This Unrivalled Collection: The Hunterian's first catalogue
Quirky exhibition
at the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow looking at the first guide to the
Hunterian Museum by Captain John Laskey in 1813.
It took the
opportunity to display objects from the original collection alongside their
descriptions from the catalogue. In doing so it gave a snapshot of the world as
understood by the Enlightenment and gave a wonderful view of what one of the
oldest public museums in the world was like in its early days.
It included
objects from Captain Cook, a very dead three toed sloth, anatomical items and a
copy of the Rosetta stone.
It was
interesting to see mistakes which were made at the time such as a shield which
was identified as Roman but in fact had been made in the Renaissance for
Ludivico Sfzora.
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