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Among the treasures hidden from sight at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History are the world’s biggest egg, Stephen Jay Gould’s seashells and Vladimir Nabokov’s collection of butterfly genitalia. So when the museum’s curator asked photographer Mark Sloan if he’d be interested in photographing the most unique specimens from their behind-the-scenes collection, Sloan was glad to oblige. In exchange, he got the tour of a lifetime.

“It came with its own curator. He sat there with that egg for the entire duration of my photo shoot, which was quite long. He had white gloves on and was the only one who could touch it,” said Sloan. “The one time the curator went out to the bathroom, my assistant pretended to flick the egg.” The museum preferred the flick-free version.