When the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences announced plans to revamp its historic displays, academic feathers at its parent university were ruffled. Fears of dumbing down were aired in the consultation discussions that were laid on to smooth the transition.
The museum, which sits in the rarefied atmosphere of a classic Cambridge quadrangle, holds Britain's oldest intact geological
collection.
John Woodward collected 10,000 rare specimens of fossil and rock in the 17th century. A century or so later Adam Sedgwick added to the collection and built a major geological school in Cambridge. The Sedgwick Museum was opened to the public in 1904 as a permanent memorial to him.
Until recently, the display of fossils, minerals and rocks remained unchanged. Indeed, there are still some areas of the museum where it is still possible to see the complex academic labels and an approach to displays that is object-rich, but interpretation-light.
In 1999, the museum was awarded a grant from the Designation Challenge Fund to improve access to the collections. Liz Hide, the Cambridge University museums development officer, says the aim was to create a more welcoming and comfortable atmosphere while retaining the intellectual content.
The main beneficiary of this £30,000 has been the Oak Wing. The gallery was dominated by the oak display cabinets and dense displays of small fossils and dark rocks.
But Hide says they didn't want to lose the focus on the specimens and because of the building's Grade II listing, which included fixtures and fittings, they could not do anything too radical.
A few of the cases have been removed to provide seating areas so that visitors can read the additional information provided in flipbooks beside each display. The gallery is divided into bays by the cases, with each bay holding a central glass-topped desk case - also in oak.
Despite the desire to retain an emphasis on objects, Hide admits there is a lot less on show now. Forty per cent of the collection is in the museum and 60 per cent in off-site, purpose-built storage where it can conserved and is available for research.
The uprights have a 'chocolate box' display of fascinating fossils (and some rather plain rocks). The natural divide created by the cabinets meant each bay could be themed as part of the redisplay.
The far corner of the wing holds a replica of the study of John Woodward complete with walnut cases crammed with his fossil collection - or we presume they are. Disappointingly visitors are not allowed into the room and must view it from behind glass.
This is a shame, as one of Woodward's stipulations when he bequeathed his collection to the museum was that the fossils should be available 'gratis, to all such curious and intelligent persons as shall desire a view of them for their information and instruction'. Clearly, an early advocate of free entry.
The rest of the display is a chronological tour from the Wenlock Reefs through the Burgess Shale and beyond. The bays on one side of the gallery are devoted to geological periods and have helpful user-friendly tags: The Age of the Plants; Seas and Swamps, etc.
The displays manage to bring to life a period that is unimaginably long ago with layered interpretation, focus on key objects and models recreating life as it may have looked. But fossils - even the pre-dinosaur sort - are intrinsically interesting, and the museum has plenty of child- and family-friendly activities.
However as this is the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, rocks and suchlike must be dealt with. Opposite the fossils are the bays covering the solar system, volcanoes and rock cycles that are dressed up as Planet Earth, Restless Earth and Building Rocks - the interpretation and graphics are good but it really does depend on whether rocks are your thing.
The rest of the collection has not been redisplayed. Hide says they wanted to retain the contrast between the old and new displays to show how labelling and interpretation have changed.
One part of the collection that will be redisplayed are the rock specimens from the HMS Beagle voyage. The museum's holding of several thousand of these rocks is currently displayed in desk cases, with little to indicate that some of the original labels are in Darwin's hand, and no interpretation to explain that long before the publication of the Origin of the Species, Darwin was a geologist who made some important and lasting discoveries.
Cambridge academics needn't have worried about dumbing down. What the Sedgwick has done is make its slightly dull and worthy collections accessible to a much wider audience without losing sight of the value of the objects.
The museum, which sits in the rarefied atmosphere of a classic Cambridge quadrangle, holds Britain's oldest intact geological
collection.
John Woodward collected 10,000 rare specimens of fossil and rock in the 17th century. A century or so later Adam Sedgwick added to the collection and built a major geological school in Cambridge. The Sedgwick Museum was opened to the public in 1904 as a permanent memorial to him.
Until recently, the display of fossils, minerals and rocks remained unchanged. Indeed, there are still some areas of the museum where it is still possible to see the complex academic labels and an approach to displays that is object-rich, but interpretation-light.
In 1999, the museum was awarded a grant from the Designation Challenge Fund to improve access to the collections. Liz Hide, the Cambridge University museums development officer, says the aim was to create a more welcoming and comfortable atmosphere while retaining the intellectual content.
The main beneficiary of this £30,000 has been the Oak Wing. The gallery was dominated by the oak display cabinets and dense displays of small fossils and dark rocks.
But Hide says they didn't want to lose the focus on the specimens and because of the building's Grade II listing, which included fixtures and fittings, they could not do anything too radical.
A few of the cases have been removed to provide seating areas so that visitors can read the additional information provided in flipbooks beside each display. The gallery is divided into bays by the cases, with each bay holding a central glass-topped desk case - also in oak.
Despite the desire to retain an emphasis on objects, Hide admits there is a lot less on show now. Forty per cent of the collection is in the museum and 60 per cent in off-site, purpose-built storage where it can conserved and is available for research.
The uprights have a 'chocolate box' display of fascinating fossils (and some rather plain rocks). The natural divide created by the cabinets meant each bay could be themed as part of the redisplay.
The far corner of the wing holds a replica of the study of John Woodward complete with walnut cases crammed with his fossil collection - or we presume they are. Disappointingly visitors are not allowed into the room and must view it from behind glass.
This is a shame, as one of Woodward's stipulations when he bequeathed his collection to the museum was that the fossils should be available 'gratis, to all such curious and intelligent persons as shall desire a view of them for their information and instruction'. Clearly, an early advocate of free entry.
The rest of the display is a chronological tour from the Wenlock Reefs through the Burgess Shale and beyond. The bays on one side of the gallery are devoted to geological periods and have helpful user-friendly tags: The Age of the Plants; Seas and Swamps, etc.
The displays manage to bring to life a period that is unimaginably long ago with layered interpretation, focus on key objects and models recreating life as it may have looked. But fossils - even the pre-dinosaur sort - are intrinsically interesting, and the museum has plenty of child- and family-friendly activities.
However as this is the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, rocks and suchlike must be dealt with. Opposite the fossils are the bays covering the solar system, volcanoes and rock cycles that are dressed up as Planet Earth, Restless Earth and Building Rocks - the interpretation and graphics are good but it really does depend on whether rocks are your thing.
The rest of the collection has not been redisplayed. Hide says they wanted to retain the contrast between the old and new displays to show how labelling and interpretation have changed.
One part of the collection that will be redisplayed are the rock specimens from the HMS Beagle voyage. The museum's holding of several thousand of these rocks is currently displayed in desk cases, with little to indicate that some of the original labels are in Darwin's hand, and no interpretation to explain that long before the publication of the Origin of the Species, Darwin was a geologist who made some important and lasting discoveries.
Cambridge academics needn't have worried about dumbing down. What the Sedgwick has done is make its slightly dull and worthy collections accessible to a much wider audience without losing sight of the value of the objects.
