Presented by
THIS WEEK’S NEW EPISODE
This week’s guest is Walter Magnuson, executive director of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose! We talk about the line between legend and history, why Walter feels unfairly slighted by others in the museum world, and everything the house does differently around Halloween. Plus: Why the scariest part of your tour may actually be the sound of an earthquake.
Find the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify — or find your favorite app here! A full transcript of this episode is available here.
BEHIND THE SCENES
5️⃣ Five things I learned on the tour that didn’t make it into this episode
I love all of the museums featured on this podcast equally, but… I really want to give a special shout-out to Olivia Maldonado, the Winchester Mystery House’s Experience Manager, who let me record a private tour of the mansion for this podcast. In about three hours, we covered 130 out of 160 rooms, and there was so much I couldn’t fit into the main podcast episode. Here are five bonus facts:
The “spiderweb” motif that appears throughout the house was a common spiritualist symbol in the Victorian era, but we don’t know for sure that Sarah Winchester even intended that, because she never wrote down her intentions.
Despite living in the House for 40 years, there are only two known photos of Sarah Winchester on the estate, and the second one was only found less than 10 years ago.
Sarah was a plant mom: She had a beautiful light-filled conservatory where the floor is slightly slanted, so that excess water can drain off. It also has an elevator that is believed to be purpose-built for bringing heavy plants up to the second floor.
The most commonly seen ghosts in the House are not victims of Winchester rifles (which is what I always had heard), but instead former workers: One of them, The Wheelbarrow Ghost, “has been seen by guides and guests alike over the last hundred years, either fixing a fireplace in the grand ballroom or with a wheelbarrow in the large basement,” Olivia says. “If you see him, some people say if you wave, he waves back.”
No one knows what the stained glass windows in the Grand Ballroom are all about. They’re both Shakespeare quotes: “ Wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts” from Troilus and Cressida, and "These same thoughts, people, this little world,” from Richard II. But why these quotes? Why there? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Eric
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR, LOVABLE
Nobody's coming to approve your idea
People assume that real businesses get built by other people with more resources. It's how great ideas get stuck in notes apps and conversations.
But you don't need six months and a developer's salary to validate your concept. You just need a weekend. Describe what you want to exist and Lovable builds it: a real site, a real product, ready to accept real payments from real customers. Not a mockup to show people. An actual thing they can use.
You don't need anyone's sign-off to get started. Take $5 off your first month.
Discount of $5 applies to first month of any paid plan. You need to sign up via this webpage in order to claim the discount. The discount applies to new and returning users without an active paid plan. Terms apply.
IN MY INBOX
🎓 University museums, repatriation, and quilting behind bars
CC BY 2.0 / Jim, the Photographer
When universities close museums (looking at you, Drexel), they may save money in the short term, and pay for it later: “If I’m a major private donor considering a gift to the university, I may give pause if I notice a program like the museum has been shuttered.” [Inside Higher Ed]
Over the past 75 years, more than a million items worth $2 billion have been repatriated from foreign museums to their countries of origin. “The countries with the best record in reclaiming items, such as Egypt, Italy and Saudi Arabia… tend to have sustained government engagement, specialist law enforcement units for cultural property and active civil society groups.” [Financial Times]
“Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the U.S. Globally, it's second only to El Salvador. It also has one of the lowest parole rates.” Somehow, Gary Tyler survived a horrible miscarriage of justice, got released, and now has a whole exhibit dedicated to his fabric arts at the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan. [NPR]
THE GIFT SHOP
🎁 When in doubt… buy a mug
Everyone who subscribes to this newsletter before November 10 has been entered into our Gift Shop Giveaway! (Full rules here)
(Not subscribed yet? You can do that right here.)
One of the prize packages will include a mug and a magnet from the “Mercantile” gift shop, and I gotta be honest: I almost kept this mug for myself. It’s a huge blue one with a super classy line drawing of the House. Tell your friends to sign up for this newsletter quick, before I change my mind!
The winner will also get stickers, postcards, and maybe some surprise goodies!
💪 How to help the podcast:
Tell a friend: Forward this email to a museum lover in your life
Leave a review: On Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify
Before we go … here’s the trailer for 2018’s “Winchester,” starring Dame Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke. The reviews were… not great. But it looks like they did a lot of filming in the House itself which is pretty cool! Now that I’ve seen so much of the estate, I might watch just for that.