Beautiful and Extinct Gallery Oldham 15.04.2010

We had a very enjoyable visit ti this extensive exhibition and were lucky enough to have Alan Price come back to take us through the different aspects of the items displayed. Jennifer the curator who had helped to put it all together introduced us to Alan and Ann Hornsby gave us her usual detailed audio description of the items we looked at.
A corner of the area was set up to represent a curator's office and there was a cupboard with shelves conraining various stuffed creatures. There was a painting of Mr TYaylor at work and also a painting of the Chadderton taxidermist surrounded by work in progress. Apparently they used arsenic and mercury to help preserve specimens which shortened ther life span.
Alan told us about the two golden eagles on display and in another glass case there was a great bustead which is our heaviest bird of flight and was extinct probably due to being low flying and ground nesting. It has been successfuly re-introduced in Somerset and has nested and produced chicks.
In the garden area there is a profusion of stuffed birds and other creatures and Alan explained how we could all help to provide habitat in our gardens and areas to encourage our wildlife.
During a handling session in the education suite, we were treated to a yummy chocolate bar and drink whilst Jennifer and Alan brought around a fox's head and tail, a woolly mamoth huge tooth, the vertebrae of a dynosaur, some antlers and the model of a toad. Fascinaring closeups.
Our thanks to Alan and Jennifer and Ann for bringing the exhibition to life for us and to Mary and her volunteers for making the visit happen.
posted by Elaine