July 3, 2021 11:33 am
The Museum of Death in New Orleans has a tally chart on the wall where workers keep track of the visitors that either vomit or pass out while visiting.
It sounds like a jolly day out, doesn’t it? Imagine if your friend suggested that you head off to the Museum of Death for a day trip. How about a theme park, or even just the pub?
That said, the museum in Louisiana does seem really interesting, and clearly it attempts to take a difference stance on death than we might be used to.
It’s going to happen to us all, after all. Whether we like it or not, we’d better start getting ready.
Inside the museum, you’ll find artefacts from all your favourite murderers – people like John Wayne Gacy – and a number of other macabre things such as ‘Dr Death’ Jack Kevorkian’s euthanasia machine (the ‘Thanatron’), and genuine human bones and taxidermy.
It’s not for the faint of heart, in short.
Obviously, the nature of the museum can prove a little bit too much for some people, and people have been known to vomit or pass out from time to time.
It’s not something that happens all the time, but still.
Scott Healy, the curator of the New Orleans collection, told National Geographic: “People open up, they ask questions. When you walk through and see real things attached to these stories, it becomes personal.”
Too personal for some of them, it would seem.
Despite that, he explained how the museum ends up coming across some of its exhibits.
He said: “The reason [the museum] kind of started was the lack of education of death in our society, the taboo nature, and the inquisitiveness of it.
“We wanted to educate people.
“The sourcing starts out by reaching out to a serial killer and asking them if they’d be interested in donating something, because they can’t profit or sell their stuff.
“Then you start interviewing them. Correspondence will start with the donation and go from there.”
On top of that, they’ll attend police auctions to see if there’s a strange and unusual bargain to be had.
Despite all of the bizarre exhibitions and dark subject matter, the museum is ultimately a place of learning, and even fun.
Healy added: “This is a place where you can be creepy and not be judged for it.”
Good luck to them – we could all do worse than to be a bit more inquisitive about death.
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Categorised in: Bizarre
This post was written by Nadia Vella