Cabinet of Curiosities

written by Rosa Morgan

If you are of a curious bent and like to collect, you might find yourself in possession of a plethora of oddities:

Birds and butterflies, which have come to their natural end, are always interesting, as you can study their winged anatomy, wondering at the beauty of flight they once possessed.

 Shells and fossils are a delight to examine.

An abandoned nest of robin's eggs with their exquisite blue or a collection of artificial eyes would provide hours of pondering. 

Perhaps, you've developed wicked skills

like pickling bats or taxidermy.

Eventually, you will need some place to put your treasures and that is where the Cabinet of Curiosities comes in. 

Old Worm, a Danish antiquarian from the 1500's, created a catalog  and made engravings for his specimens. From studying his collection, he concluded that unicorns don't really exist!

 

And that the magical horns he had bought, their price being more than their weight in gold, were actually from the narwhal.

So pry your eyes away from the screen in front of you and look to the wonders of the natural world, and maybe you too will start your own Cabinet of Curiosities.