Collection: Haslemere Educational Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Biology

  An extensive collection of over 260,000 specimens, one of the largest parts being the Mollusca, with representatives of all the major groups of British and foreign molluscs including freshwater, marine and terrestrial species. There is a collection of 3500 microscope slides and over 15,000 mounted birds, eggs, feathers and nests. Most British species are represented and there are a few foreign rare and extinct species notably birds of New Zealand. The collection of bone material is largely made up of foreign mammals, notably marsupials. The only complete skeletons are of small British mammals. This figure includes a collection of African animal bones. There is a small, assorted collection of British and foreign mammals (including game heads), reptiles and fishes (British freshwater and foreign marine) and invertebrates such as foreign corals along with echinoderms, spiders, scorpions, crabs and lobsters. Insects account for 75,000 specimens and present a complete collection of British butterflies and moths as well as comprehensive collections, including foreign examples of beetles and flies. The large botany collection contains an important herbarium, as well as seeds, nuts, galls, lichens, mosses and woods of British and foreign origin.

  Geology

  Geology totals around 30,000 specimens and includes The Sir Archibald Geikie collection of field notebooks, specimens, photographs, letter copybooks, water-colours and other memorabilia. Sir Archibald Geikie was Director of the British Geological Survey and the most eminent British geologist between 1880 and 1900. There are nearly 5,000 minerals, with examples of all the major mineral and crystal groups from British as well as foreign localities. The relatively small collection of rocks contains a wide variety of rock types, mostly British, but with a few examples from foreign localities. The fossil collection contains representative specimens of all the major animal and plant groups from each stratigraphic period. There are a few rare and unusual specimens.

  Fine Art

  This collection of over 11,000 works includes watercolours (mostly botanical), oils, prints and drawings by local artists and/or of local scenes as well as a named collection of English church brass rubbings.

  Costume/Textiles

  The collection of samplers, whitework, lace, costume, household and accessory items contains some very interesting items. It includes about 1000 items of European embroidery.

  Ethnography

  This small collection includes a mixture of artefacts from all continents. It includes our unique and important 19th century European Peasant Art collection of ceramic and wooden artefacts.

  Social History

  A mixed collection of over 9,000 domestic and agriculture items, including toys and games, objects of local significance, coins and medals and scientific instruments.

  Archaeology

  This large collection of over 23,000 items contains mostly British flints, including a named collection of local flints, but also examples of pottery, glass and metal work of Egyptian, Greek and Roman origin as well as pieces from other foreign localities. The locally important items of glass and iron making are classified under this subject.

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds 228 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; canopic jars; ceramic figures; coffins; coins; faience figures; flints; food/plant material; funerary cone; jewellery; metal figures; animal remains (mummies); human remains (mummies); papyri; pottery; scarabs; shabtis; stone figures; textiles; toilet articles; tools/weapons; wooden figure (fragment); other. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt: Beni Hasan; Gizeh; Thebes.

  Subjects

  Ancient civilizations; Egyptian history; Antiquity; Archaeology; Egyptology

  Photographic

  This large collection (over 35,000 items) contains a significant number of local images including an important named collection of Haslemere buildings, events and people. It also contains an important record of the history of the Museum. The photographic media collection includes negatives, transparencies, lanternslides, cine and videotapes of a wide variety of subjects.

  Archives

  The Library holds books and works of reference dating from the sixteenth century to present day covering an enormous range of subjects, but particularly strong on local history. The Museum holds a number of scientific, archaeological and historical periodicals, all of an academic nature. There is also a large collection of assorted local, personal, regional and foreign items including diaries, letters, greetings cards, legal papers, property detail etc. The map collection includes local, regional, national and foreign maps of all sorts e.g. topographic, transport, land use and relief models.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC