Cabinet of Curiosities

From time to time in Renaissance Europe, members of the noble classes saw fit to collect objects that couldn't be well categorized at the time. Rooms that contained such objects were known as "cabinets of curiosities" or "cabinets of wonder" in English, or "kunstkammers" or "wunderkammers" (literally "wonder-rooms") in German. You can read more about them here:
Cabinet of curiosities

In modern times, it seems there's little that can fit on a rack or a wall that defies explanation. While unexplained and poorly-categorized things abound, from dark matter to turbulence to primordial black holes, none of these are very amenable to static display. In the 16th and 17th Centuries, by contrast, many kings and nobles kept collections of strange natural and archaeological artifacts (many of them hoaxes) as status symbols as much as sources of wonder or curiosity. It's difficult to imagine today the sense of puzzlement that the discovery of the new continents in America, Australia, and Antarctica caused the Europeans, and how alien our own planet must have seemed.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia article mentions some academic discussion of places on the internet (Youtube, for example) as present-day wunderkammers. The intent of this blog is somewhat aligned with the spirit of the wunderkammer, in the sense that it's a vague collection of interesting things with little connection other than that I found them alluring in some way. Your mileage may vary.

Hat tip to my celebrity crush, Leah Libresco, for introducing me to the concept of the wunderkammer.