THE SECRET MUSEUM
SOME TREASURES ARE TOO PRECIOUS TO DISPLAY...
The Secret Museum is a unique treasure trove of the most intriguing artefacts hidden away in museum archives from all over the world – curated, brought to light, and brought to life by Molly Oldfield in a beautifully illustrated collection.
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Who knows what’s hidden from view? Locked away in cabinets, secure storage and aircraft hangars.
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Most of a museum’s collection never gets seen. It sits in the quiet dark of an archive waiting for a treasure hunter or obsessive researcher to root out its very existence. Under the streets of Manhattan priceless books are shelved; brick outbuildings in London’s East End house drawers of Victorian embroidery remembering foundlings long ago dead; body bags in Washington clothe space suits covered in real moon dust and in an unvisited aircraft hangar sits Auguste Piccard’s extraordinary invention, the balloon gondola…
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This and many other extraordinary inventions, legacies, discoveries and artefacts have been visited and curated by Molly Oldfield into a Secret Museum. Rich in atmosphere and anecdote, suffused with the surprising emotion of a personal discovery, but grounded in fascinating factual detail, this is a unique and beautifully illustrated book.
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The Secret Museum reveals sixty unknown artefacts and stories from all five continents, from Rome to Rio and Boston to Berlin. And like the very best mornings spent at a museum it promises to be idiosyncratic, surprising and enormously good fun.
...or pop out for a walk to your local bookshop and find a copy there!
PRAISE FOR THE SECRET MUSEUM
"Startlingly brilliant … I’ve rarely read a book so fuelled by sheer enthusiasm. It’s all quite delightful, a brilliant idea executed with great charm and unceasing joie de vivre"
DAILY MAIL
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"Oldfield’s genius is to see that museums have more stuff than they can display,
and to persuade curators to show her their buried treasures … her cabinet of curiosities
reflects a very engaging personality"
THE TIMES
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"This gorgeous golden-jacketed book is totally brilliant … It’s one of those rare
solution presents too, great for anyone of any age"
A LITTLE BIRD
A unique tome… beautifully illustrated."
THE SUN
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"A boundlessly fascinating inventory of sixty never-before-seen Treasures too precious to display, culled from the archives and secret storage locations of some of the world's top cultural institutions"
MARIA POPOVA, BRAIN PICKINGS
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"A treasure in itself, Oldfield's book entices readers to discover a wide variety of little-known and rarely seen artefacts that lie hidden away in vaults, warehouses and archives...In her very readable, enthusiastic, and often amusing style, Oldfield describes each discovery in a way that takes it from a formal introduction to an intimate encounter... [her] collection is an absolute must for anyone with a nose for secrets and treasures"
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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BBC LONDON INTERVIEW
Listen here (approx 1hr 9mins in)
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LOOK INSIDE
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