Manchester Museum
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The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. It is one of the top university museums in the United Kingdom. Sitting at the heart of the University's neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent of the globe.
Some of the main collections include[1]:
- Butterflies and carvings from India
- Birds and bark-cloth from the Pacific
- Live frogs and ancient pottery from The Americas
- Fossils and native art from Australia
- Mammals and ancient Egyptian craftsmanship from Africa
- Plants, coins and minerals from Europe
- Art from past civilisations of the Mediterranean
- Beetles
- Armour
- "Simon archery collection"
- Cast of a fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex from South Dakota called "Stan", which was unveiled on 4 November 2004.
The first collections were assembled by the Manchester Society of Natural History, formed in 1821, and in 1850 the collections of the Manchester Geological Society were added.
Unfortunately the societies encountered financial difficulties and, on the advice of the great evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley, Owen’s College (now the University of Manchester) accepted responsibility for the collections in 1867.
The college commissioned Alfred Waterhouse, the architect of London’s Natural History Museum, to design a museum to house these collections for the benefit of students and the public on a new site in Oxford Road. The Manchester Museum was opened to the public in the late 1880s[2].
Two subsequent extensions mirror the development of the collections. The 1912 ‘pavilion’ was largely funded by Jesse Haworth, a local textile merchant, to house the archaeological and Egyptological collections acquired through excavations he had supported. The 1927 extension was built to house the ethnographic collections. The Gothic Revival street frontage has been ingeniously integrated by three generations of the Waterhouse family.
In 1997 the Museum was awarded a £12.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and this, together with monies from the European Regional Development Fund, The University of Manchester, The Wellcome Trust, The Wolfson Foundation and other sponsors has enabled the Museum to undertake the refurbishment and building which opened in 2003.
In 2004 the museum acquired a reproduction cast of a fossil Tyrannosaurus rex which is mounted in a running posture[3]. "Stan" as he is called is based on the second most complete T. rex ever found and was excavated in 1992 in South Dakota, USA by Stan Sacrison.
Recent projects include Alchemy (2003 to current), a project initiating and facilitating artists access to The Manchester Museum and The University of Manchester. Funded by Arts Council England it offers four Alchemy Artist Fellowships, curates artist interventions in the permanent galleries and facilitate artists research and the loan of The Manchester Museum's collections for contemporary art projects. Alchemy is the Museum's first sustained research programme for artists. Through supporting artists research and the creation of new work, Alchemy aims to reinvigorate Museum displays, encourage diverse approaches and present alternative voices.
In August 2007, a new temporary exhibition 'Myths About Race' was opened [4]. Many Victorian institutions, including The Manchester Museum, contributed to the same racist thinking that had justified slavery. As part of the Revealing Histories: Remembering Slavery project, it begins to explores the difficult and sensitive issues. Visitors are asked to question the displays in the rest of the Museum, and to help the Museum shape its future. Revealing Histories is part of a larger Greater Manchester initiative looking at the legacy and impacts of the slave trade.
In April 2008 a new exhibition will be opened at the Museum which will last for a year, and will have the Lindow Man on display, which is currently at the British Museum in London.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ An index to collections is available online [1] (accessed Nov 2007)
- ^ The History of The Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, [2], accessed 25/11/2007
- ^ Stan the T-Rex facts, BBC, 03/11/2004 [3]
- ^ Revealing Histories Myths About Race press release 7.8.07, University of Manchester, [4]
- ^ Manchester Prepares for the Appearance of Lindow Man, 24hourmuseum, February 2007[5]
[edit] External links
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