Secrets & Oddities of the National Museum

See all events

Join our email list to hear about Obscura Day events near you!

Don't see an event near you?

Join us! Lead or organize an Obscura Day event in your hometown and we will help you make it happen. Get in touch!

Obscura Day happens all over the world, all at once, so we need your help in documenting all of the amazing explorations and adventures. So please - grab your camera and head out to your local Obscura Day adventure and share the photos with the rest of us!

Help us get the word out! Follow us on Facebook & Twitter (look for the #obscuraday hashtag) for announcements of new events. Share it with your friends - with email, on your blog, on Tumbler – or anywhere else you hang out online!

Explore something wondrous. Take lots of pictures. Tweet your experiences using the #obscuraday hashtag. See if the places you visit are on foursquare. Facebook. Geotag. Instagram. Live blog. Send postcards. If possible send us a message via telegram, or carrier pigeon. We just want to hear from you!

Wipe off the cobwebs and the grime. Blog your experiences (and send us a link). Post your pics to Flickr (and tag them with "Obscura Day 2012"). Suggest ways to make Obscura Day even more awesome next year.

• Alameda, California
  • -SOLD OUT- Obscura Day Pacific Pinball Museum Tour
    
  
  
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
  • Robots & Fairy Doors at the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair
    
  
  
• Arco, Idaho
  • Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve
    
  
  
• Athens, Ohio
  • Particle Accelerator Tour at John E. Edwards Accelerator Laboratory
    
  
  
• Batavia, Illinois
  • -SOLD OUT- Tour of Fermilab Particle Accelerator
    
  
  
• Berlin, Germany
  • Street Art & Graffiti workshop & tour
    
  • Topography of Terror Tour with Context Travel
    
  
  
• Bonne Terre, Missouri
  • Founder's Tour of The Space Museum
    
  
  
• Boston, Massachusetts
  • -SOLD OUT- "Bound to End Badly" at the Boston Athenaeum
    
  • Murder at the Science Museum Scavenger Hunt
    
  • Explore Boston's African American History with Context Travel
    
  
  
• Brooklyn, New York
  • Bivouac New York Rooftop Camping
    
  • - SOLD OUT - Disasters of New York: Green-Wood Cemetery Walk with Allison Meier
    
  
  
• Cambria, California
  • ARTify Cambria
    
  
  
• Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • High Speed Imagery at the MIT Edgerton Center
    
  
  
• Chicago, Illinois
  • Obscura Day at the Boring Store
    
  • Letter Writers Alliance Social
    
  • Tour the Busy Beaver Button Co. Button Museum
    
  • The Art of Darkness Scavenger Hunt at the Art Institute of Chicago
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Forgotten Chicago Walking Tour: Goose Island/Pulaski Park
    
  
  
• Chislehurst, England
  • - SOLD OUT - After Dark at the Mysterious Chislehurst Caves
    
  
  
• Cleveland, Ohio
  • Magic Lanterns at the Dittrick Museum
    
  
  
• Crawfordsville, Indiana
  • Obscura Day at the Montgomery County Rotary Jail
    
  
  
• Detroit, Michigan
  • "Vague Visions" at the Heidelberg Project
    
  
  
• Dresden, Germany
  • Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
    
  
  
• Edinburgh, Scotland
  • Secrets & Oddities of the National Museum
    
  • A Night at the Surgeons’ Hall Museum
    
  
  
• Elkin, North Carolina
  • Obscura Day at the Elkin Cabinet of Curiosity
    
  
  
• Fairfax, Virginia
  • Gun Running at NRA's National Firearms Museum
    
  
  
• Farmington Hills, Michigan
  • Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
    
  
  
• Forres, Scotland
  • -SOLD OUT- The Clockwork Salon at the House of Automata
    
  
  
• Glasgow, Scotland
  • Explore the Glasgow Necropolis
    
  
  
• Greensboro, North Carolina
  • Post-Space Conference at the Elsewhere Collaborative
    
  
  
• Independence, Missouri
  • Obscura Day at the Leila's Hair Museum
    
  
  
• Kensington, Australia
  • Know Your Enemy: A Day at the Museum of Human Disease
    
  • - SOLD OUT - Pickled People: An Evening at the Museum of Human Disease
    
  
  
• Kyonan, Japan
  • Expedition to the 1553 Stone-Carved Monks of Nihon-ji
    
  
  
• Lansing, Kansas
  • Obscura Day at the Lansing Historical Museum
    
  
  
• London, England
  • Beyond Penicillin: Obscura Day at the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum
    
  • Bloomsbury: Walking London's Lost Medical World
    
  • Secret Bloomsbury Walking Tour
    
  • South Bank to Bermondsey: Walk the Lost River Neckinger
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Obscura Day at the Great Ormond Street Hospital
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Dissecting the Past with the Chirurgeon's Apprentice
    
  • Explore Hidden London with Context Travel
    
  
  
• Long Island City, New York
  • - SOLD OUT - Atlantic Avenue Tunnel: The World's First Subway
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Thirteen Steps Around Dutch Kills
    
  
  
• Los Angeles, California
  • Obscura Day at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart
    
  • The Art of Darkness Scavenger Hunt at the Getty Center
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Retrofuture: Celebrating a Future That Never Was with BBC Future’s Matt Novak
    
  • - SOLD OUT - Examining Bird Specimens at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology
    
  • Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release: Esotouric Tours
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Obscura Day Picnic at the Abandoned Zoo
    
  
  
• Miami, Florida
  • Obscura Day at the Coral Castle
    
  
  
• Miami Beach, Florida
  • -SOLD OUT- Obscure to Obscura: Unusual Artifacts of the Wolfsonian Collection
    
  
  
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
  • - SOLD OUT - "Crossing the Threshold" of the House of Balls
    
  
  
• Morristown, New Jersey
  • Animated Worlds: Automata from the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection
    
  
  
• New Haven, Connecticut
  • Brain Tour: the Cushing Brain Collection
    
  • Tour the Young Men's Institute Library
    
  
  
• New York, New York
  • -SOLD OUT- Tour Manhattan's Library of Magic
    
  • Urban Foraging in Central Park
    
  • - SOLD OUT - Rutherfurd Observatory Tour
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Explore Manhattan's Urban Archeology with Context Travel
    
  • Street Art Photography Workshop
    
  • -SOLD OUT- The Art of Darkness Scavenger Hunt at the Met
    
  • Oscar Wilde in New York City Walking Tour
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Occult New York: A Manhattan Walking Tour with Mitch Horowitz
    
  • -SOLD OUT- A Tour of 19th Century Drinking Establishments
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Lost Streams of NYC: Walk the Route of Minetta Brook & Canal Street Canal
    
  
  
• Niagara Falls, New York
  • Niagara Science Museum
    
  
  
• Paris, France
  • Explore Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetery with Context Travel
    
  
  
• Pasadena, California
  • An Obscure Day at The Bunny Museum
    
  
  
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • The Art of Darkness Scavenger Hunt at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
    
  • Off Limits and After Dark at Eastern State Pen
    
  • Tour the Mount Pleasant Mansion with Context Travel
    
  • The Bizarre and Mysterious at Laurel Hill Cemetery
    
  
  
• Portland, Maine
  • The Dover Demon at the International Cryptozoology Museum
    
  
  
• Princeton, New Jersey
  • -MORE TICKETS ADDED- Faces from the Past: Death Masks at Princeton University
    
  
  
• Richmond, California
  • -SOLD OUT- Obscura Day on Board the USS Iowa
    
  
  
• Sacramento, California
  • -SOLD OUT- After Dark Under Old Sacramento
    
  
  
• Saint Paul, Minnesota
  • Historic Cave Exploration at the Wabasha Street Caves
    
  
  
• Sandia Park, New Mexico
  • Tinkertown Museum Tour & Exclusive Access to Creator's Workshop
    
  
  
• San Francisco, California
  • - SOLD OUT - The Art of Darkness Scavenger Hunt at the de Young Museum
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Strange Artifacts and Hidden Wonders on the Hill
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Cocktails & Consequences: An Evening Salon on Long Now Locations
    
  • Obscura Day at the San Francisco Pirate Supply Store
    
  • -SOLD OUT- Off Limits and After Dark at Alcatraz
    
  
  
• San Mateo, California
  • -SOLD OUT- Obscura Day at the Zymoglyphic Museum
    
  
  
• Seattle, Washington
  • Cocktails & Bad Art at Seattle's Official Bad Art Museum of Art
    
  • -MORE TICKETS ADDED- Tour of Inscape building and Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore
    
  
  
• Staten Island, New York
  • Bicycle Blitz Thru Staten Island: Italian Inventors & Agitators, Clam Pies & German Beer Gardens
    
  • -NEW TIME ADDED- The Forgotten Beaches of the Forgotten Borough
    
  
  
• Toronto , Canada
  • Mysterion's Obscura Day Toronto Cabaret
    
  
  
• Vancouver, Canada
  • -SOLD OUT- Caves as Portals: Exploring the Grotto Beneath Ting Mountain
    
  
  
• Warrenton, Virginia
  • An Evening in Jail
    
  
  
• Washington DC, District of Columbia
  • The Art of Darkness Scavenger Hunt at the National Gallery of Art
    
  
  
• Wellington, New Zealand
  • Obscura Day at the Weta Cave