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Secret museum rooms

I've seen the 'Flesh eating beetle room' at the Natural History Museum. You can book a tour of back of house where you can see some of the millions of specimen jars, many of them the definitive specimen and a few from a little boat called The Beagle
 
Saw this piece on atlas obscura. Has anybody here ever been in one of these "secret rooms"? I think it is fascinating that is 2016 the sexual stuff has to be hidden because we can't know ancients got freaky. :p
I've been in the Naples one, and was impressed by the Pan Copulating with Goat statue, and various other works on such themes.

The Secret Cabinet is a lot less secret than it used to be, and it can be accessed freely now. Women are allowed in, which at one time I believe they were not. There's an interesting letter on display from a nineteenth century scholar, who had to request permission personally from the King of Naples to gain access to the secret material. Those prudish days have gone.
 
Not of that sort, but I have been deep in the bowels of the State Library of Victoria where only employees are normally allowed. I even got to see the cage they keep books about professional magic in, but they wouldn't let us in there, you need to be a practicing magician to get access. Even the librarians can't get in without a special pass. It's all to do with trade secrets and how tricks are performed, they don't want that getting out, for fairly obvious reasons.
 
Not of that sort, but I have been deep in the bowels of the State Library of Victoria where only employees are normally allowed. I even got to see the cage they keep books about professional magic in, but they wouldn't let us in there, you need to be a practicing magician to get access. Even the librarians can't get in without a special pass. It's all to do with trade secrets and how tricks are performed, they don't want that getting out, for fairly obvious reasons.

Ooh...the LOML (light of my life, I talk about him so much I need an acronym) is a magician! I suppose he couldn't take me with him though, darn!
 
Saw this piece on atlas obscura. Has anybody here ever been in one of these "secret rooms"? I think it is fascinating that is 2016 the sexual stuff has to be hidden because we can't know ancients got freaky. :p

My mother visited Pompeii about 1938 or so when she was in her mid-twenties. Some of the preserved mosaics and murals are rather "racy" and yet she got to see them. I gather you were warned ahead of time. ;)
 
My mother visited Pompeii about 1938 or so when she was in her mid-twenties. Some of the preserved mosaics and murals are rather "racy" and yet she got to see them. I gather you were warned ahead of time. ;)

I've never yet seen Pompeii, but I know it's famous for the proliferation of signs, murals etc for the sex trade. Seems like it may have been something of a party town, maybe a Roman Las Vegas, so it may not be entirely typical.
 
My mother visited Pompeii about 1938 or so when she was in her mid-twenties. Some of the preserved mosaics and murals are rather "racy" and yet she got to see them. I gather you were warned ahead of time. ;)

Funny story: we were covering a chapter on archaeology in my science class this last year and I decided to show them a video about actual archaeology. Makes sense right? Stupid me chooses the video about Pompeii. I knew what Pompeii was like and I still chose that one.:boxedin: had to grab my kindle and switch to a different video right quickly, as I taught 7th graders in a church. :o
 
I've seen the 'Flesh eating beetle room' at the Natural History Museum. You can book a tour of back of house where you can see some of the millions of specimen jars, many of them the definitive specimen and a few from a little boat called The Beagle

I've done that, it's fascinating; you get to see a lot of type specimens (the example of a species which defines that species) some of which were collected by Darwin, and labelled in his own handwriting. It's also billed as The Spirit Collection, which is somewhat disconcerting. :)


I've also been even more lucky to see the Linnaean Society collection, which is in a vault in Burlington House, Piccadilly.
 
Never been to a secret museum room, but I have been to a private museum. The guy is friends of friends, and let us film part of our indie film in his yard in exchange for helping him put up the Hurloon Minotaur statue in the back yard.

I should point out that these videos could disturb children or delicate-minded people, there are pickled punks and things like that.



There's at least one more video up there, a longer one that just scans over the displays, with music drowning out most of the chatter.

It's an amazing place.
 
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Not quite a secret room, but I once went to the Adirondack Museum (a great museum of Adirondack history, transportation, art, etc.) on an occasion when they opened up their unexhibited collection of boats, both restored and unrestored. They have a very large collection of boats on exhibit, but an incredible number that aren't. Like many museums, their function is not only to exhibit but to preserve, and their collection is much deeper than what you see.
 
Not quite a secret room, but I once went to the Adirondack Museum (a great museum of Adirondack history, transportation, art, etc.) on an occasion when they opened up their unexhibited collection of boats, both restored and unrestored. They have a very large collection of boats on exhibit, but an incredible number that aren't. Like many museums, their function is not only to exhibit but to preserve, and their collection is much deeper than what you see.

I've been to the Adk museum but I never saw the other boats. Sweet!
 
Never been to a secret museum room, but I have been to a private museum. The guy is friends of friends, and let us film part of our indie film in his yard in exchange for helping him put up the Hurloon Minotaur statue in the back yard.

I should point out that these videos could disturb children or delicate-minded people, there are pickled punks and things like that.



There's at least one more video up there, a longer one that just scans over the displays, with music drowning out most of the chatter.

It's an amazing place.

I might hold off on that being of unsound mind and queasy tummy myself.
 
It's pretty much just your typical vaguely macabre stuff, like watching an episode of Oddities. I think the only one that clearly shows a human specimen in a jar is one I didn't link, the 14+ minute one. But there are things like a section of depictions of the devil and assorted sexy woman statuettes around. It didn't deserve a full NSFW warning, but I wouldn't sit a 5 year old on my lap to watch it, unless it was 5 year old me. I had a taste for the weird and macabre even as a wee kid.
 
It's pretty much just your typical vaguely macabre stuff, like watching an episode of Oddities. I think the only one that clearly shows a human specimen in a jar is one I didn't link, the 14+ minute one. But there are things like a section of depictions of the devil and assorted sexy woman statuettes around. It didn't deserve a full NSFW warning, but I wouldn't sit a 5 year old on my lap to watch it, unless it was 5 year old me. I had a taste for the weird and macabre even as a wee kid.

Well done!!!!!!!!
 
One of the unexpected perks of doing ghost investigations (I was always the Token Skeptic on these teams) was seeing all back rooms of museums, attractions, national monuments, and so on. All the artifacts they chose not to display for some reason.

It often reminded me of when I was a kid and a friend who worked at the PNE asked me to wait for him inside his changeroom and I learned that behind the dazzling customer facing carnival decorations, it was otherwise just so stunningly ******.
 
Not of that sort, but I have been deep in the bowels of the State Library of Victoria where only employees are normally allowed. I even got to see the cage they keep books about professional magic in, but they wouldn't let us in there, you need to be a practicing magician to get access. Even the librarians can't get in without a special pass. It's all to do with trade secrets and how tricks are performed, they don't want that getting out, for fairly obvious reasons.


Until I reached the last sentence of this, I was picturing the restricted books collection at the Miskatonic University Library. :D
 
Most of the tomb art at Valley of the Kings has portions that are erotic or otherwise liable to cause offense to sensitive people. For example, the pharaoh is always depicted resurrecting with an erection. (Apologies to the women here, but we men find that hysterically funny for reasons that may not be appropriate for mixed company.)

Some of it has been vandalized. My Egyptian friends say that was done by Victorian English, who objected to the pornographic content. (Most of it is simply references to virility, expressed directly and not in the woefully indirect style of the Victorians.) It's not wise to get Egyptians started on the Victorians.
 
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