Rooms designed to house collections of various objects, typically fossils, botanical rarities, shells, taxidermy, horns, tusks, skeletons, minerals, small artworks such as medallions and statuettes, and other items that often had been collected during exploring and trading voyages. Items were typically arranged in cabinets as well as on the walls and ceilings. Popular in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, cabinets of curiosities focused on the strange and unusual, and have been described as the forerunner to the natural history museum and other modern museums.
