But I’m not so sure about some museums, after our trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. We wanted Isaiah to get to see the dinosaur exhibit, which was not really creepy. Most of the dinosaurs were posed eating other dinosaurs, but since they were just bones, it wasn’t too traumatizing. Even the skeletal fish were chasing down other skeletal fish, but I could deal.
However, when we got to the stuffed wildlife exhibits, the fascination with blood and gore was overwhelming. Every furry beast was devouring a replica of another furry beast, complete with fake blood smeared on their whiskers. Even the elk were fighting in a display of male dominance and leaving traces of blood on the grass around them.
The most disturbing, by far, was the Arab on his camel. Laying at the camel’s feet was a dead female lion, her tongue hanging out, while the Arab was poised to plunge his knife into the male lions chest. The camel was perpetually poised in a silent scream of pain as the lion’s claws raked a bloody path down his leg. Yes, disturbing.
Once we made it through the horror that is the animal kingdom, we walked through a long hall lined with stuffed birds. This wasn’t so traumatizing and Leah thoroughly enjoyed it, screaming out, “BIG!” (her word for bird) every few minutes.
The last floor held the Polar World, Ancient Egypt and American Indian exhibits. Thankfully there were no stuffed people (unless you count mummies), but there were plenty of plaster statues of ancient civilizations going about their household chores. This was kind of creepy too. Fake people. Weird.
So I pondered my discovery of the creepiness of museums. I don’t think it’s just the Natural History museum in Pittsburgh. As I remember, the Smithsonian Natural History museum had a creepy undertone. It is the voyeuristic quality of it all. We pay money to go peer at stuffed animals and not-stuffed people going about their daily activities, fighting for survival, etc.
But hey, would I go again? Probably!
