Manchester Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Manchester Museum

Established	1867
Location	Oxford Road, Manchester, England
Type	University museum of archaeology, natural history and anthropology

The Manchester Museum is a fantastic place to explore history, nature, and different cultures! It's owned by the University of Manchester in England. Located on Oxford Road, the museum is home to about 4.5 million items from all over the world. It's the biggest university museum in the UK, welcoming around 430,000 visitors every year. It's a great spot for families and also helps students and researchers learn more.

Discovering the Museum's Past

The museum's old main entrance

The building that used to be a dental hospital

The museum's story began in 1821 when the Manchester Society of Natural History started collecting items. They opened a museum in Peter Street in 1835. Later, in 1850, collections from the Manchester Geological Society were added.

By the 1860s, these groups faced money problems. So, in 1867, Owens College (which is now the University of Manchester) took over the collections. The old museum was sold in 1875.

The college then asked Alfred Waterhouse, who also designed London's Natural History Museum, to create a new museum. This new building, the Manchester Museum, opened to the public in 1888 on Oxford Road. It was built so that students could easily visit the galleries from their classrooms.

The museum grew over time. In 1912, a new part was added for ancient Egyptian and archaeological items, thanks to money from Jesse Haworth. Another part was built in 1927 for items from different cultures. The museum also took over the old building of the University Dental Hospital of Manchester when it moved.

Today, the museum is one of the University of Manchester's special "cultural assets." This means it's a key part of the university's public offerings, alongside places like the Whitworth Art Gallery and John Rylands Library.

Amazing Collections to Explore

People and Cultures (Anthropology)

The museum has about 16,000 items that tell stories about human cultures from around the world. Almost half of these are from Africa. A quarter are from Oceania (like Australia and the Pacific islands), and many others come from Asia and the Americas.

Some of the first big donations came from Robert Dukinfield Darbishire in 1904. He gave about 700 items, including pottery from Peru and carvings from Inuit people. In 1922, Charles Heape donated about 1500 items from Oceania and America. This included weapons and paddles from Pacific islands, collected by missionaries. There are also special collections gathered directly by anthropologists, like pottery and masks from Nigeria.

Ancient Worlds (Archaeology)

The Sebek-khu Stele from ancient Egypt

Relief of Pepi II from Egypt

The archaeology collections focus on Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Egypt, and Western Asia. Many items from Egypt and Western Asia came from excavations led by Sir Flinders Petrie. The museum's Egypt collection is very famous. It includes finds from ancient sites like Kahun and Gurob, given by Jesse Haworth in 1890. A new wing was even built in 1912 just for these Egyptian treasures.

Since 1973, the museum has had an Egyptian Mummy Research Project. Scientists use X-rays and special cameras (endoscopes) to study mummies without unwrapping them. This helps them learn about health and life in ancient Egypt. One mummy, number 1770, was fully unwrapped in 1975. The museum also cares for a bog body called Worsley Man. The archaeology displays were updated in 2011 in the "Ancient Worlds" galleries.

Hieroglyphs on a funerary stela

The Art of Archery

The museum has a collection of about 2,000 items related to archery. This collection started with Ingo Simon, a skilled archer who donated his items in 1946. He spent many years studying the history of bows and arrows. His collection includes items from Great Britain, Brazil, Japan, Africa, and many other places.

Plants (Botany)

The Manchester Herbarium holds over 950,000 plant specimens. These were collected from the 18th to 20th centuries, representing plants from most countries. Only a small part of this huge collection is on display. Important contributions came from Charles Bailey and James Cosmo Melvill. You can even find some specimens collected by Carl Linnaeus, who created the system for naming plants and animals, and from the expeditions of Charles Darwin!

Rocks and Fossils (Earth Sciences)

A fossilized tree root from Yorkshire

The museum's geology collections are very important. They include over 9,000 minerals and hundreds of thousands of fossils. Only a small part is on display, but the rest is available for study. Many items were collected in the late 1800s. You can see fossilized plants from Coal Measures, ammonites, and even an ichthyosaur (a type of ancient marine reptile) from Whitby. There are also 40,000 mammal bones from a dig in Creswell Crags.

Insects (Entomology)

The museum's insect collection has almost three million specimens! About half of these are beetles. The British collections alone have about 1.25 million specimens. Harry Britten, an assistant keeper from 1918 to 1938, helped build this collection. A very special item is one of only three known specimens of the rare Manchester moth, found in 1829. The collection also has many insects from other countries, including the world's best collection of tortoise-beetles.

Coins and Medals (Numismatic Collection)

The museum's coin collection started in 1895 with a donation from businessman Reuben Spencer. It includes European coins and medals. Later, Alfred Güterbock gave a collection of 380 ancient Greek and Roman coins. Over the years, more collections were added, including English copper coins and more Greek and Roman coins. These collections help us understand money and history from different times and places.

Frogs and Salamanders (Amphibians)

The museum has a special Vivarium where you can see live amphibians. This includes some of the most endangered frog species in the world! The displays let you watch many different species from places like Madagascar, South America, and Australasia. The museum takes great care of these animals, following high standards for their health.

They also have a special research collection of rare frogs that are not on public display. These frogs are part of projects to study and breed them, helping to save these species both in the museum and in their natural homes. This includes the Lemur Leaf Frog and the Splendid Leaf Frog. The live amphibians are also used to teach visitors about conservation.

Mammals

The museum has thousands of mammal specimens. Many mounted animals are from the original Manchester Natural History Society collection. You can see a lowland gorilla, an aye-aye, and a red panda. There's even a cow from the 1830s! The collection also includes many bones and skulls from a wide range of mammals.

Birds

The bird collection has about 15,000 bird skins from over 2,000 species, mostly from 1850 to 1950. In 1895, the Natural History Museum sent some birds, including a warbler finch collected by Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands! The collection also has birds that were used to create illustrations for famous bird books.

You can see very special birds here, like a male and female huia (now extinct), bones of the dodo, and an elephant bird egg. There's also the only known egg of the slender-billed curlew, and specimens of the passenger pigeon and great auk, both now extinct.

Sea Creatures (Corals, Bryozoa, Molluscs)

The museum has many coral specimens, including some that are "type specimens" – the original examples used to describe new species. These came from Sydney Hickson, a coral expert.

There's also a large collection of bryozoa, which are tiny colonial animals that live in water. This includes about 10,000 specimens.

The museum has the fourth largest mollusc (shell) collection in Britain, with 166,000 groups of specimens. This collection grew from items bought in 1825, including shells from William Swainson and Captain Thomas Brown.

Wet Specimens (Spirit Collection)

The museum has about 5,000 specimens preserved in liquid, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include a collection of alligators.

Tiny Worlds (Microscope Slides)

This collection includes tiny sea creatures called foraminifera, collected by Frederick Pearcey, who worked on the famous Challenger Expedition.

Returning Ancient Treasures

In late 2019, some very important items belonging to Indigenous Australians were returned to Australia from museums in the US. This was part of a project to bring back many cultural items. The next step is to return 40 special objects from the Manchester Museum. These include body ornaments, hair bundles, and belts. They will go back to the Aranda, Yukulta / Ganggalidda, and other Indigenous Australian groups.

People Who Shaped the Museum

Many important people have worked at the Manchester Museum over the years. Some notable directors include William Evans Hoyle and Walter Medley Tattersall. Other experts include J. Wilfrid Jackson, who studied shells, archaeology, and geology, and Rosalie David, an expert on ancient Egypt. Harry Britten was a key person in building the insect collection.

Images for kids

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  The first floor of the museum in 1903

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  Stan, a reproduction cast of a fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex acquired by the museum in 2004.

See also

In Spanish: Museo de Mánchester para niños