On the Road: Seeds at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA

Yesterday was rainy and windy, so what could be better than heading out with my hub to a museum followed by a lunch somewhere?

We chose the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.  One of our favorites for decades, the Peabody has a great permanent collection relating to the China Trade of the 1800s and ships in general, working craft, seamanship and art from around the world that sailors would bring back to Salem.  With the "new" addition to the museum they have good gallery space for traveling shows, too.  We were hoping there would be something there, but didn't really care. I assume the PEM wanted to attract more visitors so they have expanded their
coverage to the arts, fine and industrial, of all eras.

This large hall has been kept as it was originally. 

It is a delightful feeling to walk into the space.

The cabinets displayed artifacts brought home to Salem and donated to the museum by the original members of the East India Marine Society which was established in 1799.  

This giant seed caught my eye.  Actually the chicken caught my eye  and I eventually saw this...but it is a BIG nut!!!!

You can see the opposite wall in the reflection!

From Wikipedia's Legends of the Coco de Mer:

"The nuts that were found in the ocean and on the beaches no longer had a husk, and resembled the dismembered lower part of a woman's body, including the buttocks. This association is reflected in one of the plant's archaic botanical names, Lodoicea callipyge Comm. ex J. St.-Hil., in which callipyge is from the Greek words meaning "beautiful rump". Historically these floating "beautiful rumps" were collected and sold for a fortune in Arabia and in Europe."

This looks like a niddy noddy with extra cross pieces...in a bottle. I don't know what it is supposed to be.  I wonder if it was supposed to be a niddy noddy to amuse a sweetheart...but the sailor forgot exactly what it should look like.

Above: Great show... designs of my past that influenced me.

That's my reflection :-)

1936 The first Airstream, called the "Clipper" in 1936, was named after the first trans-Atlantic seaplane. It slept four, carried its own water supply, was fitted with electric lights and cost $1,200.