As a news reporter, I’m pretty fascinated by the weird and wonderful – and sometimes a little bit grisly. So when I heard about the Morbid Anatomy Museum opening in Gowanus last summer, I thought it sounded right up my street. Unfortunately, it failed to satisfy my curiosity – but I’ve decided not to let that put me off sharing the photos I took. (Forgive me?)
Past its domineering black facade, the museum houses a coffee shop on the ground floor and two rooms upstairs – one for exhibiting and another that’s used as a library. The place was far smaller than I imagined, but perhaps with at $8 a ticket, I shouldn’t have expected much more.
I think another issue was that the museum is between bigger exhibits right now, so they’re currently focusing on ‘the process of collecting’… which sounded to me like a fancy way of saying ‘we threw loads of random stuff in a room and called it an exhibition’.
Anyway. Let’s get on with the charming photos.
First up, there were these lovely taxidermy scenes.







Yes – smoking chipmunks, drunk squirrels and these very precious reactions from me and Meghan (who will never forgive me for taking her as my date):

There were plenty of other dead things tucked away in the library room, which was actually a pretty creative, interesting space.







Annoyingly, there were no descriptions of what things were beside them on the walls. When we walked in, we were given packet of papers describing each item, so we spent most of our time flicking through the pages trying to figure out what on earth we were looking at.
Still, my favorite was this – a neck tattoo in a jar. A guy, who was upset that the tattooist had confused the colors of the stripes, cut it out of his own neck and later gifted it back to a tattoo parlor. Oh and yes, he lived.





After taking in collections of teeth and a particularly horrifying set of lamps made out of chimpanzee arms, we headed downstairs and looked in shock as people drank coffee and ate cake surrounded by body parts and stuffed animals. We decided we didn’t want to hang around.


I love the idea of exhibiting memoriam mori and looking at how other cultures and eras mark death and study the human body. This mix of science and history fascinates me. But this museum failed to reach its potential because it didn’t seem to follow a theme. It was so teeny tiny, and there really wasn’t that much on show. I left disappointed.
That said, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt because I know they’re between exhibitions (the next one focuses on magic), so I’d go back before I really write it off.
Most of all, I didn’t leave as terrified as I’d hoped. Ah well, next time!

The Morbid Anatomy Museum is on 3rd Avenue and 7th Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn. You can visit the coffee shop or the museum, and they also have some pretty snazzy looking classes and presentations, from guinea pig taxidermy to one-man theater performances. More info on their calendar and more info about the museum on their website. It costs $8 but there’s also a Groupon ($11 for two tickets) here.
So weird!! An exhibition on magic sounds intriguing, though — maybe I’ll try to visit when it’s there!
Haha it was the strangest place ever. Their magic exhibit starts on April 11 and runs through to the start of next year, so you have plenty of time to muster some courage!
Don’t think I will be adding this one to my list of places to visit!
But why on earth wouldn’t you want to see a fairground scene featuring dead chipmunks… :-/
I love all of the pictures!
Melanie @ meandmr.com
Haha, it was definitely unlike anywhere else I’ve been before in NYC!
Those chipmunks!!! Ahh, so cute! Even though the museum sounded a bit of a disappointment, the coffee shop and library are super cute! I would definitely get my joe there if I lived in the hood!:-)
Haha, I love it how you’ve seen the cuteness, rather than the grimness! And yes, the coffee shop was huge, and lovely and airy… I’m just not sure how comfortable I felt with the stuffed chipmunks looking down at me 😉
Squirrel!!!
Oh, now I must check this place out, but wait until they have a real exhibit set up. Love the creepy stuff!
Yeah, I’m not letting this one visit put me off… I think the weird/wonderful stuff is too good to miss!
Sort of an odd place I think. Here is a link to a history and photo book which might be a bit more interesting and sort of weird. You may have seen it.
Wisconsin Death Trip Paperback – January 1, 2000
by Michael Lesy (Author), Charles Van Schaik (Photographer), Warren Susman (Preface)
Oh wow, that does look like an interesting one. Thanks for the suggestion.
HAHA! I love your expression reflected in the glass! Great pictures, I’ve been meaning to check out this museum, I may still even though you were underwhelmed!
This museum had an event where they taught participants to taxidermy a mouse. And you got to take the finished product home. Maybe that would terrify you as much as you hoped!
Haha, maybe… ideas for next year’s Christmas presents, perhaps?
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