Collection: Ipswich Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Natural History

  Vertebrate zoology: The museum has made a speciality of collecting mounted specimens from the Victorian era, the best of which have been installed in the ‘Victorian Natural History Gallery’. They include the dramatic set piece ‘jungle case’ made by Rowland Ward in 1906, a group of three gorillas shot in about 1862 by the French explorer M. Paul de Chaillu, which were the first specimens ever seen in Britain; a giraffe in a glass case, one of only two complete specimens in the world of that particular sub species. The most significant and spectacular collection is the Ogilvie Collection of mounted British birds formed by Fergus Menteith Ogilvie. The birds were mounted and cased by T E Gunn of Norwich, an acknowledged master taxidermist. The collection at Ipswich comprises 235 cases containing 770 specimens of 197 different species. The majority of birds were taken on Ogilvie’s Suffolk estate (which extended from Minsmere to Thorpeness) and a family estate in Barcaldine, Argyll. There is also an impressive diorama of the Bass Rock, constructed in 1903, containing gannets, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and puffins. Invertebrate zoology: The insect collections approach 250,000 specimens. There are extensive, quality collections of British lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). Ipswich is exceptional amongst other provincial museums in having extensive collections of all of the other insect orders as well. The historical core of the collections are those of Claude Morley (150,000 specimens) and J H Hocking. Over the past twenty years further quality collections have been acquired. The Mollusc collections have at least 10,000 specimens. Some 2,000 of these are quality tropical marine shells presented by Bawtree Harvey in 1885. Other significant British collections are from W M Crowfoot, C G Doughty, Claude Morley and Arthur Mayfield. Botany: Ipswich Museum’s Herbarium contains over 17,000 specimens of flowering plants from Suffolk and Britain. There are several very important early collections with specimens dating back to 1790. The Rev William Kirby Herbarium contains many interesting late 18th and early 19th century specimens. The Henslow Collection (458 sheets) is a particularly interesting collection made between 1840 and 1860 contains vouchers for records in Henslow and Skepper’s Flora of Suffolk (1860). Lady Blake’s Herbarium (1,371 sheets) compiled between 1840 and 1850, has specimens contributed by eminent botanists of the time. The H Weaver Collection (1,492 sheets) is national in scope and was collected between 1862 and 1917. The Rev W M Hind Collection contains over 3,000 sheets of which at least 1,500 are vouchers for the Flora of Suffolk published in 1899. Other collections from the Victorian period include the John Notcutt Collection (603 sheets) from the Ipswich area.

  Geology

  Important collections of Crag fossils include those from Alfred Bell, Henry Canham, C G Doughty, C Morley, and R A D Markham. The stages of the Ice Age in Britain are named mainly from East Anglian sites. Many specimens are from ‘type localities’ in Suffolk, including including original excavation material – Bobbitshole, Ipswich (‘Ipswichian’); Easton Bavents (‘Baventian’); and Hoxne (‘Hoxnian’). Another important locality is Stoke railway tunnel (‘Stoke Bone Beds’) which produced quantities of quality material when it was dug in 1846. The collections are important in understanding climate change in the Ice Age. The most important of these collections are by N F Layard, James Reid Moir, H E P Spencer and Rev MacEnery. The earliest rock formation in Suffolk, the Cretaceous, is represented by the R M Brydone collection of chalk fossils including large numbers of sea urchins.

  Archaeology

  The collections covering Early Man include:N F Layard Collection: Foxhall Road Ipswich excavations 1902- 5, White Colne (Essex) Upper Palaeolithic site 1927, Ste Gertrude, Holland, neolithic workshops 1924-30, J Reid Moir Collections: The sub-Crag specimens which informed the debate over Tertiary Man, Large groups from Runton, Cromer, Darmsden, etc, illustrating putative pre- Chellean industries East Anglian palaeolithic type-sites, notably Hoxne, Foxhall Road, Barnham, Bramford, Ipswich brickfield researches, including ‘Ipswich Man’, Ivry Street long blade industry and other post-glacial series. Other Excavated Archives: Barnham Heath L. P. excavation material: High Lodge, Mildenhall (Armstrong & others): Sproughton blade industry with bone harpoons: Grimes Graves (Kendall & Armstrong): Wangford (Mesolithic); Collection of East Anglian palaeoliths.;East Anglian, British and World reference collection of lithics: Large series from Breuil (Chelles and Abbeville), Garrod (French Upper Palaeolithic), Wadi Guzzeh palaeoliths, A S Barnes (French Mousterian type-sites), Underwood (Dovercourt bifaces), S Fenton Snr (Mildenhall area), Percy Martin (Southern English, esp. Farnham biface and Broom chert series), J. P. T. Burchell (Baker’s Hole, Swanscombe, Dartford and Sligo assemblages), L Leakey (Oldowan obsidians), Wayland (Ugandan), Seton Karr & Petrie (Fayoum), Sainty (Norfolk various), Absolom (casts & implements),;Romano- British material includes: Roman pottery, including type production-centre kilns and associated pottery, Castle Hill Roman Villa and Bath-house. Romano-British votive and religious artefacts from Suffolk, including Icklingharn pewter hoard and lead font, unusual animal and human figurines, Attis plaque, the ‘Cavenham Crowns’;The important collections of Saxon material include: Hadleigh Road pagan Saxon cemetery material (Archaeologia 1907), Layard Collections (1898-1935) Material from Sutton Hoo royal Anglo-Saxon grave assemblages excavated 1938: Excavated by Museum staff. Middle Saxon Ipswich Ware, excavation type material, kiln products, and complete vessel/stamped sherd series. High quality Anglo-Saxon material including the Ipswich hanging-bowl, Byzantine patera, styca hoard, cremation cauldrons and urns, turnulus products, Pakenham domestic assemblage including loom, Butley cauldron chain, silver disc-brooches, dated late hoards, an Ipswich Mint type series for c.970-1210, Bawdsey gaming-piece Boss Hall Anglo-Saxon cemetery;Mediaeval artefacts including ceramics, silver coin hoards, and monastic excavations. Other Medieval material includes a panel painting of St Blaise, two 15th Century panel paintings from high-status retables, a Limoges processional crucifix and sundry alabasters, a large pair of late 15th Century ‘Steyned Cloths’ from Ipswich depicting Labours of Hercules, pax instruments, a decorative leather pyx (cI4th) and latten chrismatory, ecclesiastical carvings of English and Flemish work.;Ancient Egyptian Antiquities (& Early Mediterranean) which were obtained by subscription to the Egypt Exploration Fund, plus some private collections. Cartonnage mask of Titus Flavius Demetrios, excavated by Petrie at Hawara in 1888. Loaned to ‘Ancient Faces’ Exhibition B.M.): Side of a coffin of a Priest of Mont (25-26 Dyn.) 21 Dyn. mummy-case and lid Scarab of Shes hi (15-16 Dyn.). Personal collections of Carter, Petrie, Caton Thompson, Ray Lankester, Seton Karr and Gayer Anderson. Subscriptions were 1904 (Beni Hassan), 1914 (Harageh & Lahun), 1921 (Sedment & Gurob), 1922 (Abydos) and 1931 (Beth-Pelet). E J Schwartz Collection (300 Egyptian items) The Mediterranean collection (from various sources) includes Cypriot, Etruscan, Mycenean, Boeotian and Attic ornamental ceramics, Roman lamps, Maenas flasks, bronze and terracotta figurines, Palestinian blades, three Nimrud ivories excavated by Mallowan, and two Etruscan engraved mirrors.

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds approximately 800 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; canopic jars; coffins; faience figures; flints; furniture; glass vessels; jewellery; metal figures; animal remains (mummies); pottery; ‘Ptah-Sokar-Osiris’ figures; relief sculpture; scarabs; cosmetic palettes; shabtis; shabti boxes; soul houses; stelae (stone? Wood?); stone figures; stone vessels; textiles; toilet articles; tomb models; wooden figures. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): Abydos (Petrie); Amarna?;Badari (British School of Archaeology in Egypt); Beni Hasan (Garstang – Liverpool University); Fayum; Harageh (Engelbach – British School of Archaeology in Egypt); Hawara; Gurob (Petrie); Lahun; Memphis; Riqqeh; Sedment (Petrie).

  Subjects

  Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC