University of Cambridge Museums

“When as Queen Anne of great renown Great Britain’s sceptre swayed, Besides the Church she dearly loved a dirty chambermaid..." Jasmine Brady shares the gossip from Queen Anne's court, inspired by the Fitzwilliam Museum's Queen Anne plate. This recording is part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Museum Remix project, bringing you stories from the Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tours.

Liz Hide takes a walk around Barrington in Cambridgeshire in search of quarryman Arthur Hardman. This track is part of the Museum Remix: Unheard project, and was inspired by the Barrington Quarry Rhino archive photograph from the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. You can find out more about the Barrington Quarry Rhino archive photo here: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/magic/barrington-quarry-rhino

Lewis Harrower and Andrea Elder's soundscape explores the story behind Phyllis Wager's Typewriter in the Polar Museum's collection. When Phyllis Wager travelled to East Greenland as part of a British expedition in 1935, it was so unusual for women to travel to the Polar regions that special permission was needed from the Foreign Office. What can her typewriter tell us about her work? Lewis and And...

Fern Teather and Sam Thurlow imagine the music that might have accompanied the dances and performances at which this Ibo maiden spirit mask might have been worn at the turn of the 20th century. The carved wooden mask was made around a hundred years ago by the Ibo people of Nigeria, and is now in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. We don't know the names of the Ibo people...

Giulia Gambino retells the story of the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, as depicted on the West Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, through song. The sculpture - of which a plaster cast is displayed in the Museum of Classical Archaeology - shows a battle between humans and centaurs: a wedding party gone disastrously wrong. A woman fights off a centaur - a creature that is half-man,...

Theo Sayers imagines the story behind an archive photograph in the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. In 1900, in Barrington, near Cambridge, three men pose for a photograph alongside a partially-excavated fossil rhinocerus skill. How can we imagine the interactions between these three men from very different social classes. Were they respectful of each other's knowledge? Or was it strongly hierar...

Katy A. Whitaker's spoken word piece imagines pioneering archaeologist Dorothy Garrod (1892-1968) talking about her war work and remembering inter-war excavations. It was inspired by a prehistoric necklace excavated by Garrod from Mount Carmel in Israel in the 1930s, now in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Katy writes, "I was thinking about how varied Dorothy Garrod's...

Miriam Waters gives a musical voice to an unnamed woman fighting in the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, as depicted on the West Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The sculpture - of which a plaster cast is displayed in the Museum of Classical Archaeology - shows a battle between humans and centaurs: a wedding party gone disastrously wrong. A woman fights off a centaur - a creature...

Sara Green's poem Typewritten is inspired by Phyllis Wager's typewriter, now in the collection of the Polar Museum. When Phyllis Wager travelled to East Greenland as part of a British expedition in 1935, it was so unusual for women to travel to the Polar regions that special permission was needed from the Foreign Office. What can her typewriter tell us about her work? Sara writes, "The idea of bei...

Sophie Fletcher's poem is inspired by a wooden mask from southern Nigeria, now in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The carved wooden mask was made around a hundred years ago by the Ibo people of Nigeria. We don't know the names of the Ibo people who made it, saw it, wore it to dance, or made the music for the performance; or of the maiden spirit the mask represents. Th...

John Hodgson's poem Transition is inspired by a prehistoric necklace excavated by pioneering archaeologist Dorothy Garrod (1892-1968) from Mount Carmel in Israel in the 1930s, and now in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Garrod became the first female professor in the history of the University of Cambridge. John writes, "Dorothy Garrod admits that the assembly of the ne...

In this mini-podcast, Tristram Riley-Smith explores the tangible and intangible connections between nine objects from the University of Cambridge Museums. You can view all the objects here: www.museums.cam.ac.uk/museumremix Tristram writes, "You inspired me to think about the way objects emerge into the world, and that relationship between objectivity and subjectivity, the unintentional and the in...

Miriam Waters' poem Not Your Man responds to a pair of archive photographs in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The studio photographs were taken in the 1870s in colonial Samoa, and speak of complex colonial histories and different understandings of race, gender and gender fluidity. We don't know the name of the subject of the photographs: the labels simply say "man fro...

Steven Goodwin's soundscape Windswept No. 3 is inspired by Phyllis Wager's typewriter in the collection of the Polar Museum. When Phyllis Wager travelled to East Greenland as part of a British expedition in 1935, it was so unusual for women to travel to the Polar regions that special permission was needed from the Foreign Office. What can her typewriter tell us about her work? Steven writes, "This...

Tae Ateh and Izzy Collie-Cousins respond to a pair of photographs at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA). The studio photographs were taken in Samoa in the 1870s. The subject is unknown: the photographer's labels say "man from Tutuila with hair bound [and] unbound". They write, "This is a compilation of responses to the blatant colonial perspective that governs British museums, partic...

Maxine Fay's soundscape Afternoon Sounds responds to a child's plate in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The small, rather damaged plate was excavated in the centre of Cambridge in the early 2000s. It features two alphabets, British Sign Language and English, and hints at the rich and complex history of Deaf culture not often explored in archaeology museums. Maxine writes that she took...

Every cast in the Museum of Classical Archaeology is a hybrid – the work of both the ancient sculptor and the modern cast maker. Dr Susanne Turner, Curator at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, talks to us about a plaster cast taken from a carved marble head, identified as that of the ancient Greek god Apollo. But who sculpted the original, and who made the cast? This podcast series is part of a...

Nicholas Thomas, Director at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, talks about a 19th / early 20th century barkcloth. Both a museum object and an extraordinary work of art, the maker’s name was never recorded and the individual artistic value overlooked. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of...

What happens when the artist doesn't want to be known, and why would that be? Josh Nall, Curator of Modern Sciences at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, talks about the makers who aim to deceive. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museums, it brings together works of art fr...

Eliza Spindel, Curatorial and Research Assistant at Kettle's Yard, tells us about a tea bowl from Kettle's Yard and a case of mistaken identity. Not only does the maker change, but so does its story. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museums, it brings together works of art from acros...

Whalers. Expert Navigators, but also expert artists? Charlotte Connelly, Curator at The Polar Museum, tells us about some atmospheric ink drawings and scrimshaw created by whalers voyaging in the Arctic. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museums, it brings together works of art from a...

Is taxidermy a craft or art? Can natural history specimens be an artwork? Who made this putty-nosed monkey? And while we're here, can a fox snarl? Jack Ashby, Museum Manager at the University Museum of Zoology, tackles taxidermy and its inclusion in Artist: Unknown. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the Universi...

What would a young woman's CV from the past look like? Helen Ritchie, Research Assistant at The Fitzwilliam Museum, talks about samplers and the role they played for young women in the 17th and 18th century, and why in this instance the artist is unknown. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambr...