Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
100 year old purveyor of curiosities, curios, and kitch featuring mummies, shrunken heads and a Fiji Mermaid
Category Unique Collections, Mummies, Purveyors of Curiosities
A lifelong passion for curiosities was inspired by winning the book "Wonders of Nature" in 3rd grade for having the neatest desk. Joseph Standley (1854-1940) became an avid collector of Indian and Eskimo artifacts, as well as natural curiosities. He opened Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in 1899 to house the many unusual artifacts that he had collected.
Though it's changed locations a few times, the century-old shop and much of the original collection remains today, passed down through four generations. Among its many wonders, the collection includes a large display of shrunken heads, a three-tusked walrus skull, a working Merry-go-round organ, a narwhal horn, and a pair of famous mummies.
Much of the modern store is taken up by trinkets and souvenir items of varying authenticity (Seattle fridge magnets are side by side with mounted insect specimens and hand carved Native American art), but the walls and display cases are covered in the original curiosities that made the store famous.
Medical Ed is a preserved cadaver ead which served as a dissection aid for medical students in the early 900's. His face and skull have been divided and hinged to open on tiny brass pins, and his skull pops open from the top. A small collection of mechanical toys and sideshow contraptions are scattered around the store, many of them still coin operated. The most famous of these is an one-armed old slot machine named "Black Bart" which was at one time removed from the store on suspicion of being a functioning gambling machine. He has since been restored to his place of honor.
The two most famous items in the collection are Sylvester and Sylvia, the resident mummies. Propped up in glass cases at the back of the shop next to cases showing Ecuadorian shrunken heads (which may or may not be made of monkeys) and WWII ration booklets, the two have a mysterious past.
Sylvia is believed to have been a Spanish immigrant to Central America, where she succumbed to Tuberculosis at around the age of thirty. She was buried and naturally mummified, now weighing in at only twenty pounds.
Sylvester was long thought to be a cowboy or highwayman of some sort, and was displayed at both the 1909 Seattle Alaska Yukon Exposition and the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific Expoition, as well as sideshows and carnivals. Between 2001-2005 he was subjected to modern forensics in an attempt to figure out just who he was, but they came out with more questions than answers. The most intriguing thing may be the shotgun pellets embedded in his head, which you can see if you look at his mummy. Apparently were not what killed him, as they had time to heal over, leaving his actual cause of death as much a mystery as his identity.
Near the front of the shop, hanging from the rafters is a blackened and grimacing Fiji Mermaid. No one seems to know the provenance of this particular item, although the original proprietor told colorful stories about it being shot "off the shores of Duckabush" by a local fisherman.
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- Hours Hours of Operation: Open daily. The shop has rotating seasonal hours, and is always open 10 am - 6 pm, with earlier and later hours in the summer.
- Address 1001 Alaskan Way, Seattle, Washington, 98104, United States
- Cost Free
- <cite>Ye Olde Curiosity Shop Presents: A curious Alphabet</cite>, 2006, printed by Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Seattle
- <Cite>1001 Curious Things: Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and Native American Art</cite>, Kate Duncan, 2001 University of Washington Press
- http://www.yeoldecuriosityshop.com/index.html
- http://www.yeoldecuriosityshop.com/pages/bookReview.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Curiosity_Shop
The current shop is easy to spot on Pier 54
Comments
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Anonymous
March 9, 2010
I love this place! I try to make it a habit to always stop by while in Seattle.
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