10 Mysteries That are Locked Away in the Smithsonian

Entertaining and educational top 10 lists from TopTenzNet!

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Coming up:

10. John Dillinger’s sex organ
9. George Washington’s missing bed
8. A steam engine lost in the Titanic disaster may be owned by the Smithsonian
7. John F. Kennedy’s brain has been rumored to be held in the Smithsonian’s collections
6. Ghosts might be found in the Smithsonian in several of its buildings
5. The Smithsonian has a storage facility to protect meteorites from contamination
4. The Hope Diamond and its curse may be encountered at the Smithsonian
3. One can still learn a lot from a dummy
2. The model of Lincoln’s patented device is a replica
1. Missiles guided by pigeons along for the ride might have worked

Source/Further reading:

[Andrewlang]

Imagine what’s possibly being held by the Vatican....

[christo]

I've been there twice . The air and space museum is especially impressive. Plus it's all free to see!

[dafttool]

Missing from your list, hundreds of giant skeletons which the Smithsonian has taken in over decades. Most notorious, the giant mummies from the Grand Canyon, where Egyptian-appearing & Buddhist-appearing statuary is also still missing some 100 years later

[maxdevlin]

The first image you showed is the wonderful old Smithsonian museum. when they renovated it many years ago, a friend of mine got hold of some of the old window panes from the place (this was before it became to re-purpose old architectural stuff) and used them to renovate his parents home.

[annemchurchwell]

The sound at night is the tablet of Ahkmenrah's bring all the exhibits to life at night.

[princemaeldireagh]

Growing up in D, C. I often heard that the famous Dillinger member was located in the National Museum of Pathology, an amazingly grotesque little museum reached thru a back door in the big red Smythsonian building. My impression was that the NMP was actually a facility connected to the National Institutes of Health. This gave the Smythsonian the ability to deny having the celebrated organ. During the Sixties the Pathology museum was moved to NIH headquarters in Beltsville, Md. The Beltsville display is fairly tame lacking the sideshow aspects that made the old NMP such a hit with me and my friends. Unfortunately I never saw the legendary puzzle

[shaunjay]

In my youth I watched a show around 3AM on PBS. It was called inside the vault or something along the line, and there was some wild things shown on that show! Babies born with wings and horns preserved in jars, bones of giants, etc.. I mean it was wild!! I wish it would come on again. It would be great to see again over 20 years later.

[thesavagebeast]

I would love to go through the Smithsonian vault! Let's see what they're really hiding.

[DanaOrtiz]

This guy should get a world record for being on the most YouTube channels

[karenholl]

i was born and raised right outside D.C. and have therefore been to smithsonian museums countless times. the moment i found out that most museums in the world you have to pay for had me shook

[midnightodellewest]

I'v only been to the Smithsonian once, which was in 1997 and I was on summer break from college. I cannot speak to whether the place is haunted, but I do remember suddenly being overcome with absolute sadness and dread and not understanding why. Then I realized the room I was about to enter housed the Enola Gay, which was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb, the first over Hiroshima and the second over Nagasaki. I have never felt such a visceral dread before or since and I will never forget how the feeling preceded any knowledge of what I was approaching. While I have never been prone to ponder the paranormal, I do believe, as a direct result of my experience that day, that certain objects can indeed hold onto to the pain experienced around them.

[riggs]

"America's Attic"
That is hilariously accurate!

[shakeandbake]

The strangest thing about the Smithsonian is how it came into being. A British scientist named James Smithson died and for some reason in his will stated that if no heirs exist to give the money to the American government to build a museum. Seeing how he had never been to America and this was during the time between the revolution and the war of 1812 it seems highly unlikely a Brit would leave his money to a hostile government such as America so one has to ask why did he?

[susanrobinson]

Gotta love Simon referring to the pigeons as, "Little Peckers". How did you keep a straight face?!

[KB-lrpl]

"There is an easy way to tell whether your house is haunted: It's not." --Jimmy Carr

[michaellicavoli]

During the 70s I spent an afternoon in the Smithsonian. The center display was called “Differences between the races”. Wonder how that would fly today?

[samsalin]

Raiding this would be alot more interesting then area 51, probably less lethal too.

[lunavarion]

No mention of their legendary, alleged involvement with giant remains?

[stephaniemccord]

John Dillinger's "member" tale is a tale that goes way back and is as humorous as the tale of the jackalope in Wyoming.

[ladykoiwolfe]

The Hope Diamond is not denied, and when you see it there's a longing to hold it. I say this as someone who doesn't care for diamonds. This is the only diamond I have ever felt a craving for.
I prefer lesser stones like obsidian, Tiger's eye, malachite, and turquoise.

The curse would not apply to the Smithsonian, they only hold it like a bank vault. The ownership, which carries the curse, belongs to the family of the man who mailed the stone to the Smithsonian.