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Below are some of the latest posts from the Manchester Museum blogs.

Archived blogs:

Disclaimer: Posts from blogs are used to provide further Museum related information. The Manchester Museum takes no responsibility for any loss or damage suffered as a result of using any information published on any of the pages linked to on third party websites.

Egypt at the Manchester Museum

  • Manchester Histories Festival Event: Egyptology in Manchester
    Manchester Histories Festival Friday 24 Feb 7 – 9pm Days Inn, Manchester Conference Centre £5 pay on the door Manchester Ancient Egypt Society (MAES), in association with the University of Manchester KNH Centre for Egyptology and Ancient Egypt Magazine, present a special public lecture as part of the Manchester Histories Festival. “Egyptology in Manchester” An [...]
    Posted on 9 February 2012 | 9:49 am
  • Texts in Translation #1: The Heart Scarab of Na-her-hu (Acc. No. 5998)
    Visitors sometimes comment that they would like to have access to translations of the hieroglyphic texts that appear on some of our Egyptian and Sudanese objects. We aim to provide these as a digital resource to complement the new Ancient Worlds galleries, and I will post them here as time – and work – allows. [...]
    Posted on 6 February 2012 | 1:45 pm
  • Object Biography #2: A label of King Djer (Acc. no. 6763a)
    This small (1.8 x 1.9 cm) piece of incised bone doesn’t look like much, but it comes from one of Pharaonic Egypt’s most hallowed places. The Umm el-Qaab (Arabic for ‘Mother of Pots’) area of Abydos was the burial place of the first kings of Egypt. Abydos was sacred to later Egyptians as the cult [...]
    Posted on 1 February 2012 | 12:07 pm

Palaeo Manchester

  • Climate change debate, why not come along?
    Do you want to find out a bit more about climate change and what you can do to make a difference? Then why not come to our climate change debate on the 23rd of February 2012 (6-8pm)? Your chance to pose questions to experts about climate change & sustainability in a Manchester & global context. [...]
    Posted on 3 February 2012 | 11:38 am
  • Scarabs at the Manchester Museum
    Here’s a great video of two of my colleagues chatting about scarab beetles. Why not visit their blogs: Egypt at the Manchester Museum Entomology Manchester  
    Posted on 26 January 2012 | 3:48 pm
  • Installing the new Plesiosaur case
    We’ve just finished installing the new Plesiosaur case. Here are some images from start to finish. The full story of the discovery of the Plesiosaur can be found on our website.
    Posted on 19 January 2012 | 3:17 pm

FROG BLOG MANCHESTER

  • +Culture Shots
    I’d like to say a big thanks to all the Salford University students who gave their talk today, well done guys, it was great! The next talk in the series is all about volunteer opportunities in the Ecuadorian rainforest – so if you’re interested in this be sure to keep an eye on the blog [...]
    Posted on 9 February 2012 | 8:10 pm
  • Next Talk Details..
    The next presentation in the new animal-based talk series will be given by a group of Salford University wildlife students and hosted in Manchester Museum on Thursday 9th February at 1pm. The students will be sharing their exciting first-hand experiences of a special time spent in Costa Rica last summer, and this will provide a [...]
    Posted on 2 February 2012 | 12:00 am
  • Workshop Wows!
    I would like to say a big thanks to everyone who came to the Wildlife photographic workshop last weekend, it was a fantastic couple of days and we had such a super bunch of people attend.       I would also like to thank Adam and Gretchen for their valued support and our Anna [...]
    Posted on 27 January 2012 | 8:47 pm

Learning at The Manchester Museum

  • Fun for Babies and their adults!
    The Treasure Basket sessions have now moved galleries here at The Manchester Museum,  they now take place on the 3rd floor in the Play & Learn Family area. This area is ideally located next to the picnic area which is useful as so much exploring can develop healthy appetites! High chairs are available for babies [...]
    Posted on 2 February 2012 | 4:53 pm
  • New dates for Treasure Basket events for babies at The Manchester Museum!
    Following the success of the Treasure Baskets events in November we have planned new dates for 2012! The sessions are for babies who are able to sit unsupported or experimenting with mobility and their adults. These sessions will initially take place in the Nature Discovery gallery with some sessions taking place in the Play & [...]
    Posted on 16 December 2011 | 3:55 pm
  • Big Saturday Family Events at The Manchester Museum!
    The Big Saturday Family events happen once a month here at The Manchester Museum with each event having a different focus; this year has seen events taking place focusing on Froglife, Ancient Egypt, Autumn on the allotment and Chocolate! Most activities are drop-in and are free, depending on the activity some may need to be [...]
    Posted on 13 December 2011 | 3:59 pm

Herbology Manchester

  • Climate Change Question Time
    This is the tiny Scottish primrose (Primula scotia) and these lovely specimens still have a hint of the purple colour of the fresh flowers. They are Scottish endemics (so they don’t grow anywhere else in the world) and even then they are only found on the far north-eastern coasts  along north-west Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney. This [...]
    Posted on 7 February 2012 | 11:36 am
  • Snowdrops: pearls of the opening year
    Putting away some specimens in the herbarium last week I noticed a folder labelled Nat. Ord. CLXXIV Amaryllaceae GENUS 8. Galanthus. Snowdrops! Unfortunately pressed flowers rarely keep their natural colours, and snowdrops are no exception – even though their petals are white.  The flowers turn brown and the leaves darken too.  Our cultivated collection also includes illustrations.  Below is a colour illustraion of [...]
    Posted on 31 January 2012 | 11:08 am
  • Winter trees for Urban Naturalist
    This afternoon I’ve been looking out specimens to show at tomorrows Urban Naturalists event on winter tree identification. It’s harder than you might think to find objects to show from the collection. Manchester’s botanists really liked leaves and flowers (which don’t really give the right feel for January) and curiosities (looking at abnormal growths probably won’t help much with [...]
    Posted on 27 January 2012 | 6:22 pm

ManCultural

  • The Lost Salford Sioux
    Several months ago now I had the good fortune to meet playwright Anjum Malik. Anjum was conducting research into the Native American performers who accompanied Buffalo Bill during their stay in Salford in the later 19th century. This research formed the basis of her play which was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to celebrate the opening [...]
    Posted on 10 January 2012 | 2:45 pm
  • Installation Design and the Exhibition of Oceanic Things: Two New York Museums in the 1940s
    On Wednesday 9th November , Kanaris Theatre, the Manchester Museum, from 3pm onwards Professor Robert Foster, University of Rochester, New York,  will be presenting his paper: Installation Design and the Exhibition of Oceanic Things: Two New York Museums in the 1940s  Further information regarding Professor Fosters research can be found at:  http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3771  The presentation is [...]
    Posted on 8 November 2011 | 2:25 pm
  • Gateway to Asia
    The Manchester Museum recently became an official member of Virtual Collection of Masterpieces, an ASEMUS – The Asia Europe Museum Network project. The sheer quality and international significance of the Living Cultures Asia collection secured our inclusion. We’re in good company, as other fellow members include such esteemed institutions as:  The British Museum The Museum [...]
    Posted on 2 November 2011 | 11:01 am

Nature Manchester

  • The Big Wildlife Garden
    Is your balcony an oasis for bees? Does your school pond fill up with frogspawn in the spring? Have you got wildflowers growing in your lawn? Are you helping out in a park to increase nesting birds? Whatever the scale, if you’re into wildlife gardening then this competition could be for you. The Royal Horticultural Society [...]
    Posted on 30 January 2012 | 5:16 pm
  • visit to Jodrell Bank yesterday
    I went to Jodrell Bank radioo telescope and visitor centre yesterday with university Sustainability Enthusiasts. Jodrell Bank is part of the University of Manchester (as is the museum). It was completely fascinating- with the famous white dish, really good science centre and fantastic arboretum. The tree collection, started by Sir Bernard Lovell, includes lots of [...]
    Posted on 8 November 2011 | 3:44 pm
  • We are ExtInked
    I had a fantastic experience yesterday, meeting Nick Dixon, who is an ExtInked ambassador for the Western Capercaillie. This was all the more interesting for me as I did some surveying work on these birds in Scotland many years ago. Nick and I were photographed on a Victorian glass plate camera. If you’re intrigued by [...]
    Posted on 1 November 2011 | 4:21 pm

Conservation at The Manchester Museum

  • How do you turn a whale?
    With difficulty – but it can be done, with planning, experienced staff and the help of a professional heavy lifting company. We have been asked to look at the possibility of turning the whale skeleton in the Mammal’s gallery as part of the redevelopment of the new Living Planet gallery,  so that visitors might get [...]
    Posted on 20 October 2010 | 9:33 am
  • Progress through the Museum
    Many of the wrapped animals and birds have now made their progress through the gallery to be frozen on the next stage on their journey, looking like very badly disguised Christmas presents in their plastic wrappings. The freezing will hopefully destroy any pests lurking in the their fur or feathers and they will then be [...]
    Posted on 21 September 2010 | 3:59 pm
  • All the animals are moving
    It is all change on the Mammals gallery at the moment – all the animals and skeletons are being removed from the cases for the first time in many years, to make way for the fit out work that needs to be done in the gallery space for the redevelopment of the galleries over the  [...]
    Posted on 21 September 2010 | 3:32 pm

AncientWorldsManchester

  • Pretender Unmasked?
    Now seems to be the season for finding lots of interesting stories about fakes and forgeries and objects that might not be what they seem at first glance. We are putting some fakes and forgeries as well as copies of objects in the Ancient Worlds displays opening on 30th October. Just before Xmas a member [...]
    Posted on 9 February 2012 | 9:43 am
  • Object Biography #1: A vessel naming Nesi-khonsu (Acc. no. 6736)
    © Paul Cliff / Victoria Hayden Each month I hope to highlight an individual object that will feature in our new Ancient Worlds galleries. Many of the objects in the collection have incredible stories behind them but, due to an inevitable lack of space, these cannot be included fully in gallery labels or text panels. [...]
    Posted on 17 January 2012 | 9:34 am
  • Ancient Worlds and Modern Technology : Egyptology, Haptics and 3D scans
    In April 2011, we embarked on a new initiative to work with Christopher Dean (TADs – Touch and Discover systems) in the development of touch-based ‘haptic’ 3-D technology for the new galleries, which we hope be a means of increasing access for blind and partially sighted visitors. The project has attracted funding from a European [...]
    Posted on 16 January 2012 | 2:57 pm

Entomology Manchester

  • Climate change question time – The Manchester Museum
    23 February 2012 6-8pm. Your chance to pose questions to experts about climate change & sustainability in a Manchester & global context. With experts from the University of Manchester and other leading research centres and taking place in the Museum’s Living Worlds gallery. You can send your questions in advance to museum@manchester.ac.uk or bring them [...]
    Posted on 3 February 2012 | 2:15 pm

  • The Sacred Scarab, apparently the most famous beetle on the Earth, was a symbol of resurrection and reincarnation in ancient Egypt, called there Khepri – the life giving force deity. Occasionally, the Scarabs roll their pellets from the east to the west, the same path taken by the sun, that evoked the metaphor of world [...]
    Posted on 27 January 2012 | 9:39 am
  • Our visitors – unusual transformation of a butterfly wing
    The ManchesterMuseum’s Entomology Department welcomes a wide array of visitors, from scientists coming to study our extensive insect collections to designers and artists exploring the diversity of shapes, colours or patterns of the many thousands of creepy-crawlies deposited here. An interesting project has been undertaken by the MMU’s photography student Renata Lazdauskiene. Renata was first [...]
    Posted on 28 November 2011 | 4:31 pm

New Light on Old Bones

  • Destruction and preservation in museums
    Myna Trustram writes… To further pick up on David’s post, ‘Honesty and illusion in museums’: I think that one of the things we do to shelter ourselves from the reality of death is to run museums. You might say then … Continue reading →
    Posted on 12 September 2011 | 9:00 am
  • Unrealised Proposal for Cadavre Piece, 1970
    Myna Trustram writes… David’s post about the display of dead bodies – whether animal or human – put me immediately in mind of a possible future exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery where a dead human body will be displayed. Those … Continue reading →
    Posted on 5 September 2011 | 9:00 am
  • Honesty and illusion in museums
    Twitter is brilliant for finding out about really interesting stuff you may otherwise have missed. In the last couple of weeks, to really interesting examples of museum NS displays have been brought to my attention. The first, from Elee Kirk … Continue reading →
    Posted on 29 August 2011 | 9:00 am

Manchester King Monkey...

  • Chinese Archaeologists Unearth 2,400-year-old ‘Soup’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11981666
    Posted on 13 December 2010 | 2:21 pm
  • Imperial Chinese Robes from the Forbidden City
    http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/imperial-chinese-robes/
    Posted on 2 December 2010 | 2:30 pm
  • A Little Piece of China in Ardwick
    On Friday 22nd October we installed  the China: Journey of the East off-site exhibition in the Manchester Chinese Centre, Ardwick. This is the fourth in a successful series of off-site exhibitions as managed by Andrea Winn Curator of Community Exhibitions. Jenny Wong, Director of the Manchester Chinese Centre, and some volunteers selected a number of [...]
    Posted on 2 November 2010 | 3:35 pm

Dinosaur CSI

  • Palimpsests, Palaeontology and Particle Physics!
    February marks the start of my teaching at the University of Manchester. Until the summer, I will be convincing my 2nd year undergraduate students that Vertebrate Palaeontology & Evolution is of the most utmost importance to them...in the case of my 3rd years, that Applied Techniques in Palaeontology is of equal import. My 1st year tutor group is getting to grips with peer-reviewed papers and unraveling hypothesis-driven science. This is my favourite time of yea [...]
    Posted on 7 February 2012 | 9:30 pm
  • Synchrotron, Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
    The ten days of beam time at SSRL has played havoc with my body-clock....just driving to San Francisco Airport...I already felt the classic symptoms of jet-lag. This was before the 3-hour time zone change to Eastern Standard Time in Philadelphia, before my final hop to Greenwich Mean Time (good old GMT) later this week.Roy Wogelius, Phil Manning and Holly Barden...resetting their circadian rhythms at SSRL.Our body clock, or Circadian Rhythm, operates on a 24-hour cycle that impacts our [...]
    Posted on 25 January 2012 | 4:39 am
  • Who needs sleep....me!
    Working at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource is awesome. You get to image chemical ghosts of past life, using the stunning array of technology at beam-line 6-2. Here, we trip the light fantastic...very, very brightly. The x-ray beam generated is roughly 1 million times brighter than the sun....all courtesy of some protesting electrons being driven around the synchrotron, just below the speed of light.The 200 meter diameter synchrotron gently hums all day, delivering i [...]
    Posted on 17 January 2012 | 3:51 am

Whitworth Parklife

  • The 2011 Dig: The view from an old architect – by Ken Shone
    I suppose I approached this with a lot of baggage! When we first started the Friends group, I had seen with Julian Tomlin, the early photos and the postcards from Bruce Anderson’s collection and I felt as though I knew … Continue reading →
    Posted on 6 February 2012 | 10:22 am
  • UniverCityCulture Video
      Our project features in this new film by the UniverCityCulture project, which aims to make research from the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures that is about Manchester’s culture and heritage, more visible to students, staff, and visitors.
    Posted on 13 December 2011 | 9:54 am
  • October 2011
    During the excavation, we were contacted by Manchester Academy’s Deaf Class, whose classroom overlooks the park. The students were very interested in the excavation but were unable to organise a field visit, so after the end of the dig, we … Continue reading →
    Posted on 23 November 2011 | 10:21 am

a musing platform

  • Tuseday Talks:Tomorrow- Cornelia Parker
    Cornelia Parker Nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997, Cornelia Parker is perhaps best-known for a number of large-scale installations including Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, and The Maybe, a collaboration with actress Tilda Swinton, who appeared sleeping inside a vitrine at the Serpentine Gallery. Fascinated with processes in the world that mimic cartoon ‘deaths’ – [...]
    Posted on 6 February 2012 | 2:26 pm
  • Elin O’Hara Slavick talk at Whitworth Art Gallery
    Friday 13 January Talk starts at 2pm, free To mark the end of the exhibition Dark Matters: Shadow_Technology_Art at the Whitworth , we are delighted to welcome participating American artist Elin O’Hara Slavick to the gallery to speak about her fascinating work. Slavick’s works of abstract beauty expose the horror of war and, in particular the aftermath of bombing. Slavick will speak [...]
    Posted on 10 January 2012 | 6:04 pm
  • Tomorrow: Symposium: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2pm, Free
    The creators of Air Pressure will talk about their work and the ways that art-science collaborations illuminate the social, political and ethical issues in the public understanding of science. They will be joined by speakers from Japan to reflect on the Air Pressure project, and discuss examples of disaster and disease in Japan and elsewhere. [...]
    Posted on 4 January 2012 | 12:22 pm

Manchester Museum Youth Board

  • Wonderful Whitworth Wildlife Big Saturday
    Join us for a festival of fun in Whitworth Park at our WonderfulWhitworth Wildlife big Saturday to help us create a wildlife area, specificallyfor the symbol of our city, the Bee, but that our entire community can enjoy!  Whether you’re interested in plants, animals,natural history or just want to discover something new there’s an activity foreveryone. On the day there will be loads of brilliantly fun activites and you could be helping create agreen, animal friendly environment tha [...]
    Posted on 31 January 2012 | 7:27 pm
  • Bee species rediscovered after 65 years
    Let's keep this bee ahive ;)A species of bee believed to be extinct in Britain has been found in East Sussex, 65 years after it was last seen. A study by entomology Steven Falk shows the Halictus eurygnathus, a solitary species of bee, is at seven sites on the South Downs.Falk found that the main requirement of the bee is an abundance of greater knapweed, which is one of the special flowers of chalk grassland.The study also recorded a total of 227 bee and wasp species du [...]
    Posted on 29 January 2012 | 2:58 pm
  • Pesticides blamed for bee decline
    From the Independent on Sunday.Compelling new evidence from the US government's top bee expert that modern pesticides may be a major cause of collapsing bee populations led to calls yesterday for the chemicals to be banned.A study published in the current issue of the German science journal Naturwissenschaften, reveals how bees given minute doses of the widely used pesticide imidacloprid became more vulnerable to infections from a deadly parasite, nosema.Bee experts described this as clear evide [...]
    Posted on 29 January 2012 | 2:47 pm

Archived blogs

Lindow Manchester

  • Lindow Man at the Manchester Museum Blog 2010 in review
    The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!. Crunchy numbers A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,500 times in 2010. That’s about [...]
    Posted on 2 January 2011 | 7:32 pm
  • Alan Partridge and Bog Axe
    Stephen Welsh kindly sent me a link to Mid Morning Matters, on U-Tube , by Steve Coogan’s comic persona, Alan Partridge,  based around the idea of the 100 most famous Norfolk people. Horatio Nelson, Delia Smith and Egyptologist Howard Carter are in the list. Alan Partridge says Carter was responsible for Time Team (!) and a describes a [...]
    Posted on 8 December 2010 | 12:28 pm
  • Lindow Man talk to University of Manchester Archaeology Students
    At the beginning of this term I met Andy Michaelas, a first year archaeology student at the University of Manchester. He was very keen to start up the students’ archaeology society again. He kindly asked me to give a talk to the students on the subject of Lindow Man.  Going over some of the earlier presentations I [...]
    Posted on 18 November 2010 | 3:23 pm

The Manchester Museum Myths About Race Blog

  • Twenty per cent of British voters agree with BNP
    Twenty per cent of British voters agree with BNP 19 May 2009 New evidence has revealed that the extreme right in Britain is only realising a fraction of its electoral potential. Dr Rob Ford from The University of Manchester found … Continue reading →
    Posted on 19 May 2009 | 9:17 am
  • Deepening tolerance makes British Obama ‘possible’ says Putnam
    The UK has the necessary preconditions for the emergence of a black prime minister according to a joint study by Harvard University and The University of Manchester. The project, to be published in book later this year co-authored by writer … Continue reading →
    Posted on 26 March 2009 | 11:13 am
  • ‘Myths’ threaten racial harmony, say population experts
    Using previously unpublished evidence, Professor Ludi Simpson and Dr Nissa Finney from The University of Manchester show how repeated falsehoods about immigration, integration and segregation are misguiding policy and promoting racial disharmony. This is the basis of the authors’ new … Continue reading →
    Posted on 22 January 2009 | 11:01 am

Enquiremanchester's Weblog

  • How’d the Young Curators do and what’s next….
    The young curators from Manchester Creative Media Academy (Boys) did a fine job of putting on exhibitions here at the Museum. They followed a creative curatorial process to design exhibitions, which would appeal to the diverse audience that visits The Manchester Museum. One group devised an exhibition for the ‘young children’ that frequent the Manchester [...]
    Posted on 3 May 2011 | 5:01 pm
  • Coming soon…
    I’ll be putting together a new blog post next week…. I’ll be telling you how our Young Curators got on (amazingly!) and telling you what’s coming next for Arty things at the Manchester Museum. We have lots to report on the ‘direction’ of the Arts programming here. It’s all very exciting and will bring out [...]
    Posted on 21 April 2011 | 4:51 pm
  • What’s going on…
    Hello everyone. My name is Dena Bagi, and I’ve recently taken control of the arty happenings here at Manchester Museum. I am really excited about the next few months – we have loads going on! Young curators have been let loose on the collection at the Museum, independent creatives will be exploring the Museum with [...]
    Posted on 22 February 2011 | 1:49 pm

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Blogs

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