Blog

Capturing a photo of our front page model for next years’ leaflet. Thank you Documentation Officer Ben!

#behindthescenes #museumlife #photography ...

A new year brings a new series of #WhatsInStoreWednesday!

Today's stored objects are linked by their weight. The brass neck rings and bracelets were collected in 1927 by Percy Powell-Cotton in present day Cameroon (then French Cameroon). Percy collected approximately 100 such objects during this trip. We don't know why he collected so many, but they are many different shapes, sizes and weights. These items represented wealth. Owning and wearing them showed your wealth and allowed you to carry your wealth with you. They would have been very heavy to wear.

The other three items are also from Cameroon, but were collected between 1933-1935 by Fred Merfield, an associate of Percy's who was better known as a naturalist. These interestingly shaped iron objects are bride wealth, essentially a type of dowry. They are extremely heavy, weighing between 10-15lbs.

Objects that are both fragile and very heavy face a challenge for museum storage. Today we've been repacking them from large crates in to small boxes so that they can be stored safely, but also moved safely by staff if needed. Remember folks - bend from the knees!

#ObjectInfocus #BehindTheScenes ...

This week we've welcomed @palumbo_conservation to the Museum. Bethany has been assessing the condition of our dioramas and carrying out some repairs. Her work will allow us to schedule repairs and maintenance over the coming years, keeping our beautiful dioramas looking their best.
#BehindTheScenes #Conservation ...

Rachel Jennings, our Curator of Natural History, has written an update on her current specialist project 'Colonial Critters'. Link to her blog in our bio.

Our natural history dioramas are amazing examples of taxidermy habitat displays and definitely the 'wow' factor of a visit to the museum. Open days are being announced soon...

#ReimaginingTheMuseum #BehindTheScenes ...

There are lots of exciting things going on behind the scenes at the museum. Over the coming months we’ll be bringing you details of our collections work during our Reimagining Project.

A few weeks ago we hosted local photographer Jaron James who came to photograph some of our Somali collection. These images will become part of an international collaborative project called The Horn Heritage Digital Museum. The project will bring together Somali heritage held in museums globally in one digital collection.

The Powell-Cotton Museum holds an internationally significant collection of Somali material culture numbering over 2000 objects. We are excited to be sharing it with such a global audience. You can follow progress at www.hornheritage.org

#BehindTheScenes ...

We're really excited to welcome schools back to the museum from 17th May and our preparations are well underway. If you would like to book your class a visit please get in touch with our learning team on learning@powell-cottonmuseum.org
#Learning #BehindTheScenes ...

Behind the scenes this week - a model of a goat and kid... made of goat! This model was collected by Percy in Northern Nigeria in 1925 and was probably a child's toy. #behindthescenes #museums #collections ...

Behind the scenes at the Museum....we have lots of objects that researchers from all over the world come to look at. This week researcher Anna is examining chimpanzee and gorilla skulls to study difference in shape between species of apes and what factors affect this, including social and ecological differences. To do this she is taking lots of measurements, to compare skull size and shape.
#behindthescenes #skulls #apes ...

Behind the scenes...revealing a building's treasures

Today a simple maintenance task to replace beading on the low plinths in Gallery 1 turned into an exploration of what lay underneath. The wooden plinths were installed about 11 years ago. Now we know that some of the original features are still intact our next steps are to determine how the electrics are installed in the gallery and whether our ambition to get back to Percy's original vision for this space is possible. 😊

#MuseumMaintenace #Museum #History #OriginalFeatures #InterestingFinds #HiddenFeatures #Vision #BehindTheScenes #RevealingGems #Thanet #Birchington #Kent ...

New additions to the dioramas! Our Maintenance man Vic and Mike our Collections Assistant are changing blubs in the dioramas and they get to wear funky shoes while doing it!
#behindthescenes #museums #weirdandwonderful #dioramas #museumfun #funky #birchington #thanetkent ...