Oddities and Curiosities
A long long time ago in 1797, when the Old State House was brand
new and just opened, a very unusual gentleman named Joseph Steward
asked the governor if he could open a museum of curiosities on the
third floor of the building.
The governor said yes, and Mr. Steward began collecting all kinds
of things for his museum.
When a great trading ship was ready to sail from the Port of Hartford
to some far corner of the world, Mr. Steward would talk to the captain
and his crew and ask them to bring him back some new treasure from
a far off place.
Explorers returning to Hartford from adventures all over North
and South America would return to Hartford with unusual plants,
birds, bugs, masks and other oddities. Sometimes they gave these
to Mr. Steward for his museum.
People right here in Connecticut found interesting things in their
attics and barns, under floors and in old cabinets. They would ask
Mr. Steward if he would like to have them for his museum.
The people who lived in Hartford had never seen anything like Mr.
Steward's museum before!
Back in those days there was no television, no movies, no colored
comic books or magazines. The only way to learn about people and
animals and plants from other places, or to learn about new inventions
or historic relics was to actually see them in a museum like Mr.
Steward's
Can you imagine? Mr. Steward had a two-headed calf in his museum!
And the horn of a unicorn!
 Mr.
Steward's museum was so popular that he charged visitors twenty-five
cents to come look at all of his strange curiosities. That is as
much as it would cost to go to Disney World today!
And, to make matters worse, to get to Mr. Steward's museums, visitors
had to climb three floors all the way to the attic on a narrow outdoor
circular staircase.
Today, when you visit the Old State House in Hartford, you can
see the kinds of things Mr. Steward had in his museum at the Museum
of Oddities and Curiosities. We even have a two-headed calf and
the horn of the unicorn!
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