See the Spookiest Artifacts.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum houses a vast Collections of more than 250,000 artifacts and specimens, including some creepy, yet extremely interesting finds. In the spirit of Halloween, our team curated a Creepy Collections tour, fit for anyone who’s ready to experience the spooky side of the Museum. Happy Haunting!
This seemingly simple bowl is far from simple. Intricately decorated with stylized floral designs and lotus petal panels, the chemical structure of the glaze has changed due to extreme heat. This artifact is an example of the damaging effects of the atomic bomb which was used on the city of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
Yes, you read correctly. This box used for shipping the brains of deceased patients by rail from Pine Rest Mental Hospital to the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of Michigan where they were examined and then returned. The black wooden shipping box contains a white metal pot with a lid.
This grass skirt features a trim made from cowrie shells, red and black precatory pea seeds, and white job’s tears seeds.
Precatory peas originate in tropical climates and are incredibly poisonous – 75 times more poisonous than ricin. One pea could kill a full grown man. The red and black ladybug pea is often used as decoration and for jewelry. Making jewelry with these peas is dangerous; a simple pin prick can lead to death.
In the mid 1800s, German physicist Wilhelm Holtz developed the most advanced electrostatic generator known at the time. His design was based on a glass disc which could be rotated at a high speed, very near to a second stationary disc. Induction plates mounted on the fixed disc would pick up electrical charge with each rotation. During the early twentieth century these machines were being used in doctor’s offices around the country to treat a variety of ailments.
This object is scientifically significant because it is an early example of how new technologies like electricity were put to, sometimes fraudulent medical uses, otherwise known as a “quack device.”
This sword is actually the equivalent of a modern day shotgun. Known as a poacher’s gun, the owner would use it as a walking stick when walking through the king’s land to hide the fact that he was poaching. After a game warden had passed, poachers would reattach the stock and continue the hunt. Most likely produced in Portugal for use in Germany.
Happy Halloween!
By: The GRPM Staff