About Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has been collecting strange things on Seattle’s waterfront since 1899. It is still a functioning souvenir store, but tucked among merchandise is a free museum collection built from more than a century of unusual objects.
Founder J.E. Standley began with a personal fascination for natural oddities and artifacts. As the business grew, sailors, travelers, collectors, and customers brought material through the shop, and some objects gradually stopped being merchandise and became permanent displays.
The collection has included mummies, unusual animal specimens, taxidermy, old mechanical devices, vintage curios, and objects whose appeal is simply that they make customers stop walking and stare. The crowded presentation helps preserve the feeling of an old-fashioned curiosity shop rather than converting the place into a conventional museum.
The business remains family operated at Pier 54. Seattle’s waterfront has changed dramatically around it, but Ye Olde Curiosity Shop still works on the same basic principle: put enough bizarre things in one room and eventually everybody will find something they cannot explain.