cabinet of curiosities
Collector's eclectic display
A cabinet of curiosities is a collection of rare, exotic, or unusual objects—natural specimens, antiquities, artworks, scientific instruments—assembled for private display and study.
These eclectic collections, popular among European aristocrats and scholars from the Renaissance through the 18th century, were precursors to modern museums.
The term now describes any miscellaneous assemblage of oddities: The antique shop was a cabinet of curiosities.
- gallerySpace for displaying artwork
- memento moriArtistic death reminder
- collectionGathered set of items
- natural wondersRemarkable geological or biological sites
- antiquitiesHistorical objects from ages past
taxidermy · rarities · shadow boxes · scientific instruments · Victorian era · oddities · art museum · natural philosophy · curiosities · wonder · historical artifacts · wax museum · rare books · miniature art · macabre · scale models · local museum · living museum
- Victorian antiquesbustle, corset, bonnet, cravat, waistcoat
- Victorian odditiesphrenology, freak shows, human zoos, resurrection men
- Rudolfine PraguePrague Castle, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, court painters, Prague School
- Sideshowfreak show, sideshow, bearded lady, fat lady, tattooed lady
- collectingcollector, art collection, stamp collecting, collectible, coin collecting
- collectionscollection, collections, anthology, anthologies, compilation
cabinet of curiositiesnatural history museum
Institution exhibiting nature's specimens
cabinet of curiositiesnational museum
Government-run heritage collection
cabinet, cabinets, curiosity, curious, curiously, curiousness, incurious, incurable, curate