The Oriental Institute in Atlas Obscura

Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago 
By M Rebekah Otto / January 6, 2011 

Curators typically organize museums with some editorial guidelines. In art, it may be by era, style, or nation; in the natural sciences, by geography, genus, or age. But some museums (usually museums married to a university rather than purely for the public visitor) resemble the curiosity cabinets of yore. Their crowded display cases say, “Look at all the cool stuff I found.”
 
Based out of the University of Chicago’s Archaeology Department, The Oriental Institute rests nicely in between; the collection is one of the few places to view a university's acquisitions from archaeological digs, as most universities keep their closed to the public. I visited the museum last week, drawn by an exhibit on the origins of written language...