I love fusty little Museums!

[DaddyGhoul]

Fantastic. DS and I were just at the Midland Air Museum in Coventry (I'm actually on the sick but he Dr. has signed me off for ages and I'm up to 'light duties' I guess) and it was quite good. Loads of planes and cool cockpits you can get in and ds seemed to really like it.

I like places like that. It was wonderfully dead and it was just me, ds and a couple and their 18mth old.

It was full of old boys who can't hear and the place smelled all fusty and unused. I love places like that. It was full of old WW2 stuff and the old boys were dieing to tell you stories.

Conversations with these guys always makes me laugh:

Me: "it's nice you've opened up the plane for ds to play with the cockpit controls... he seems to be having a good time"

Old geezer: "yup..yup.. but you can't do this kind of thing on army bases, oh no. they open those places up and they can't let little ones play with the controls because I've got two words for you... EJECTOR SEAT! PRESS THAT AND IT'LL CRUSH THE KIDS VERTABRAE!.. yup yup"

Me: "he likes planes but he's mostly into cars. i'll have to pick him up a little plane in the giftshop"

Old geezer: "yup..yup.. CARS! CARS! THEY USED TO MAKE CARS HERE IN 143 PLANTS.. NOW IT'S ONLY ONE.. SEE! SEE! (pushing us toward the window to show us the Peurgeot plant across the road)... WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TOO Eh! EH!??"

great fun .

NN,I get more excited with each post!

I know what you mean. Ive only been to 2 of the Mch museums, so there are 77 more to go! (I am going to miss the history of fishing one)

nightynight - yes that's the one!! I jst googled it and you can see here how it's completely hidden in a street of houses here

my Mum was born at the well house in Treffynnon

Tell us more edie!!

She remembers people receiving cures when she was very young and says it used to be quite frightening. Her Dad was caretaker there and also a miner, her Mum used to look after all the visiting pilgrims

How fascinating..I'll think of her when I visit.

Thanks, she's lovely . I hope you like it, it has all been restored now and has a lovely atmosphere. There is a wonderful chapel above the Well, you need to ask for the key, it's well worth a visit.

I'm another fusty museum fan. Favourites used to be the Pitt-Rivers, the Dublin Natural History and Sir John Soames.

DG, if you're ever in north Wales there's a fab fusty aircraft museum at Caernarfon and a little lifeboat one at Moelfre.

Ah edie,the aircraft museum is about 5 km frommy house and next door to the mad fort built against invading Americans I mention at the beginnning of this thread.

lovely! I used to go over to Dinas Dinlle a lot, had friends nearby and we ran our dogs there. I'll be taking DS next summer. Small world.

We went to visit the Loire vally this Spring, and I was incredibly disappointed not to have visited the castle in Saumur when my dad reminded me that it was the very château we had visited in my childhood, that had stuffed frogs in glass cases wearing 18th century forck coats and britches, and playing billiards, cards, the piano, having tea, etc....
I know it sounds a bit gruesome bit I remember loving those frogs!
I had always wanted to see them again - I wonder whether they're still on show?

He he teeavee.
Sounds barking but brilliant.
The British wouldn't dare do something like that for fear of the League Against Disrepectful Activity with Amphibians turning up.

I once had a job cataloguing stuff at the museum of childhood in Edinburgh...taking dusty cardboard boxes of stuff that had been donated or collected but never listed in an inventory at all...it was amazing opening these boxes and not knowing what would be inside, so much stuff at risk of never being seen

I imagine that museum has been updated now, the problem with modern museums is that they interpret everytning so much (one point of view) and have so little on dispaly and feel less "authentic" especially those that were initially an individual's own collection

What kind of stuff was there z??

One of my (Welsh) friends had a great job like that-cataloguing a deceased old lady's huge library and colleection in Welsh speaking Patagonia.
Came back with a very nice Patagonian bf too!

my dp once had to write transcript of breton speakers who had been recorded on tape in the 1960s for the naitonal museum in Rennes- there was a HORRENDOUS reording of a pig being slaughtered on one of the cassettes - the noise was awful, and went on for ages and ages (about 30mins, IIRC)

all sorts mechanical toys (automatons) ephemera, dolls, all sorts of feeding bottles and teethers, wooden toys, loads of tin toys, dolls houses, clothes much of it packed away and never been looked at since it was donated..thousands and thousands of items!

Rofl teeavee (well not really that would be tasteless but you know what I mean...)

Hey,have you been to the (relatively) new Jonny Oignons museum in Roscoff? I spent a lot of time doind a bit of light research into this last time that my mate Brieg came to stay.
My father remembers them in Beddgelert in early 60s and I found the house on the quay in Porthmadog where they used to stay.

That's quite sad z.
What is general policy? How long do they keep stuff? Who decides?

Ah, the Sir John Soames museum in London.
It's amazing - like museum-cum-car-boot sale. Crammed to the rafters with all sorts of oddities that Sir J collected on his travels.

Read 'Goodbye Johnny onions' by Gwyn Griffiths. It's really interesting. story of the Jonnies. Welsh version sadly out of print.
Went to a 'johnnies' pub near Roscoff once - they were all pissed on red wine at 4 in the afternoon, with their little battery cars for alcoholics 'parked' in the ditch outside. Spoke some Newcastle Emlyn Welsh with one or two of them!

I think lots of people donate stuff that isn't looked after because it doesn't fit in or there aren't the staff to deal with it, I think individual museums just have therir own policies

My grandma left her wedding dress and head wear to Picton House (I think that's the one) and my auntie took us to see it and they hadn't got it on display and had lost the accessories...very sad as my Grandma had looked after it since the twenties (it was a real flapper style outfit) and once she handed it over it was disregarded.

teeavee..I have!
lol at alcoholic cars..yes I know exactly what you mean!
z...that is sad

At the seaside, we always take a look at the seamen's/fishermen's museums. Usually full of old nets and models, photos and accounts of extreme weather, and visiting dignitaries from eighteen something or other in a funny outfit.

The one in Brighton was good but it's been a few years since we went. Recently popped into the Hastings museum just along from the aquarium with DS who's coming up to 2. He loved it - he could climb up the steps to stand on the deck of a real old trawler and thought it was fab. Afterwards he talked about the boat much more than about the fish in the fancy aquarium (tho seemed to enjoy that at the time too).

to answer moondog's q - all museums have an acquisition & disposal policy which in theory means they only accept things that fit in with their aim. Unfortunately many museums still tend to be unable to say no so they end up with a real documentation backlog problem. There is a presumption not to dispose (you can be struck off the registered museums list), and it's a very complicated business.

Pretty much all museums have more things in store than on display and this isn't a bad thing. In a display 1 sewing machine can be interesting, but you wouldn't want to see 40 of them (well unless it was a sewing machine museum). Yet the other 39 might have different attributes or associations that are worth preserving. Some things in store are used for education workshops etc. Pretty much everything can usually be accessed for research.

Many things - like wedding dresses for example - can only be on display for a short time or they start to get damaged.

Thankspp. Is this your line of work?