The Skin of the Serpent that Tempted Eve

Did you know that hidden away in the archives of the Chicago Historical Society there is a plain gray box, Exhibit #1920.1714, allegedly containing the skin of the serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden?  True!  In answer to your next question — no, it's obviously not real. Though unanimously regarded as a fraud, explains Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani, it fell into the Society's possession by way of candy tycoon and eclectic curiosity-seeker Charles F. Gunther, whose 'grand' but 'undisciplined' collection (including Abraham Lincoln's deathbed and other Civil War-era artifacts) was bought lock, stock and barrel by CHS in 1920. No one knows how Gunther himself acquired the 'snakeskin,' though presumably even he knew it had to be a hoax.