Obscura Day

2011 marks to hundred year anniversary of the heroic (and tragic) Amundsen and Scott race to the South Pole. In celebration of that momentous accomplishment, friends of Atlas Obscura at McMurdo Station in Antarctica will be hosting an exploration-themed Obscura Day.

Meet up with other Atlas Obscura Fans at the Xul Solar Museum!

With dreams of reforming and perfecting the universe, Argentine artist Xul Solar invented two languages, a spiritual form of chess, a modified piano, and painted works based on his own blend of cosmic mysticism. Come explore his works and life on Atlas Obscura Day with other far flung explorers!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet up at the Museum at 1:00
• Email dylan@atlasobscura.com to be put in touch with the group ahead of time!
• Tickets available at the door
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Discover the unusual collections of the Museum of Human Disease on a guided visit with University researchers.

The Museum of Human disease is a collection of pathology specimens covering over one hundred years of human suffering. One of only a handful of such collections in the world allowing public visits, the Museum tries to educate people about the effects of lifestyle choices as well as the hope offered by advances in medical science.

On Obscura Day, take advantage of an opportunity to ask questions of academics and researchers from the University, participate in discussions and workshops and hear the stories of patients, medicos, and loved ones of those with disease.

Join the Cantos Music Foundation for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour featuring workshops, technicians, and items not normally on display.

The Cantos Music Foundation has a growing collection of over 650 keyboard instruments and electronic equipment that represent the evolution of keyboard instruments from the pipe organ to modern synthesizers. Among the foundation's curiosities are one of the earliest pianos built in North America as well as several generations of vintage electronic music equipment that makes Cantos the largest synth museum in Canada. Many of the exhibited instruments are able to be played by visitors.

Details:

• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Cantos Music Foundation or the charity of their choice

Join Mysterion, Canada’s foremost mentalist and expert on the strange for a hand-picked evening of the bizarre at Mitzi's Sister.

Appearances and performances by the following: Zombie Boy (as seen in Lady Gaga's current tour, Ripley's), Curly Dan Summers (3 Stooges Superfan- covered in 3 stooges Tattoos- stand up comic), Mysterion- master of mental deception, Ashtar Avatar (International Sideshow artist), burlesque of Obskura, Fionna Flauntit, Canadian Burlesque Hall of Famer Tanya Cheex and a sermon by the Cloven path ministries (Satan's favorite).

Come out for an unusual and fascinating day at the city's fomer morgue, now the Vancouver Police Museum.

The Vancouver Police Museum will be putting on a special 90-minute tour of the police museum building, looking at the incredible history of a space that was Vancouver’s city morgue from 1932 to 1980. During that period, almost 15,000 autopsies were performed in this space, covering almost every major homicide and accident in the city during that period. Special behind-the-scenes opportunities will also be included; not for the faint of heart!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Tours at 10am and 12 noon, max. of 30 people each.

What secrets lie behind the great white wall? Step back in time to 15th century China and visit the garden home of a scholar-official’s family.

Ming dynasty scholars, the elite of their time, were highly educated officials in the Imperial Chinese government. Cloistered behind high white walls, their living spaces were shared by the prestigious scholar, his extended family and friends.

Fifty-three Chinese master craftsmen constructed the Garden using traditional methods and materials brought from China—no glue, screws or power tools were used! The result is this enchanting space imbued with the perfect balance of yin and yang, dynamism, and serenity.

Join us for a fascinating and lively guided tour uncovering the secrets of this amazing space. Learn about family life, the customs and philosophies that shaped this ancient culture.

Details:

• Tour Times: 12:30 pm & 2pm

• At the end of the tour enjoy a hot cup of Chinese tea as you continue to explore the Garden on your own.

• Rain or shine, the Chinese Garden is not to be missed.

On Obscura Day Pre-Party! Join us on Friday April 8 for an Obscura Day kick-off benefitting the Vancouver Police Museum.

Put on your best pinstriped suit or flapper dress and join us at the Biltmore Cabaret on April 8, 2011 for an evening of music, Vaudeville, burlesque and perhaps even a little bathtub gin.

This Prohibition-themed extravaganza is inspired by the museum’s “Sins of the City” walking tour and pays tribute to the rich history of vice and vice crime in Vancouver. Come for the complimentary Hendrick's cocktails and stay for the silent auction.

Address: Biltmore Cabaret, 2755 Prince Edward - Vancouver BC Canada - V5T 0A9

Tickets are $40 and all proceeds go to support the Vancouver Police Museum and its efforts to collect, preserve and share the history of lawlessness and law enforcement in Vancouver.

Join The Adventurists for an adventure film festival, National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year Ed Stafford talk and Hendrick's Gin at the historic Royal Geographical Society Map Room.

Titans of exploration such as Livingstone, Shackleton and Hillary walked the halls of the RGS and studied maps before setting off on historic expeditions across the planet. Back in those days you could still walk off the edge of the map quite literally...

The RGS is a world-renowned institution in London that exists to promote the advancement of geographical science. Officially founded in 1830 it began as a dinner club and grew into the largest and most active geographical societies.

The Adventurists have hired their impressive HQ for their annual film festival and invite you to come along to London's first Obscura Day event just after the final adventure film.

The Adventurists Film Festival begins at midday on April 9th and will be screening the ballsiest, wittiest, quirkiest and most gripping adventuresome films out there. This is not a festival for serious ‘adventure sports’ films, because adventure shouldn't be taken too seriously. We don’t want to be swamped with a surfeit of lycra and Goretex.

Watch self-filmed glorious mayhem in the afternoon, from 3 minute films to 20 minute documentaries. Listen to National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year Ed Stafford talk about his record breaking walk of the Amazon. Find out how to film adventures in the middle of nowhere from experts and adventurers.

After the screening of the winning adventure film, join The Adventurists and Hendrick's Gin at 6:30pm in the Map Room where we'll raise a toast to Atlas Obscura and discuss adventures over maps of the world - a most suitable location for London's Obscura Day.

Purchase Tickets

Join Adam of Invisible Paris for a visit to the ruins of a Victorian-era botanical garden in Paris.

The Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale, a garden on the outer limits of the Parc de Vincennes was, the site of an experimental plant nursery and the curious colonial exhibition of 1907. Today it is a public garden, but ghostly traces of the past remain in its decaying structures and wild shrubbery.

Join Adam Roberts of the Invisible Paris blog - dedicated to "the parts of Paris that would be refused entry to the ville musée if they tried to get in today" -  for an exploration of the garden's ghostly ruins. This is an opportunity to discover a little known park in Paris, and get a full insight into the strange past of the garden

Details:

• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support Invisible Paris or a charity of their choice

Join Adam of the Invisible Paris blog along with 52 Martinis and I Heart Paris for an Obscura Day after party at Dorothy's Gallery.

After the morning visit to the Jardin d’agronomie tropicale, we’ll spend the evening recreating the experience at Dorothy’s Gallery, housed in a listed former Boulangerie.

The Jardin d’agronomie tropicale was originally a carefully controlled experimental garden, before being left to go to seed as geopolitical changes made its purpose redundant. The garden has since taken over the remains of the 1907 colonial exhibition, and although there are now moves to renovate the space, decisions have not yet been taken on what role nature will be left to play. Through the mediums of photography and field recordings, we’ll be investigating the questions of memory, ruins and the urban wilderness that are posed by this environment. What’s more, with cocktails provided by Hendrick’s and ‘obscura’ snacks being offered by one of Paris’s underground caterers, we’ll also be able to celebrate the conclusion of Obscura Day in style!

Join Alternative Berlin for a look at Berlin's artistic underground

Come out for an exploration of artist squats and multi cultural neighborhoods, including cultural icons such as the Eastside gallery on the Old Berlin Wall, and contemporary urban art projects like one of Europe´s largest indoor skateparks and alternative entertainment facilities in a bombed out train depot. We'll also visit a massive vintage clothes warehouse, an absinthe store, abandoned sites, daytime raves, flea markets and bizarre shops.

We travel through some of Berlin's famous neighbourhoods and visit various artists and local people. We support creative arts and the protection of Berlin's lifestyle and culture.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet at Alexanderplatz TV Tower
• Tours begin at 11am and 1pm, and are 3 1/2 hours long.
• Tickets are free, tips are appreciated.

Join the experts from Context Travel for a behind-the-scenes tour of Athens' Cycladic Museum.

The collection at the Cycladic places emphasis on prehistoric finds, including the beautiful Cycladic statues and statuettes, but they also have a good historical collection, a Cyprus section, and a new didactic section about ancient life in Greece. The museum is housed in a beautiful Neoclassical mansion with a very pleasant café, as well as an outstanding shop. The Cycladic Museum is centrally located in Athens, just a few metres away from the Benaki. Come anytime between 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (GMT+0200)

Take an expedition through Haridwar, one of the oldest cities in the world!

Regarded as one of the holiest places in the Hindu religion, and an ancient city, on Obscura day we will be touring some of the cities most fascinating temples and sites!

Join Atlas Obscura Team Member Madi in this ancient and holy city to explore its wonders"

Details/Special Instructions:

• Email dylan@atlasobscura for more information.

On Obscura Day come out and explore the future of sustainable energy at the Rajiv Gandhi Renewable Energy Park.

Join us for talks and films highlighting the opportunities and challenges in front of us. A special talk at 11 am will focus on ways to move towards a low carbon lifestyle without sacrificing a lot on personal comfort.

Films:

Catch the Rain - 25 min

At the Melting Point - 20 min

Lighter Burden, Brighter Future - 30 min

Don't Rubbish it - 30 min

Details/Special Instructions:

• Open on Obscura day from 10am-5pm
• Children are welcome to see, touch, and observe how technology (renewable energy) is changing their lives

Join Context Travel expert Sheila Barker for a tour of the Specola, Florence’s famed natural history museum, featuring geological, zoological and medical artifacts and oddities.

(Infa)mous for its sometimes gory displays, like a preserved hippopotamus given to Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, La Specola houses some of the most spectacular and beautiful anatomical artwork in the world. Art- and social-historian Sheila Barker, who researches science and medicine in Renaissance Florence, will lead the visit.

Walking Tours for the Intellectually Curious

Context Travel is a network of scholars and specialists—in disciplines including archaeology, art history, cuisine, urban planning, history, environmental science, and classics—who, in addition to our normal work as professors and researchers, design and lead in-depth walking seminars for small groups of intellectually curious travelers.

Details:

• This event is limited to just 12 people
• Ages 12 and up

Descend into the ancient catacombs of San Gaudioso in Naples with Context Travel Art historian Fiorella Squillante.

These catacombs were built in the Middle Ages inside ancient Roman water cisterns, remaining today as testament of the changing religious and political phases of the city. Ancient remains, like mosaics and frescoes, play backdrop to ghoulish corpses from the 17th and 18th century.

Details:

• This event is limited to just 12 people
• Meet at Piazza Museo 19 before 10 am.
• Ages 12 and up

Join the experts from Context Travel for an exclusive small group tour of the Jewish catacombs of Rome.

The Jewish Catacombs of Vigna Randanini were discovered in the 19th century on the Appian way. They are one of seven known complexes utilized for Jewish burials. Today they are closed to the public and may only be visited with special permission. These catacombs, like their Christian and pagan counterparts, are a series of underground burial galleries with tombs carved into the soft volcanic stone of the area.

Details:

• This event is limited to 10 people
• Meet at Termini station before 2 pm.
• Ages 12 and up

Explore the hidden wonders of the marvelous underground Temple of Damanhur.

DETAILS & RSVP COMING SOON

Come explore the wunderkammer of a shop described by David Sedaris as "the greatest shop in the world."

Two special Obscura Day tours will accommodate 24 curious people to explore the collection of antique scientific and medical instruments, natural history specimens, and assorted oddities.

Details:

• Two guided tours are available, one at 4pm and one at 5 pm.

Join Context Travel Social historian Monica Vidoni for a guided visit to Venice's beautiful cemetery island.

San Michele island is home to Venice's cemetery and one of the earliest Renaissance-style churches in the city. Its famous "inhabitants" include poet Ezra Pound and composer Igor Stravinsky.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Entrance to the cemetery is included with this tour, but you must pre-purchase a vaporetto ticket or pass to reach the island.
• Ages 12 and up.
• This tour is strictly limited to 6 people

Join NileGuide expert Lena Hyde for a day-long exploration of Mayan traditions in Akumal, Mexico.

Akumal is a small Caribbean town with pristine lagoons and bays full of corals and fish. Because it has a long tradition of land conservation and turtle preservation, it is an oasis in the busy tourist destination know as the Mayan Riviera.

Our Obscura Day event will include a Mayan breakfast, a healing ceremony, participation in the burying of the meat (as prepared traditionally for a special Mayan meal), a guided nature walk through mangroves and cenotes (freshwater swimming holes where human sacrifices were made in ancient times) led by biologist and Mexican coservationist, David Nuñez, author of What Did I See?, a visit to the studio of Mexican, magical realist painter, Enrique Alcaraz, snorkeling in the Yal-Ku lagoon (surrounded by outdoor sculptures), and will end with a beachside, Mayan dinner at La Lunita restaurant.

Special Instructions:

• Meeting place will be at La Lunita, in Akumal, Mexico at 10 am.
• We will be going in the water! If viable, bring your own snorkel gear. Otherwise, gear will be available for rent.

Join NileGuide host Lina Hyde for an evening in Playa del Carmen.

Set amongst tropical landscapes in one of the most popular Caribbean destinations, Playa del Carmen, is hotel/boutique/gallery La Reina Roja. This architectural opus must be experienced to be believed. It is a space in which the architect creates junctions for contradictory constructs (light and darkness, space and counter-space, urbanization and preservation, decadence and spirituality, and violence and amusement) to collide. Our Playa at Dark gathering is an evening with the mind behind the structure.

Urban legend and architect, Alejandro Alarcon, and his family of artists and designers will welcome curious travelers to explore the hidden corners of their creation. We'll examine the themes of bondage and domination, Mayan culture, beaches, and disco. We'll tour the gift shop of spiritual baths, the tattoo and bondage cages, the reading library, and the rooftop-pool and bar surrounded by life-sustaining plants from the local mangroves.

Reina Roja cocktails and food will be available in the lobby, as well as on the roof. Art exhibits of themes explored by Alejandro, by local, modern painters (names to be announced), will also be featured. Festivities begin at 9 p.m., and no ending time is currently set.

Event is free (excluding personal consumption and private theme-room rentals). Limited to 50 people.

Hunt for wild food with "wildman" Steve Brill

Hundreds of overlooked edible and medicinal wild herbs, shoots, greens, flowers, roots, and mushrooms grow wild in natural areas throughout our region. People often destroy these renewable species as "weeds," but they've nourished and healed humans for thousands of years.

Under expert supervision, they're easy to learn, recognize, gather ecologically, and use for food and home remedies. And people who explore their local ecosystems to learn about wild foods become more committed to protecting our environment's endangered non-renewable resources.

The tour leader, world-famous naturalist "Wildman" Steve Brill, seasons the seasonal edibles with generous helpings of science and conservation, a pinch of folklore and mythology, a dash of history, and an all-natural extract of cooking information; all tossed together with his jokes, humor and anecdotes.

This tour also provides a great way to get people of all ages interested in the natural world that surrounds us, and the science that explains it all.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Please check the train schedules, and be on time!
• Please dress for outdoor adventures.
• No sandals,  which sometimes lead to mishaps in the field
• Bring drinking water.
• bags for veggies & herbs, plus paper in case you find mushrooms
• A garden digging tool and work gloves are optional.
• No smoking during the tour.
• There will be two tours: 10 am to 11:30, and 12:30 to 2 pm
• Tours meet and end at W 103 St. and CPW
• Please allow enough time to arrive a bit early for your tour.

The Weta Cave, an emporium of all things weird and wonderful, is proud to host Weta Artist Frank Victoria for a talk on the world of Weta publishing.

Weta Workshop is the extraordinary visual design company best known for their work on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Avatar. The Weta Cave is Weta's mini-museum, theaterette, and shop on a corner of the Workshop itself.

Artist Frank Victoria will give a special Obscura Day talk about working at Weta - from Crafting the World of Narnia to Dr Grordbort’s Victory, learn about fantasy art from the designer’s perspective. In addition to his work at Weta, Frank will share insights from his background in children’s comic books through to recent work illustrating the covers for the Chronicles of the Tree series by Mary Victoria.

Details:

• 11am-noon, April 9, 2011 at the Weta Cave
• There are no advance tickets for this event - spots are first come, first served on Obscura Day

In celebration of the Second Annual Obscura Day, Jim O'Donnell and Sami Rintala will lead a group to visit the Saltstarumen Sound near Bodo, Norway.

Located in Norland, the Saltstarumen Sound is the strongest tidal current in the world. Over 400 million metric tons of seawater slam through a three kilometer long and 150 meter wide strait at 73km/hour. And this happens every six hours! Large whirlpools form when the current is ats its most powerful. This is also one of the spots where very large fish can be caught. Saithe, cod, wolf-fish, rose-fish, coafish and halibut are to be had.

Join us for a tour of the sound, a look at the tidal pull and some great fishing!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet at the Saltstraumen Center in Bodo. Getting there: On highway Rv17, 33 km from Bodø town center. Local bus service from Bodø to Saltstraumen

For Obscura Day the Manila Boat Club, the Philippine’s oldest sports club, will host a moonlight row up the Pasig River.

Two participants will sit in a four-man scull with two rowers and a cox who will take you up the river and back down again. Two boats will go out at a time. Before the trip drinks will be served at the club house for all participants and two of their friends.

The club’s resident mixologist has created the PASIG OBSCURA. A unique gin cocktail made especially for the occasion.

As for the actual trip, probably the most striking part will be the experience of travelling through one of the busiest and noisiest cities in the world yet hear only the sounds of lapping water, children laughing on the banks nearby, and the occasional evening stroller throwing you their hello’s. The views of Manila and Makati lit up at night will add to the serenity. Along the way the old cigar factory, the race track, and hidden parks will open themselves up to you – as these views and others, normally blocked by walls and buildings, will become unencumbered along the river banks.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Event starts at 4pm
• 8 spots available in groups of two. Each couple may bring two non-boating guests along for cocktails.
• Participants must be able to swim and be in reasonable health. They may get a tiny bit wet from splashes.
• The row will take roughly 30 minutes but can be shorter or longer depending on the participant’s desire.
• Manila Boat Club: 2442 Havana St, Santa Ana, Manila.

On Obscura Day, come out and explore the historic Glasgow Necropolis

Opening in 1833 the Necropolis is the burial ground of over 50,000 people. Amongst those buried there are the high & mighty who shaped the city & the country to make it the place it is today. With over 3500 monuments in their honour this is an ideal way to view Glasgow’s history. With its hilltop position it also allows great views of the city as well as possible chance to see wild deer roaming the grounds. The tour will be undertaken by the very knowledgeable ‘Friends of the Necropolis’ group who are the experts!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Tour starts at 11pm and last 2.5 hours approx.
• Meeting Place: Gatehouse which is just inside the main gates into the Necropolis at Cathedral Square.
• The Necropolis can be uneven underfoot in places, and th
• erefore strong walking shoes are strongly recommended, and all tours undertaken at your own risk. Please dress for the weather.
• The ‘Friends of the Necropolis’ are a charity and ask we donate £3 per person

Open Day and Demonstrations of the Antique Automata in the Studios of "The House of Automata

The House of Automata is a restoration workshop and collection of automata run by Michael and Maria Start. As well as restoring antique automata from around the world, Michael and Maria put on exhibitions and run workshops in all aspects of automata. There are more than 100 automata dating from the antique through to contemporary pieces by the best modern makers. Many of the antique automata are working but unrestored cosmetically, this lends them an eerie quality, somehow more alive than if they were pristine and polished.

Your visit will be a rare opportunity to see and hear the automata working and gain an insight into the restoration process.

Details/Special Instructions:

• (The studios will be signposted from "Dallas Dhu Distillery" and is about 5 minutes drive from Forres). +44(0)7790 719 097 / +44(0)1309 675 753

Meet up with other Atlas Obscura Fans at the Owl House Museum!

Suffering from depression as she reached middle age, Helen Martins began to channel her boredom with the life around her into creation, embellishing her surroundings with sculpture and painting and bringing light, color and art into her house and garden. She began with the inside of her house, which she soon finished, and then moved on to the outside, where she and Koos Malgas spent twelve years building the "Camel Yard," the exterior sculpture garden filled with hundreds of stone sculptures.

Come explore her works and life on Atlas Obscura Day with other far flung explorers!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet up at the Museum at 1:00
• Email dylan@atlasobscura.com to be put in touch with the group ahead of time!
• Tickets available at the museum
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Make Kim Chi at the Pulmuone Kimchi Museum

Join us on Obscura Day at the Pulmuone Kimchi Museum to make yourself some awesome Kim Chi as well as tour the museum dedicated to this delicious Korean dish.

Established in 1986 to study the culture of kimchi and to promote kimchi inside and outside of Korea, the museum will be offering a class on how to make Kim Chi for Obscura Day. You will also have a chance to explore the museum which displays "the history, transition, diversity, and excellence of kimchi."

Details/Special Instructions:

• Class begins at 10am. Please show up 15 minutes early
• Pay at the door. Cost is 20,000 won - or just under $20

Join the experts at Context Travel for an exploration of Madrid’s Huertas neighborhood.

For centuries, the heart of Madrid's literary and intellectual life has centered in the Huertas neighborhood, to the east of the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. A vibrant quarter that was once home to such seminal figures of the Spanish Golden Century as Cervantes, Quevedo, Góngora, Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca, this district is still the heart of theatre, art, and the cultural life of the city. During this three-hour walk we will look deeply into daily life of 17th century Madrid as we stroll the quiet, pedestrian-only streets of this hidden but most magnetic area of the city. The great thinkers and artists of that century will bookend and shape what will become a thematic orientation to Madrid's place in European intellectual history.

Details:

• This event is limited to 10 people
• Meet inside the cafe/bar MIAU, located in Santa Ana square, in the corner with Principe street, and next door to Cerveceria Alemana. The exact address is: Calle del Príncipe, 26.
• Ages 12 and up

Join us at Maison d'Ailleurs for the opening of "Dr Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition" of steampunk creations.

This exhibition presents the intriguing and quirky world of Dr. Grordbort, a steampunk creation of Greg Broadmore, designer for Weta Workshop (Lord of the Rings, King Kong, District 9). Come see the incredible guns and trophies of the good Doctor.

The Maison d'Ailleurs (House of Elsewhere), unique museum in Europe dedicated to science fiction, utopia, and extraordinary journeys, which shows the influence of subcultures in contemporary culture; how they permeate our lives and modify our tastes, our worldview.

Take an expedition out to the Gates of Hell, a giant burning hole in the middle of the Turkmenistan dessert!

In the hot, expansive Karakum desert in Turkmenistan, near the 350 person village of Derweze, is a hole 328 feet wide that has been on fire, continuously, for 38 years. Known as the Darvaza Gas Crater or the "Gates of Hells" by locals, the crater can be seen glowing for miles around.

Join a local guide to journey out to the crater and peer into "the Gates of Hell"

Details/Special Instructions:

• Email dylan@atlasobscura for more information.

As part of the Obscura Day celebrations, Jon Context Travel for a walk focused on the hidden physical remains of London’s past, rather than the more obvious sites and the space between.

We begin our walk by the remains of the western gate of the Roman fort that once stood here, something not normally accessible to the public, and now incongruously within a car park. While here we will look at the remains of the Roman city wall in the area, and signs of its continued use up to the 18th century. We will then walk to the area around the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, an important part of medieval London. We will visit the church (entrance fee £3) and find ourselves surrounded by perfect 12th c. Norman architecture that survived both the 1666 fire and the Blitz.

We will then walk to the western gate of the Roman and Medieval city, Newgate, an area once infamous for its prison. Here, under a Victorian pub lies the cells of the Giltspur Street Compter, an 18th c. debtor’s prison. From here we will take the short stroll to St. Etheldreda’s, another remarkable medieval survival where the crypt and chapel still survive. We may then stop for a quick drink in the famous Old Mitre pub, a 16th c. establishment a few yards away, which has the remains of a cherry tree by the bar, said to have been danced around by Queen Elisabeth I.

We move then to the Silver Vaults, built as a Victorian safe deposit, but now a set of underground silversmiths and shops, little known outside the silver dealing world. Across the road lies the medieval Lincoln’s Inn, one of the four remaining ‘Inns of Court’ in London, where aspiring lawyers lived and learnt their trade. This particular inn contains many 15th – 19th c. architectural gems.

Further along Fleet Street lay large Carmelite and Dominican Friaries, now recalled in the street names Whitefriars and Blackfriars respectively. The remains of the former we will see under a modern office building and a short walk away in a 17th c. pub. This pub, the Olde Cheshire Cheese is notable for its age and its former regulars, Samuel Johnson, G. K. Chesterton and Charles Dickens to name but a few. You can have a drink or eat here, which will provide a suitably enigmatic end to the walk.

Walking Tours for the Intellectually Curious

Context Travel is a network of scholars and specialists—in disciplines including archaeology, art history, cuisine, urban planning, history, environmental science, and classics—who, in addition to our normal work as professors and researchers, design and lead in-depth walking seminars for small groups of intellectually curious travelers.

Details:

• This event is limited to 10 people
• Meet at the entrance to the Museum of London
• Ages 12 and up

Go back in time at the Royal Observatory Greenwich on two special Obscura Day tours.

At 10:30 am (1030)

Take a tour back in time with Dr Rebekah Higgitt, Curator of History of Science and Technology, through the astronomy, buildings and collections of the Royal Observatory. Learn to tell your altazimuth from your equatorial, spotting Victorian terracotta and Tudor vaults on the way.>

Explore the mysterious Shell Grotto of Margate by candlelight.

The Shell Grotto is one of the world’s most mysterious places: a series of underground rooms and passageways covered by 2000sqft of exquisite shell mosaic. Discovered in 1835, nobody yet knows who created it, although there are many theories surrounding its origins. Is it a pagan temple? A meeting place for some secret cult? Since its accidental discovery visitors from all over the world have been intrigued by the beautiful mosaic and the unsolved mystery.

On Obscura Day come and explore the grottos mysteries by candlelight on four small group tours.

On Obscura Day Limbo Arts will be opening its project space, housed in one of the first electrical substations to provide domestic power, for a one-day exhibition of photographs documenting locations in which extra-terrestrial and unexplained activity has been said to occur. This exhibition will be a pre-curser to Limbo’s upcoming program, "Art Lands On Alien Landscape".

The project space at the Substation appears to be in transition – gallery lighting and whitened walls with the imposing industrial structure of the room contrast with the transformers, rectifiers, and switchgear once stood. Taking our cue from this sense of transition we wish to use the space to explore liminality.

Join Bruce Gardner of dorodango.com for a second annual Obscura Day workshop on creating hikaru dorodango, the Japanese art of shiny mud balls.

Mr. Gardner will demonstrate the techniques he uses to transform common soil into these elegant spheres at the Harwood Art Center. Class is from 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM (MT)

Come visit one of the strangest attractions in America - the Museum of the Weird

Fiji mermaids, zombies, mummies & shrunken heads await you - it's fun for the entire family! Explore the mysterious and the unexplained with our "Haunted Austin" exhibit. The "Texas Bigfoot" exhibit showcases plaster casts, photos, and a life-size Sasquatch. See wax figures of famous monsters like The Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dracula and Frankenstein, and meet our giant live lizard!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Each tour lasts 30-40 minutes
• Proceeds from ticket sales go towards rescuing unwanted and abandoned lizards, and giving them a good home here at Lucky Lizard

ON THE ATLAS

Museum of the Weird

ADDRESS

Museum of the Weird: 412 E. 6th St.
Austin, TX, US

Join our Obscura Day tour of the extraordinary topiary garden built by one man in a small South Carolina town, led by Pearl himself!

Since the early 1980s, Pearl Fryar has been creating fantastic topiary at his garden in Bishopville, South Carolina. Living sculptures, Pearl’s topiary are astounding feats of artistry and horticulture. Many of the plants in Pearl’s garden were rescued from the compost pile at local nurseries. With Pearl’s patience and skilled hands, these “throw aways” have thrived and have been transformed into wonderful abstract shapes. Pearl Fryar and his garden are now internationally recognized and have been the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, television shows, and even a documentary, A Man Named Pearl. Today, the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden draws visitors from around the globe.

Visitors to the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden experience a place that is alternately beautiful, whimsical, educational, and inspiring. Pearl’s garden contains over 300 individual plants, and few are spared from his skilled trimming. His extraordinary topiary is complemented by his “junk art” sculptures placed throughout the garden. Pearl’s garden is a living testament to one man’s firm belief in the results of positive thinking, hard work, and perseverance, and his dedication to spreading a message of “love, peace and goodwill.”

Join the experts from Context Travel for an exploration of Boston’s Big Dig tunnel project.

During this three-hour walking tour with an architectural historian, we will use the Big Dig as a lens to look deeper into the history of the city and trace its evolution from the 17th century to the present. This is very much a "built environment" walk, in which we'll look at buildings, streets, and the fabric of the city in order to "read" Boston's history, often hidden in overlooked details.

Walking Tours for the Intellectually Curious

Context Travel is a network of scholars and specialists—in disciplines including archaeology, art history, cuisine, urban planning, history, environmental science, and classics—who, in addition to our normal work as professors and researchers, design and lead in-depth walking seminars for small groups of intellectually curious travelers.

Details:

• 10am-1pm
• This event is limited to 10 people
• Meet our docent under the awning in front of Bruegger's Bagel Bakery at 7 School Street, located at the corner of School and Washington Streets, just across from the Old South Meeting House.
• Ages 12 and up

Explore the unusal collections at Boston's famous Warren Museum, including the infamous skull of Phineas P. Gage.

Come and take a guided tour through the fascinating medical collections of the Warren Anatomical Museum. Housed within the Harvard Medical Library, the small collection holds the phrenological collection of Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, a pair of conjoined fetal skeletons, and a beautiful Beauchene or "exploded" skull.

But perhaps the most curious, and most famous item in the collection is the skull of Phineas Gage, a Victorian era railroad worker who had a 13-pound tamping iron blown through his head and lived to tell the tale. Gage's altered personality after the incident helped doctors begin to understand the localized nature of personality and identity. Learn all about his case and see the skull and tamping rod in person!

Details/Special Instructions:

• This tour is limited to 12 people only
• No photographs allowed inside the Warren Museum
• Tour starts at 1pm

Descend into the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery with Atlas Obscura host Allison Meier.

Established in 1838, Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery holds around 600,000 burials in its 478 acres of ornate tombs and monuments. Its winding paths amid shady oak trees by ponds formed by an ancient glacier inspired the creation of Central Park, and in the late 1800s helped make it the second most popular tourist destination after Niagara Falls. From the hill where the first major battle of the Revolutionary War was fought, there are now beautiful, glimpsing views of the New York Harbor and Manhattan skyline. The cemetery is the permanent home of such notable figures as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Leonard Bernstein, and Boss Tweed, as well as a flock of green monk parrots that live in the Gothic entrance gate.

For Obscura Day, we will explore Green-Wood's rarely open catacombs, and some of the intriguing sepulchral sites along the way.

Special Instructions:

• Sturdy walking shoes are recommended
• Getting there: Take the R Train to 25th Street and walk up the hill from 4th Avenue to 5th Avenue.
• Meet at the Gothic gate entrance on 5th Avenue at 25th Street.
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Green-Wood Historic Fund

Meet the Truck Farm - a mini-farm planted in the back of a 1986 Dodge pickup - in Park Slope on Obscura Day.

DETAILS & RSVP COMING SOON

Take a historical, beer-drinkable bike adventure through Brooklyn and Queens!

A four hour bicycle tour of Williamsburgh, East Williamsburgh and Bushwick and the former brewery buildings of the most densely packed brewing neighborhoods in America, circa 1890!

See historical photographs of various brewery buildings when they were built, between the 1880s and 1920s, compare them with vintage 1970s photos (in the heart of Bushwick's deep dark arson-and-gangs era) and observe them as they stand today, re-purposed but obviously the same brewery buildings. German Churches, banks and social halls will also be observed. The tour will end at Evergreen Cemetery on the Brooklyn/Queens border, where many of the Brewers are buried... with a surprise!

Details/Special Instructions:

• You MUST bring your own bike and helmet.
  
  Includes one beer at Matt Torrey's Bar, mid-tour, unless you are under 21, in which case Soda!
• Meet at the The City Reliquary Museum: 370 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn at 11:45 PM. Tour runs from 12:00 - 4:00

Tour the Ghost Ships of Coney Island Creek with Underwater NY

Our friends at the amazing Underwater New York are leading a tour to the ship graveyard that is the Coney Island Creek! Described as a one time "rumrunner’s haven and a dumping ground for everything from bodies to old cars" the creek continues to hold the wreckage and memories of New York's shipping history, including a half submerged home-made submarine, and the timbers of ancient whalers. Come prepared to explore!"

Details/Special Instructions:

• Bring sturdy shoes and clothes that you don't mind getting dirty
  
  Meet in the Home Depot parking lot at 2970 Cropsey Avenue at 3:45 PM

Party in the Coney Island Museum to celebrate the opening of the Coney Island Spectacularium, super freak weekend, and meet the stars of the Discovery Channel show Oddities at the premiere of season two.

At the end of the 19th Century, Coney Island was the pinnacle of an astonishing era of live attractions – the Great Coney Island Spectacularium aims to recreate that momentous age, bringing you sites, sounds, and immersive experiences that can’t be seen anywhere else on earth. The attendees of this event will be the first to experiance this taste of Coney Island at the height of its spectacle with the opening of the Coney Island Spectacularium.

But that is only one part of this multi-faceted event! Also taking place is a sideshow performance by some of the countries best sideshow performers gathered in Coney for the annual super freak weekend.

Topping it all off is the premiere of season two of the Discovery Channel show Oddities, with its stars Mike, Evan and Ryan in attendance! Free Hendrick's Gin cocktails will be served upstairs, and there will be a cash bar (wine and beer) available downstairs.

Trivia contest prizes to be supplied by Kikkerland. The evening will be hosted by Lord Whimsy, witticist and author of The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Doors open at 8:00, screening of the season premiere at 8:30.
• Tickets are $15.
•  It’s also day two of the Congress of Curious Peoples, Coney Island USA’s 10-day series of lectures and performances about curiosity and curiosities, broadly conceived, so be sure to check out the schedule for the rest of the week..

Special Behind-the-Scenes Tour and Studio Visit at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

For over 150 years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard churned out America's most famous fighting ships from the U.S.S. Maine to the U.S.S. Missouri.  Today, the Yard is a 250-acre industrial park with over 240 tenants who are artists, manufacturers, and even movie producers.  On this tour, we'll go behind the walls of the Yard to explore its rich history as we listen to World War II-era oral histories.  Along the way, we'll hop off the bus to get a closer look at an 1851 dry dock, a Navy Hospital that closed in 1948, the nation's first "green" multi-story industrial building, and we'll take a step inside one of the buildings to visit the studio of Thomas Witte, an artist who draws inspiration from and incorporates materials from the historical and industrial landscape of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  This special tour is given by Urban Oyster on behalf of the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation

.Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet at 1:45 the Brooklyn Historical Society at 128 Pierrepont Street, a convenient location close to the Jay Street-Metrotech subway stop in Brooklyn Heights.  The bus will pick up and drop off everyone at the Brooklyn Historical Society but the tour will be almost entirely inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Tour lasts until 4:30

  Advance ticket purchase required. This tour has a limited capacity and may sell out. Purchase tickets above.

  Bring a Bottle of Water - The tour will not pass any stores while inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Please bring a bottle of water in case you get thirsty.

Come explore the historic collection at the Busy Beaver Button Museum, the worlds only button museum.

We have buttons dating from the late 1800's to now. Buttons are communicating time capsules. Some categories we have on display include politics, art, music, social lubrication, advertising, and innovation.

The Obscura Day tour will highlight important buttons throughout history and offer a behind the scenes look of our button archives.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Offering 4 tours, 45 minute duration each at 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 p m, and 3 pm
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Busy Beaver Button Museum or a charity of their choice

A 2nd event from Erika Nelson, creator of The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things

See sores, chancres, and pustules galore at Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science, housed in historic landmark mansion on Lake Shore Drive!

In honor of Obscura Day, the Museum’s curator will present 3D stereoscopic photos, chromolithographs, and a magic lantern show depicting skin diseases in gorgeous, gruesome detail.

Then, visitors can take a look at what lies beneath the surface of the skin in OUR BODY: The Universe Within. This special exhibition of actual human bodies juxtaposes preserved whole-body and organ specimens with artifacts, artwork, and archival materials from the Museum’s permanent collection to highlight the complexity and fragility of human anatomy.

Also on view will be pulling.reaching.longing, a large-scale installation by contemporary artist Elissa Cox that uses massive organic forms made of cloth, wax, plaster, and latex to dramatize the dialogue between the surface and the structure of the body, creating a fantastical interior habitat both grand and grotesque.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Five guided tours starting at 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm
• Probably not suitable for children

Go behind-the scenes at the Dittrick Museum and Medical History Center for a look at its offbeat and seldom-seen collections.

A wine and cheese reception in the museum gallery will kick things off, then meet Dittrick staffers Jim Edmonson, Jenny Nieves, and Laura Travis, who will each share a sampling of items not normally on view.

Jim, the Dittrick's Chief Curator, will present a selection of amazing rare books from the collections, dating from the time of Christopher Columbus to the 20th century. Normally viewed only by research scholars, these anatomy atlases and surgical works are breathtakingly beautiful and illuminate the medical past in a new way. Jenny, the Registrar and Archivist, will share a sampling of strange and wonderful objects from the Dittrick artifact collections, with special emphasis upon the history of contraception, a premier collection at the Dittrick.

Assistant Curator of Photography Laura Travis will present selections from the stunning collections of medical photography at the Dittrick, including the internationally famous collection of dissection room portraits (depicting med students with their cadavers, and as presented in the Dittrick's book Dissection) and the beautiful, if disturbing Corlett collection of dermatology images, documenting dread diseases from smallpox to syphilis.

Join us for a second annual Obscura Day visit to an astonishing private collection of antique helmets, scientific instruments, and medical models.

For decades Steve Erenberg (aka Radio Guy), has searched for extraordinary mechanical, electronic, musical and industrial items that have, irrespective of their primary use, a strong visual appeal. He has acquired many different objects from museums, hospitals, clinics and laboratories throughout the world. Industrial masks and helmets, anatomical models, countless bizarre, scientific contraptions, electrostatic devices--he has thousands of pieces with qualities that far transcend their original application.

On Obscura Day Erenberg will be opening his incredible private collection to a small tour just for us

Join us at “Street Folk” to view the outdoor shoe installation of internationally renowned artist Tyree Guyton of the Heidelberg Project.

The installation covers the entire length of Edmund Place street, located four blocks South of Mack off Woodward in Detroit. The shoes (Souls) are a social commentary on the issue of homelessness that exists throughout the city of Detroit, the country and the world. Dr. Guyton’s goal with this project is to include the voices of a variety of ethnic and/or religious backgrounds with the understanding that homelessness has no boundaries and affects everyone.

This exhibition, part of the Art X Detroit festival, runs April 6-10, 2011, is free and open to the public.

Visit the only mailboat in the country, a grand old theatre turned into a parking garage, and America's second oldest catholic parish, and more - all in one day!

The Tour De Hood is a 25 Mile (or so) bicycle ride to visit some of Detroit’s sparkliest gems and buried treasures.

We’ll depart from the Grosse Pointe South High School parking lot (On Grosse Pointe Blvd). Then ramble through the East Side, going through historic Indian Village. We’ll visit the amazing Heidelberg Project, America’s only mailboat, St. Anne’s Cathedral (the second oldest Catholic Parish in America), the grandest parking lot you’ll ever see (the ex Michigan Theatre), United Sound Studios, the Dequindre Cut cycling/pedestrian greenway, and a lot more. If time and energy permits, we’ll visit the Mounted Police Stables on Belle Isle.

Details:

• Bring your own bike!
• Departing from Grosse Pointe South High:  9 am
• Duration should be about 3-4 hours. We’ll ride at a leisurely pace.  But you should be able to ride 25 miles.
• Wear suitable cycling wear and protection. Bring a water bottle and a patch kit. A pump, if  you’ve got one.
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Tour de Hood or a charity of their choice

Join Hendrick's Gin on Obscura Day as the Imagination Station arts space is transformed into a living Camera Obscura by local artist Gary Schwartz.

Located in the historic Corktown neighborhood, the Imagination Station is a developing creative campus housed on a large property including two blighted houses. On Obscura Day, we'll enjoy complimentary Hendrick's cocktails in the digital media lab and digital residency living space (Righty) while time lapse photography captures Michigan Central Depot and Roosevelt Park - an interesting perspective to an iconic image on the verge of a new era. The other building (Lefty) features "Salvaged Landscape" an architecture art from arson piece by Cate Newell. Music and drink will round out an evening that will illuminate Detroit's cultural landscape.

Details/Special Instructions:

• 5-8pm April 9
• Tickets to this event are free, but donations are appreciated to support the Imaginaton Station

Visit the all-but-forgotten remnants of Nikola Tesla's most audacious experiment.

Here, in the Wardenclyffe Laboratory on Eastern Long Island, Tesla aspired to power the entire planet, wirelessly transmitting electricity to every corner of the globe. The site once featured a 187 foot tall transmission tower, which was destroyed for security concerns during WWI. The building that remains, designed by famous Stanford White (of McKim, Mead & White), has sat dormant since 1987, the grounds overgrown, and the decades of neglect betraying the incredible importance of this location--Tesla's last remaining research facility--in the history of energy and electricity.

On Obscura Day, join GOOD editor Ben Jervey at the Wardenclyffe site and meet a founder of the Tesla Science Center, an organization dedicated to preserving the famous lab and turning the site into a museum. They'll take us on a basic tour around the grounds--entering the site if we gain permission from the current owner--and educate us on the history of this fascinating place.

Details:

• Meet at Route 25A and Tesla Street, East Shoreham, NY
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Tesla Science Center.

Join Anne and Paul Gulley at their personal Cabinet of Curiosity in Elkin, North Carolina.

This Wunderkammer includes treasures that are animal, mineral and celestial: vulture wings, a stuffed hamster, an oryx skull and the obligatory alligator on the ceiling. Part natural history and part whimsy, this small collection celebrates the wonder and the hidden Cabinet in us all.

Details/Special Instructions:

• We will be open from 2 pm until 5 pm. There is no charge for admission. We can accommodate up to 50 people.

Explore the haunted hallways and underground tunnels of the famous Stanley Hotel, inspiration for Stephen King's "The Shining".

Come take an extended tour with an expert guide around The Stanley Hotel, the recently renovated, over 100 year old establishment in Estes Park. Witness the beginning of "The Shining" with a tour of Stephen King's room # 217. The hotel was part of the inspiration behind the story and the ultimate location for the taping of the 1997 ABC television miniseries, "The Shining".

Built and designed by Freelan O. Stanley, the hotel was finished in 1907. Since its opening, The Stanley has had many famous guests such as John Philip Sousa, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Emperor and Empress of Japan. There are a few who refuse to leave as well, as is it said that F.O. Stanley and his wife, Flora still haunt the property. This guided tour includes views of the property, the underground tunnel, and a special viewing of the Concert Hall and Manor Hall.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet in the hotel lobby.
• Tour begins at 12:30 pm
• Tour is limited to 25 people.

Ever wanted to pet a gun or at least get close to real pieces of history?

For Obscura Day, NRA’s National Firearms Museumin Fairfax, Virginia will be offering, for the first time, a chance for some lucky folks to get hands-on with actual firearms.

Besides getting a behind-the-scenes guided tour through galleries filled with thousands of guns from a museum senior curator, there will be an opportunity for folks to actually handle historic pieces and reproductions ranging in time from the Revolutionary War onwards. Whether an M1 Garand used at D-Day or a California Gold Rush revolver, the National Firearms Museum is putting history in the hands of people.

If you’ve never held a gun before or just wondered what impact firearms have had on American history, technology and even recreation, plan to attend this first-ever event at the National Firearms Museum. Only thirty lucky participants will be part of this unique experience on April 9th.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Two tours offered: one at 11am, an a second at 1pm.
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the National Firearms Museum or a charity of thier choice.

Join Marvin Yagoda for an exciting exploration of his Marvelous Mechanical Museum!

Sandwiched between halves of a shopping mall north of Detroit in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Marvin has packed dense masses of historical and modern arcade machines, sideshow wonders, fortune tellers, automatons, and curiosities into his Marvelous Museum. The museum contains items of magic, neon, antiques, posters, airplanes, robots, animation, and all sorts of odd and unusual coin operated games.

• Open all day 12am-6pm

Meet the madly brilliant machinist behind some of the world's finest art car contraptions.

Art car creator Mark Bradford will talk about his 20 year career as an artist. His best known works are a transformer-esque pieces that are giant, robot, and hydraulic all at once. As per the Art Car Museum has participated in several television shows that including “Battle Bots”, “Junkyard Wars”, “Guiness Primetime Live”, and even hosted two shows for the History Channel entitled “Scrapyard Scavengers”. A truly original art car artist, Bradford has "built some of the greatest innovative pieces of engineering/art on wheels."

• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Art Car Museum or a charity of their choice.

Come out and enjoy the eccentric splendor of the Beer Can House in Houston ,Texas.

Started in 1968, the Beer Can House was a project of John Milkovisch who used to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He covered his entire lawn with rocks, marbles, and metal pieces because he "got sick of mowing the grass" and then he started adding aluminum beer can siding. Over 50,000 cans (a number estimated by Ripley's Believe It or Not) cover the house which not only makes the house sing in the breeze, but has also helped lower the family's energy bills.

• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Beer Can House or a charity of their choice

Join Esotouric for a unusual bus and walking tour of hidden downtown Los Angeles, focused on the life and works of John Fante, who was recently honored with a Square named for him beside the Central Library. Climb aboard to hear Fante's story and that of the lost Bunker Hill neighborhood where he found his voice.

Before Kerouac, before Bukowski (who called Fante "my God"), there was John Fante, author of "Ask the Dust" and four other novels featuring his unforgettably arrogant alter ego Arturo Bandini. Fante chronicles a forgotten Los Angeles neighborhood teeming with immigrants, criminals and dreamers like himself. With genuine compassion and wonderful craft, he sketches the hopes and ambitions which fly round their heads, and in the process finds his own voice, a revelation which carries him all the way to Hollywood and away from his own ideals. Bunker Hill is gone now, flattened, its mansions torn down, long since redeveloped by corporate and civic interests in the largest eminent domain seizure in American history. But Arturo Bandini is alive and well, and his lament is as relevant as it was 75 years ago. Come follow in his footsteps, to the Goodwill store, King Eddy's Saloon, Clifton's Cafeteria ("pay what you can"), the Central Library Reading Room, aboard the newly-restored Angels Flight Railway, and other evocative scenes of the old L.A. hidden amidst the new.

Esotouric is not your ordinary tour company. Our routes veer off into fascinating, neglected neighborhoods. Our guides are passionate, brainy and hilarious. Our tour themes are provocative and complex, but never dry, mixing crime and social history, rock and roll and architecture, literature and film, fine art and urban studies into a simmering stew of original research and startling observations.

You're guaranteed an intelligent, unpredictable ride into the secret heart of the city we love.n These tours are recommended for natives, tourists and anyone who likes to dig a little deeper and discover the world beyond the everyday.

11:30am- 5pm

RSVP & purchase tickets from Esotouric

Dead Saints, Fulgarites, and Botanical Expeditions

Join Betalevel for expert talks on odd subjects: Amina Cain will speak on oil burning lamps and fulgurites; Colin Dickey will share stories of mutilated saints; and Amar Ravva will take us to Australia on the Investigator with an account of a few early botanical expeditions.

Located in a basement down two back alleys in the heart of Chinatown, Betalevel will open its doors for a day of readings and an odd tour of downtown Los Angeles - part performance space, part music venue, part speakeasy.

Details/Special Instructions:

• 8pm-11pm.
• Open to the public but probably not suitable for children.
• Betalevel is located behind the Full House Restaurant in Chinatown
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Betalevel or a charity of their choice

Join Betalevel members Jason Brown and Sean Deyoe for a paranoia bike ride throughout Los Angeles.

Explore stops around downtown for the lizard tunnels, alien contactees, cybernetic nodes, and the LA.

Details/Special Instructions:

• 3pm-6pm.
• Bring your own bike and be prepared for a two-hour long, moderate intensity bike ride.
• The Paranoid Bike Ride will convene at Chungking Plaza on Hill Street (between College and Bernard)
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Betalevel or a charity of their choice

An Occult Splendor: Dinner at the Magic Castle with Magician Ryan Majestic. Attend multiple magic shows, tour of the Castle and have Hendrick's cocktails while mingling with multiple Magicians!

If you are interested in attending please email dylan@atlasobscura.com with questions or inquiries. For Atlas Obscura members only

The Magic Castle AKA the Academy of Magic Arts is the world's most famous club for magicians.

The purpose of The Academy is to encourage and promote public interest in the art of magic with particular emphasis on preserving its history as an art form, entertainment medium, and hobby. Beginning with a charter membership of 150, the Academy has grown into a world-renowned fraternal organization with a membership of nearly 5,000.

While the lobby of the castle has no visible doors to the interior, Obscura Day visitors will be given the secret which allows them access to the inside and explore the hidden passageways and magic rooms of the castle.

The evening will include:

• Three course dinner for each guest, consisting of a Salad, Main Course, Dessert and Coffee.

• Numerous Magic shows, with eleven different acts performing throughout the night, and magicians performing in the bar and lounge all evening long.

• A chance to tour the castle and meet the resident ghost, alongside Castle Member Ryan Majestic.

• Not to mention the chance to mingle with dozens of magicians as the Castle's numerous bars.

Door's open at 5pm and close at 2am. It is suggested that 6:00 would be a good time to arrive, as that is when things begin happening at the club.

Dinner is late, at 9:45, so eat a snack before you come!

Ryan Majestic, fantastic magician and club member will be on hand to help answer questions, perform a little magic, and take small groups on a tour of the castle.

Valet Parking is the only way to park at the Magic Castle and costs 8 dollars, not included in the ticket. Carpooling is recommended!

EVENING SHOW TIMES ARE

Palace of Mystery Shows: 8:30 w/ Farrell Dillon · 10:00 w/ Aye Jaye · 11:15 w/ Jade

Close-Up Gallery Early Shows: 7:00 · 7:45 · 8:30 · 9:15 with Rafael Benatar

Close-Up Gallery Late Shows: 10:00 · 10:45 · 11:30 · 12:15 with Johnny Ace Palmer

Parlour of Prestidigitation Early Shows: 7:30 · 8:45 · 9:30 with George Schindler

Parlour of Prestidigitation Late Shows: 10:30 · 11:30 · 12:00 with Al Lampkin

The Peller Project: 8:30 · 10:00 · 11:15 with Tom Ogden and Howard Jay

W.C. Fields Bar Magic – 8:00 through 12:00 with Chef Anton

Hat & Hare Lounge – 9:00 through 1:00 with Jeffery Black

DETAILS AND SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

These are very serious. No one under 21 and the dress code is strictly enforced. If you show up in anything less then coat and tie, you may not be admitted to the club!

• NO ONE UNDER 21 will be admitted to the club.

• There is a STRICT dress code
• Men must be in coat and tie (Standard or bow tie).
• Women must be in a dress, cocktail dress, elegant skirt & blouse combination, pant suit with a matching jacket (think business suit), or evening pant suit ensemble.
• See the magic castle website for dress code specifics.

• Doors open at 5pm and close at 2pm

• Valet Parking is the only way to park at the Magic Castle and costs 8 dollars. Carpooling is recommended!

• Dinner is at 9:45 (Eat a snack before you come so you aren't starving by then :)

• Magician Ryan Majestic will be on hand to help answer questions and give tours to small groups

The Menu for the Evening is below. Please Select one of the salads, and mains below and email us your choices to dylan@atlasobscura.com with the subject "Magic Dinner"

SALAD: Please Select One

House Salad: Mixed Greens, Tomatoes, Onions, and Red Wine Vinaigrette

Classic Caesar: Crisp Romaine, Garlic Croutons, House Caesar Dressing, and Shaved Parmesan

MAIN: Please Select One

Roasted Half Chicken: Rosemary-Lemon Pan Jus, Parmesan Risotto, and Sautéed Spinach

Pasta: Pesto Cream Penne with Pancetta and Cherry Tomatoes

Chef Vegetarian Creation: Potato Gnocchi with Eggplant Ragu

DESSERT

Warm Chocolate Cake: With Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

If you have any questions please email me at dylan@atlasobscura.com and I will get back to you asap.

Tour the World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things!

For this years Obscura Day, the World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things will be offering a self guided tour of the travelling museum, in it's hometown of Lucas, Kansas.  While you gaze at the collection housed in the passenger-side windows of the Mobile Museum, you'll find interpretive points, little-known facts about both World's Largest Things AND World's Smallest Versions of said World's Largest Things. Investigate the Info Box mounted to the Mobile Museum, and take away your own piece of WLCoWSVoWLT history, a handy-dandy writing implement, celebrating Obscura Day 2011, that you can use to tell us about your experiences on the American Road. 

The first gross of people (144) will find a special gold-foil-imprinted pencil commemorating the event. Go ahead - take it. We made it just for you!

Details/Special Instructions:

• This is a self-guided tour
• All Obscura Day donations collected for this event will go to support the WLCoWSVoWLT or a charity of their choice

Explore the eccentic and wonderful House of Balls in Minneapolis.

Local sculptor Allen Christian is opening the doors to his playland/sculpture studio for Obscura Day 2011! For over 20 years, Christian has been taking "found" objects and reworking them into interactive pieces of art. The contents of his studio is constantly changing, so come roll with other curious community members while exploring the new, wacky, always entertaining creatures borne of his mind!

Saturday, April 09, 2011 from 12:00 PM - 5:00

Take the best part of being a grown up and mix it with the best part of being a kid, and you've got Minneapolis' Obscura Day afterparty: Playing with legos while imbibing delicious alcoholic beverages!

Celebrate Obscura Day at our grand hootenany in Brickmania’s studio space surrounded by cityscapes and electric trains all built from LEGOS, create your own LEGO masterpieces in the LEGO workspace, all while sipping on Hendrick's Gin libations crafted by reigning Iron Bartendress of the Twin Cities, Jasmine Poland!

Details/Special Instructions:

• 7-11 pm

Join Atlas Obscura co-founder Joshua Foer for a visit to the extraordinary Cushing Brain Collection.

Located in the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, the Cushing Center is arguably as unique as the collection itself. Named for 1891 Yale College graduate, Harvey Cushing, M.D., the father of modern neurosurgery, the center houses more than the 400 jars of patients' brains and tumors form the Cushing Brain Tumor Registry 1900 –1932.

The extraordinary exhibit also includes Cushing's skillful surgical illustrations, personal diaries, dramatic black and white patient photographs, Cushing memorabilia, as well as historical anatomical and medical materials. Cushing’s vast collection of over 15,000 volumes in science and medicine contains major medical and scientific works ranging from 11th century manuscripts through 19th century monographs.

Currently on display among other volumes from this collection are a 16th century surgical work dedicated from King Henry II to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, a 12th century manuscript describing the crusades of Richard the Lionheart and an early hand colored incunabula that is the first illustrated medical book in print.

Details:

• 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (ET) Meet at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library entrance at the Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT

Come out to the Niagara Science Museum for an afternoon of historical experiments conducted with restored antique scientific equipment.

Nick Dalacu has spent a lifetime collecting antique scientific equipment that he has amassed in a museum built in the converted scientific laboratories of the National Carbon office building of Union Carbide. His unique collection represents a particular fascination with the innovative and experimental inventions and tools that scientists have attempted to make use of over the centuries.

Among many other rooms and objects, the museum contains a recreated 1930s medical office, a galvanometer collection, a collection of antique optical instruments, microscopes and radios, and - most intriguing of all - a high-voltage laboratory. Amazingly, almost everything in the museum has been restored to working order so that Dalacu can demonstrate how each item works.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Ample parking on Highliand Drive.
• Only 30 people allowied inside the museum at one time
• Refreshments will be served.
• A $3 donation is appreciated. All donations receieved for this event will go to support the Niagara Science Museum.

Come out and explore the site where the first non-native family settled in the East Bay.

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park is at the historic headquarters of the Rancho San Antonio, a cattle ranch that covered 7 modern day cities, including all of Oakland and Berkeley. See the spot where a bull ring stood in which bulls and bears were fought for the amusement of humans. All this right in the middle of Oakland!

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park features the 1870 Antonio Peralta House, indoor and outdoor exhibits, community gardens, Native Plant Garden, and historic themed play structures. Obscura Day visitors will be treated to behind the scenes candlelit tours, tamales and sangria, and will meet the ghost of Rosa Maria Peralta. Cap off your visit with a trip to recommended nearby taco trucks!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Tours at 2:30 and 4pm (tours last 45 minutes)
• 25 people max for each tour time
• All proceeds from this Obscura Day event go to support the Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park to fulfill their mission to promote understanding, historical healing and community amid change and diversity.

Join Atlas Obscura and Hendricks Gin at the home of the Kinetic Steam Works for an afternoon demonstration and discussion of their beautiful, steam-powered machines.

Kinetic Steam Works is a Bay Area collective dedicated to steam powered machines. They will be firing up their Victorian-era contraptions and talking about what makes steam power work, followed by a cocktail mixer with complimentary cocktails provided by Hendrick's Gin.

Join Stanford University Hospital chief engineer Leander Robinson on a tour of one of the largest pneumatic tube networks in the world.

Writes Sara Wykes: 

Every day, 7,000 times a day, Stanford Hospital staff turn to pneumatic tubes, cutting-edge technology in the 19th century, for a transport network that the Internet and all the latest Silicon Valley wizardry can’t match: A tubular system to transport a lab sample across the medical center in the blink of an eye.

Join Stanford University Hospital chief engineer Leander Robinson on a tour of one of the largest pneumatic tube networks in the world. Snaking through the medical center's walls are four miles of tubes that shuttle specimens and paperwork around the facility at 18 miles per hour. Robinson will explain how this incredible system works.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Meet at the fountain of the Stanford Medical Center at 300 Pasteur Dr. at 10am.

Join Eastern State Penitentiary Site Manager Fran Dolan for an informal, behind-the-scenes look at one of Philadelphia's most notable buildings.

A flagship institution for reform and change when it opened in 1829, Eastern State's solitary confinement was eventually abandoned as the system became overcrowded and ineffective. The building itself continued to expand and grew to encompass 15 labyrinth-like cellblocks within its massive stone walls.

In the 20th century it housed such notable inmates as Al Capone and "Slick" Willie Sutton before closing for good in 1971. Today, Eastern State is preserved as a historic ruin in the heart of Philadelphia. Years of abandonment left it in poor condition; collapsed roofs, cells overgrown with trees, and eerie remnants of lives spent locked away from society.

For Obscura Day, Eastern State is proud to open up some areas normally closed to the public. Climb the steps to the central guard tower, enter into deteriorated cellblocks, and venture down long-forgotten alleys to explore this remarkable building.

Explore Philadelphia's Magic Gardens folk art environment and gallery space, showcasing the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar.

Located at the site of Zagar's largest public mosaic installation, the Magic Gardens includes a fully mosaiced indoor gallery and a massive outdoor labyrinthine mosaic sculpture. The installation, primarily consisting of found objects and contributions from the community, covers half a city block with myriads of tile, texture, and color. A walk through the labyrinth will reveal sculptures from Latin America and Asia, bicycle wheels from local South Street shop Via Bicycles, Zagar's hand-made tiles, and mirrors of every shape and size. Along with touring the site, Obscura Day visitors will be granted access to Zagar's private studio, where they will be able to witness the mosaic making process first hand and explore fully embellished spaces never shared with the public.

Details:

• The gardens will be open for Obscura Day from 11am-8pm, with special tours at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm.

Join Context Travel for a before-hours visit to the Rosenbach Museum & Library to explore the special exhibition “An Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris”.

Led by the exhibition curator, we will learn how Paris inspired the great Irish writer, and how, in turn, he influenced the cosmopolitan avant-garde of the Left Bank. Examining objects such as pages from Joyce’s manuscript to Ulysses, Man Ray’s iconic photographic portrait of the writer, selections from Ezra Pound’s Islands of Paris report in The Dial, and a first edition of Ulysses smuggled out of Paris and into the United States for Dr. Rosenbach in 1922, our docent will set the stage for this journey into the world and cultural mindset of early 20th century Paris.

To gain a deeper understanding of James Joyce’s life and work, we will round out the experience with a close-up look at a selection of pieces from the Rosenbach’s rich holdings related to the author brought out from storage especially for our visit.

The Rosenbach Museum & Library is home to extraordinary collections of rare books, manuscripts, antiques, and fine art begun by the Rosenbach Brothers in the early 20th century. Highlights of the collections include the only surviving copy of Benjamin Franklin’s first Poor Richard Almanac, the original artwork for Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, Lewis Carroll’s own copy of the 1865 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and a manuscript of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Walking Tours for the Intellectually Curious

Context Travel is a network of scholars and specialists—in disciplines including archaeology, art history, cuisine, urban planning, history, environmental science, and classics—who, in addition to our normal work as professors and researchers, design and lead in-depth walking seminars for small groups of intellectually curious travelers.

Details:

• This event is limited to just 10 people
• Ages 12 and up

Join Atlas Obscura at the Mütter Museum after hours for complimentary Hendrick's Gin drinks, a class on body modification and a private viewing of the Mutters incomparable collection of curious medical anomalies and human anatomy.

The museum will be specially opening its doors for Atlas Obscura from 7 to 10pm offering Obscura Day visitors a chance to take a class taught by the fantastic Marcy Engleman exploring body modifications from around the world. Foot binding to body piercing, from corsets to neck coils, you will get to see museum objects not normally on display, and learn about the health implications of common body modifications.

Complimentary Hendrick's Gin drinks and appetizers will be served during the class and you will have a chance to wander the museum and explore a wondrous selection of specimens displayed in the same Victorian cabinets that the museum opened with in 1858. From the skeleton of the tallest man in North America to a collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people's throats the exhibits convey a lesser-known side of medical history.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Doors open at 7 and the class begins at 7:30
• Event ends at 10:00pm
• No food or drink in the museum
• No Photography Allowed in the Museum

Enjoy free admission to the world’s only art gallery, museum and theater dedicated exclusively to the art and science of stereo imaging.

Join us at the 3D Center of Art & Photography for a personal tour that includes the history of 3D image making. You’ll also get to see a special showing of some of their very best 3D movie shorts.

The 3D Center is the world’s only art gallery, museum and theater dedicated exclusively to the art and science of stereo imaging.

Portland, Oregon is a 3D “Hot Spot.” View-Master began here in 1939. LAIKA studios – creators of Coraline – is here and so is Image3D, which makes 3D viewers and custom reels. Stereo World magazine calls Portland home and so does several stereo monitor manufacturers. Of course, the coolest thing about this 3D hot spot is the 3D Center.

The 3D Center highlights the past, present and future of 3D image making. We feature the work of hundreds of artists from around the world each year in our gallery, theater and 3D monitors. We also honor the past by displaying cameras, equipment and memorabilia.

For this year’s Obscura Day, come in and tell the person at the admission desk “I’m here to get my 3D on” and you will get in for FREE! You’ll get a personal tour that includes the history of 3D image making. You’ll also get to see a special showing of some of our very best 3D movie shorts.

We will even show you how you can start taking 3D photographs immediately without having to purchase any equipment! We’ll give you a pair of glasses to get you started.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Be sure to tell the admission desk attendant “I’m here to get my 3D on” for FREE Obscura Day admission.

Special access and tour of a functioning nuclear reactor operated by undergraduate students.

Join us for an encore opportunity to take a peek into the glowing wonder of Reed University reactor's core, contemplate the infinitely dynamic nature of energy, learn the history of the word "SCRAM" and generally geek out on a tour usually unavailable to the public!

Housed in a secret location on the campus of Reed College lies the only nuclear reactor operated by undergraduates... none of whom are majoring in nuclear physics!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Please bring your government-issed photo identification.
• Minimum age: 12.
• No photography, please.
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support Reed University or a charity of their choice

Come out to the City Museum for a late-night flashlight tour.

At 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights City Museum will drop the lights and you will be able to explore with flashlights only.

Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects.

City Museum is open until 1am on Friday & Saturday nights.

Details/Special Instructions:

• TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT MUST BE PURCHASED AT THE DOOR - $10 per person
• Admissions purchased after 9pm will receive a free flash light or feel free to bring your own. Flashlights will also be sold in City Museum gift shop.
• Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by and adult 18 or older.

From silca mines to disco hotspot - go underground into the gangster-haunted caves below Wabasha Street.

Explore the original mined and finished caves that have seen numerous uses over the decades. In the 1840s the natural silica was mined from the cave to make glass, in the early 1900s a mushroom farm was established by a French family, in the 70s it was a disco hot spot! Finally today it is a popular event spot said to be haunted by gangsters!

Join Atlas Obscura and the National Parks Service for two exclusive three hour behind-the scenes walking tours of Alcatraz Island, including rarely seen historic buildings and off limit areas.

We'll explore the longest tunnel on the island, as well as see rarely viewed buildings including the gurad's apartments, the firehouse, and the original Civil-War era military fortress at the heart of the island - now referred to as "the dungeon".

Two tours are available limited to 20 people each.

Exact times will be derermined by the upcoming ferry schedule changes. We will notify you by email of the exact times and ferry schedule with your RSVP confirmation.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Tours are three hours long.
• Morning tour begins at approximately 9 am, depending on ferry schedule
• Afternoon tour will begin at approximately 1pm, depending on ferry schedule
• These tours are free, but you must get yourself to the island. Alcatraz ferries cost $26 and depart from Pier 33.
• Wear sturdy shoes.
• Dress in layers for the bay's shifting temperatures.
• Not suitable for children under 10.

Go "behind the scenes" at the SFSU University Museum's Sutro Egyptian Collection to see unusual mummified food, animals, and human remains not normally on public display.

Our new exhibition, featuring 75 years of aerial photography, "Wings over the Pyramids: Will Egypt's Treasures Survive?" will be open. "How to disembowel a mummy," is a hands-on activity for everyone so that you can learn what ancient Egyptian priests did to prepare a corpse for eternity!

The SFSU University Museum is located in the Humanities building, 5th floor, room 500, on the SFSU campus at the corner of Font Blvd. & Tapia Dr.

For the second year in a row the Zymoglyphic Museum opens its doors for Obscura Day.

Join us for a special tour of the world's only repository for the study and display of Zymoglyphic assemblage art, artifacts, and natural history, located in a small private collection in San Mateo. Inspired by cabinets of curiosity of an earlier age, the museum features wonders such as a Self-destroying Automaton, mythological dioramas, and many others. This museum is rarely open to the public.

• The address is 19 Culver Ct., San Mateo and directions can be found here

Come out to Tinkertown on Obscura Day for a special behind the scenes tour of the home and studio of artist Ross Ward.

Explore Tinkertown's museum, constructed from 50,000 glass bottles, filled with 22 rooms of artwork and American ephermera, collected over a lifetime.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Bring a jacket as it is likely to be cold in the mountains.
• Tours on the hour from 11:00am-3:00pm
• Tickets include museum admission plus special tour and refreshments.

Get out your magnifying glasses and slap on your deerstalker caps, the game's afoot! In honor of Obscura Day, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on Seattle's historic waterfront is hosting a self-guided CURIO HUNT.

What you do: print out the Curio Map (which will be provided here as the date approaches) and bring it in to the shop any time during regular store hours on Atlas Obscura Day ONLY. Find the "Atlas Eight" -- curios hand picked for their amusement and oddity -- where they are scattered throughout the shop. Mark down the number displayed with the item. Why? Because it's danged entertaining! And because those who find all eight items will receive (insert drum roll)...

What you get: A full-color, 9" x 26" poster of our very own celebrity mummy, Sylvester!

But wait, there's more! Drop your Curio Map into the box in the back of the store and you'll be entered to win a fetching and highly desirable Ye Olde Curiosity Shop t-shirt in the size of your choice.

So meander amongst the mummies, stroll around the shrunken heads, peer at pictures painted on the heads of pins... in our 112 years in business, we've been able to gather a lot of oddities, indeed!

Join Bess Lovejoy of the Afterlives blog and the Market Ghost Tour for an evening exploration of Seattle's haunted history.

Explore the Pike Place Market on this 75 minute tour through the district. Every city has its share of ghost stories. Seattle is unique because it went through major topographical change spanning 30 years after the Great fire in 1889. More earth was moved in the Regrade than in the digging of the Panama Canal. Some believe that it is the movement of earth, roads, structures, and graves that create Seattle's many stories. The Pike Place Market has been voted the most haunted location in the northwest. Learn why by joining us on this night time tour.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Tour begins at 7 pm
• 1410 Lower Post Alley Below the Gum Wall 206-805-0195
• Tickets are $15
• Tickets must be purchased here: Tickets for the Market Ghost Tour

Come out and explore an eccentric folk art landmark constructed out of trash.

On Atlas Obscura Day, come to Bottle Village for an impromptu art gathering for the community and families! There will be tours of the bottle wonderland, with a special tour guide dressed as Grandma Prisbrey (in her real clothes!) and there will be different art projects for children and families, related to Bottle Village. Tour the beautiful landmark and make mosaics to take home!

Tressa "Grandma" Prisbrey was almost 60 years old when she began building the Bottle Village in 1956. The eccentric 1/3-acre lot in Simi Valley, CA is littered with sculptures and buildings built almost entirely out of discarded bottles and trash collected from the local landfill. Prisbrey worked on the "village" for 25 years, well into her 80s, making new buildings to house her ever growing collection of art along the way. Thirteen buildings and 20 sculptures later, the Bottle Village is now a historic folk art landmark. Though Prisbrey died in 1988 and the village was badly damaged in a 1994 earthquake, much of it is still intact.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Wear sneakers and sunscreen
• All proceeds from Obscura Day ticket sales for this event will go to support the Bottle Village or a charity of their choice

Join North Carolina artist Mary Paulsen on a tour of her amazing folk art gallery and baby doll museum!

Explore an incredible village of large scale doll houses (some made completely of bottles) filled with 6,000 dolls, accessible by stairs and elevated walkways, visit Mary’s antique shop and stop in Mary’s gallery, filled with her unique paintings depicting mermaids, fish, flowers, religious images, wedding scenes, and cartoon characters.

Meet this incredible artist who has brought this folk art wonderland to life!

Details/Special Instructions:

• Open all day 9am-9pm
• Wear shoes

Join us on Obscura Day for an unusual look at the largest Catholic church in the United States and North America and one of the ten largest churches in the world.

Tour the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and learn about its history, art and architecture and see why it is said to rival the great sanctuaries of Europe and the world.

In addition to a tour of the Crypt and Great Upper Church, you will be treated to an exclusive tour of the Gallery level which is off-limits to the public. Gain an up close and personal look at the Basilica’s M.P. Mohler Organ and its Incarnation and Redemption Domes and a birds-eye view of the Great Upper Church. Wind through the passageways of the East and West Galleries to view stained glass windows that speak to the history of America and Catholicism.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Tour Times: 10am & 2pm
• Maximum Capacity for each tour: 15
• Free Parking
• Metro Accessible – Red Line - Brookland/CUA Metro

Come explore the eclectic and unusual Mansion on O Street and join a special Obscura Day treasure hunt.

Think with your heart feel with your mind — and have a blast! — as you journey through secret doors searching for "O"bscura treasures found only at The Mansion — from music to above and beyond you will be amazed at what you find.

The house itself boasts "over 100 rooms and 32 secret doors" spread throughout four maze-like floors of what was once four separate houses.

If you are one of the winners from the hunt you will receive a $25.00 gift certificate!

Details/Special Instructions:

• 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Tickets are $15
• Online reservations are required: Reservations for "O"bscura Treasure Hunt
• Address: 2020 O Street Washington, D.C. 20036

Join design east of La Brea, Ford & Ching and GOOD Magazine for an exploration of one of LA's wonderfully eccentric homes.

For 40 years George Ehling has been transforming his Hollywood Hills home into a magic castle. Working completely by hand, George has covered the entire surface of the house in intricate tile mosaics. George will be giving a private tour of this home so design lovers can experience the talent of this modern-day Simon Rodia.

Details/Special Instructions:

• 35 tickets available
• Meet at the GOOD LA Launch Event - Atwater Crossing 3229 Casitas Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90036
• Meet at 1:00pm, depart at 1:30pm, return by 4:00pm
• We will have one van sponsored by Ford & Ching that 15 participants can ride (those who RSVP first get first preference). Everyone else must be prepared to carpool.

Join Matt Novak of the fantastic PaleoFuture blog for an exploration of the origins of the internet.

Come be one of the very first to rediscover the room where the Internet was born. Almost forgotten in history and used for years as an unremarkable classroom at UCLA, it will reopen as a museum this July. Get there first and stand in the very spot that the first modem sent the first message ever, and see photos and documents from those first days of the Internet that have been lost to obscurity for decades.

Brad Fidler, director of the upcoming Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive (known colloquially by its room number, 3420 Boelter Hall), will introduce the history of this revolutionary site and the stories of the people who gave this room its significance. What was the first illegal use of the Internet? Why did everything always crash? Why did the graduate students give everything dirty acronyms, and draw horns on a machine called the Interface Message Processor, or, the (perhaps evil) IMP?

Leonard Kleinrock, the man who is credited with doing the math and running the simulations that made the early Internet possible – and still runs it today – will be on hand to answer questions and tell everyone the story about exactly what it was like to send the first message ever.

You’ll also be encouraged to think why some people think this site is irrelevant, and why others believe it might soon be the most famous place in Los Angeles.

Details/Special Instructions:

• We'll be meeting at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf coffee shop at the corner of Weyburn Ave and Westwood Blvd at 1:15pm, walking to the internet site at 1:30pm.
• The program will last about an hour and a half including time for questions.
• Tickets to this event are free!

Into the Heart of Screenland: An Inexhaustive Investigation of Urban Content

A walking tour of the region around the offices of CLUI:Los Angeles

Take a self-guided walking tour, out the front door of the main office of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, into the surrounding "Heart of Screenland" (Culver City's official motto). Points of interest on the tour include curious and compelling structures and infrastructures, such as gas line explosion sites, television production locations, communication hubs, and unusual public sculpture.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Guided tour pamphlets will be available from the CLUI, starting Saturday, April 9, between the hours of 12 and 5PM.
• Located across from Main Street, Culver City.
• Tickets are free, but donations are encouraged to support the CLUI's work.

A mid-day trek to the historic center of San Francisco.

Once upon a time, Adolf Sutro's grand statue "The Triumph of Light" stood at the Victorian geographic center of San Francisco known as Mout Olympus. The statue, like most of Sutro's collection, has long since disappeared,but on Obscura Day, her memory will be celebrated with snacks and stories.

The plan is simple: for those who make the trek up to the top of Mnt. Olympus there will be juice and homemade cookies. The monument on the hill is gone, but the column is stood on is still there with pretty amazing views.

The statue itself has an odd history of being really famous for a while, then being completely forgotten, then distroyed.

Come out and enjoy the view, get freshly made cookies and then head out for other parts obscure.

Getting there: There are two options:

1. The staircase leading to Upper Terrace from the corner of 17th and Clayton
2. The last intersection you'll pass before heading up the street is Clifford Terrace.

Tickets are not required, but you can RSVP and we'll send you a reminder email.

Come out on Obscura Day to explore the unique and fascinating collection held at the Prelinger Library.

Prelinger Library, a private library in San Francisco's South of Market district, holds a large collection of visually rich, historically significant and amusingly outdated books, periodicals, maps, and print ephemera. Co-Founders Megan and Rick Prelinger will introduce the library and conduct a tour customized to Obscura Day visitors' interests, and show some of the Library's special collections not normally on public display.

Details/Special Instructions:

• 10am to Noon

ADDRESS

Prelinger Library: 301 8th Street (at Folsom)
San Francisco, CA, US

Visit Kenyon College, one of the world’s most beautiful campuses (Forbes, August 2010) on Obscura Day.

From 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m., the Greenslade Special Collections and Archives will be open to visitors. The facility, on the ground floor of Olin Library, is named in memory of Thomas Boardman Greenslade, a 1931 alumnus and longtime Kenyon archivist, and is home to the College's rare books, manuscripts, photographs, art, and College archives.

Among the archival records held in the Greenslade are comprehensive institutional files, dating to Kenyon’s foundation in 1824, as well as significant correspondence with John Crowe Ransom and other editors of the world-renowned Kenyon Review. In addition, Kenyon’s archives preserve the Matriculation Books, holding the signatures of Rutherford B. Hayes, Olof Palme, Paul Newman, Josh Radnor, and Jim Borgman, among others.

Items available to visitors on Obscura Day include:

• Complete illustration by Salvador Dali of Dante's "The Divine Comedy"
• Pottery crafted by the historic Rookwood Pottery Company of Cincinnati Terracotta pottery of the Tiahuanaco culture (ca. 600-1000 CE)
• Illuminated manuscript pages from as early as the 13th century
• A leaf from a first edition of the Gutenberg Bible (1450-1455)
• A Latin first edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
• Several tintypes, an early photographic medium patented in the United States by Kenyon professor Hamilton Smith in 1856
• Presidential autographs
• A sword from the Kenyon Military Academy
• Machine-gun bullets from World War I
• The tobacco jar, Masonic aprons, and china belonging to Kenyon founder Philander Chase
• Inkwells dating from the 1830s through the 1920s
• Historical physics teaching apparatus examples
• Canes and walking sticks dating from 1866 through 1931
• And more...

Details/Special Instructions:

• Open from 2-4pm
• The Special Collections is in Gambier in the basement of Kenyon College's Olin Library (103 College Drive).

Join us for cocktails, stories, and images from San Francisco's lost wonders and obscure history in the ultra-secret former speakeasy hidden below the historic Warfield Theatre.

San Francisco's Warfield Theatre opened in 1922 to host Vaudville shows. During Prohibition, the space under the theatre was converted into an underground secret speakeasy.

To celebrate that awesome history, we will be gathering for complimetary Hendrick's cocktails, a little prohibition-era music, and sharing photos, maps, and stories highlighting San Francisco's other missing wonders, from world's fairs to racetracks and cemeteries to earthquake shacks.

Details/Special Instructions:

• 6-9pm Saturday April 9
• Address: GAFFTA Arts space, in the Basement of the Warfield Theatre, 998 Market St.
• This event is 21+

We would like to extend our thanks to the fabulous Gray Area Foundation for the Arts for sharing their space with us for this Obscura Evening.

Obscura: Magic Show or Good Natured Plot to Steal your Soul?"

Join friend of the Atlas Obscura and award-winning theatrical magician and illusionist Christian Cagigal performs his aptly named “Obscura: A Magic Show” at the EXIT Theatre.

Join magician Cagigal in this intimate, spooky, show as he weaves magic, fairy tales and dark fables into an intimate and engaging evening fraught with wonder, mystery and imagination.

For more information and to see clips from the Web series, visit www.christiancagigal.com.

Details/Special Instructions:

• Saturday, April 9th at 8:00 pm
• Address: EXIT Theatre -156 Eddy Street between Taylor and Mason- 1 1/2 blocks from Powell Station in downtown San Francisco.
• Tickets $15-25, and can be bought online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/130358

Come out and explore the industrial landscape and World Heritage Site at Blaenavon Ironworks.

Blaenaven Ironworks is the best preserved blast furnace complex of its period and type in the world and is one of the most important monuments to have survived from the early part of the industrial revolution. It was at Blaenavon, during the 1870s, that Percy Carlyle Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas discovered a revolutionary method to produce steel, transforming the steel industries of Europe and America.

Today, the site is recognized as a World Heritage Site for its contributions to the Industrial Revolution. It was also the setting of the award-winning BBC television series Coal House.

On Obscura Day, we'll be taking the tour of the Ironworks, seeing the impressively restored Water Balance Tower and for those without claustrophobia issues, taking the tour of the Big Pit nearby. Afterward, we'll be heading to the Riflemans Arms for a meal and a pint. Should be a fun day out!

Details/Special Instructions:

• We'll be exploring from 1-4pm
• Wear sturdy shoes for outdoor adventuring.
• Getting there: 11:30am train from Cardiff to Newport arrives at 11:43. The X24 bus at stand 10 in Newport departs at 12:05 and arrives at approximately 12:55. This bus is every 10 minutes, so a little early or a little late is no big deal. The duration of the journey is about 50 minutes. Tell the driver you're going to the Ironworks and that should be sufficient to get there/be charged the right fare. Timetables