History Main / MuseumOfTheStrangeAndUnusual

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', in an {{Expy}} of [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls. 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 CorruptedCharacterCopy frog persona of Grunkle Stan named the Curator a.k.a. Mr. Ponds. [[spoiler:[[LivingMuseumExhibit Turns out the wax statues are alive.]]]]

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Beleth, the Demon Princess of Nightmares, keeps a museum of the nightmares of murderers stocked with minor, functionally mindless dream-spirits 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 dreams 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.

* In the ''Series/BlackMirror'' Season 4 finale "[[Recap/BlackMirrorBlackMuseum 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.
* Henry Van Statten's personal museum in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek 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.
* The FramingDevice in ''Series/NightGallery'' involved paintings in a museum that represented the various stories in the show.

* Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer's "Karn Evil 9: First Impression Parts 1 and 2" depicts modern life as a funhouse museum of the strange and grotesque.

* In Wrestling/{{WCW}} in 1997, {{Heel}} manager [[Wrestling/JamesMitchell James Vandenberg]][[note]][[Wrestling/{{SMW}} Daryl Van Horne]][=/=][[Wrestling/{{ECW}} the Sinister Minister]][=/=][[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling Father James Mitchell]][[/note]], the manager for [[Wrestling/{{Kanyon}} Mortis (Kanyon)]] and [[Wrestling/BryanClarke Wrath (Bryan Clarke)]], was supposedly the curator of the Museum of Medical Abnormalities in [[UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} Taipei]] and a collector of [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment "rare oddities"]].

* The Cromer Palace of Curios in the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' audio drama ''Hornets' Nest: The Dead Shoes'', which comprises a [[MishMashMuseum mish-mash]] of stuffed animals, mummified human remains and {{Creepy Doll}}s. [[spoiler: All of which are possessed by the hornets, as is the curator.]]

* The Onu-Metru Archives in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', home to many dangerous living "exhibits". During the Visorak Horde arc, as the entire island experienced a destructive earthquake [[CitywideEvacuation during the middle of a massive evacuation]], the Archives were breached and [[EscapedAnimalRampage allowed all said "exhibits" to rampage]], tearing what remained of the city apart.
* Navigating the unnamed museum in the board game ''TabletopGame/ElderSign'' may result in insanity, death, the End of the World, or all three.

* The Collector's warehouse from ''Ride/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyMissionBreakout''. Among the exhibits are Cosmo the Spacedog, [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron an Ultron drone]], the Yeti from the Matterhorn, [[Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror a bellhop's cap from the Hollywood Tower Hotel]], [[Ride/JourneyIntoImagination Figment]], and, of course, the Guardians themselves. In [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014 the film itself]], his collection included what may have been [[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]]'s cocoon and [[spoiler:''Howard the Duck'']].
* The Museum of the Weird, a collection of strange and often occultic items that would have served as a companion piece to ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'', is one of the more infamous examples of WhatCouldHaveBeen for the Ride/DisneyThemeParks and would eventually emerge in comic book form as ''[[ComicBook/DisneyKingdoms Seekers of the Weird]]'' (though the comic retconned the Museum to be more of a SecretGovernmentWarehouse run by a secret society, which is not ''meant'' to be visited — [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks a concept that had very mixed reception]]). Some of the basic premise would also be used by Hong Kong Disneyland's ''Mystic Manor''.

* The Freak Show in ''VideoGame/CarnEvil'' 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.
* Level 2 of ''VideoGame/DisneysHideAndSneak'' 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.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''[='s=] ''Tribunal'' expansion adds the Museum of Artifacts in Mournhold. Naturally, you can [[CollectionSidequest help fill it with items]] and [[MontyHaul be payed handsomely]] for your trouble.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]''[='s=] ''Shivering Isles'' expansion has the Museum of Oddities within the eponymous Shivering Isles. Exhibits include [[SoulJar a tomato-shaped soul gem]], [[TheNudifier 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.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' has Calixto's House of Curiosities in Windhelm. It's a retired adventurer's collection of semi-valuable herbs and alchemy reagents, with a handful of interesting artifacts.

* Sierra Petrovita's house in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is a museum of all things Nuka-Cola.
* The Death Museum in ''VideoGame/TheHalloweenHack''. It 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.

* The Tarmalon Museum in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfTheAncients'' has a treasure room, a rare tree with near-miraculous fruit that enables {{Healing Potion}}s, portals to towns and several nasty dungeons, functional weaponry, even a Pegasus under glass...oh, and that [[ArtifactOfDoom Compendium of Magic]] that the museum's personnel believed was just [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions harmless]] [[EvilIsNotAToy local superstition]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{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 [[AlternativeNumberSystem alien numerals.]]
* The British Museum of the Occult in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld.'' 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.
%%* The first ''VideoGame/Shivers1995'' takes place entirely in one, and is the trope namer.
* Arcanum Space Station in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' 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 TooAwesomeToUse or [[EvenEvilHasStandards so vile even they want to lock it away]].

%%* The defunct webcomic the ''Repository of Dangerous Things'' was pretty much this.
%%* ''Webcomic/{{Subnormality}}'''s [[http://www.viruscomix.com/page533.html Museum of the Theoretical]].
%%* The Museum of Magical History in several ''Webcomic/TheWotch'' [[http://thewotch.com/index.php?epDate=2009-04-20 filler comics]].

* In an {{Expy}} of the following series from [[Creator/{{Disney}} the same company]], ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' 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 CorruptedCharacterCopy frog persona of Grunkle Stan named the Curator a.k.a. Mr. Ponds. [[spoiler:[[LivingMuseumExhibit Turns out the wax statues are alive.]]]]
* The Mystery Shack in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. It's explicitly stated to be a tourist trap (where the real mystery is why people keep coming) run by [[TheBarnum 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 [[spoiler: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.]]

* The [[http://www.ripleys.com/ Ripley's Believe It or Not!]] Odditoriums.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Jurassic_Technology Museum of Jurassic Technology]]in Los Angeles, California.

* The aptly-named ''VideoGame/TheMuseumOfAnythingGoes'', an early CD-ROM multimedia... thing. Barely more interactive than a late '90s website with gimmicky navigation (it does have a functional puzzle or two), it's a collection of whatever the creators felt like throwing in, mostly slide shows and videos. It ''is'' this trope in software form on a level that will probably never be equaled and has to be seen to be believed.

Sub-trope to a WorldOfMysteries.

* The Museum of the Weird, a collection of strange and often occultic items that would have served as a companion piece to ''Franchise/TheHauntedMansion'', is one of the more infamous examples of WhatCouldHaveBeen for the Ride/DisneyThemeParks and would eventually emerge in comic book form as ''[[ComicBook/DisneyKingdoms Seekers of the Weird]]'' (though the comic retconned the Museum to be more of a SecretGovernmentWarehouse run by a secret society, which is not ''meant'' to be visited — [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks a concept that had very mixed reception]]). Some of the basic premise would also be used by Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor.