As it reaches the time of year when the Museum allotment is always thirsty, I thought I’d share this post from Bryan Sitch (Curator of Archaeology) about his favourite object from the collection……
Here we all are in this morning’s team meeting with our favourite objects. Kate had a shark’s jaw bone with some nasty looking teeth, Steve had a copy of the Salford register because it had details of the most important ethnographic objects in the Museum collection, Phil had some parasitic flies, Campbell part of an ivory chariot fitting, Rachel had some saffron, Lindsey had some rubber stamps, Henry a mounted Ross’ gull and I took along a post-medieval watering can made of fired clay (accession no. 20838). The latter is one of my favourite objects in the collection. I kind of fell in love with it as soon as I saw it in the Museum store.
Ceramic watering can
It’s about 36cm tall and as you can see it’s made of orange-red clay with a brownish glaze. You can see where the separately made rose…
So, I’ve now been the HLF Trainee curator for Natural Sciences at the Manchester Museum for 2 weeks, and I can safely say I’ve loved it so far.
Everyone I’ve met has been friendly and helpful, which is a great thing in such a massive place, and i’d like to take the opportunity to thank the HLF, Paulette, Henry and David for giving me this excellent opportunity.
Anyway, onto some museum type stuff. One of the tasks I’ve been doing over the past couple of days up in the herbarium (where I’m based for the first couple of months) has been some restoration work on some of the boxed specimens in the collection. Even though it’s quite a simple job, I’ve found it very relaxing and enjoyable just sitting cleaning and repairing boxes and it’s great to see how much of an improvement a bit of damp tissue can do…
With warmer weather on the way we invite you to join us for Whitworth: Past, Present & Future: An outdoor tour for those interested in finding out more about the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester’s gallery in the park, whilst we undergo a £15 million redevelopment (opening Saturday, 25 October).
Sarah Sanders from the Visitor Services team leads the first tour
The Whitworth’s very own Visitor Team will take you back through the Gallery’s illustrious 125 year history, from its humble beginnings as Grove House, a gallery established ‘for the perpetual gratification of the people of Manchester’, right up to the present day. Hear about what the redeveloped Whitworth will offer: brand new exhibition spaces, a fabulous art garden designed by Sarah Price, the innovative Clore Learning Studio and more… All this whilst taking a stroll through Whitworth Park, with views of the original façade of the building and encounters with…
Join us for our last lunchtime talks, led by scientists from Manchester University, that explore the recent scientific discoveries and relationships between living things, exploring the place of war in nature and the idea of a ‘struggle for existence’
On Friday 6 June we’ll be joined by Dr Andrew Dean who will delve under the surface of the pond to look at predation and conflict at a microscopic level.
Beneath the surface of our lakes and ponds there is an array of plants, animals and bacteria all trying to survive and thrive in a watery war of nature. Many of these organisms are too small to be seen with the naked eye, yet when looked at under the microscope they reveal a beautiful, diverse and fascinating hidden world. This is the world of the plankton, where plants and the animals that feed on them can be as small as 1/200th…
Geranium sanguineum var. striatum (Walney Island geranium) found only on Walney island, to the west of Barrow-in-Furness, was spotted flowering this week on sand dunes by one of our botany volunteers.
The coral root orchid (Corallorhiza trifida) is a parasite growing in association with a fungus. It grows on the creeping willow at Sandscale Haws. It was found after arranging a visit with the warden, as it is endangered. Last year no plants were seen at this location but this year over 70 plants were counted.
Collections Team with their favourite objects
Ceramic watering can 
Sarah Sanders from the Visitor Services team leads the first tour 
Herbology Manchester 