Sedgwick Museum Director Liz Hide explores how Darwin's specimens don't just tell us about the development of his geological theories, but also give us a glimpse into nineteenth-century resource extraction and global economic networks.
Hear about the geology of the summit of Everest
Here how the first ever rock specimen collected from the summit of Mount Everest ended up at the Sedgwick Museum
This audio was created as part of Museum Remix 2023, coinciding with the University of Cambridge Museums’ programme of Power and Memory. It was put together by Kiki Bordean, Heidi McEvoy-Swift and Katrina Dring with the help of the Museum Remix and wider UCM teams. The Museum of Classical Archaeology is filled with sculptural expressions of the human form, including many heads. In one corner of the gallery, nestled among a display of busts, are two heads with ragged, broken edges around the neck...
This audio was created as part of Museum Remix 2023, coinciding with the University of Cambridge Museums’ programme of Power and Memory. It was put together by Kiki Bordean, Heidi McEvoy-Swift and Katrina Dring with the help of the Museum Remix and wider UCM teams. The Museum of Classical Archaeology is filled with sculptural expressions of the human form, including many heads. In a small case near the entrance are four broken terracotta figurines from Naukratis, a Greek trading post in Egypt. T...
Credits: Written by Annabel Worth and Kirsten Huffer Read by Annabel Audio editing by Emma Pratt This piece concerns the Iguanodon fossil cast in the Sedgwick museum. "For us this was a really important story to tell, as it highlights how the university has benefited, and continues to benefit, from slavery and colonialism, in a way that is usually hidden. One can appreciate the object itself, marvel at its great size, thinking how amazing it is that something like this ever existed, and be excit...
Credits: Written by Annabel Worth, Kirsten Huffer and Emma Pratt Read by Kirsten and Annabel Audio editing and soundscape by Emma This piece concerns Mary Anning's Icthyosaur in the Sedgwick museum. Once upon a time, 200 million years ago, dolphin-like marine reptiles, or ichthyosaurs, like this one roamed the Jurassic Sea. About 200 years ago, Mary Anning, mother of paleontology, found this ichthyosaur fossil along the craggy cliffs of England's southern coast. If fossils could talk, what would...
The Museum as an institution is not neutral. A response to the colonial 1875 Jigsaw Globe on display in the Museum’s Globe Gallery. Creators: Fu Ge Yang, Sally Yan and Annie Tomkins. This audio was created as part of Museum Remix 2023, coinciding with the University of Cambridge Museums’ programme of Power and Memory.
‘This Globe is Broken’. A poem about how the globe as an object is not neutral. A response to the colonial 1875 Jigsaw Globe on display in the Museum’s Globe Gallery. Creator: Annie Tomkins. This audio was created as part of Museum Remix 2023, coinciding with the University of Cambridge Museums’ programme of Power and Memory.
Barra Journal: Audio by University of Cambridge Museums
Surtsey Journal: Audio by University of Cambridge Museums
In the Museum of Classical Archaeology's Cast Gallery two wrestlers are locked together in eternal combat... and an eternal embrace. Colin Clews untangles the queer resonances of one of classical antiquity's most famous sculptures in this extract from his Bridging Binaries tour. Part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
Klara Widrig explores how received wisdom about gender even impacts on how scientists interpret Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils. Sit back and enjoy this extract from Klara's Bridging Binaries tour of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Scientists but... beware the jaws of Big Mamma! Part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
A penguin egg in the Polar Museum is more than it seems... Join Julia Peck for a tale of sexual speculation in this Bridging Binaries tour extract. Part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
Ellen Purdy tells a story of monks, matrimony and martial arts, inspired by a Noh mask in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
Behind the doors of a medicine cabinet in the Whipple Museum of the History of Science is a story of romance between two pioneering female doctors... Join Meg Roberts for this extract from her Bridging Binaries tour, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' LGBTQ+ tour programme.
The Greek hero Hercules was famous for his many labours, and his many lovers... Luis Jimenez ushers us into the presence of a legend in this extract from his Bridging Binaries tour of the Museum of Classical Archaeology. Part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
Glimpse the interior life of artist Gwen John in this extract from Oliver Warren's Bridging Binaries tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
Join the revels of the ancient god Dionysus... Lucian Stephenson shares a story from the Museum of Classical Archaeology, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' LGBTQ+ tour programme.
In the Whipple Museum of the History of Science is a very special microscope... Meg Roberts explores what Charles Darwin did and didn't see in this story from the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries tour programme.
Where to start with the story of the Roman Emperor Caracalla - with his murdered brother, or his many lovers? Travel to ancient Rome with Luis Jimenez and a story from the Museum of Classical Archaeology, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tour programme.
Lucian Stephenson unravels a tale of transformation from the Museum of Classical Archaeology, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries tour programme.
A barrel organ in the Polar Museum's collection opens up a world of polar pantomime fun... Julia Peck tells an LGBTQ+ story from Polar Museum, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries tour programme.
Discover the life and loves of Alexander the Great... Anthony Bridgen shares a story from his LGBTQ+ history tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries tour programme.
Meet Antinous, the boy who became a god... Anthony Bridgen shares a story from his LGBTQ+ history tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum, part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Bridging Binaries tour programme.
“When as Queen Anne of great renown Great Britain’s sceptre swayed, Besides the Church she dearly loved a dirty chambermaid..." Jasmine Brady shares the gossip from Queen Anne's court, inspired by the Fitzwilliam Museum's Queen Anne plate. This recording is part of the University of Cambridge Museums' Museum Remix project, bringing you stories from the Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ tours.
Liz Hide takes a walk around Barrington in Cambridgeshire in search of quarryman Arthur Hardman. This track is part of the Museum Remix: Unheard project, and was inspired by the Barrington Quarry Rhino archive photograph from the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. You can find out more about the Barrington Quarry Rhino archive photo here: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/magic/barrington-quarry-rhino
Lewis Harrower and Andrea Elder's soundscape explores the story behind Phyllis Wager's Typewriter in the Polar Museum's collection. When Phyllis Wager travelled to East Greenland as part of a British expedition in 1935, it was so unusual for women to travel to the Polar regions that special permission was needed from the Foreign Office. What can her typewriter tell us about her work? Lewis and Andrea write: "We share an interest in old technologies and were excited to tell a different story of t...
Fern Teather and Sam Thurlow imagine the music that might have accompanied the dances and performances at which this Ibo maiden spirit mask might have been worn at the turn of the 20th century. The carved wooden mask was made around a hundred years ago by the Ibo people of Nigeria, and is now in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. We don't know the names of the Ibo people who made it, saw it, wore it to dance, or made the music for the performance; or of the maiden spir...
Giulia Gambino retells the story of the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, as depicted on the West Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, through song. The sculpture - of which a plaster cast is displayed in the Museum of Classical Archaeology - shows a battle between humans and centaurs: a wedding party gone disastrously wrong. A woman fights off a centaur - a creature that is half-man, half-horse - with a well-placed elbow. Giulia writes, "My submission is a song inspired by the lege...
