The idea of a “Cabinet of Curiosities” (or in German—a “wunderkammer” or Wonder Cabinet) is a centuries-old idea. Collectors—usually wealthy, as they had the means to travel around the world—would display items that they gathered in their travels. “Curiosities” of the animal, plant, and man-made spheres would all be displayed side by side, with no adherence to categorization or organization as we know them in today’s museums.

The original cabinets were arranged to tell stories. Sometimes the story was as simple as “Hey! Look at all the amazing things I’ve got!!”, but often the story went deeper and could reveal ideas about the interconnectedness of things.

This is our Museum’s Cabinet of Curiosities, these are Humboldt stories, and this is our way of saying “Hey! Look at all the amazing things we’ve got!”. Curious about the items in the Cabinet? Try a game of Pop-Quiz to test your imagination!

This display of curiosities from our collection was created by our Guest Curators:
Sophie
Adam
Sloane
Jenaya
Evolette
Mattaya
Henry

 These students from Humboldt Public School spent three afternoons in February 2024 with us. They chose the artifacts to display and created the Pop-Quiz game that accompanies the exhibit. We would like to thank them for their creative ideas and for doing such a great job!