Thousands of one-of-a-kind props, posters, artifacts, and more have been donated to Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, courtesy of the estate of Paul G. Allen.
The items span decades of cultural moments across music, television, and movies and include items that have never been displayed before.
Highlights include:
- A 1951 Epiphone FT 79 acoustic guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix.
- A hand-painted and smashed Univox electric guitar owned by Kurt Cobain.
- A complete alien creature suit from the 1979 film Alien.
- Darth Vader’s helmet from the 1980 blockbuster film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
- Handwritten lyrics by David Bowie for “Starman” from the early 1970s.
- The motorcycle jacket worn by Prince in his 1984 film Purple Rain.
- A collection of Nichelle Nichols’ (Lt. Nyota Uhura) hand-annotated scripts from the Star Trek television and film series (1965-1998).
- The iconic hat worn by Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
- A full-size flying “Spinner” vehicle from the 1982 film Blade Runner.
Some of the items are currently on display in the current MoPop exhibits: Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy: Worlds of Myth & Magic, Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film and Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses.
The bequest brings MoPop’s permanent collection over 80,000 items.
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