Bell Haven Museum

Back in the 1950s, Oliver Elliott had a rural milk-delivery route in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Whenever he approached a house he would ring a bell so the residents would know to come out and get their milk, and this inspired him to start collecting bells. By the 1970s he had amassed the largest collection of bells in the United States, and probably the world. He turned his home into what he called Bell Haven Museum. People were welcome to tour free of charge.

His collection included: "a bell from 14th century China, a bell that came from Gettysburg in 1776, 75 handblown glass wedding bells, 125 strings of sleigh bells, eight sets of Conestoga bells and 32 temple gongs from the Orient."

Pittsburgh Press - Apr 18, 1976

Elliott died in 1983, but his collection was taken over by his daughter, Iva Mae Long, who proved to be an even more passionate bell collector than he was. She soon had grown the collection to over 35,000 bells.

By this time it included: angel bells in porcelain, ceramic or silver plate; bells made in Spain in the shapes of turtles; bells used as paperweights; bells that do not ring, but nod; town crier bells; an ornate railroad bell used to commemorate the driving of the golden spike at Promontory, Utah, in 1869; a Nepalese temple bell with engravings in Sanskrit; a mission inn Spanish crown bell made by Vigas in 1834; and a bronze bell made in England in 1874 for the Earl of Derby.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Apr 7, 1988

York Dispatch - Nov 30, 1989

Long died in 2009. Apparently some of her children and grand-children were also interested in bell collecting, but maybe not to the same extent because I can't find any evidence that Bell Haven is still around. Google Maps doesn't show any bells outside the address that (I'm pretty sure) was where it was located. Though I wonder what could have become of all those bells.

The only other museum devoted to bells that I can find in the U.S. is the Bast Bell Museum in Germantown, WI. It claims to host the "5000+ bell collection from Sila Lydia Bast who was born and raised in Germantown, WI." Evidently the bells from Bell Haven didn't end up there.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 30, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Museums, Collectors

Panties Auction

Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 30, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Auctions, Estate Sales, Ebay and other Bidding Venues, Children, Underwear, 1950s

Warhol work thrown out as trash

Andy Warhol may finally have joined the ranks of artists whose works have been accidentally thrown out as trash. A 1980s print by him depicting Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was being stored in the basement of the town hall of Maashorst, and somehow the print was disposed of with other "bulky waste."

Actually, I don't think this is a good example of 'art mistaken for trash.' That weird-news genre typically involves works of art on display that a hapless janitor takes out to the dump, not recognizing them as art (such as here, here, and here). What happened to the Warhol piece was an example of a valuable object accidentally thrown out. But I don't think a janitor looked at it and thought, 'Oh, that looks like junk. Better get rid of it.'

More info: cnn.com

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 29, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Art

Birthday Cake Germ Shield

How many birthday parties have you attended where your anxiety about germs being sprayed on the cake prevented your full enjoyment of the celebration? If only there were a kind of "sneeze shield" for the dessert... But wait, there is!

Full patent here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 29, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Dinners, Banquets, Parties, Tributes, Roasts and Other Celebrations, Food, Hygiene, Patents, Twenty-first Century

Breeder Trucks

Feb 1986: A truck carrying "enough semen to impregnate 90,000 cows" skidded off Route 2 in Maine.

I knew that artificial insemination was important for the cattle industry, but it had never occurred to me that there were truckloads of bull semen being routinely shipped across country.

click to enlarge

Waterville Morning Sentinel - Feb 20, 1986

In 1958 Tonka came out with a model of an American Breeders Service truck.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 28, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Cows, 1980s, Trucks

When Sheep Fly

Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 28, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Death, Destruction, Highways, Roads, Streets and Traffic, Australia, Twenty-first Century

Rat wine connoisseurs

Researchers successfully trained rats to distinguish between two varieties of wine: Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.


More info: "Rats can distinguish (and generalize) among two white wine varieties" in Animal Cognition (Feb 2025)

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 27, 2025 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Experiments

Marble Music Machine

An oldie but goodie that is perhaps new to some WU-vies.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 27, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Music, Rube Goldberg Devices

The Logical Bassoon

Giles Brindley believed that the design of the bassoon was illogical. So, in 1967 he created a "logical bassoon." The footage below aired on the British show Tomorrow's World in 1969.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 26, 2025 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, Instruments and Measuring Devices, 1960s

Hear How to Plan the Perfect Dinner Party

A cookbook on vinyl.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 26, 2025 - Comments (0)
Category: Dinners, Banquets, Parties, Tributes, Roasts and Other Celebrations, Food, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, 1960s