Careers Visit to Ipswich Museum
On Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 November, with the support of the Wolsey 550 Project, Mr Archer took two groups of Year 8/9 historians to visit the ongoing refurbishment and restoration project currently underway at the Ipswich Museum.
They received a talk about how exhibits are repaired, restored and maintained as well as the different problems they face, which ranged from sunlight damage to moths recently eating several of the exhibits.
Students were then given the unique opportunity to get hands on with the taxidermy exhibits. They were given a range of monkeys, birds and crocodiles that, after 30+ years on display, needed a clean. Students had to carefully brush and vacuum them before going on to sponge clean each stuffed animal. As you can see in the photos this was especially complex when the crocodiles needed every tooth cleaned to help maintain their smile.
Students were really engrossed by this, most named their animals and they all did a thorough job. When the museum reopens in 2026 they will be able to show friends and family the exhibits they helped to restore, some of which were 150 years old.
After this the group were taken to their store room where all the exhibits are currently kept and they learnt about the challenges faced when storing different exhibits that react to the environment in different ways.
They also were able to get close to giant a model ship, mounted animal heads, a gorilla skeleton and a 6000-year-old Egyptian sarcophagus head without security glass in the way.
It was a wonderful introduction into the work of our local museum and special thanks go to the Wolsey 550 Project for bring this about.
The ‘Thomas Wolsey 550’ Project launched in March 2023 to recognise and celebrate the 550th anniversary of the birth of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (c1473-1530). “Wolsey was quite simply, a master of opportunity. His achievements, which shaped politics, law and religion in this country, illustrate that anything is possible for anyone.” This careers-related trip to Ipswich Museum for our students was one of a huge range of activities scheduled over 550 days for people in Ipswich to get involved.
