Collection: Great North Museum: Hancock

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection

  The museum holds 740 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; basketry; canopic jars; coffins; coins; faience figures; faience vessel; flints; food/plant material; glass vessels; jewellery; metal figures; animal remains (mummies); human remains (mummies); papyrus; pottery; relief sculpture; scarabs; shabtis; shabti jar; cosmetic palettes; stelae (stone); stone figures; stone vessels; toilet articles; tools/weapons; 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 (Caton-Thompson, 1926); Badari (Brunton – British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1923-1924); Fayum (Caton-Thompson and Gardner – British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1926; also 1937); Hemamieh (Caton-Thompson – British School of Archaeology, 1924); Helwan (1937, 1947); Gurob (Petrie, 1932?); Naucratis; Qasr el-Sagha (Caton-Thompson – British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1924-1925); Qau (Petrie- British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1922-1925); Antaeopolis (Petrie – British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1923-1924); Saqqarah. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in the Near East (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): Tell el-Ajjul (Petrie – British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1931).

  Subjects

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

  Fine Art

  Large collection of watercolours and engravings by Thomas Bewick.

  Archaeology

  Mainly 19th century material and include ephemeral European collection, pre Roman and a small Egyptology collection. Material from Newcastle is collected by the Museum of Antiquities.

  Decorative Art

  The collections include Ulhman Collection, 72 pieces, Asian 2, West European 29 pieces and Schwitter’s Merzbarn; The Ulhman collection of West African sculpture, donated by author and artist, Fred Uhlman, local to the North East , is 100 years old and concentrates on former French Territories, in particular Mali and the Cote d’Ivoire.

  Ethnography

  Some of the collection is pre 1800 and came via the George Allan(1736-1800) Collection originally from Marmaduke Tunstasll’s (1743-90) and much was acquired before 1850 making it one of the country’s oldest. Other collector’s donations include Col CHE Adamson(1930), Miss Jukia Boyd (1892), AH Dickinson (1946), Samuel Graham, curator of the Hancock 1911-24, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum(1949-1954), Hon JG Lambton(1792-1840), Dr EA Weatherill and the Dorman family. Interestingly the University once held the George Brown collection of 3,000 items, mainly Pacific, but these were controversially sold in 1987. Material is from Oceania, including 5 masks of mud and spider’s webs, a skull mask and a ‘Ramberamp man’ from Vanuatu, Kiribati spears and 2 coir suits of armour, Hawaiian neck ornaments; Australasia has an important collection from Capt. Cook’s voyages including a Maori paddle and a rare Hawaiian war deity, wooden and stone figures from Rapa Nui(Easter Island), carved paddles and drum from Austral Islands and Australian churinga and boomerangs; Africa has material from all corners but includes a wide range of weapons from Somalia, Zulu and Xhosa beadwork, Nigerian masks and carvings and brasswork, baskets and pottery; Asian material includes Buddhist and Hindu figures, Persian documents, Turkish shoes; SE Asia has hats, musical instruments and baskets; North America shows 18th century garments, bone implements, moccasins, weapons, stone tools, masks and pipes.

  Natural Science

  Large and important collections and in many areas are the largest in Northern England especially Insects c.143,000 with extensive data, some types, British and foreign specimens; Molluscs c.38,000 also British and foreign has 50 types and numerous figured specimens; Marine invertebrates c.1600 dried specimens includes some syntypes and figured; Spirit c.8900 is mainly inverts. And fish with types from the Brady collection Crustacea and Alder Collection Hydrozoa; Eggs and nest c.28000 is the largest in the region and mainly clutches in nests; Fish, amphibians and reptiles c.120 small collection, some cited; Skins c.9500 only collection in region has British and foreign birds and mammals; Osteology c.2000 largest in region includes extinct species; Herbarium c.73,900 easily largest in region includes British and foreign material; there are also 230 models, c.2000 mounted birds and mammals and an important collection c.18,000 microscope slides 6,000 of which are Brady Collection Crustacea with 600 type specimens; There is also an important archive and collections of rocks, minerals and fossils. All the collections are listed in the ‘Catalogue of Natural Science Collections in North East England, 1986’.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC