Greek Coins at the San Antonio Museum of Art

In addition to the greatest hits of culture and history, museums house tons of hidden gems that often get unnoticed. Inspired past a recent Twitter challenge from the Yorkshire Museum — which requested that institutions share the creepiest objects in their possession — we asked half dozen local museums to show off the strangest and compelling pieces from their collections.

Cat Mummy, San Antonio Museum of Art
Egyptian, Roman period, 30 B.C.–395 A.D., Cat remains, linen, pigment, 20 x 7 in. (l.8 × 17.eight cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Gilbert Thou. Denman, Jr., 91.fourscore.206

Many people know that Ancient Egyptians mummified animals, but the San Antonio Museum of Art has a particularly interesting feline mummy in its collection.

"Ancient Egyptians not simply mummified people, but also animals, specially during later periods of Egyptian history. Although many mummies of mammals, birds, and reptiles were mass produced, new enquiry suggests that some of the animals were mummified with the same elaborate care given to humans," says Jessica Powers, SAMA's curator for ancient Mediterranean art.

"With restoration, nosotros discovered that the mummified cat in our drove has a cherry-red wrapping over its caput, which is very unusual for an animal. Scarlet wrappings were typically found on mummies of priests. The museum'due south cat mummy had a rough two,000 years, simply with restoration, it is now looking more like information technology did when it was entombed. Nosotros also determined that the cat was an orange tabby because some of his fur remained!"

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Courtesy of Institute of Texan Cultures

Castroville'south Horse-Drawn Hearse, Institute of Texan Cultures
Made in 1898 past the Sayer & Scovill Co. of Cincinnati, OH.

The Plant of Texan Cultures has a fascinating artifact from Texas' funerary history: a horse-drawn hearse that was used in the town of Castroville from 1919 until effectually 1930. The secondhand hearse was driven by August L. Tschirhart, who would charge $five per funeral.

That's interesting enough on its own, simply information technology turns out the hearse may likewise be haunted. James Benavides, the institute's senior communications specialist, shared one spooky story with the Current.

"And then, 1 nighttime, a guard was on duty, making his regular rounds. When he gets to the exhibit floor, he finds the hearse doors open up," Benavides said. "He idea some of the senior officers were playing a joke on him, so he closes the doors and goes about his business organisation.

"Coming upward on the end of his dark shift, he'southward making his last sweep of the exhibit flooring and he finds the hearse doors open once more. He laughs to himself, then realizes, he was the only person in the edifice."

Benavides connected: "The doors don't open easily; they take two hands to work a latch and pull open. But stories persist, that from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, the guards will observe the hearse doors open."

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Courtesy of McNay Art Museum

Jean Tinguely and Eva Aeppli'due south Kerzenstock mit Maske (Candlestick with Mask) (ca. 1991), McNay Art Museum
Iron and bronze, wax candle, with gouache on papier mâché and ribbon. Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Jeanne and Irving Mathews Collection.

The McNay's collection features a lot of challenging modern fine art, just staff say this piece past Jean Tinguely and Eva Aeppli, which recently went on display, is capable of startling in a more visceral way.

The sculpture was fabricated as part of a series by Surrealist artists Jean Tinguely and Eva Aeppli, before long earlier Tinguely'due south decease in 1991, according to the McNay.

"It is a reflection of the artist's subsequently preoccupation with mortality and combines both artist's styles and preferred media (Tinguely typically worked with metals and kinetic materials; Eva frequently implemented fiber, masks, and other tactile media in her work)," the museum wrote.

"The sculpture only recently went on view upstairs in the McNay mansion and is the first 3D object past the artist in the Drove. Even so, information technology tin notwithstanding make y'all jump upon entering the gallery!"

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Courtesy of Briscoe Western Fine art Museum

Andy Warhol's Geronimo (ca. 1986), Briscoe Western Art Museum
Screen-impress on Lenox museum board, Briscoe Western Art Museum Collection, Gift of the Jack and Valerie Guenther Foundation.

You know who in town has an Andy Warhol on manus? Bet your first estimate wasn't the Briscoe Western Art Museum, whose collection includes a screenprint by the pop artist based on an iconic paradigm of Geronimo.

The print is part of Warhol'south larger "Cowboys and Indians" serial.
"Warhol includes celebrities such equally John Wayne and Annie Oakley likewise as historical figures like George Armstrong Custer and this epitome of Geronimo," the museum told the Electric current.

"Warhol's putting these figures in conversation with each other is quite interesting, particularly when you notice that it is only the epitome of Geronimo (taken from an original photograph by Ben Wittick) that looks back, directly at the viewer."

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Courtesy of San Antonio Museum of Art

Tetradrachm of Nero and Poppaea, San Antonio Museum of Fine art
Roman, A.D. 64–65, Billon, diam. 2.v cm, San Antonio Museum of Art, souvenir of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., 91.111.30.

At that place are enough of aboriginal coins in SAMA's collection, but this one has a notable pedigree.

"This Roman coin from Alexandria, Egypt, bears a portrait of the emperor Nero on 1 side and his wife Poppaea on the other side. It's fabricated of billon, a mixture of valuable silver with much cheaper copper or copper alloy," said Lynley McAlpine, a postdoctoral curatorial fellow at the museum.

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Courtesy of San Antonio Museum of Art

"The coin itself is not that unusual but its history is special. This aboriginal coin was previously in the collection of the historian Henry Adams, who was the grandson of President John Quincy Adams, and the great-grandson of President John Adams.

"The Adams family coin drove was started by John Adams, added to by John Quincy Adams, and passed down to Henry Adams — simply we don't know exactly who added this item coin to the collection. Henry Adams donated the entire drove to the Massachusetts Historical Guild in 1913.

"In the 1970s, when the Massachusetts Historical Society wanted to make microfilm copies of the Adams family papers, they sold the coin collection to heighten coin for that project. Somewhen it made its style to San Antonio, and it's the only object from the Ancient Mediterranean collection that we know once belonged to a family of U.S. presidents."

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Courtesy of Briscoe Western Art Museum

William "Wild Pecker" Hickman'southward Filly Pistol, Briscoe Western Art Museum
Colt Firearms Mfg., "1851 Colt Navy, belonging to William "Wild Pecker" Hickman" (n.d.), Fe and forest, Courtesy of the Red McCombs Collection.

The Briscoe also has a pistol with some serious history currently on loan.

"This revolver is not remarkable in and of itself," the museum noted. "It was the weapon of choice for individuals like 'Wild Bill' Hickok, 'Doctor' Holliday, and 'Jack' Hays."

"This weapon is interesting because information technology belonged to a member of a group known as 'The Danites.' William Hickman (also called, but non to be dislocated with the other Wild Bill) was a member of this group and rode with Porter Rockwell. Rockwell, considered a modernistic-day Sampson, was (with Hickman) a personal babysitter to the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, who told him that if he never cut his hair he could not be killed past an enemy; Rockwell wore his hair and beard long throughout his life.

"Hickman and Rockwell led the party that burned the original Fort Bridger during the Utah State of war. He was excommunicated from the church in 1868."

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