LONDON - DARWIN'S PIMP CANE & OTHER RANDOM HISTORICAL TIDBITS

This walking stick belonged to Charles Darwin. It's made from whalebone and an ivory-carved skull pommel with emerald eyes. The cane is my favourite random memento of the thousands on display at the Wellcome Collection. Over two floors of well-lit cabinets you'll find eccentric tidbits from human history like: an 800-year-old mummified Peruvian, Aleister Crowley's stash container, a Chinese torture chair, a shrunken head from an Amazonian tribe. It's a bit like rummaging through Indiana Jones' basement.

Napoleon Bonaparte's silver toothbrush. c.1790	The mummified male body of a Peruvian Indian. c.1200
The sandals of an Holy Fakir in India. c.1870	Florence Nightingale's moccasins. c.1850
Charles Darwin's walking stick. 19th century	Shoes for the bound feet of a Chinese concubine. c.1870
Snuff container made from ram's head and silver. Scottish. c.1880	A toothless, syphilitic skeleton from one of London's buried graves for paupers and prostitutes.

A shrunken head. c.1850

Chastity belt. 19th century.

Really fat guy.

* The Wellcome Collection is opposite Euston Station and it's free to get in.

Comments

Thanks alot for this, i'm going tomorrow for sure.

wut the fuck?!

[whoop]

this is amazing. thank you vice!

[Lucy]

Get in quick before From Atoms to Patterns finishes this Sunday. Insulin wallpaper is way rad.

[ak]

what the fuck, I have to go to this. maad props.

[Nacnad]

i didnt know you could go in there. im gonna go see the fat guy for sure!