În 1935, Manhattan House a publicat Secret Museum. Cartea este livrată sub anonimat, paginile nu sunt numerotate, fotografiile nu sunt datate şi nu au autorul specificat, nu există index sau alte cronologii. Secret Museum (cinci volume într-unul) a fost promovată drept cea mai importantă colecţie de fotografii secrete şi bizare, prin urmare tot ce putea fi calificat drept lugubru, neobişnuit, şocant avea asigurat bilet de intrare.

Further brief description:

⓿ This was not a book published to educate (despite appearing on some public library’s shelves), but to titillate (literally).

⓿ Strangely, there isn’t a single photo from the United States— it skips from Mexico north to Canada as if nothing were in between.

⓿ The photos themselves range in quality from fair to atrocious, with almost all being bad or very bad.

⓿ The tone of the commentary is dated, and uniformly racist in the extreme, often hilariously so.

⓿ Why wasn’t it shut down by the parties who were infringed? Were they involved? It’s a mystery.

⓿ Treat it as entertainment instead of education.

AMERICA

SCARLET STRIPES THAT SPELL DANGER
Facial marks of vivid scarlet proclaim this lad to be of the very formidable and treacherous Jivaro tribe settled near the Cachi Yaru river. His wristlets are of snakeskin, decorated with tufts of coloured feathers

AN EVER OPEN DOOR
To this hatch in the wall of the orphanage unwanted children, usually illegitimate, may be brought by their mothers under cover of night. The turning stile rings a bell inside

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AFRICA

MOSLEM WOMEN IN NATIVE DRESS
While wives of pashas and other women of the upper class in Cairo may be seen wearing the transparent gauze yashmak of Constantinople, and others keep to the white opaque veil of Egypt, their humbler sisters usually wear the black face veil with a head veil of tarhah of dark blue muslin or linen

PAINTED LADIES OBSERVING FASHION’S DICTATES IN KUKURUKU

Fashion everywhere affords scope for the decorative artist. With pigments made of fruit-juice this lusty lass of Fugar traces a network of lines on her sister’s ample back, filling in the panels with conventional designs, and pictures of animals and household implements. Some of these markings last for months, some only a week

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ASIA

HE WON’T BE HAPPY UNTIL HE GETS OUT OF IT!
Not everyone enjoys an open-air bath! Although he is being washed in the Godavari, one of the holy rivers of India, this big boy looks far from pleased. His mother, determined to do her work thoroughly, has none too light a hand, and has used the stone, seen near the boy’s left hand, instead of soap, which fact probably accounts for the unhappy expression on his face

PROFESSIONAL “TIGHT-ROPE” WALKERS OF THE FORMOSAN HIGHLANDS
Astonishing proofs of savage ingenuity are the Formosan aborigines. Dwelling for the most part in elevated houses they are accustomed to “walk the air,” and their suspension bridges are singularly clever. Supported solely by rattan cables, these amazing structures span the great spaces between lofty mountains, and the agile hillmen traverse them without a trace of fear

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EUROPE

AT THE HOSPICE OF THE GREAT ST. BERNARD
At the summit of the pass of the same name, 8,111 feet high, a hospice existed in the ninth century, and was refounded by S. Bernard of Menthon two centuries later. On its steps is seen the prior with one of the famous dogs, Leon, who, when but three years old, had already saved thirty-two lives. The training of the dogs of the St. Bernard hospice takes about two years

YEOMAN COUPLE OF TRANSYLVANIA
The lives of the Transylvanian peasantry are spent in an unremitting round of toil, but their love of independence keeps them faithful to the land, and they prefer tilling the earth to acting as servants in the towns

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OCEANIA

GOOD WIZARD OF THE KAKADU TRIBE SUCKING EVIL MAGIC FROM A SICK MAN
All maladies are thought by the aborigines to be caused by hostile witchcraft, usually an invisible poison bone or stick, “sent” by an enemy. For curative treatment, the patient lies down, and a tribal wizard gazes fixedly at him, thus projecting unseen crystals of power into him. Then, stretched upon the sufferer, he massages him, and, with much effort, sucks the poison bone out of him, invisibly, bit by bit

FINAL ORDEAL BY ROASTING IN THE INITIATION OF YOUNG BEARDS INTO TRIAL SECRETS
As a lad, the aborigine is tortured and mutilated by his elders in the early rites of initiation. When he is a grown man, he undergoes an ordeal of fourteen weeks of endurance, ending with a double roasting. He lies on a log fire for five minutes. The fire is then made hotter, and down he goes for another five minutes, rapidly twisting about to avoid serious burns. At middle-age there is even another severe test

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Sursa fotografii şi texte: http://ian.macky.net/secretmuseum/index.php.

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