At Work With . . .

. . . Carolynne – documentation volunteer

I have recently been fortunate enough to volunteer at the Royal Pavilion & Museums with the Knowledge & Information team. I was tasked with archiving a timeline of past exhibitions at Hove Museum & Art Gallery into the database, giving me the opportunity to explore the fascinating temporary exhibitions that were designed and displayed there 1978 – 1992.

“The Doctor’s Surgery”

Two in particular stand out as interesting and innovative, most recently, “The Doctor’s Surgery” which was displayed from October to November, 1991. The exhibition illustrated the amazing advances in medical technology over the past 100 years by displaying medical equipment from the past alongside the modern equivalent. This exhibition must have been an eye opener for some people; it would have made me very grateful for the modern advances in medicine, seeing the past tools used. Some were described as “horrifying-looking” and I can believe that.

Do you remember this exhibition? Tell us your story about visiting it using the comment box below.

Another exhibition which caught my attention was “Finds from Your Garden” (May-June 1986). This exhibition consisted of objects which were brought to the museum from people’s gardens to be identified. Which I am betting is still a common occurrence for museums, a sort of backyard Antiques Roadshow. The exhibition displayed common objects found in the area and then discussed their importance in our history. I thought this was a funny but brilliant idea for an exhibition, and one I would have definitely gone to.

“Finds from Your Garden”

Were your garden finds included in this exhibition? Tell us your story in the comment box below.

Amulets

Hello, I’m Lucy. I was a volunteer at the museum previously but I’ve been working for three months as an Assistant Curator in the World Art department.  I’ve really enjoyed and appreciated the experience, learned more about the huge World Art collection and about working practices in the museum. One of the most rewarding aspects of the job is being able to handle the objects, and one of the projects I enjoyed the most was photographing a collection of 78 amulets.

These amulets are from different parts of world, differ greatly in size and are made from both simple and sophisticated materials. I found them fascinating and was struck by the consideration taken in making even the crudest objects and how widespread the custom is of imbuing banal-seeming objects with supernatural powers.

The amulets range from a piece of decorated dough, a bundle of twigs, a bird’s foot, a tiny pair of knitted socks to elaborately carved, painted or packaged pieces. Many of them contain religious iconography, such as the Arabic Hand of Fatima, or evil eye, tiny Koran booklets or paper saints; whilst others contain natural substances like sulphur or cloves, considered by many cultures to ward off evil.  So I felt strangely protected and wary, surrounded by these potent talismans.

It was quite a challenge photographing some of the amulets, particularly the smaller pieces, in order to bring out the tiny details and I enjoyed finding ways to present them in the best light.

After the amulets were photographed, I resized the images and linked them to our collections database (Mimsy), so that eventually they can be seen on our website.
I hope that one day they will be displayed in the museum as they are enchanting pieces – in more ways than one.

Here are some of the amulets in the collection:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.