Ole Worm, the idiosyncratic Danish collector, once wrote that he collected curiosities so that “youth could be brought up from the quicksand and darkness of errors and into the clear light of day.” (He also believed that powdered narwhal horns were an antidote to poison.)

Of course, not all collections have such lofty goals. The Kennel Club Library, in London, simply collects texts related to dogs. Cactus Thiemann, in the deserts 0f Morocco, catalogs spiky succulents. Fudenosato Kobo Brush Museum, in small-town Japan, displays a wide range of animal-fur brushes. Taken together, these 13 eclectic collections are themselves an eclectic collection. May they bring you up from the darkness of errors and into the clear light of day.