What started as cute pet names and an exchange of gifts paved the way for a Guinness Record-holding institution in quiet Altadena.

The Bunny Museum is a place where nearly all available square footage is filled with, well, bunnies – of any variety, of any medium, of any form.

“When people hop over to the museum, they learn about bunnies in all cultures and eras,” said co-founder Candace Frazee. “It’s just fascinating that all cultures, all countries, everybody has something to do with bunnies. People think it’s going to be Bugs Bunny or the Easter Bunny, but no – bunnies are in everything.”

Bunnies were certainly at the start of her relationship with husband and co-founder Steve Lubanski. In 1993, Lubanski gifted Frazee a plush rabbit as a Valentine’s Day gift, inspired because she previously called him “Honey Bunny” – years before the film “Pulp Fiction” brought the nickname back into pop culture. She would return the favor the following Easter.

And this was the genesis.

“Before we knew it, it became a token of love for us and we opened our museum,” Frazee said. “My husband likes to joke that this would be the ‘Gorilla Museum’ if I had called him ‘my big gorilla.’”

Record number of bunny items

The museum – which last month passed 46,000 items in its collection, further solidifying the Guinness Record for the largest collection of rabbit-related items that will be hard to challenge – boasts all manner of bunny in a variety of themed sections. The Main Gallery includes a wealth of figurines, plush dolls, images, knickknacks and antiquities. The Kitchen area boasts food- and beverage-related artifacts featuring rabbits. The Holiday Gallery collects holiday-themed items. The semi-restricted Chamber of Hop Horrors includes scarier examples – such as Frank the Rabbit from the cult-classic film “Donnie Darko” – and more risqué items, such as photos of Playboy bunnies.

The front of the museum includes a collection of bunny figures that have been featured on Rose Parade floats. Another display showcases a variety of blue bunnies – all donated at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, largely from people cleaning out their attics or garages. Special displays also highlight well-known cartoon characters like Roger Rabbit, Bugs and Lola Bunny and the Nesquik rabbit.

“We’re always multiplying – that’s the bunny pun,” Frazee said. “People donate all of the time.”

And as a nonprofit, the Bunny Museum hopes to educate as well. Many group displays or individual items come with informative placards, which detail the historical or cultural significance of the artifact. For example, a Ukrainian soldier drives a captured Russian tank he has christened “Bunny” because of a stuffed rabbit found inside the cabin. The name of Spain traces its roots the Phoenician word meaning “land of rabbits.” David Bowie, on one of his global tours, was for a time stalked by an unidentified fan wearing a full-body rabbit costume – even once appearing on Bowie’s flight.

And there are of course the museum’s two pet bunnies, which roam the section called The Warren. They’re called Doris and Nicky.