The V&A

The Victoria and Albert Museum advertises that it is "the worlds greatest museum of art and design." While I'm not sure if I would agree that it is the world's best art museum, after my visit there I will concede that it is probably the world's best museum of design (the building itself is an amazing work of art!). From architectural elements to interior design, the museum covers a wide range of historical periods and geographical localities. 

During our visit, the museum had two special exhibits: "Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950" and "Hollywood Costumes." Unfortunately, my dear museum companion and I did not see either of these, because of the admission fees required for both.  With the sheer amount of exhibits in the museum, we still had plenty to see (although we did manage to sneak a peak at "Ballgowns").

Since we took the Underground, we entered the museum through a back door and decided to start our tour of the museum from the top and work our way down. We took the elevator up to the top exhibit floor, and when the doors opened, I was in exhibit heaven. The top floor is devoted to the decorative arts and the way the furniture and ceramics are displayed is just amazing. The furniture gallery is open and light. Many of the pieces are not caged behind glass barriers, so the visitor feels even closer to many of the objects. The room's open flow is almost reminiscent of the original environment these objects would have been in, private residences, which adds to the visitor's experience of these objects.  

On the sides of the gallery are specialized displays, dedicated to either a furniture maker/designer or a specific type of technique. Many of these alcoves are equipped with a computer screen and handset, which allows visitors to get further descriptions of the items featured and/or the maker or technique displayed. There is an alarm system to protect the objects from having museum patrons get too close, which went off quite a few times when we were in the gallery. But, for me, the overall design of the gallery outweighed the few noise interruptions.

From the furniture gallery, we continued into the ceramics halls. There was room after room of open ceramic storage. I had never seen so many ceramic pieces in one place. The shear volume is overwhelming. On top of everything, the blue and white section was enormous. It is my favorite type of ceramic (yes, archaeologists have favorite ceramic types), so I just had to take a picture. 

From the open storage, we moved into an exhibit explaining how ceramics are produced and the different techniques used in both production and decoration. I absolutely loved how the display worked, especially the pile of beautiful Willow Ware wasters. 

There was even a display on how transferprinted ceramics were made. Again, the archaeologist in me absolutely loved the idea, since I have tried to describe it to many people over the years. And leave it to the V&A to make it pretty too. 

We then moved on to the other galleries, including this architecture gallery which centered around models of some of the world's most famous buildings, from green apartment buildings to temples. 

About 2/3 of the way through our visit, w finally found the main entrance and the Rotunda. There was even a Chihuly there to help guide lost Americans (Chihuly pieces always seem to be in entrance halls). 

We explored the history of fashion and I have to admit that I regret only taking one picture. But you gotta love a pink gown! I think one of the best aspects of this exhibit for me was that the proper undergarments for the time period were included along side the more traditional clothing displays. It was great to see the history of underwear over time. 

After spending hours at the V&A, running through different time periods, localities, and mediums, we decided that it was time to refuel. So of course, after spending our morning immersing ourselves in the height of Victorian material culture, we continued with the theme of the day and headed to Fortnum and Mason. I have to admit something here: I am addicted to tea. Good tea. So this was such a fun part of the day for me. 

The perfect ending to a very indulgent museum day! Tea, prosecco, and ice cream tea cakes (unfortunately not pictured) in The Parlour, which I highly recommend. 

Overall, I loved the V&A. I wish I had been able to spend more time exploring the vast multitude of galleries and hallways, but I'm sure I will be back. And maybe next time I'll even go in the front entrance :)

Museum Mecca: The British Museum

Three words: the British Museum.

To a person who is into museums, this is a it. Some of the best collections of historical artifacts in the world are housed in the British Museum. Although there are heated debates about the rightful ownership of many of the museum's objects - most notably the Elgin Marbles - the museum itself is amazing.

I have to admit, I love museum cafes in the British Isles. I don't know what it is, but they are just so much better than most American ones. And you can always get a scone with clotted cream :) Which is precisely what I was in the mood for after touring the Tower of London all morning. So before we began running around the museum, Jenna and I hit up one of the many cafes at the museum. And I'm happy to say that it did not disappoint. 

After our little pick me up, Jenna and I started out with the museum's most well know residents: the Elign Marbles. This temple let us know we were heading in the right direction. 

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the hall itself, but the Elgin Marbles are housed in a separate room, designed to look like a Greek Temple. After years of reading about them and studying their history, I have to admit that I was pretty much speechless upon entering the exhibit. Here are some of my favorite sculptures and reliefs. Sorry about the quality, but I promise I will take my SLR to exhibits from now on, so blogs after I cover my UK trip will have better quality pictures. 

I've always loved the way the Greeks carved fabric. The draping looks so real in all of it!

Then Jenna and I went to explore the rest of the museum. We had a fellow museum patron take this picture of the two of us, and her response after looking at the picture was, "You are very white." Yes, yes we are. That's what winters spent inside, working in the lab will do.

Everywhere you look, there is just something amazing to behold. But we had to keep moving to get to the next big item on our list...

...the Rosetta Stone! It was so crowded around the stone that we were pushed and shoved while attempting to take pictures of the stone that unlocked the secrets of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. But we waited and eventually made it to the front. And I have to admit, it was worth the wait. 

Then we continued with the Egyptian theme and toured the mummy halls. I have to say that I was impressed with all the different mummies in the collection. Jenna was excited to see so many animal mummies.

We then made our way around the museum hitting the rest of the "Top 10 Objects" listed in our map.  If you are going to the British Museum for the first time, definitely buy the map at the information desk. It will make your visit there so much easier. And you will make sure that you get to see their most well known objects. We were happy to have the list because we didn't want to get back to the States and realize that we had missed one of the main objects. It also gave us a attack plan, which is definitely needed since the museum is so large. 

As we were winding our way through the Ancient Europe exhibit, Jenna had the brilliant idea to "try on" some of the gold. I think the gold collar suits her beautifully! Throughout this exhibit, I was searching for two golden beads (about the size of a fist), which last I heard the museum had in its collection. These are the two missing beads from a large necklace at the National Museum of Ireland. But alas, I could not locate them. 

The final display that I wanted to see was the artifacts recovered from the Sutton Hoo site,  a ship burial. At one point I thought that I would go into medieval archaeology, so seeing these artifacts that were in so many of my old textbooks was amazing.

The British Museum was amazing. I can't wait to go back next time I'm in London and see what I missed. But for a first visit, I can't complain. 

Tower of London's White Tower

Hi everyone! This is my first blog posting ever, so I thought that I would start with what I want this blog to be about. I love museums and am an emerging museum professional myself. So, after reading many blogs that mention different exhibits from time to time, I thought that it would be fun to write a blog that focus on museum exhibits. New, traveling, permanent; as many of them as I can get to. 

Two months ago, I was in the UK for an archaeology conference, so my traveling companion Jenna (also a museum lover) and I decided to hit up as many museums as we could. These museums/exhibits will be the focus of my first few posts. 

So first up, the Tower of London's White Tower!

I remember walking through this exhibit about 6 years ago, on my first trip to the Tower, and being awed by the different exhibits. Well, 6 years and a renovation later,  I found myself enamored once more, but not for the same reasons. Walking through this time, I was throughly impressed with so many of the exhibit's components. Yes, the horses next to the heads of past kings is still creepy, but that short part is now competing with fun lighting design and amusing hands-on activities for all ages. 

First, you walk through the armor hall, which is full of huge swords and over-compensating cod-pieces. What else would you expect from Henry VIII?

Then you proceed through the Hall of Kings, which I have to admit still disturbs me so much that I scooted through it as quickly as possible. 

This picture may be one of my favorites that I took at the exhibit, because it shows the very impressive lighting design. When you are looking at the individual cases, you don't get the scope of the lighting. The panels actually transition between colors over time, going from blues and pinks to reds and yellow and every color in between. But somehow this really modern design works really beautifully with the Tudor and Stewart armor. 

After walking through some more open planned space, we arrived at the hands-on history section. Now, I normally will NOT touch any of the hands on activities after seeing what happens to them on a daily basis, but there was one that I just had to try. It was a mock long bow, where you stepped up, pulled back, and tried your luck at hitting a virtual target. Despite the my look in this picture (blame the jet lag, as it was our first full day in London), I LOVED this. I even managed to hit my target!

Then we went into the room that use to talk about the Gunpowder Plot. Now all that is left of that is this strange dragon on top of powder kegs and my slightly scared museum buddy. After this room, we headed back down the ground (you work your way from the bottom to the top in this exhibit), but made one quick pitstop before leaving the Tower of London. 

Jenna really wanted to see the exhibit on Torture, so we stood in line in a slight drizzle to see what it was all about. When we got inside, however, we realized that it was just a small, one room exhibit with models of a few torture devices, including the Rack, the Manacles, and the one showed above, called the Scavenger's Daughter. It was a neat little exhibit, but there was a major problem with the flow of people through the exhibit, so we didn't stay too long. 

All in all it was a great exhibit within the larger Tower of London experience. And since Jenna and I both made it out alive (despite this guy's best efforts), I think we can call it a success.