Collections — Cabinets of curiosity
Museums of the Strange
No Such Thing As A Fish runs on the kind of fact you'd find on a museum label nobody else reads. Here are the institutions the panel keeps wandering into — the grand, the niche, and the gloriously specific.
30 places in this collection
- 1Natural History Museummuseum · United Kingdom
Peter Whitehead who was working in the Natural History Museum and he was a biologist and he was just obsessed with finding this picture of this herring.
Open this place → - 2British Museummuseum · United Kingdom
I took Craig Glende, who is the Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief, to the British Museum to meet the world's oldest ghost to give it a Guinness World Record.
Open this place → - 3Science Museummuseum · United Kingdom
It was built in 1928 and there's a campaign the Science Museum are launching to rebuild it.
Open this place → - 4American Museum of Natural Historymuseum · United States
He was at the American Museum of Natural History, and he came across some bones in the ethnographic department, which was his father's skeleton, which Peary had simply sold to the museum as a kind of display piece.
Open this place → - 5National GalleryUnited Kingdom
All the art of the National Gallery was sent to a cave in Wales.
Open this place → - 6Disgusting Food Museummuseum · Sweden
The Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden collects food that is utterly horrible.
Open this place → - 7Icelandic Penis Museummuseum · Iceland
Can I just interject here to say how angry I was that you chose the one week I was away to discuss the Icelandic Penis Museum?
Open this place → - 8Poundland Museummuseum · United Kingdom
Keith Smith, who set up Poundland with his son, came back to England and bought a house — Luddstone Hall.
Open this place → - 9Imperial War Museummuseum · United Kingdom
The Imperial War Museum has an amazing page all about the various different Hobart's Funnies and all about the different weird things they could do.
Open this place → - 10National Rail Museummuseum · United Kingdom
The National Rail Museum in York has a collection of 610 model railway vehicles all made by the same man, who was called James Peel Richards, 1902 to 99.
Open this place → - 11Titanic Museummuseum · United States
Three people were recently hospitalised after being hit by an iceberg at a Titanic Museum.
Open this place → - 12Bible Walk Museummuseum · United States
The problem that the Bible Walk Museum has is that they don't like people liking that.
Open this place → - 13V&A Museummuseum · United Kingdom
The V&A Museum did a Titanic exhibit, and apparently this book, Titan, was on the Titanic as part of the reading library.
Open this place → - 14Museum of Modern ArtUnited States
The Museum of Modern Art in New York has had a few of these over the years.
Open this place → - 15British LibraryUnited Kingdom
The British Library has a collection of over 60 million newspapers and none of them can catch fire.
Open this place → - 16Museum of LondonUnited Kingdom
The Museum of London has a few relics from the execution of Charles I, including a shirt that belonged to Charles — all his bits of clothing were torn off him and handed round.
Open this place → - 17British Motor MuseumUnited Kingdom
The smelliest car at the British Motor Museum belongs to Queen Elizabeth II.
Open this place → - 18New York Public LibraryUnited States
In 1938, Cab Calloway published Cab Calloway's Cat-A-Log, A Hepster's Dictionary, which was the first dictionary written by an African American, and it was the Jive Language Reference Book of the New York Public Library.
Open this place → - 19Ashmolean MuseumUnited Kingdom
His name is Robert Plott, a founding curator at the Ashmolean Museum.
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- 21Horniman MuseumUnited Kingdom
The Horniman Museum in South London weren't getting emails for ages.
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- 23National Portrait GalleryUnited Kingdom
One of the suffragettes, Anne Hunt, walked into the National Portrait Gallery and stopped in front of a portrait of Thomas Carlyle, painted by Millais, and she slashed it.
Open this place → - 24Lyme Regis MuseumUnited Kingdom
The Lyme Regis Museum, you can go and learn some stuff about Mary Anning, and it is in the place where she was born.
Open this place → - 25Seattle AquariumUnited States
In 2015, Seattle Aquarium had a Valentine's event — in fact, they have this every year — where you can watch octopuses have sex.
Open this place → - 26FIFA MuseumSwitzerland
I think it's in the FIFA Museum — they took it for the FIFA Museum for a year.
Open this place → - 27Lawnmower MuseumFrance
The other significant thing about the Lawnmower Museum is that it's upstairs.
Open this place → - 28Hat MuseumFrance
I went to the Hat Museum in Stockport and they reckon that one of the reasons that hats went out of fashion is because of the motor car, because you couldn't wear it inside the car because the roof was too low.
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- 30Academy of SciencesFrance
In 1850, the Academy of Sciences in France was considering an idea for a suspension bridge between England and France, going from Dover to Calais.
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