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Vice Blog

LONDON - DARWIN'S PIMP CANE & OTHER RANDOM HISTORICAL TIDBITS

This walking stick belonged to Charles Darwin. It's made from whalebone and an ivory-carved skull pommel with emerald eyes. The cane is my favourite random memento of the thousands on display at the Wellcome Collection. Over two floors of well-lit cabinets you'll find eccentric tidbits from human history like: an 800-year-old mummified Peruvian, Aleister Crowley's stash container, a Chinese torture chair, a shrunken head from an Amazonian tribe. It's a bit like rummaging through Indiana Jones' basement.

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Napoleon Bonaparte's silver toothbrush. c.1790


The mummified male body of a Peruvian Indian. c.1200


The sandals of an Holy Fakir in India. c.1870


Florence Nightingale's moccasins. c.1850


Charles Darwin's walking stick. 19th century


Shoes for the bound feet of a Chinese concubine. c.1870


Snuff container made from ram's head and silver. Scottish. c.1880


A toothless, syphilitic skeleton from one of London's buried graves for paupers and prostitutes.


A shrunken head. c.1850


Chastity belt. 19th century.


Really fat guy.

* The Wellcome Collection is opposite Euston Station and it's free to get in.