Royal Albert Memorial Museum: Finders Keepers

 The Finders Keepers gallery at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum is situated on the first floor and is mostly a permanent display.  

People have a habit of collecting things, it's something people still do and many people have in the past left their collections to museums.  This gallery focuses on some of the collections it has and each part of the display gave an example of the items in a particular collection and then a little bit about the person who collected them and the why and how of the collection.  Some people, like Victorian naturalists set out to deliberately specimens of species they were interested in.  Their collecting habits can be horrifying to us now as they collected multiple specimens of species that are now endangered or even extinct.  

It isn't all specimens though, there was a naturalist who documented the life he found in tidal pools in a series of drawings.  It wasn't even all Victorian naturalists.  There were people who collected samples of beautiful lace designs.  People who collected items from different cultures.  People stole, brought or were gifted items.  The reasons for these collections were hugely varied and it was a fascinating insight into what can be a difficult subject for museums these days.  

One collection I found particularly interesting was that of Henry Townsend who collected items from Yoruba slaves.  He actually befriended the slaves and campaigned for their release.  The items were gifted to him and here slave manacles take on a message of hope and freedom.

The lace samples were also of great interest as I have lace makers in my family tree.  The patterns were incredibly varied and handed down.  The people that collected lace sought to preserve this variety and the samples are incredibly delicate and beautiful.

Then of course you have people that went to the Arctic and killed a bunch of polar bears.

It's really not always comfortable.  

This was a point made very well in this exhibition and the last parts of the display focused on this and talked about how some items in a museum's collection may be incredibly sensitive and shouldn't be displayed.  The example they gave was that of Truganini, a Tasmanian Aboriginal often seen as the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal.  She saw colonialisation and was exiled to Oyster Bay, with the last of her people as Europeans sought to claim Tasmania.  She was the last surviving resident of Oyster Bay and begged  not to be studied after her death and for her body to be treated with respect and cremated.  Her wishes were not observed and her skull and skeleton were later put on display and her skeleton used to make replicas that were also displayed.  Eventually in 1976 after many years of campaigning, her body was returned to her people, including samples of skin and hair, and cremated as per her wishes.  Her people also campaigned to have art made of her returned to them as it was offensive to them how she was protrayed.  There are documentaries about Truganini available and as I had seen one, I was familiar with the story touched upon at RAMM.

Basically, the display only mentioned Truganini's story in brief.  The museum had had in their possession some jewellery that had been Truganini's which they had returned to her people.

It's clear that RAMM has other things in their collection that are problematic but also clear that they endeavour to treat them respectfully and do the right thing.  I imagine this is a long and complex process.  I enjoyed this gallery because it's good to have this dialogue, good to understand where these things come from.

I find it both horrifying and fascinating to see the preserved bodies of wildlife.  I agree that they should be preserved and respected.  You cannot go back and change the fact that hey were hunted, collected, no matter how horrifying we find it now.  I have no issue with animals being preserved by other processes than being hunted for a collection.  For instance the beaver in the WILD exhibition was ethically obtained.  I find it hard to see the Tiger, elephant and giraffe in another gallery of the museum and the polar bear in this gallery.  It's not comfortable.

I also find the fascination with Egyptian remains uncomfortable.  How many mummies are there in different museums?  How many were destroyed, ground up to make the painting pigment mummy brown (yes that's genuinely what happened to many mummies).  I find the funeral art amazing but I would rather see a replica of the art and that actual remains are returned to where they should be.  Would these remains be treated respectfully if they were returned?  It's a difficult thing, an evolving story.

This is one museum that is not avoiding the story though.

On a different note....  In this gallery there is one display cabinet that regularly changes.  It features a modern collection on loan.  When I visited there was a collection of staplers on display.  It was fascinating to see the variety!