World Museum in Liverpool

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World Museum in Liverpool

Cherkunova A.R.

World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the museum is free. The museum is part of National Museums Liverpool.

The museum has recently undergone extensive refurbishment in order to double the size of the display spaces, making even more of the collections accessible for visitors. Major new galleries include World Cultures, the Bug House and the Weston Discovery Centre. A central entrance hall and six-storey atrium opened in 2005. On reopening after this refurbishment and extension the museum's name changed from its previous title of Liverpool Museum, which it had held since its establishment at its current William Brown Street site in 1860.

History museum visitor physical archaeology

The museum was originally started as the Derby Museum as it comprised the Earl of Derby's natural history collection. The museum opened originally in 1851, sharing two rooms on Duke Street with a library. However, the museum proved extremely popular and a new, purpose-built building was required.

Land for the new building on a street then known as Shaw's Brow opposite St.

George's Hall was donated by local MP and Merchant William Brown, as was much of the funding for the building which would be known as the William Brown Library and Museum. Around 400,000 people attended the opening of the new building in 1860.

In the late 19th century, the museum's collection was beginning to outgrow its building so a competition was launched to design a combined extension to the museum and college of technology. The competition was won by William Mountford and the College of Technology and Museum Extension opened in 1901.

Liverpool, being one of the UK's major ports, was heavily damaged by German bombing during the blitz. While much of the Museum's collection was moved to less vulnerable locations during the war, the museum building itself was struck by German firebombs and suffered heavy damage. Parts of the museum only began to reopen fifteen years later.

In the early first decade of the 21st century, the museum was again expanded, taking over the lower half of the extension which was then owned by Liverpool John Moores University. To better reflect its larger size, the museum was renamed World Museum Liverpool.

All collections at World Museum

• Antiquities

• Botany collection

• Ethnology

• Geology

• Horology

• Physical sciences

• Zoology

• Aquarium

Antiquities

The museum holds approximately 80,000 artefacts from across the ancient world and is notable for its Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Anglo-Saxon collections.

With the exception of numismatics, armoury and weapons our collections are from before approximately 1200 AD.

The collections of the antiquities department have grown for over 150 years through gifts, bequests, purchases and subscriptions to archaeological excavations. The collections incorporate the surviving parts of Joseph Mayer's extensive collection of antiquities which he donated to the city in 1867. Mayer's collection is based on purchases of important collections put together in the early 1800s and is of international historical importance.

You can explore our fascinating collections from antiquity online here.

Botany collection

The botany collections at the World Museum contain around 400,000 botanical specimens and associated items. Many of the specimens are of national and international significance. The department also houses an extensive botanical library.

The collections are particularly rich in material from some of the pioneer explorations of the world's flora. Liverpool's worldwide links as a port are highlighted in the collections which hold a wide geographic spread. The collections date back to the late 1700s and are still being added to today.

Ethnology

The origins of the ethnology collections (numbering around 40,000 objects) can be traced to the 19th century. Their range and wealth echo Liverpool's status as one of the great ports of the British Empire.

Objects and artefacts from cultures around the world were collected by local merchants, missionaries, naval officers, colonial administrators and explorers and were then sold or donated to the museum.

These global links are reflected in the strengths of the collection with particular focus on West Africa, East Asia, Tibet, the north-west coast of the Americas, the Amazon, New Zealand and New Guinea.

Geology

There are over 67,000 rocks, minerals and fossils in the earth science collections from all around the world. They range in age from 4.5 billion years to 5,000 years ago.

The collections were made mainly in the 19th and 20th century and sold or donated to the museum from 1870 onwards.

The majority of the rocks and fossils collection is British with our minerals collection coming from all around the world.

Horology

National Museums Liverpool's horology collections are extensive, containing over 12,000 items and are of international significance.

• The clock and watch collection of some 1,200 items includes clocks of high quality such as:

• Tompion's workshop clock from the Joseph Mayer collection, the astronomical regulator clock by William Bond acquired from Bidston Observatory.

• A long case clock by William Barker of Wigan.

• An astronomical clock made in Ormskirk by Thomas Barry.

• Some of Liverpool's earliest watches made by Samuel and Thomas Aspinwall.

• a Charles Gretton watch and a clock watch by Edward East (watchmaker to Charles I).

The collections include a number of observatory clocks and regulators; turret clocks; chronometers (including maritime) and precision watches; cylinder watches; and special industrial clocks and watches.

Another highlight of the collection is the large number of horological workshop tools, including gear-cutting engines and complete watchmakers' workshops. It also holds the Lancashire Watch Company's archive, parts of the

Mercer archive and is supported by a very fine horological and history of science library of national importance. The collection also includes a scientific and horological makers database of 45,000 records.

Physical sciences

The physical sciences collection of World Museum was built after the devastation caused by the incendiary fire of 1941.

The collection has expanded, in part, due to transfers from the Decorative

Arts Department, Regional History Department, Walker Art Gallery and the Prescot

Museum. The collection also contains several significant collections from the Liverpool Royal Institution, Bidston Observatory, later the Proudman Institute of

Oceanographic Sciences, and the Physics Department of the University of Liverpool.

Collections such as these are often made up of items of a singular type designed for a particular experiment such as DELPHI or LEP at CERN - the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, or the Equatorium, a post-Copernican planetary calculator made to special order in the early 17th century.

Zoology

The zoology collection numbers around 1.2 million specimens. These are split between Invertebrate Zoology (insects, arachnids, shells and others) and Vertebrate Zoology (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish).

The vertebrate collections include approximately 79,000 specimens and are rich in specimens over a hundred years old. However, significant early invertebrate holdings were largely destroyed in May 1941 during the blitz. The subsequent proactive acquisition of specimens has allowed the museum to assemble a nationally important, relatively modern collection of around 1.1 million insects and other invertebrates. The vertebrate collections have also expanded in modern times. Aquarium

Immerse yourself in a watery world of wonder.

The aquarium combines fish from Australia to Anglesey with the very latest technology. You'll be able to see a variety of fish from our collections including:

• Tropical - Find a rainbow array of beautiful fish, including venomous Scorpionfish, tiny Cleaner Wrasse and Falseclown fish (that's the same species as Nemo !)

• Mangrove - Archer fish, Monos and Scat live in the mangrove swamp tank with a tidal effect that minics the rise and fall of water along a tropical shore.

• Native - See Plaice, Shore Clingfish and Thornback Ray in the coldwater tanks that mimic the rocky coast of Anglesey in North Wales and the sandy shores of the Dee estuary.

The aquarium also has a dedicated learning and activity space; the Living Laboratory. Here even very young children can get up close to fish and other sea life in special low-level tanks.

Expert staff are on hand to answer questions and run demonstrations in which visitors can observe and learn more about live marine creature. Video cameras and microscopes bring you face to face with unfamiliar tiny organisms.

China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors.

About this exhibition

For over 2,000 years, an underground army of life-sized terracotta warriors secretly guarded the tomb of China's First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, until a chance discovery in 1974 unlocked the mysteries of a vanished empire.

Showcasing objects from one of the world's greatest archaeological discoveries, this unmissable exhibition spans almost 1,000 years of Chinese history; from the conflicts and chaos of the Warring States period, to the achievements and legacy of the Qin and Han dynasties.

The exhibition will include a number of objects that have never been on show in the UK before including material from museums and institutes from across Shaanxi Province, excavated over the last 40 years from the Imperial Mausoleum and selected tombs. These spectacular artefacts will shed light on the Emperor's pursuit of immortality and show how he prepared for the afterlife, as well as help us to understand more about everyday life in China more than two thousand years ago.

This exhibition was organised by National Museums Liverpool, United Kingdom and the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and Shaanxi History Museum (Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre), People's Republic of China.

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