To Kick off 2020, I'll be tweeting 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY, starting with #20: an 18th-century jeweled skeleton from the Waldsassen Basilika in Germany, the “Sistine Chapel of Death.” Photo by Paul Koudounaris's book Heavenly Bodies: amzn.to/2ZCUO9C 
#19 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: a Victorian alarm clark which served as a “memento mori,” reminder of death. Perfect for tonight's #NewYearsEve countdown! It's currently housed at the
@sciencemuseum in London.
@sciencemuseum in London.
@sciencemuseum #18 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: a 440-pound heart from a blue whale, the largest known animal to ever exist. The heart was so large that technicians from @ROMtoronto had to douse it in over 1,000 gallons of formaldehyde before plastination could begin.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto #17 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: the graves of a Catholic woman & her Protestant husband, who weren't allowed to be buried together due to cemetery regulations in the 1880s. Note the hands clasping over the wall. Located in Roermond, the Netherlands.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto #16 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: this statue of Saint Bartholomew, an early Christian martyr who was allegedly skinned alive. That's not a robe that he’s holding. It's his dissected skin. This statute (1562) is by the Italian sculptor Marco d’Agrate.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto #15 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: 18th-century dildo with plunger to simulate ejaculation. It was found in a convent in Paris, having been hidden for 100 years in the seat of a Louis XV armchair. One for @WhoresofYore, whom I highly recommend to you.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore #14 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: the Vasa, which was a warship built in 1628 that sank on its maiden voyage. The ship was salvaged largely intact in 1961, and you can now visit it at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. It's breathtaking in person.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore #13 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: the face of CPR doll "Resuscitation Annie," based off a death mask of a woman who drowned in Paris in the 1880s. L'Inconnue de la Seine (The Unknown Woman of the Seine) teaches us how to save lives every single day.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore #12 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: newspaper headlines the day after the Titanic sank, reporting "NO LIVES LOST!"
The error was the result of an intercepted wireless message that referred to a different ship that had sunk which resulted in no fatalities.
The error was the result of an intercepted wireless message that referred to a different ship that had sunk which resulted in no fatalities.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore #11 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: this "DINOSAUR MUMMY." Although it's 110 million years old, the dinosaur's skin, armor, & guts are remarkably intact. It's a member of a new species named nodosaur. More info: nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/…
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore #10 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: this 19th-century CEMETERY GUN - used to protect against bodysnatchers. Guns like this were set up at the foot of a grave, with tripwires strung in an arc around its position. #TheMoreYouKnow
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore I hope you're enjoying this thread! I'll return tomorrow to share the final 10 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020. In the meantime, thanks for your support in 2019 - the year I learnt how to escape from a Victorian straitjacket (pictured here) for television!😂
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan #9 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: Galileo's finger, which was removed when his body was exhumed in 1737. It's now at the Galileo Museum in Florence. The mummified finger points to the heavens its owner had spent a lifetime pondering through his telescope.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan #8 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: the bullet that killed Lincoln. At the autopsy, a surgeon described it as a "black mass no bigger than the end of my finger...yet the cause of such mighty changes in the world’s history as we may perhaps never realize.”
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan #7 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: "The Tooth Worm as Hell's Demon,” 18th century. Carved from ivory, the two halves open up to reveal a scene about the infernal torments of a tooth worms which people believed caused cavities in the past.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan #6 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: “One Night Cough Syrup” from the 1930s, which contained cannabis, morphine, chloroform, & alcohol! In 1934, the FDA ruled that the company's therapeutic claims were misleading, and remaining stock was destroyed.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan #5 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: the hand of Old Croghan Man, a 2000-year-old bog body that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. The man's apparently manicured nails led to speculation that he was not someone who engaged in manual labour.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan #4 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: Heart-shaped pendant with hair from Marie Antoinette. If authentic, it must have been presented before the abortive flight to Varennes in 1791, when the Queen's hair allegedly went white overnight. Now at @britishmuseum.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan @britishmuseum #3 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: this 5,000-year-old prosthetic eye made from a tar & animal fat. It was found near the city of Zabol in Iran. The prosthetic eye, which was once painted gold, was worn by a woman who stood 6’ tall: kavehfarrokh.com/iranica/maps-o…
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan @britishmuseum #2 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: this memorial in Arlington, Massachusetts to Samuel Whittemore, who at the age of 80 became the oldest-known colonial combatant in the Revolutionary War. He was shot, bayoneted, & beaten by the British - but survived.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan @britishmuseum #1 of 20 WEIRD & WONDERFUL OBJECTS FROM HISTORY for 2020: a medieval skull fused with (chain)mail - from the Battle of Visby, 1361. The dead were quickly buried in mass graves with their equipment & armor, making this a rich archeological site. Now at the Gotland Museum, Sweden.
@sciencemuseum @ROMtoronto @WhoresofYore @SmithsonianChan @britishmuseum Happy New Year, and thanks for following along! If you enjoy my content, please check out my book #TheButcheringArt, all about the brutal & bloody world of Victorian surgery and Joseph Lister's quest to transform it through the development of antisepsis: amzn.to/2QPwwpd
