My first exposure to the Cabinet of Curiosities was an essay read in either high school or college. I was already a science nerd by then so this was the best part of a humanities course, what were the origins of our modern natural history museums? Private collections of the unusual, bizarre, and even mythological from the 15th, 16th and 17th century explorations of the world spoke to me. That initial essay was superficial but seared into my brain the idea of the Kunst und Wunderkamer (rooms of art and wonder), my relationship to museums, and my curiosity of the world around me.
Growing up overseas, living in seven countries, gave my family a unique opportunity to travel. My parents were school teachers so the school calendar gave us time to travel. And travel was important to my folks so they budgeted for trips anytime we even had a long weekend. As a result I have visited museums of the world’s capitals and still seek them out today.
But our home had become its own Wonderkamer and similarly so were the homes of our family friends. I have an early memory of learning to play Mancala, an east African board game, with family friends in their home in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. They had lived and traveled in Africa and their home reflected it too. Learning the game gave time to hear stories of life and travels in east Africa and so I was transported through space and time. A friend in Brasil had a skeleton of a piranha. This boney fish is all jaw and razor sharp teeth. Next to the mount was a fishing hook on a steel leader, the only tackle durable enough to land such a fish. I can’t wait to go fishing for such toothy prey and I hear piranha stew is delicious. We are all collectors of memories and things. So I began to wonder what do these collections reflect? What do they they say about the collector?
There is the dark interpretation of collecting, where the collector is broken, taking control of the world by imposing their order to the collection. There is the imperialistic and colonial drive to own the world. The measure of man could be found in their worldly collection of naturalia, artificialia, and scientifica. While I can’t help but to acknowledge this side of collecting I much prefer the idea of collections as objects of storytelling. I know when I would visit my parents’ or friends’ homes the decorations could inspire great storytelling, you just had to ask. My cabinet of curiosities reminds me of the lands that inspire my imagination.
Most recently I visited two museums in Ely, Nevada. I was there to ride and tour but I also wanted to take part in their Fire and Ice Festival. I visited the White Pine Public Museum and was treated to Ely wanted to preserve and tell as their story. There were musical instruments, photography equipment, a mining/mineral collection, and exhibits of Ely daily life over the past 140 years. There is even an exhibit of Lilly the giant short-faced cave bear. The next museum was the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, which is functioning museum in that it maintains the trains much as it did over 100 years ago. When it closed shop things were left as they were mid- daily life. The machine shop is in full operation but open to the public. The entire rail yard is open to the public with interpretive signs.
On one of my first mini-tours between Tonopah and Beatty I started at the old Tonopah dump. It doesn’t sound very attractive but I refer to these historic dumps as tin can grave yards. This is a great spot to kick some cans, play detective, and find some old brand names of biscuits and oysters, the riches of daily life that had to make it to the boom and bust towns of Nevada. For a more curated view of mining life the Tonopah Historic Mining Park is a favorite exhibit. I recommend a visit to the Mizpah Hotel as itself is a living museum. Once I reached Beatty I visited their town museum and experienced their slice of daily ranching and mining life. The small local museums are a must on mu future trips.
I am not a collector of things (this is a lie). As an entomologist I do not have an insect collection, though I did start collecting insects living in New Guinea at the age of 5. I was more interested in living insects than the dead and pinned. But I still have a small collection of of things that caught my eye. Along my rides I have picked up small rocks, bones, feathers, bear fur, pine cones, and even some beaver wood chips. My most curious find was a badger skull. I don’t have a mammalogy background so it took a little poking around on the internet to find a match. Then I sent pictures and my best guess to friends and found consensus. A marmot mandible found at 10,000’ went through a similar process. The coyote skull was easier to identify. Why skulls? I love looking at the teeth, eye sockets, and curious shapes that supported the muscles and fur of the living animal.
My cabinet is rounded out with figurines and things collected during childhood travels. A favorite is a soap stone hippo purchased on the equator in Kenya. At some point there was an elephant and warthog in the collection but I gave them away over the years.
As possessions move through the generations I now share my parent’s collection of things with my sister’s family. There is a collection of paintings and wall art from Japan, Malaysia, the Middle East, Brasil, and South East Asia. Similarly there are carpets, camel bags, and tapestries. There are brass trays, coffee pots, and daggers from the Middle East, and long bow and arrows from New Guinea. The list goes on, but there is an item that stands out.
When we lived in Abu Dhabi there was the “junk souk” (souk = Arab market), a traveling market that would pop-up in our neighborhood, where we could find tarnished brass “treasures”, such as trays, coffee pots, daggers, and the genies of my second grade imagination and where 1001 Arabian Nights came to life. We purchased a small wooden chest with brass inlay. The chest came from a pearl diving boat that sailed the Indian Ocean. It’s secret compartments hid treasures from pirates, and open compartments had letter writing supplies telling stories from far away lands. And so the wooden box inspired the imagination of an 7 year old.
On my most recent visit to the Wilbur B. May Museum in Reno I walked through alone to take in the permanent exhibits of May’s life and worldly collections. His collections from his travels felt so familiar to me. I wonder what was his motivation in collecting? Was he finding pieces that were attractive to him? Was he collecting everything to have a comprehensive collection of the exotic? Or did he find things that were familiar to him, like the guns and weapons? As a hunter he collected trophies of big game from around the world. He was fascinated with travel and understanding people, and ultimately he wanted to pass this on to future generations.
The May Museum is a children’s museum but many of the permanent and visiting exhibits are ageless. During my last walk through I was fitting the exhibits within my own mental catalog of curiosities and at the same time this little girl was wandering between displays letting out the occasional, unsolicited, “Wow!” At that moment I thought that was the perfect response. May’s collection of wonder had moved this little girl.
The world is shrinking. Access to the digital world is at our fingertips. Do we still have a need to collect? While I could leave this question to the academics to decide regarding broad scale professional collecting, I need to answer this question for myself. As I move through the landscape what possess me to pick up a feather? Sometimes I think, wouldn’t it be great to tie some fishing flies with a feather I collected. I still haven’t done it. I also think about what a perfect design a feather is for its purpose. So, I put it in my pocket and later on a shelf. Decorating my my home with natural objects seems to fit. Would it have better purpose where I found it? It may inspire the next passer, or be a resource for another animal. The same goes with the rocks, shells and bones that make there way into my pockets and bags.
But there is something inside of me, an excitement, that goes off when I spot a curiosity, a rare item of wonder that can be transported safely to my collection. Maybe that is the essence of the collector. The rush to find the rare random piece that fills in the jigsaw of nature.
Select References on Cabinets of Curiosities
What is a Cabinet of Curiosities?
A Brief History of Natural History Museums
April in Review:
I took two bikepacking overnights this month. Starting with the much anticipated snowpacking trip on Henness Pass Road then the first Rides with Friends to Little High Rock Canyon and Denio Camp. For me in northern Nevada April has always been the start of riding season. It was interesting how packing up for the first overnight felt awkward since I hadn’t done it since January. I have started adding pack lists and weights to my posts. As gear lovers seeing what people have in their kit is always curious.
I attended the Sea Otter Classic bike event, not to compete or spectate, but to meet up with my old friend Tomo, wander the Expo, and look at the new stuff for the bike world. My focus was anything with bags on it, fat bikes, and tools as Tomo designs and manufactures clever tools for trail use. Did I mention tires? I love tires and always looking for the next tread. Admittedly I did not find the next great thing for bikepacking. But the best part of the Expo was seeing old friends and meeting new.
I spent a long weekend at Benton Hot Springs, a great campground with hot tubs at each site. The historic site sits under the high peaks, Montgomery and Boundary, of the White Range. I rode gravel and closed paved roads thinking about how to incorporate all this in a bikepacking trip.
The month ended with a meetings in Gerlach and I made the most of my visit by squeezing in an S24O around Hog Ranch Peak.
Calendar Ahead:
May 7 Handmade and Vintage Bicycle Show and Tell, Forestville, CA - I will be showing off my Manzanita gravel bike
May 13 Manzanita Owners Ride
May 18 Bikepacking talk for local Bike Month talk series at Craft Wine and Beer, Reno
May 25-29 Black Rock Rendezvous with Reno to Black Rock Desert tour.
May 28 Rides with Friends #2 Cassidy Mine Loop, ½ ride as a part of Rendezvous
June 3-4 Dog Valley Overnight collaboration with Wildwoods Foundation Howling, ride and bikepacking talk to overlanders
June 17-18 Rides with Friends #3 Bikefishing the Granite Range
July 15-16 Rides with Friends #4 Fox Peak Loop
August 12-13 Rides with Friends #5 Perseids Meteor Shower Campout
August 24-27 MADE Hand built bike show Portland, OR
There will no doubt be more.
Newsletter topic for June; Personal Wildlands Ethics. Thank you for supporting my storytelling.
Great story.