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Birmingham museum and art gallery.

Maria Magenta said:
I don't rememember the Japanese crab. The roaring dinosaur is one thing that stands out in my memory, and the pterodactyl, which I think was suspended over the mummy gallery. There was, I think, a black New Look dress or suit in a glass case somewhere, in a secluded area.
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In my childhood in the 1990s seem to recall seeing a T-Rex skeleton. But it was gone by the 2000s.

So at the moment the only full dinosaur skeletons you can see are at the Lapworth Museum of Geology at the University of Birmingham.

They have an Allosaurus (not a T-Rex).



And a Pteranodon.



I went in June 2018, about 2 weeks after seeing Dippy in the Gas Hall. Which was on a tour from the Natural History Museum, London.

 
alan bartlett said:
Anyone remember the massive stuffed tiger and the monster Japanese crab in their own glass cases, sceary stuff.
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I don't remember the crab, but I remember a lemming in the Arctic section - in fact I made a point of pointing it out to my boyfriend at the time the once as my favourite exhibit!

I do remember the natural history section very well, it's a shame it was broken up. I know some of it got damaged as that department was in the basement & it got flooded during really bad weather, so I guess they made the decision to not reinstate it there. I know there's a bit at the Think Tank, but it's not as good (and the entrance fee is pretty steep).
 
JudiM said:
I loved the old Science Museum. Many good memories - the planes hanging from the ceiling, the steam train that moved, the mock up of the Victorian children's nursery that my mom wouldn't go near 'cos the dolls gave her nightmares....

I last went in there in the 90's & was horrified to see something I had actually used in there - the last pay on answer phone box to be decommissioned. It was the one from by the shops where I grew up! Made me feel old to think something I had used was in a museum!


Such a shame you have to pay a fortune to see any of it at the Think Tank now.
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Check this Thinktank thread for my photos from my 2013 and 2014 visits.

Think Tank

Went to Thinktank again yesterday! Had some free vouchers to use, so might as well take stuff I didn't take last year! Will put some pics in the picture thead!
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
The thread seems to have gone a bit off topic into the science museum . Bringing it back on topic, the newspaper archive have just added a lot of issues of the Daily mirror, including the 1920s. Here is a comment from 1925 on the art gallery and council prudery
Daily mirror. 19.11.1925. art gallery prudery.jpg
 
alan bartlett said:
Spent hours in the late 50,s early 60,s exploring the art gallery and museum. Things that stand out were the sphinx as you went in then the fantastic tiger in the glass case and the massive Japanese crab. The whole building had it,s own smell, never noticed it in other museums! After the art gallery it was off down to Newall Street and the science museum, pre City of Birmingham display. Loved the working machines that could be activated by the touch of a button, happy days. Remember it like yesterday.
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I used to go into the museum for the meetings of the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society in '50s (butterfly mad at that time). As a 13 year old, I remember seeing Henry Moore's bronze 'Fallen Warrior' and thought it the saddest and most heart wrenching thing I had ever seen...
Antonym.
 
Hello, this is my first post on this forum. I had the great pleasure of working in the Natural History Department of Birmingham‘s Museum and Art Gallery, briefly, some 30 plus years ago. The large crab referred to was actually a Spider Crab, and the stuffed tiger was a composite creature made from two specimens. I was told that artificial reeds or grasses were strategically positioned to hide one of the more obvious “joins”.
It was my job one year to decorate the stuffed reindeer for Christmas. I hung baubles and tinsel on his antlers and felt most artistic.
 
Mike, wings and feathers on hats were a real problem to exotic birds in the early 1900's. The fashions were so extravagant that Emily Williamson started the Society for the Protection of Birds which led to the 1921 Plumage Protection Act of 1921. Together with other women she campaigned against the use of feathers on hats and in New York one woman had the hat torn from her head. Emily joined forces with the Fur, Fin and Feather Folk to fight against this fashion bringing about the above act, years later resulting in the founding of the RSPB. The following from their history tells more of the story.

'From the 1870s to the 1920s the fashion for feathers in ladies’ hats was huge and tragically driving birds such as little egrets, great crested grebes and birds of paradise towards extinction.

The campaign against this ‘murderous millinery’ was fought on all fronts. RSPB supporters across the country wrote letters to women wearing feather hats, spoke to the shopkeepers that stocked them, and sought influence with prominent figures from politicians to the royal family'.Hats.jpg

Now back to the real topic before I get the sack.....
 
Used to go to the Birmingham Art Gallery a lot when we were children. It was one of the few places open on Sunday afternoons. The picture of Corporation Street (post #6) was always a fascination to me. It was on the wall just up the flight of stairs by the main entrance. Still there the last time I saw it about 10 years ago.
 
suemalings said:
Used to go to the Birmingham Art Gallery a lot when we were children. It was one of the few places open on Sunday afternoons. The picture of Corporation Street (post #6) was always a fascination to me. It was on the wall just up the flight of stairs by the main entrance. Still there the last time I saw it about 10 years ago.
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Me too! My friend and I would set off on a Sunday afternoon with a few pennies in our pockets and take the bus to town. We were really supposed to be putting the money in the Sunday School plate. For me it was the Pre-raphaelite paintings with their glowing colours and detail. 'The Leaving of England', 'The Blind Girl'.
 
Rosievoice said:
Hello, this is my first post on this forum. I had the great pleasure of working in the Natural History Department of Birmingham‘s Museum and Art Gallery, briefly, some 30 plus years ago. The large crab referred to was actually a Spider Crab, and the stuffed tiger was a composite creature made from two specimens. I was told that artificial reeds or grasses were strategically positioned to hide one of the more obvious “joins”.
It was my job one year to decorate the stuffed reindeer for Christmas. I hung baubles and tinsel on his antlers and felt most artistic.
Click to expand...
I used to love the Natural History department. Was always my first ports of call as a child & as an adult too. I was really disappointed when the department went. I know some specimens got damaged by flooding, so they must have taken the decision to revamp that area entirely.
 
I too remember 'the Blind Girl' for a very special reason. I must have been no more than six or seven years old when my Mum took me to the gallery. I got bored and ran off and was found seated on the floor in front of that painting sobbing my eyes out because she couldn't see the rainbow. Only to be told that my Grandad had done almost exactly the same thing just after the turn of the century. He would have been around 5 in 1903 and it is strange that the same painting had such an effect on both of us.
 
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