Nine small drawers, each with a brass knob, a felt lining and a handwritten label: a fern fossil, a chip of iron meteorite, a shark's tooth turned to stone, and other quiet marvels.
At a glance
On a slow afternoon, pull a drawer at random and find a fern pressed flat in pale stone. This is a small wooden cabinet of nine drawers, each opened by a tiny brass knob, lined with a strip of felt, and holding one…