Tag: London

The British Museum

Today was an incredible day spent at the British Museum. Our visit lasted well over two hours as we toured every collection; some of them in depth. The audio guide was pretty great in guiding us around some of the larger sections. For example, it helped us navigate the overwhelming Egyptian collection by pointing out a few highlights. As I remembered the Egyptian and Roman sections particularly well from last visits we decided to spend a bit more time in a collection close to my heart – the Mexican collection.

I was so excited to see what they had on display! The audio guide did not have a general tour of this room but there were lots of objects you could hear descriptions about. Seeing the pottery heads they decided to display was fantastic. It was also nice to be able to classify what I could see. The label for the heads simply read: Mexican pottery heads – also something about their headdresses indicating rank etc. It felt the best kind of nerdy being able to actually say well this one means this and this one means this and so on. There were also some pretty cool stone slabs from the Mayan period that took me right back to what I had seen in Mexico earlier this year. Continue reading “The British Museum”

Victoria and Albert Museum & Hunterian Museum

Today we tied up our walking shoes and set our sights on two very different but very marvellous museums. We began with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Built on the site that the Crystal Palace (1851) once stood this museum is a gem from the entrance to the gift shop. There is just so much to see in this museum my main piece of advice is to grab a map!

Since we were on the ground floor and since I have no patience, we rushed straight to the fashion collection. They have some absolutely stunning pieces on display. I just wish there was more for the public to see. It was very teasing! My favourite piece was this corset from the nineteenth-century. It is so beautifully embroidered and manufactured. Some of the other pieces of under garments travelled out to Brisbane for the “Undressed” exhibit. It is incredibly fascinating to see how the ideal body shape has been achieved throughout time with the use of bits and bobs to restrict and mould. Continue reading “Victoria and Albert Museum & Hunterian Museum”

The Old Operating Theatre

The last couple of days have been filled to the absolute brim. I will try to combine them in one post. So yesterday being Monday, not a lot of museums were open in London. I was so lucky to get the chance to meet the curator of the Americas and Oceania objects for the British Museum! She was lovely and answered every question I could possibly have on Mexican pottery. I saw a few of the examples they had in their collection which meant going behind the scenes and checking out how they store the items and what cataloguing system they have developed. Needless to say I was in my own little museum heaven. I don’t want to publish the photographs I took due to copyright etc but I did sketch the ones I saw. Brace yourselves for the next Van Gogh… Continue reading “The Old Operating Theatre”

Imperial War Museum & Florence Nightingale Museum

What an absolutely incredible day! I have been told countless times by others how amazing the Imperial War Museum is and how I should visit it etc etc so I could not resist. To start, let me review the temporary exhibit: Fashion on the Ration.

This is probably the best museum exhibition I have ever seen. It was wonderfully curated and filled to the brim with fantastic objects. To begin, the exhibit explained how fashion during the Second World War suffered, but did not end. Rather, both men and women were forced to become creative and to cope with what they had. Like food, clothing was heavily rationed. The slogan of the times was “make do and mend”. It was incredible to see how inventive people became and what lengths they were willing to go to in order to maintain morale. Continue reading “Imperial War Museum & Florence Nightingale Museum”