Collecting, Obsession, and Wealth

What an odd natural history museum taught me about privilege and the human desire to acquire

This past year, I made it my personal mission to visit as many local museums as possible. The more bizarre or niche, the better. One of the first on my list was the Natural History Museum at Tring.

Yes, it’s a slightly creepy and probably haunted Victorian building containing the taxidermic corpses of hundreds of long-dead animals. Yes, it’s often buzzing with screeching British children…