation, the Archives were breached and allowed all said "exhibits" to rampage, tearing what remained of the city apart.

Theme Parks

• Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!: The Collector's warehouse. Among the exhibits are Cosmo the Spacedog, an Ultron drone, the Yeti from the Matterhorn, a bellhop's cap from the Hollywood Tower Hotel, Figment, and, of course, the Guardians themselves. In the film itself, his collection included what may have been Adam Warlock's cocoon and Howard the Duck.
• The Haunted Mansion: The Museum of the Weird, a collection of strange and often occult items that would have served as a companion attraction ot the main ride, is one of the more infamous examples of What Could Have Been for the Disney Theme Parks and would eventually emerge in comic book form as Seekers of the Weird (though the comic retconned the Museum to be more of a Secret Government Warehouse run by a secret society, which is not meant to be visited — a concept that had very mixed reception). Some of the basic premise would also be used by Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor.

Video Games

• CarnEvil: The Freak Show has the "Museum of the Slightly Curious", a small alcove full of oddities. Some of these include a "Thing in a Bottle", a mummy sarcophagus, an Ancient Mystery Skull of Time, and even the World's Biggest Shoe.
• Disney's Hide & Sneak:Level 2 is set at a museum that is overrun with UFO enemies, including a giant dinosaur skeleton that comes to life in Minnie's scenario when activating its trick. Fortunately, it meant no harm and safely places her back down on the ground floor.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Morrowind: The Tribunal expansion adds the Museum of Artifacts in Mournhold. Naturally, you can help fill it with items and be payed handsomely for your trouble.
  • Oblivion: The Shivering Isles expansion has the Museum of Oddities within the eponymous Shivering Isles. Exhibits include a tomato-shaped soul gem, a ring that strips the wearer and a coin with two heads, among other things. You can also help it by recovering a stolen item in one quest.
  • Skyrim: Calixto's House of Curiosities in Windhelm is a retired adventurer's collection of semi-valuable herbs and alchemy reagents, with a handful of interesting artifacts.
  • Numerous Game Mods for each game add these for the Player Character, crossing over with Super Hero Trophy Shelf. One can store and display virtually anything you want, from books to legendary artifacts and everything in between.
• Fallout 3: Sierra Petrovita's house is a museum of all things Nuka-Cola.
• The Halloween Hack: The Death Museum features models of Paula, Jeff, Poo, and Dr. Andonuts' wife. Most creepily, it has a pedestal perfectly fit for Varik. Then upon reading the label on the blank pedestal, it proceeds to get confused about Varik. A mental image of Dr. Andonuts in said museum claims he is proud of killing the Chosen Four.
• Ib follows the experiences of a nine-year-old girl named Ib who visits an art gallery with her parents. While looking around, she finds herself stuck in a strange, surreal world where the art has come to life.
• Legacy of the Ancients: The Tarmalon Museum has a treasure room, a rare tree with near-miraculous fruit that enables Healing Potions, portals to towns and several nasty dungeons, functional weaponry, even a Pegasus under glass...oh, and that Compendium of Magic that the museum's personnel believed was just harmless local superstition.
• The Museum of Anything Goes, an early CD-ROM multimedia... thing, is a collection of whatever the creators felt like throwing in, mostly slide shows and videos.
• Obsidian has an art gallery in the third dream realm, with pictures that reflect on it and the previous two realms, and what the nanobot-controlling AI, Ceres, learned from them. At the end of it is an art studio, with a puzzle in which you're supposed to make a blank canvas for Ceres to apply that knowledge.
• Rama: One of the locations on the cylindrical alien ship is a museum containing holographic exhibits on staple items of human civilization, and that of the two alien species living on the ship. It also contains puzzles meant to teach visitors both human and alien numerals.
• The Secret World: The British Museum of the Occult. A department of the British Museum that's barred to everyone except Secret Worlders, it's been cloistered away in Eldwick, London's supernatural district; every single wing of the museum examines a different aspect of the Secret World, from the undead to the Filth. However, the place needs benefactors, which is where the players come in: through Mnemonic Pedestals and ability points, you get to create the exhibits from your memories of the creatures you've encountered so far.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Arcanum Space Station is a space station in very remote space, heavy security with mostly droids. It's also a first-rate collection of Sith artifacts and history the Empire has deemed Too Awesome to Use or so vile even they want to lock it away.
• Tales from the Borderlands has the World of Curiosities, a dilapidated and macabre museum filled with the preserved corpses of both animals and humans.

Western Animation

• Amphibia, in an Expy of the Mystery Shack, has one in the form of the Curiosity Hut, which contains wax statues of horrific creatures the owner ran into across Amphibia, run by a Corrupted Character Copy frog persona of Grunkle Stan named the Curator a.k.a. Mr. Ponds. Turns out the wax statues are alive.
• Gravity Falls: The Mystery Shack. It's explicitly stated to be a tourist trap (where the real mystery is why people keep coming) run by Dipper and Mabel's Great-Uncle Stan, but it's been hinted in more than one episode that there's some secret about the building itself. It's eventually revealed that the Shack used to belong to Stan's twin brother Stanford, which he used for his paranormal investigations; some of the exhibits are what remains of Stanford's inventions and specimens - the rest being fakes cooked up by Stan in the years since then.

Real Life

• In London, the Last Tuesday Society operates the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art, and Natural History. They also have a branch in Falmouth.
• The Mutter Museum of Medical Anomalies in Philadelphia. Has, among other things: an entire wall-length and height display of human skulls, a woman whose body turned into soap after she died, all sorts of floating things in jars, and the largest human intestine ever.
• The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists
• The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great.
• Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront is half oddball souvenir shop, half this. Look for the old-school peep show (1920s, postcards), the scrimshaw carvings, and the two well-preserved mummified humans under glass in the back.
• Ed and Lorraine Warren ran a little museum out of their home of supposedly cursed and haunted items they acquired during their cases. The museum is depicted in The Conjuring.
• Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach, Washington, home of Jake the Alligator Man, some self-playing musical contraptions, and other things.
• The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices has quack medical devices, and now is part of the Science Museum of Minnesota.
• House on the Rock is insanity unleashed. Rooms dedicated to organs, carousel animals, dollhouses, and a giant octopus attacking a ship. It's rather like a museum that operates on Rule of Cool and doesn't care about authenticity.
• Confusion Hill in the small town of Piercy, California. Its biggest attraction is "The Gravity Hill", an optical illusion attraction. It's also the main inspiration for the aforementioned Mystery Shack.

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