The Box: 100 Journeys

 This is an ongoing exhibition at the Box.

Plymouth as a port has been the starting point of so many epic journeys, for better or worse.  The ships of Cook, Drake and Scott all left from Plymouth, as well as the Mayflower on its voyage to the Americas.  This exhibition looks to divide these journeys up into a few categories, each in a different display case.  

There was the lady who delighted in being a tourist and visited nearly every country in the Empire.  She collected many items and left some to the museum.  I loved ornate Asian fabrics.  They are just so beautiful.

There were the people that completed grand tours on the continent and brought back souvenirs, such as paintings of places they visited.

Many military people have travelled the world from Plymouth and there was a display of items donated from their collections.

There as a display about Scott and his expedition.  I particularly liked seeing Hodgson's socks.

There was displays about the Mayflower, Cook and Drake.  Then there were displays about some cultures that were visited and items were brought back from them such as Egypt and Papua New Guinea.

All of these things were fascinating but I admit, we had spent a lot of time absorbing the Port Of Plymouth exhibition, so it was a fairly cursory look round.  The items in this exhibition deserve more time, but there is also a deeper story and consideration to be made about them.  Some of these items will have been stolen or gained through less ethical means.  The Museum is asking for peoples viewpoints and had panels with a QR code.  

It's difficult.  These items were collected in different times when attitudes were very different.  They were then donated to museums across the country in huge volumes.  I think it's a question many museums are asking.  What do they do with these things?  They can not possibly display all of them.

I think one thing I am becoming uncomfortable with is Egyptian items.  People were fascinated by the Egyptians and given every museum seems to have been gifted funerary items, it's hard to believe there is a tomb anywhere in the country that was not plundered.  The caption on the display implied that museums do indeed have large amounts of Egyptian items that have been donated.  We destroyed so many mummies too...  Did you know that the pre-Raphaelites ground up mummies to make the pigment Mummy Brown?  They largely stopped because it became harder to source mummies.

I don't think any of these people would like to known that there funeral caskets ended up in museums, sometimes their mummies too.  But how do you return these things?  They need to be respected and looked after.  There has to be a dialogue.  Is it even possible to put these remains back where they came from?  Often the empty tombs are tourist attractions.

I know as a child, everyone wanted to see the Egyptian things at the British Museum.  The fascination remains for many.  Would people want their local museum to let these things go?