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HIWAY AMERICA – TRUNDLE MANOR – SWISSDALE PA.
Tourist Trap? Art House? Gallery? Creepy Abode? WHAT IS THIS!?
We have always considered ourselves an old fashioned part of roadside America. Trundle Manor is currently the headquarters of the Secret Society of Odd Acquisition and is curated by the eccentric Mr Arm and Velda Von Minx. Built in 1910, Trundle Manor has become a place where a culmination of years of insane collecting and creating has found its niche.
Want to be a little creeped out? Need something different to bring your chick to? Like horror movies and want to see the beginnings of a serial killer’s obsession? Well, come on down and experience all of this and more. If you are Steampunk, Goth, rockabilly or just a little weird you will love Trundle Manor and want to come back often. Come and see our vast array of jarred animals, antique taxidermy, things for which to murder with, old world charm, sadistic medical devices, coffins and coffin like items, Steampunk influenced creations, cryptozoology, and any other thing your twisted mind will want to look at. Nothing in the Manor is rubber, latex, or fake, (except Uncle Trundle)! We pride ourselves on not filling our shelves with cheesy, fake memorabilia.
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January 6, 2011 — They say that stuff can’t make you happy, but I’ve met my share of collectors (here, here, and here, for instance) who would disagree. And they all have the cool stuff to prove it.
I’m not sure about the psychology of a collector, whether it’s sheer greed (I want that), childish wonder (I want that), whether they’re building a comfortable nest or a wall of separation, but each one believes that the planet is not glass case enough and dedicates large parts of their lives and finances to gathering stuff within a delineated area, where, under ideal conditions, it is catalogued, displayed, cared for, and regularly appreciated.
Actually, collectors do a service for the world. Collecting gives individual items context, preserves them and the stories behind them, and inspires wonder. They help us continually re-learn what an exquisitely varied place our world is. I mean, seeing one aboriginal artifact or PEZ dispenser is interesting, but seeing one hundred of either at once gets us closer to the truth. In fact, most of our major museum collections all started out as private collections. The world needs collectors. And, heck, I just like those kind of people.
So on to a guy that collects bizarre taxidermy and human body parts.
Trundle Manor is located in Swissvale, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, at 7724 Juniata St. It’s a private collection in a private residence that only in the past year and a half or so has been open to the public. There’s no entry fee, but donations are accepted. Dead animals don’t come cheap, except when they do.
Of course, since the collection is displayed in the curator’s own house, visits are by appointment only. That sounds pretty formal, but all it takes is just a quick text message to see if your would-be hosts are in. Their contact info is right on theirwebsite and they’re pretty laid back and eager to show their collection. For me it was a brief email a night or two before. And then a day or so of the usual worry about entering a stranger’s home. Especially this time, since it was a stranger with a cleaver collection.
I just kept telling myself that Leatherface never made a website.
Now, anybody with a credit card can collect mass-marketed, factory-produced, officially licensed merchandise. But Trundle Manor houses the type of collection that takes more effort and soul-investment than the mere filling up of an Amazon.com cart. This kind of collecting has a tradition that goes back hundreds of years to the teen centuries of Europe. In Germany, it was called a Wunderkammer (or wonder chamber) and in England it was known as a cabinet of curiosities.
These Wunderkammers (as always, it’s more fun to use the German name) often encompassed a mishmash of biological artifacts like skeletons and seashells, geological objects such as minerals and fossils, manufactured items like medical implements, and antiquities and art of all sorts. Anything preserveable and which stuck out to the collector as different from the mundane paraphernalia of their own everyday existence. Oddity, basically, the purpose of which came down to having cool stuff to give people an excuse to visit and converse. It was the pre-television world, you know.
The man responsible for the Wunderkammer that is Trundle Manor is Anton Miriello, although he goes by the name Mr. ARM (I didn’t ask about the acronym, but I assume it’s his initials). His girlfriend Rachel Rech, who curates alongside him, goes by the name Velda von Minx. But don’t let the nom-de-guerres put you off. The manor isn’t awkward theater. They’ve merely adopted quirky personas to fit a quirky collection. It’s subtle showmanship. They’ll certainly have a normal conversation with you. Well, as normal as it can be when the topic is infant speculums and mummified cats.
We met our hosts just as evening was falling. They were both in their twenties, but sported outfits that were decades to a century too old for them. He had a handlebar moustache and a waistcoat. She wore leopard print heels at one end and a choker at the other. Both seemed equally excited about showing us the bits of dead animals that they had strewn about their home.
The collection is pretty far-ranging, but definite themes, or sub-collections, are instantly recognizable. One of the first we noticed was the taxidermy. And that’s because they have a stuffed black bear in a top hat on their dining room table large enough to make eating off said table awkward. Or at least difficult. Although relating the boring events of your workday to each other is probably a lot more fun through a bear’s crotch.




As to Mr. ARM’s own opinion of his collection, he somehow seemed to maintain both a sense of pride and a sense of proportion. Minutes after telling me that the whole purpose of opening up his home to the public was to share the wonder, he related the anecdote of his father’s summation of his collecting enterprise, “You have nothing but junk…it’s just displayed really well.” Mr. ARM’s reaction? “It made me depressed and elated at the same time.”
ARM and Minx style Trundle Manor as a tourist trap in order to set everyone’s expectations appropriately. In fact, all told, the collection takes up only three small rooms—an entryway, a dining room area, and the above parlor. However, were you to ask about every piece that strikes your fancy (or horror), you’d be there for quite a while. And they encourage that when they can. The curators act more as hosts than as tour guides. You want to sit down in the living room and ponder a rat skeleton over highballs? Go for it. You want to throw darts and discuss fantasy weaponry? This is the place. You just want to escape for a bit from a world of beige walls and landscape art? Light up a pipe and pull up a chair.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay long enough to do any of that. We had to be four hours away before bedtime, and they had tickets to a Tim and Eric show. They gave us certificates that officially acknowledged our visit to Trundle Manor, as well as two small vials of liquid, each with a baby octopus tentacle in it. They were meant to be keepsakes, but I think they’re going to be piece one and piece two of our own imminently begun Wunderkammer.
Anybody got a spare tumor that you’re willing to part with?
We met our hosts just as evening was falling. They were both in their twenties, but sported outfits that were decades to a century too old for them. He had a handlebar moustache and a waistcoat. She wore leopard print heels at one end and a choker at the other. Both seemed equally excited about showing us the bits of dead animals that they had strewn about their home…
The collection is pretty far-ranging, but definite themes, or sub-collections, are instantly recognizable. One of the first we noticed was the taxidermy. And that’s because they have a stuffed black bear in a top hat on their dining room table large enough to make eating off said table awkward. Or at least difficult. Although relating the boring events of your workday to each other is probably a lot more fun through a bear’s crotch.
While he was showing us around his collection, Mr. ARM let out a “Whoa. Cool!” at one point at the sight of a simple taxidermied squirrel set nearby. Thinking that was supposed to be my line, I said as much. He responded. “This wasn’t here when I left this morning.” His girlfriend then informed him that a six-year-old neighbor had brought it to them earlier that day.
watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z4OEcP2dxc
Related articles
- Stuffed and Squirming (beautifuldystopias.wordpress.com)
HIWAY AMERICA- TRUNDLE MANOR-SWISSDALE PA.
A FAN LETTER FROM CAMPBELL’S SOUP TO ANDY WARHOL
A Fan Letter from Campbell’s Soup to Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol adored Campbell’s Soup. That much is obvious. In fact, his mother’s pastime of cutting tin cans into flowers inspired his iconic soup can paintings. But if you ever wondered how Campbell’s felt about Warhol, today is your lucky day. A 1964 fan letter (which accompanied “a couple of cases” of tomato soup) from the company’s Product Marketing Manager to Warhol is after the jump.
[From the collection of Billy Name, via Letters of Note,Warholstars.org]
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