Today I took my first trip to Birmingham Museum. To be honest, that’s pretty surprising considering I love so close to it, and I’m not exactly afraid to travel alone, but nevertheless I had neglected it for 21 years. Until Today.
I visited it with my new friend H, which was both a ‘getting to know you’ trip, and also to help me feel less awkward about joining my new - and first - Living History group the day after. No doubt there will be a post all about that tomorrow: I'm very excited.
But anyway, I got off the train safe and sound, and after getting lunch we headed out to the museum. Ever eager to expand my ‘Visual Library’ for my job, the first thing we did was ask
at the front desk if photography is allowed, and it was, with the exclusion of
the hoard, and an exhibition of portraits of Native Americans. That suited me
fine, although I would have loved to have gotten some photos of the horde for
my own reference beyond the ones on the website (for those who don’t follow me, I’ve been doing a
lot of historical illustrations recently, including a copy of the helmet cheek
plate that is so recognizable in this collection).
The majority of the exhibitions seem to be art based, which to be honest isn’t my cup of tea, after studying art of so long. You really start to get sick of art galleries, especially modern art, but luckily, my friend felt the same, and we really breezed through the more 'out there' installation pieces which didn't impress half as much as the much more technically accomplished works, which were arranged in seperate rooms by time period, which I thought was a nice touch. There were a lot of pieces that I not only enjoyed, but ended up pretty much memorizing, one of my favorites being this:
That said, there are a lot of interesting historical finds on display in the Birmingham museum, namely the famous Staffordshire Hoard. For those who don’t know, the hoard is a huge find of Anglo Saxon gold from Hammerwich, near Lichfield that at 35,000 pieces is so large that it’s not only the largest find ever, but it’s larger than all of the other finds put together. Pretty impressive, no?
The majority of the exhibitions seem to be art based, which to be honest isn’t my cup of tea, after studying art of so long. You really start to get sick of art galleries, especially modern art, but luckily, my friend felt the same, and we really breezed through the more 'out there' installation pieces which didn't impress half as much as the much more technically accomplished works, which were arranged in seperate rooms by time period, which I thought was a nice touch. There were a lot of pieces that I not only enjoyed, but ended up pretty much memorizing, one of my favorites being this:
I'm sorry to say that all the images I could find of it online don't do it justice - the painting has such an alluring feel to it, with its superior technical expertise, especially on the fur around her waist, not to mention the subject matter itself. I looked around the prints in the giftshop for a copy, but alas, I came up empty.
That said, there are a lot of interesting historical finds on display in the Birmingham museum, namely the famous Staffordshire Hoard. For those who don’t know, the hoard is a huge find of Anglo Saxon gold from Hammerwich, near Lichfield that at 35,000 pieces is so large that it’s not only the largest find ever, but it’s larger than all of the other finds put together. Pretty impressive, no?
The exhibition is in a pretty small room right now
considering it’s historical importance, but apparently the collection is going
to be moved to a much larger room thanks to a 700,000 pound grant from the
National Lottery fund, so I’m really looking forward to that. For the moment
though, I can’t really fault it either. There are a lot of plaques telling the
story of the hoard, both in terms of its discovery and historical context, as
well as various interactive elements, including a sword and seax which can be
hefted by the public to get a better idea of the weight of the weapons which
the artifacts were taken from. There is
also a TV playing the 2 part National Geographic documentaries in the corner on
a loop, and a very dedicated and informative guide on duty (although I can’t guarantee
he’ll be there when you go of course, you might get someone useless).
Further into the museum there is a lot of stuff on the founding and development of Birmingham, which will appeal to those of you interested in more modern historical facts, but for those of you who, like me, are more interested in older civilizations, they have an impressive collection of Grecian, Roman and Egyptian artifacts. The most impressive of those being their Egyptian room.
Further into the museum there is a lot of stuff on the founding and development of Birmingham, which will appeal to those of you interested in more modern historical facts, but for those of you who, like me, are more interested in older civilizations, they have an impressive collection of Grecian, Roman and Egyptian artifacts. The most impressive of those being their Egyptian room.
Usually a museum which has a collection of Egyptian artefacts will play to the crowds - a mummy here, something treasure-like there, and everyone leaves happy. But this museum went into more detail and breadth than that, which I really appreciate. There was a lot of artifacts which I honestly had never seen before in the flesh, such as glass eyeliner jars, and large carvings from wall reliefs and tablets.
All in all, I really enjoyed the museum. I even picked up this gem from the giftshop - a silver reproduction of one of the memorable pieces from the hoard, the sea horse. Snazzy.
All in all, I really enjoyed the museum. I even picked up this gem from the giftshop - a silver reproduction of one of the memorable pieces from the hoard, the sea horse. Snazzy.
No comments:
Post a Comment