New displays at Market Hall Museum
Launching this week are two new collections for visitors to enjoy in the upstairs galleries at the Warwickshire Museum.
After a busy year moving thousands of objects to a new museum stores facility, curators have now re displayed some of the cases at Market Hall Museum, Warwick for visitors to explore.
Dorothy's Day Out celebrates the far-reaching achievements of local botanist Dorothy Cadbury (1892 - 1987), and the 50th anniversary of the publication of the ground-breaking 'Computer Mapped Flora of Warwickshire', to which Dorothy was a major contributor'. The display captures the spirit of a day out in the field with Dorothy, recording and collecting plant data, back in the 1950s.
Curator of Natural Sciences, Dr Jon Radley says, 'Dorothy Cadbury was one of the first Warwickshire Citizen Scientists. Today, her tradition, skill and enthusiasm live on through a thriving county network of natural history recorders, providing invaluable data, helping us understand habitat and climate change.'
'Showing Off: Status symbols from Alfred the Great to Victoria' explores how people used their possessions and the clothes they wore to show how wealthy and fashionable they were. Some objects are familiar, like gold jewellery and a fine silk waistcoat, but others like King Alfred's aestal and the beautifully embroidered casket are stranger status symbols to us.
Curator of Human History, Sara Wear says, "This has been a great opportunity to show off some of the wonderful objects we have in the collections through a theme that we all recognise. The new displays are set around the biggest Tudor status symbol we have, the Sheldon Tapestry Map of Warwickshire."
Market Hall Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10am - 5pm. Entry is free, donations are welcomed to support the museum.
