The Museum of Interesting Things is perhaps New York City’s most aptly named museum. I recently met owner, Denny Daniel, at the Obscura Antiques farewell party on the Lower East Side. Our conversation led to an invitation, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see his collection of interesting things.
The museum is not your ordinary museum. There is no membership. No gift shop. No headsets with audio tours. There’s just Denny, his wealth of encyclopedic knowledge, and several thousand things filling the room. I found myself staring in all directions, finding one odd, curious, and amazing thing after another, sometimes piled on top of each other.
Denny took me through a few highlights, including an early twentieth-century Mutoscope showing Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon. I inserted a quarter, turned the crank, and the device lit up and flipped through the silent scenes.
Naturally, I had a few questions about this place.
How long have you been collecting? And what sparked your interest?
I’ve been collecting my whole life. It started with me liking history, learning new things, patterns, and interesting things of course! When I was a kid I liked kid things like Spiderman comics, Beatles records and even old batteries and stuff like that. At NYU I studied history and literature and the professors there inspired me so much that by the time I graduated I had over 200 antique books!
When did the museum officially open?
The museum started off as part of birthday parties that people threw in my place fourteen years ago. Twelve years ago I tried to make it something that traveled to schools and libraries and events to teach history and the history of invention by bringing actual historical items and letting people touch them and learn from them. I went to my elementary school in Queens, New York, and newspapers that said they would not even show up gave me front page articles and the kids went wild over it. About five years ago we started the Secret Speakeasy as a benefit for the museum to get items and have a place once a month the general public (all ages) could see the items, watch 16mm vintage films and hear vinyl records and enjoy and learn. Then three years ago I opened my space in the Village for private tours.
Describe the different kinds of events you do and what happens at them. What kinds of reactions do you get?
So I like to say we have three flavors, 1. The museum travels to you, i.e. a school, library, private party or event. There are many themes like invention, photography/film/3D, music, quack medical, math, computers and more. 2. The Secret Speakeasy which has a different theme each month and I show 16mm films, exhibit antiques, DJ vinyl records and open new acquisitions. 3. I opened my space in the Village by appointment and people get a private demo of the items and get to touch nearly everything I show. They get to touch and open a new acquisition, too. From the minute people walk into any show they smile, get curious/inspired and really enjoy and hopefully feel part of the museum family since it is so personal and interactive.
What are some examples of your rarest items? How did you acquire them?
Parts of the Enigma machine, a section of the Transatlantic cable from Tiffany’s, all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books on Spirit photography (first editions), antique camera obscuras, rare 16mm films. I get them from nearly every way you can think of—the Internet of course, donations, stores, friends and fans.
How about a few favorites?
I have favorite items by category. For music it would certainly be the Edison wax cylinder player. For photography, the camera obscura. For film, the Mutoscope, or nickelodeon. For medical, the violet rays. And for Cold War, the thermal nuclear bomb warhead of course, so my show can be the bomb!
What are your plans for the future of the museum?
We would like to make it to more schools/libraries/events all over the country, and have a permanent location in New York.
Visit the Museum of Interesting Things by appointment. Just email or call 212.274.8757 (no text).
