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Jul. 25th, 2004 09:46 pmTwo long posts forthcoming after I've slept. For now, a placeholder.
Jul. 25th, 2004
Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museums
Jul. 25th, 2004 10:11 pm(Post begun evening of 24 July but finished later...)
This afternoon's trip was to the Natural History Museum and to the Pitt Rivers Museum. The Natural History Museum was a natural history museum - though I was able to show the Aussies what an armadillo looks like, as they had a stuffed one. Other Natural History stuff was pretty typical of that sort of museum. But they did have a 4.8 billion year old meteorite bit. Old space rock! And you could touch it! Also a stuffed jaguar with a sign that said "please touch me". He was really soft.
Pitt Rivers was by far the highlight of the afternoon. I've been describing it as "Indiana Jones puked all over the room." It's a hodgepodge display of all sorts of random stuff that was collected by British explorers from all over the world. The ground floor is just case after case after case of STUFF. A whole row of apple corers from all over the world. A whole display of bobbin-lace equipment. And, in a case labeled "treatment of enemies" (or something like that), skulls and SHRUNKEN HEADS! (These were the major motivation in our trip to this museum, I have to admit.) They were kinda gross, but also there was a description of how they were made. The rough "recipe" goes like this:
( Cut for the squeamish )
This process can turn a normal human head into something the size of a small apple. Shocking, really.
Trying in my post-Stonehenge and Bath stupor to think of the other cool things that were there... a really great display of keys & locks dating from the 13th to the 20th century and from a bunch of different cultures (the 20th century lock was wood; the 13th century ones were iron). A huge case of armor and various sorts of spears, ax heads, a whole case of rapiers (some pre-17th-century, some now) followed by a whole case of blow darts followed shortly by a cross-cultural and multi-temporal look at tattooing As JH put it, "This isn't how the Smithsonian would organize things." Oh, that was another funny juxtaposition. In one case, labeled "body modification", there were: surgical instruments, a corset, and neck rings (the ones used to elongate the necks of women in that one particular African tribe...). How random is that?
This afternoon's trip was to the Natural History Museum and to the Pitt Rivers Museum. The Natural History Museum was a natural history museum - though I was able to show the Aussies what an armadillo looks like, as they had a stuffed one. Other Natural History stuff was pretty typical of that sort of museum. But they did have a 4.8 billion year old meteorite bit. Old space rock! And you could touch it! Also a stuffed jaguar with a sign that said "please touch me". He was really soft.
Pitt Rivers was by far the highlight of the afternoon. I've been describing it as "Indiana Jones puked all over the room." It's a hodgepodge display of all sorts of random stuff that was collected by British explorers from all over the world. The ground floor is just case after case after case of STUFF. A whole row of apple corers from all over the world. A whole display of bobbin-lace equipment. And, in a case labeled "treatment of enemies" (or something like that), skulls and SHRUNKEN HEADS! (These were the major motivation in our trip to this museum, I have to admit.) They were kinda gross, but also there was a description of how they were made. The rough "recipe" goes like this:
( Cut for the squeamish )
This process can turn a normal human head into something the size of a small apple. Shocking, really.
Trying in my post-Stonehenge and Bath stupor to think of the other cool things that were there... a really great display of keys & locks dating from the 13th to the 20th century and from a bunch of different cultures (the 20th century lock was wood; the 13th century ones were iron). A huge case of armor and various sorts of spears, ax heads, a whole case of rapiers (some pre-17th-century, some now) followed by a whole case of blow darts followed shortly by a cross-cultural and multi-temporal look at tattooing As JH put it, "This isn't how the Smithsonian would organize things." Oh, that was another funny juxtaposition. In one case, labeled "body modification", there were: surgical instruments, a corset, and neck rings (the ones used to elongate the necks of women in that one particular African tribe...). How random is that?