The Astonishingly Fantastical Menagerie of Collections

Watch The Astonishingly Fantastical Menagerie of Collections

  • 2018
  • 1 Season

The Astonishingly Fantastical Menagerie of Collections is a show from Great Big Story that features a collection of bizarre, fascinating, and unusual objects. The show takes audiences on a journey into the bizarre and fantastic world of collectors and their obsessions.

Each episode presents a different collection of objects and explores the stories and personalities behind them. Some of the collections are vast, others are small, but all of them have their own unique stories.

The first episode of the show takes a look at a man who has spent his life collecting all things related to death. His collection includes everything from embalming tools to antique hearses.

Another episode features a collector who has amassed an impressive collection of vintage electronics, including antique radios, televisions, and computers. His love for old technology has led him to create his own museum, showcasing some of the most iconic gadgets and devices of the past.

Other collector's include a man who has a fascination with giant statues, a woman who collects taxidermy animals, and a couple who dedicate their lives to collecting vintage cars.

Each episode is shot in a unique and visually stunning way and the show's host takes viewers on a journey into these bizarre worlds. The show also features interviews with the collectors themselves, who share their stories, their passions, and their motivations for collecting.

One of the show's strengths is its ability to present the collectors and their collections in a non-judgmental way. It's clear that the show's creators have a lot of respect for the people they are featuring, and they allow them to tell their own stories in their own way.

Another strength of the show is the way in which it highlights the artistry and craftsmanship of these objects. While some of the collections may seem strange or even macabre, the care and attention to detail that has gone into creating them is nothing short of remarkable.

Overall, The Astonishingly Fantastical Menagerie of Collections is a fascinating, quirky, and visually stunning show that provides viewers with a unique window into the world of collectors and their obsessions. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just someone with a passing interest in the weird and wonderful, this show is sure to delight and entertain.

Filter by Source
No sources available
Seasons
The Scent of History: Inside the Library of Smells
8. The Scent of History: Inside the Library of Smells
July 30, 2018
Sissel Tolaas is many things: an artist, a scientist and-perhaps most importantly-a smell expert. She's dedicated much of her life to capturing and re-creating smells from places, events and even broad historical periods. Using hundreds of chemical compounds, Tolaas has amassed a library of thousands of smells to challenge how we perceive the documentation of our lived experiences.
Civil War Tails: 5,000 Mini Cats Recreate American History
7. Civil War Tails: 5,000 Mini Cats Recreate American History
July 30, 2018
Rebecca and Ruth Brown are twin sisters who run a museum about the Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The twist? Their scale model dioramas are filled with thousands of miniature cats depicting key moments from the war. That's right: tiny cat soldiers. You have to see it to believe it.
Play With Every Toy From Your Childhood at This Museum
6. Play With Every Toy From Your Childhood at This Museum
July 30, 2018
Get ready for nostalgia overdrive: the Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y. has every toy from your childhood and then some. At the "Museum of Play" you'll find a colorful collection of more than 500,000 objects representing the history of toys and games in the United States. From board games to videos games to yo-yos and more-if you can play with it, you'll find it here.
There's Something for Everyone at the World's Largest Library
5. There's Something for Everyone at the World's Largest Library
July 30, 2018
With over 160 million items, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. But this impressive collection features more than books. Catalogued within the library's dozens of special collections are rare manuscripts, maps, photographs, sheet music and even artwork.
Step Into This Soviet Arcade Time Machine
4. Step Into This Soviet Arcade Time Machine
July 30, 2018
While American teens in the '80s were obsessing over Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, their Soviet counterparts were playing arcade games meant to prepare them for war. Video games weren't easily accessible, so the government fashioned them from refrigerators and calculators. St. Petersburg resident Alexander Stakhanov remembers those games fondly, so he opened the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines.
A Vault of Color: Protecting the World's Rarest Pigments
3. A Vault of Color: Protecting the World's Rarest Pigments
July 30, 2018
The materials collection, at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, MA, houses thousands of pigments, including some of the world's rarest. Dragon's blood, mummy, Indian yellow: these are but a few flashy highlights from the museum's vast collection.
Brain Freeze: Welcome to the Country's Largest Brain Collection
2. Brain Freeze: Welcome to the Country's Largest Brain Collection
July 30, 2018
The Harvard Brain Bank is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the country. With over 5,000 brains, the facility provides an incredibly important resource for researchers seeking creative solutions for brain disorders, as well as a better understanding of how the mind works.
Collecting the World: Inside the Smithsonian
1. Collecting the World: Inside the Smithsonian
July 30, 2018
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has over 144 million different objects in its collections. A sample of these collections are on display to the public, but 99 percent of the Smithsonian's treasures remain behind the scenes. Scientists work with these objects to study and decipher the world we live in, each specimen offering its own tiny clue to the natural world.
Description
  • Premiere Date
    July 30, 2018