The Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (until 2020, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery) is a museum on
New Walk in
Leicester,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, not far from the
city centre.
[ It opened in 1849 as one of the first public museums in the ]United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Leicester Museum & Art Gallery contains displays of science, history and art, both international and local. The original building was designed by Joseph Hansom
Joseph Aloysius Hansom (26 October 1803 – 29 June 1882) was a British architect working principally in the Gothic Revival style. He invented the Hansom cab and founded the eminent architectural journal, '' The Builder'', in 1843.
Career ...
, designer of the hansom cab
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety ca ...
. It has been expanded several times, most recently in 2011.
Major exhibits
Permanent exhibits include dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s, an Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
area, minerals of Leicestershire, the first Charnia fossil identified nearby, and a wildspace area featuring stuffed animals from around the world.
Dinosaurs and fossils
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery has a significant collection of extinct lifeforms. Two Mesozoic reptile skeletons are permanently on display — a cetiosaur
Cetiosauridae is a family (biology), family of Sauropoda, sauropod dinosaurs which was first proposed by Richard Lydekker in 1888. While traditionally a wastebasket taxon containing various unrelated species, some recent studies have found that i ...
found in Rutland, and a plesiosaur from Barrow upon Soar
Barrow upon Soar is a large village in northern Leicestershire, in the Soar Valley between Leicester and Loughborough, with a population at the 2011 census of 5,856.
Geography
Barrow lies on the east bank of the River Soar, where the riv ...
.[Official website]
/ref>
The Rutland Dinosaur, affectionately nicknamed George, is a specimen of ''Cetiosaurus
''Cetiosaurus'' () meaning 'whale lizard', from the Greek '/ meaning 'sea monster' (later, 'whale') and '/ meaning 'lizard', is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period, living about 168 million years ago in what ...
oxoniensis''. The dinosaur, which is among the most complete sauropod skeletons in the world, was discovered in June 1968, in the Williamson Cliffe quarry near Little Casterton
Little Casterton is a small village and civil parish in Rutland, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 148, increasing to 218 at the 2011 census. It is about two miles (3 km) north of Stamford on a minor road t ...
in Rutland. The skeletal remains have been in the museum since 1975; the majority of the bones in the display are replicas of the originals, which are too fragile to be used. The Rutland Dinosaur featured on an episode of '' Blue Peter'', and was opened by ''Blue Peter'''s Janet Ellis in 1985.
The Barrow Kipper, named after the flattened fish, is a skeleton of an unidentified plesiosaur discovered in Barrow upon Soar
Barrow upon Soar is a large village in northern Leicestershire, in the Soar Valley between Leicester and Loughborough, with a population at the 2011 census of 5,856.
Geography
Barrow lies on the east bank of the River Soar, where the riv ...
in 1851. Originally classified as ''Plesiosaurus
''Plesiosaurus'' (Greek: ' ('), near to + ' ('), lizard) is a genus of extinct, large marine sauropterygian reptile that lived during the Early Jurassic. It is known by nearly complete skeletons from the Lias of England. It is distinguishable b ...
macrocephalus'', it was later reclassified as ''Rhomaleosaurus
''Rhomaleosaurus'' (meaning "strong lizard") is an extinct genus of Early Jurassic ( Toarcian age, about 183 to 175.6 million years ago) rhomaleosaurid pliosauroid known from Northamptonshire and from Yorkshire of the United Kingdom. It was fi ...
megacephalus''. However, according to Adam Smith and Gareth Dyke (2008), the fossil is actually of another, unnamed genus.
In September 2011, the museum expanded its Dinosaur Gallery, reorganizing fossils, adding a new room, and modifying the gallery itself. The new Dinosaur Gallery, which predominantly features extinct marine reptiles, was opened by David Attenborough.[ The "star attractions" of the new gallery include the aforementioned Rutland cetiosaur, Charnia and plesiosaur fossils, as well as a '']Leedsichthys
''Leedsichthys'' is an extinct genus of pachycormid fish that lived in the oceans of the Middle to Late Jurassic.Liston, JJ (2004). An overview of the pachycormiform ''Leedsichthys''. In: Arratia G and Tintori A (eds) Mesozoic Fishes 3 - System ...
'' fossil and a piece of the Barwell Meteorite.
The museum holds a specimen of international importance, the Charnia fossil. It is the first fossil that was ever described that came from undoubted Precambrian rocks, which until this point had been thought to be too early for large forms of life.
The object in the museum – "Leicester's fossil celebrity" – is a holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...
, that is, the actual physical example from which the species was first identified and formally described. ''Charnia masoni'' was named after Roger Mason, who discovered it at Charnwood Forest in 1957, when he was a schoolboy, and who went on to a career as an academic geologist. He acknowledges, and the museum's Charnia display explains, that the fossil had been discovered a year earlier by a schoolgirl, Tina Negus, "but no one took her seriously."
Ancient Egypt
The museum has a permanent Egyptology exhibit. The museum holds four Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
mummies
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...
, named Pa-nesit-tawy, Pe-iuy, Bes-en-Mut and Ta-Bes. The Egyptology section of the museum has undergone an expansion, covering life in Egypt in greater detail, as well as a section focused on death in Egypt, which is where the four mummies are held. The artefacts came mainly from Europeans visiting Egypt during the revival of interest in Egyptology which occurred during the 19th century. The capacity of the galleries have been greatly expanded as of 2018. The museum holds a collection of over 400 objects from the Ancient Egyptian era, but has only, until recently, been able to display around a third of these. The new gallery has allowed for these to be shown to the public.
Other
The museum has a stuffed polar bear, ''Peppy'', the mascot of Fox's Glacier Mints
Fox's Glacier Mints are a brand of candy, boiled Mint (candy), mint sold in the UK since 1918.
History Background
Walter Richard Fox, the founder of Fox's Confectionery, originally manufactured sweets as part of the Joyce and Fox partnership, but ...
. This is held in a collection of taxidermy animals, which have been collected from areas around the world. The exhibit includes a number of temperate specimens, as well as polar and savannah specimens.
The museum holds the UK's largest collection of German Expressionist art. These paintings, including works by George Grosz, Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
and Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
, were smuggled out of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
before World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. The Nazis condemned the work of these painters – see the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition. Hans Hess, son of the German-Jewish industrialist and art collector, Alfred Hess, was assistant curator at the museum.
In 2007, more than 100 pieces of Picasso ceramic art
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. ...
went on display at the museum, having been donated by Richard Attenborough.
Exhibitions
On the first floor of the museum is an exhibition area that changes periodically. Recent exhibits have included a display focusing on the search for the remains of Richard III, a ''Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
'' display, and ''Spirits of War to Hands of Peace'', an exhibit of paintings and sculpture on the horrors of war and the power of peace.
As part of the National Portrait Gallery's 'Coming Home' project, a portrait of Richard III was on temporary display during the summer of 2019, following the reinterment
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
of the king in Leicester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Martin, Leicester, commonly known as Leicester Cathedral, is a Church of England cathedral in Leicester, England and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester. The church was elevated to a collegiate church in 192 ...
in 2015.
Name change
The museum was relaunched in August 2020, after a lengthy closure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. The museum reopened under a new name: Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, chosen "to demonstrate that it is Leicester’s leading museum, and to help people from outside the city if they are searching online for Leicester museums."
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester Museum and Art Gallery
Museums in Leicester
History of Leicester
Art museums and galleries in Leicestershire
Natural history museums in England
Geology museums in England
Egyptological collections in England