Collecting things and interesting items imaginable is one of the most common and oldest fixations of many people. There are those people who find satisfaction collecting newspaper clippings and stamps. There are those who enjoy collecting skins and skulls, and even penis castings. In this article, we are going to the extreme by covering the top 10 most ghoulish collections.
1. Stuffed Animals
A self taught practitioner of taxidermy, Walter Potter maintained a wide array of stuffed animals that he presented in bizarre human-like poses and situations. His collection of stuffed animals includes rats, robins and toads. His collection was eventually dismantled and later sold in an auction.
2. Preserved Human Heads
General Horatio Gordon Robley has this obsession for items and things related to the early Maoris including the tattoos on the bodies of these early settlers of New Zealand. He was so serious about his collection that he included in his rich collection human heads which he considered great artworks.
3. Hair Collection
John Reznikoff collection includes hair reps of many known personalities including Marilyn Monroe, Abe Lincoln, JFK, Albert Einstein, John Lennon and Elvis Presley to name a few.
4. Murderabilia
While John Wayne Gacy remained lock up in jail, Rick Staton continued to become his exclusive dealer and later became known as the top collector of murderabilia.
5. Genital Casts
It all begun as a simple way of meeting great and interesting men which went all the way for Cynthia Plaster Caster to start collecting genital casts of famous men. Her latest addition to her penis cast collection includes those from famous men such as Karen O, Jello Biafra and Jimmi Hendrix.
6. Death Masks
Laurence Hutton had a unique way of immortalizing well-known personalities. He embarked on his own collection of death masks of the most popular characters. His collection of death masks includes Beethoven, Napoleon, Charles XII, Shakespeare, Newton and Goethe. His interesting collection is presently in Princeton University and one can view them online.
7. Freaks
This bizarre collection of freaks of nature was due to the efforts of Peter the Great. This collection of nature’s oddities known as “Kunstkammer” was made public in 1719. The collection includes two-headed animals and animals with multiple legs or appendages.
8. Bones
Ray Bandar has earned the reputation of being the man behind the 7000 skull collection of the “Bone Palace.” His 50-year effort is a testament of his strong dedication to his work of collecting bones and skulls of specimens coming from beaches, zoos and other strange sources.
9. Medical Photos
The collection of Dr. Stanley Burns is a wide array of images inside operating rooms, diseases, war ravages, medical anomalies and malformations. It also includes the gory depiction of executions and public lynching. There are about 60,000 images all in all making it the largest collection of such kinds of medical and macabre images.
10. Tattoos
This one of a kind collection by Dr. Katsunari Fukushi includes tattoed skins of Yakuza characters of the 1920s. This dedicated effort of Dr. Yakuza of collecting inked skins was motivated by his desire to showcase the traditional hand applied method of tattooing known as “tebori.”
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