wunderkammer

Something I'm very interested in at the moment are 'wunderkammer' or 'cabinets of curiosities'. These were collections of natural specimins and artifacts amassed by wealthy gentlemen in the 17th century, and were the precursor to modern natural history museums. These cabinets or rooms were filled with fantastic objects such as shells, preserved animals and birds, fossils, and man-made artifacts. These collections mixed fact with fiction, and combined the beautiful and grotesque.