Icelandic Phallological Museum

The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavík is the world’s only museum devoted to the male genitalia. It contains over 280 specimens representing 93 different species of land and sea animals, including humans, and it was all collected by one person. It started as a joke. In 1974, Sigurður Hjartarson was a 33-year old headmaster in a secondary school when a colleague gifted him the penis of a bull after hearing how Hjartarson had one as a boy. Soon, other teachers who worked in a nearby whaling station started bringing him whale penises, just to tease him. Eventually it gave him an idea that it might be interesting to collect specimens from more mammalian species. Photo credit: Jennifer Boyer/Flickr In the beginning, collecting these organs progressed slowly and by 1980 he had only 13 specimens, four from whales and nine from land mammals. The organs came from farm animals from slaughterhouses, while fishermen supplied him with those of whales and other sea animals. When a ban on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986, Hjartarson began harvesting whale penises from victims stranded on the coast. Once a polar bear came drifting on an ice floe. The fishermen shot the bear and gifted him the penis of the animal. Sometimes he would send his family to collect for him, leading to some embarrassing situations, especially when his daughter is involved. On one occasion she was dispatched to a slaughterhouse where one of the workers asked, “What’s in the basket?”, to which she had to reply, “I’m collecting a frozen goat penis.” After that she said to her father, “I will never collect for you again.” In 1990, his collection grew to 34 specimens and when the museum opened in Reykjavík in August 1997, he had 62. Once the museum opened, the numbers grew phenomenally. Now they contain over 280 specimens from 93 species of animals found around Iceland.