The inspiration for our Cabinet of Curiosities show was a Victorian toilet bowl from a gentlemen’s club. It was donated a number of years ago but we never had an opportunity to display it.
It began a conversation about how we could highlight other unusual objects that didn’t fit the themes of regular exhibitions.
This would also be a chance to show a cross-section of the of the social history collection we have accumulated since opening the new library, art gallery and museum in 2000.
There were some large objects such as laundry boxes, suitcases and drums, which I thought would work well visually, while others were selected for their uniqueness, such as a beautiful Viking ring, pairs of scissors belonging to the barber who cut the jet engine pioneer and local hero Frank Whittle’s hair and the control panel that was used to detect frost on the telecommunication masts at the Rugby Radio Station.
Another unusual item is the metal tonsil guillotine used at the Hospital of St Cross in the late 19th century. While prongs held the tonsils in place, two blades could be operated to cut them off. These devices were eventually replaced by forceps and scalpels due to the large amount of haemorrhaging caused by their imprecise nature, which often left tonsils in pieces.
The museum has a permanent gallery of archaeology from the nearby Roman site of Tripontium, but I also wanted to include items from that site in the cabinet and chose glass from the bath house windows, fragments of quern stone and animal bones and teeth.
There are also some black rubber over-shoes that came from a nuclear bunker in one of the old council buildings from about 1982. I knew we had a bunker but did not realise we had these in the collection until I came across them in the store, along with some protective clothing.
Catherine Shanahan is the collections officer at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. The Cabinet of Curiosities is on display at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum until 10 March
It began a conversation about how we could highlight other unusual objects that didn’t fit the themes of regular exhibitions.
This would also be a chance to show a cross-section of the of the social history collection we have accumulated since opening the new library, art gallery and museum in 2000.
There were some large objects such as laundry boxes, suitcases and drums, which I thought would work well visually, while others were selected for their uniqueness, such as a beautiful Viking ring, pairs of scissors belonging to the barber who cut the jet engine pioneer and local hero Frank Whittle’s hair and the control panel that was used to detect frost on the telecommunication masts at the Rugby Radio Station.
Another unusual item is the metal tonsil guillotine used at the Hospital of St Cross in the late 19th century. While prongs held the tonsils in place, two blades could be operated to cut them off. These devices were eventually replaced by forceps and scalpels due to the large amount of haemorrhaging caused by their imprecise nature, which often left tonsils in pieces.
The museum has a permanent gallery of archaeology from the nearby Roman site of Tripontium, but I also wanted to include items from that site in the cabinet and chose glass from the bath house windows, fragments of quern stone and animal bones and teeth.
There are also some black rubber over-shoes that came from a nuclear bunker in one of the old council buildings from about 1982. I knew we had a bunker but did not realise we had these in the collection until I came across them in the store, along with some protective clothing.
Catherine Shanahan is the collections officer at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. The Cabinet of Curiosities is on display at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum until 10 March
