Most museums display no more than 10 percent of their holdings, often citing \u201cnot enough space\u201d as the reason. But there are also a wide range of cultural, philosophical, political, environmental, historic, and even superstitious reasons why museums keep some objects from public view. <\/p>\n
In this talk, explore a wide range of hidden objects found in the back rooms of museums in our state and around the country. Examples include a Spokane institution that holds Bing Crosby\u2019s toup\u00e9es and a museum in Lynden that\u2019s home to a 150-year-old pickle. When possible, we will have local museum curators on hand to answer questions, participate in our discussions, and unbox a few hidden treasures.<\/p>\n
Harriet Baskas (she\/her) is the author of nine books, including 111 Places in Seattle That You Must Not Miss and Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can\u2019t or Won\u2019t Show You<\/i>. She writes about airports, museums, travel, and a variety of other topics for outlets such as NBC News<\/i>, The Points Guy<\/i>, and her own site, StuckatTheAirport.com. She produced a radio series on hidden museum artifacts that aired on National Public Radio. Baskas has a master\u2019s in communications from the University of Washington.<\/p>\n
Baskas lives in Seattle.<\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"in-person-wonderful-weird-and-worrisome-objects-in-washington-state-museums-32","image":false,"all_day":false,"start_date":"2025-09-30 19:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"09","day":"30","hour":"19","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2025-09-30 19:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"09","day":"30","hour":"19","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":null,"utc_start_date_details":{"year":"1970","month":"01","day":"01","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":null,"utc_end_date_details":{"year":"1970","month":"01","day":"01","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"America\/Los_Angeles","timezone_abbr":"","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"","currency_code":"","currency_position":"","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Culture","slug":"culture","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":975,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":173,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","id":975,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/975","collection":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":53150,"author":"1","status":"publish","date":"2025-07-22 19:00:39","date_utc":"2025-07-23 02:00:39","modified":"2025-07-22 19:00:39","modified_utc":"2025-07-23 02:00:39","url":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/venue\/odessa-public-library-3\/","venue":"Odessa Public Library","slug":"odessa-public-library-3","address":"21 E. First Ave.","city":"Odessa","country":"United States","state":"WA","zip":"99159","json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"Odessa Public Library","description":"","url":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/venue\/odessa-public-library-3\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"21 E. First Ave.","addressLocality":"Odessa","addressRegion":"WA","postalCode":"99159","addressCountry":"United States"},"telephone":"","sameAs":""},"show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"global_id":"www.humanities.org?id=53150","global_id_lineage":["www.humanities.org?id=53150"]},"organizer":[],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"IN PERSON: Wonderful, Weird, and Worrisome Objects in Washington State Museums","description":"<p>Most museums display no more than 10 percent of their holdings, often citing \u201cnot enough space\u201d as the reason. But there are also a wide range of cultural, philosophical, political,...<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/event\/in-person-wonderful-weird-and-worrisome-objects-in-washington-state-museums-32\/","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2025-09-30T19:00:00-07:00","endDate":"2025-09-30T19:00:00-07:00","location":{"@type":"Place","name":"Odessa Public Library","description":"","url":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/venue\/odessa-public-library-3\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"21 E. First Ave.","addressLocality":"Odessa","addressRegion":"WA","postalCode":"99159","addressCountry":"United States"},"telephone":"","sameAs":""},"performer":"Organization"},"is_virtual":false,"virtual_url":null,"virtual_video_source":""}