Most museums are used to dealing with a few strange objects, but there are some items with such dark histories that even the museum workers are afraid.
Trouble in the drawers
There’s an item owned by the Kentucky Historical Society, and it’s called the Conjured Chest. Yes, it’s as creepy as it sounds. The object has existed since around 1830, and the historical records state that a man named Remus created it. He was an enslaved craftsman.
He supposedly made the chest for its owner, who then beat Remus to death. Then, other slaves cursed the chest using owl blood, leading to its dark history. It has been allegedly responsible for as many as 18 deaths. It appears that even the KHS is afraid of it, as it received the chest in 1976, but has deliberately left it in storage ever since.
One piece nobody names
The Kentucky Historical Society has some more strange objects, although they’ve kept pretty quiet on what exactly some of them are. All the KHS has said is that one of the objects is somehow connected to the Civil War and a particularly gruesome death. But that’s it.
Yes, the KHS has been silent on it ever since and has shared very few details about it. Staff members have said that supposedly haunted or cursed pieces tend to stay deep in storage. In other words, it’s an object with such a dark curse that the workers are scared to even mention it by name. How terrifying.
The painting that stayed in back
In 1972, artist Bill Stoneham created the painting The Hands Resist Him. It was sold on eBay in 2000 with a description claiming that the piece was haunted, and that the children in the painting moved at night. They allegedly disappeared from the canvas sometimes, too. Kim Smith, owner of the Perception Gallery in Michigan, bought it for $1,025.
It has occasionally appeared in public, but those appearances have been pretty rare. It’s normally far away from the main gallery area because, well, it has that dark of a reputation. Stoneham claims it’s not haunted, though.
Better left where it is
The problem with the Warrington cursed head had more to do with moving it than displaying it. The piece is currently at the Warrington Museum & Art Gallery in England, and it has a long history of allegedly causing bad luck. For one, people who have tried to move it have broken their legs. Others suffered accidents and other unpleasant coincidences.
It got to the point that, during renovations in 2010, employees were too scared to move it. They actually had to get Buddhist help beforehand, just to help them do it. The head hasn’t vanished from display, as you can see it inside a glass cabinet. But don’t be surprised if the staff take it down again.
Nobody volunteers to carry Amelia
Amelia the doll is a cursed object that does sometimes make an appearance, although her cursed reputation means that it’s only for special occasions. The doll is around 120 years old and belongs to Riverton Museum in Wyoming. It has oilcloth skin, real human hair, and a face that really does look quite chilling.
Reports claim that a former museum director once heard a child screaming upstairs while they were working with Amelia downstairs. But nobody else was there. Employees have also said they’ve seen a ghost cat nearby. All of these stories are the reason why Amelia normally stays in basement storage, although she does sometimes come out for special ghost-themed events.
Some things stay in the vault
You wouldn’t expect a museum full of haunted objects to hide any of its pieces. But that’s exactly what happened to some of the items at Gettysburg’s Museum of Haunted Objects. Yes, staff have said they’ve had to handle certain pieces very carefully due to unexplained activity. Some pieces have to be rotated between rooms.
Some are never put on public display because staff genuinely believe these pieces react badly around other items. Take one of the Indonesian dolls, for example. Rumor has it that they have to use darkness, salt, and holy water just to handle it.
Mandy gets her own space
Mandy the doll arrived at the Quesnel Museum, British Columbia, in 1991. She didn’t come peacefully. Staff took photographs of her, and when they returned the following morning, the lab had been disturbed. It was almost as though a child had been playing in there. As you might’ve guessed, there were no children in there, just Mandy the doll.
The story only gets creepier, since there was a stuffed lamb inside Mandy’s locked case. It somehow appeared outside the case. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the museum workers moved her to a different space, away from the other dolls and by herself. They did eventually move her back for public display.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
15 forbidden traditions that were practiced in secret for centuries
History is full of traditions that authorities tried to erase, only for people to continue them behind closed doors, in remote places, or disguised as something else.
15 forbidden traditions that were practiced in secret for centuries
