AshleyEBowen's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Williamsburg, Virginia

Eastern State Hospital

America's first public mental health facility.
McLean, Virginia

CIA Museum

A secretive collection featuring objects that were designed specifically for U.S. intelligence operations.
Chicago, Illinois

International Museum of Surgical Science

A monument to the art of slicing people open.
New York, New York

Bellevue Hospital

The name of this famed hospital was once a byword for the horrors of medical and psychiatric care.
Bronx, New York

North Brother Island

Home to the infamous "Typhoid Mary" and the worst loss of life in New York's history prior to September 11, 2001.
New York, New York

Tammany Hall

The notorious headquarters of a corrupt political machine.
New York, New York

Obscura Antiques and Oddities

Tucked in the back of this amazing antique store is an important piece of medical history.
New York, New York

The Sugar House Prison Window

An odd, ancient window that may have once been part of a brutal prison is embedded in the side of New York's Police Plaza.
New York, New York

5 Beekman Street

This beautiful building in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District was empty for decades.
Yarmouth, Massachusetts

The Edward Gorey House

Eclectic collections, artwork, and some feline friends fill the writer's former home.
Boston, Massachusetts

Warren Anatomical Museum

This Boston medical museum features the skull of the famous medical case of Phineas Gage.
St. Gallen, Switzerland

Abbey Library of Saint Gall

This is not only one of the oldest collections in Europe, but also possibly the most beautiful.
Aleutians West, Alaska

Kiska Island

The site of one of Japan's very few American occupations during World War II still holds the relics of a roundly disastrous campaign.
Coquitlam, British Columbia

Riverview Hospital

Historic psychiatric asylum and most-filmed location in the Great White North.
Ariel, Washington

D.B. Cooper Day at the Ariel General Store & Tavern

An annual celebration of the infamous, unsolved skyjacking.
Berlin, Germany

Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum

Home to 10,000 medical specimens including the remains of Rudolf Virchow's extensive collection of pathological specimens.
Vancouver, British Columbia

Gastown Steam Clock

A working steam clock, one of only a few in the world, located in Vancouver's Victorian Gastown.
Roswell, New Mexico

International UFO Museum and Research Center

A museum dedicated to the alleged Roswell Incident.
Sequim, Washington

Dandelion Botanical Company

Essence of hound's tongue and tincture of bloodroot are just the tip of the herbalist iceberg at this beautiful, impressively-stocked apothecary.
Antarctica

Antarctic Exploration Museum & Post Office

The best place to send your postcards home from Antarctica.
San Bernardino County, California

The Mojave Desert Mailbox

The most isolated mailbox in America lets desert travelers record their passing.
Salt Lake City, Utah

USPS Remote Encoding Facility

Where unreadable addresses are read, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
St. Joseph, Missouri

The Pony Express National Historic Trail and Museum

The fastest mail service in the west is tracked and memorialized along this 1,400 mile trail.
Las Vegas, Nevada

Atomic Museum

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.