Yorkshire Museum
Coordinates: 53°57′42″N 1°05′15″W / 53.96180°N 1.08744°W
| Yorkshire Museum | |
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| Established | 1830 |
| Location | York, England |
| Director | Mary Kershaw, York Museums Trust |
| Website | www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk |
The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It is the home of the Cawood sword, and has four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy. It underwent a major refurbishment from November 2009 to 1 August 2010, with major structural changes and a re-development of all existing galleries.
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[edit] History
The Museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society to accommodate their geological and archaeological collections, and was originally housed in Ousegate, York, until the site became too small. In 1828 the society received by royal grant, ten acres (0.040 km²) of land formerly belonging to St Mary’s Abbey in order to build a new museum. The main building of the museum is called the Yorkshire Museum and was designed by William Wilkins in a Greek Revival style and is a Grade I listed building. It was officially opened in February 1830, which makes it one of the longest established museums in England. A condition of the royal grant was that the land surrounding the museum building should be a botanic gardens and one was created in the 1830s. The botanic gardens are now known as the Museum Gardens. On 26 September 1831 the inaugural meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was held at the Yorkshire Museum.[1]
The Tempest Anderson Hall was built in 1912 as an annex to the museum, and is an early example of a reinforced concrete building. It is used as a conference venue and lecture theatre.
In 1960 the Museum, along with the Museum Gardens, were given in trust to York City Council, its successor the City of York Council in 2002 set up the York Museums Trust to manage the York Castle Museum, York Art Gallery, the Yorkshire Museum and the Museum Gardens.[2][3]
The museum closed in November 2009 for a major refurbishment and reopened on 1 August 2010, Yorkshire Day. The £2 million scheme was largely carried out by the museum's own staff, who restructured the interior of the building and re-decorated it. The result is three major sections: "Eboracum: Face to Face with the Romans", "York: The Power and the Glory" (Anglian, Viking and Medieval York), and "Extinct: A way of life" a "fun, family-oriented gallery" featuring fossils, skeletons and animal specimens. There will also be a "History of York" section and "Enquiry - The Learning Level".[4]
[edit] Collections
The four permanent collections at the museum all have English designated collection status, which means they are "pre-eminent collections of national and international importance".[5] The collection began in the 1820s with the collection of animal bones and fossils from Kirkdale Cave.[6]
[edit] Biology
The biology collection contains 200,000 specimens, including both fauna and flora, with the majority of the collection made up of insects. There are two stuffed specimens of the extinct great auk, an almost complete skeleton of an extinct moa and a large collection of specimens from the Yorkshire region including the remains of elephants, cave bears and hyena from Kirkdale Cave dated to the Quaternary period, around 125,000 years.
[edit] Geology
The geology collection contains over 112,500 specimens of rocks, minerals and fossils. Fossils make up the majority of the collection numbering over 100,000 samples, and include important specimens from the Carboniferous, Mesozoic and Tertiary periods.
[edit] Astonomy
The astronomy collection is mainly kept in the Observatory in Museum Gardens with some telescopes kept at the Castle Museum in York.[7]
[edit] Archaeology
The archaeology collection has close to a million objects that date from around 500,000 BC to the 20th century. Significant object include the Coppergate Helmet, discovered in York in 1982, and the Ormside Bowl, found in Cumbria, an intricate example of work by an Anglian silversmith. In 1992 the Yorkshire Museum paid two and a half million pounds for the Middleham Jewel which was originally found by Ted Seaton using a metal detector at Middleham, North Yorkshire.[8] The jewel is a gold diamond-shaped pendant with a blue sapphire at the top dating to around 1460 that is engraved with a picture of the Christian Trinity on the front and of the Nativity of Jesus on the back.[9][10]
Most of the objects from the Roman, Anglo Scandinavian and Medieval periods are from York and Yorkshire area. After the Museum reopened from its refit in 2010 the first gallery in the museum displays parts the the Roman collection focusing on objects from Eboracum, Roman York. A statue of the Roman God Mars found is prominently displayed, and there is an interactive display describing the lives of some of the Romans whose remain have been found in York.[11] The final record of the famous lost Roman legion, the ninth legion is on display as part of the Roman gallery. The stone inscription dated to Trajan twelfth year as emperor, between 10 December 107 to 9 December 108, and commemorates the legions rebuilding in stone the south eastern wall of Eboracum's legionary fortress.[12] The BBC reports that "Experts have described it the finest example of Romano British inscription in existence."[12]
The museum also has a collection of studio pottery consisting of over 3,500 pieces that represent more than 500 potters. These were bequeathed to the Yorkshire Museum by Wakefield librarian Bill Ismay in 2001. The collection can be seen in York Art Gallery.[13]
- Objects from the archaeology collection
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Bun of Roman hair from the late third to early fourth century
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Ormside bowl
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The front of the Middleham Jewel showing the Crucifixion of Jesus
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The 8th century Coppergate Helmet
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The 9th century Gilling sword with silver decorated handle
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Carved Medieval Boss from St. Mary's Abbey
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[edit] Events
The museum has Finds Days in the main Yorkshire Museum building where members of the national British Portable Antiquities Scheme and museum staff will identify objects brought to them by members of the public. The information is also recorded to help build up a more complete archaeological picture of the past.[14]
[edit] Vale of York Viking hoard
A Viking 10th century niello silver-gilt pot full of coins was found near Harrogate in 2007. It was valued at £1,082,000 and acquired jointly by the British Museum and the York Museums Trust. After being cleaned by the conservation department of the British Museum it was displayed at the Yorkshire Museum from 17 September 2009 for a period of six weeks before moving to the British Museum.[15][16] It is planned that the hoard will be displayed in the museum again when it reopens after refurbishment on 1 August 2010.
[edit] References
- ^ Willis, Ronald (1988), The illustrated portrait of York, Robert Hale Limited, 4th Edition, ISBN 0-7090-3468-7, Page 176.
- ^ Yorkshire Philosophical Society history, Yorkshire Philosophical Society (2007), retrieved on 24 June 2007
- ^ Yorkshire Museum & Gardens, York Museums Trust (2007), retrieved on 24 June 2007
- ^ "Massive £2m Refurbishment for Museum". Yorkshire Museum. 2 March 2009. http://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/Page/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?ArticleId=16. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
- ^ MLA Programmes designation, The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (2007), retrieved on 4 September 2007
- ^ Pearce, Susan M. (1996). Exploring science in museums. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 35-39. ISBN 9780485900064. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eYDoq5FKMSYC&pg=PA38&dq=geology+%22Yorkshire+Museum%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NdtQT4DPGYqi0QXs6IH_Cw&ved=0CGsQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=geology%20%22Yorkshire%20Museum%22&f=false.
- ^ Biology, Geology and Astronomy, York Museums Trust (2006), retrieved on 8 September 2007.
- ^ The Middleham Jewel, The Art Fund, retrieved on 13 October 2007.
- ^ Archaeology, York Museums Trust (2006), retrieved on 24 June 2007.
- ^ Cherry, John (1994), The Middleham Jewel and Ring, The Yorkshire Museum, ISBN 0-905807-12-X Pages 4 and 24 to 26.
- ^ Morrison, Andrew (25 October 2010). "The Yorkshire Museum Refit: Did it “Let the Light In”?". The University of York. http://www.york.ac.uk/ipup/events/seminars/morrison.html. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ a b "Yorkshire Museum marks 'lost' Roman legion". BBC. 29 March 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-12862028. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ Celebrating Ceramics – a trio of exhibitions for Yorkshire York Tourism Bureau (2005) retrieved 14 October 2007
- ^ Object Identification, York Museums Trust (2006), retrieved on 14 October 2007.
- ^ Timpson, Trevor (17 September 2009). "BBC News Channel". Getting the most out of treasure. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8254865.stm. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
- ^ "Viking Hoard". Yorkshire Museum. 1 September 2009. http://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/Page/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?ArticleId=22. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
[edit] External links
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