More recently, Purcell attempted to recreate the celebrated museum of 17^th-century Danish physician Olaus Worm. He used his collection of specimens and curiosities for studying and teaching natural history. It's no longer intact, but an engraving of it published by his son survives. Using that image, Purcell assembled the room at right: A 3-D installation inspired by a 2-D image of a 3-D original.

The installation includes all manner of specimens—bones, eggs, shells, horns, skins—as well as Greek and Roman art objects, a kayak from Greenland, and a poker-faced mannequin that seems to stand guard in the back. Worm often grouped specimens by shape, size, or apparent function. Like the 16^th-century bestiary that inspired Purcell and Gould in Illuminations, many of the results run counter to contemporary ideas of classification. Instead, they convey a funny poetry: On the right-hand wall is a mini collection of ostrich eggs, a turtle, an armadillo, and a coconut. Purcell thinks that Worm placed them together because they all have a shell-like exterior.

Worm also tried to refute the mythical notions of his contemporaries. He argued strenuously (and correctly) that the long tusk shown against the back wall is the tusk of a narwhal, rather than the horn of a unicorn, as many of his peers believed.