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Work in Progress
Diary of a refurbishment
Here's a glimpse behind the scenes during the £2million refurbishment of the Yorkshire Museum.
Waiting patiently for opening day...
26 July, 2010
The moa in place
The galleries are filling up as we approach opening day on Sunday.
Here’s our moa skeleton, still partially wrapped up, in place in the Extinct gallery.
Rats, squirrels and a puffin
Along the wall of the same room a puffin,a red squirrel and a grey squirrel share a wall with a collection of brown and black rats!
St Mary's Abbey statues
Meanwhile, in the Medieval York gallery, our four statues from St Mary’s Abbey stand waiting patiently for opening day…
The animals came in one by one...
20 July, 2010
Pip with one of our Great Auks
Our new Extinct gallery is now being populated with fossilised, skeletal and stuffed birds and animals!
Pip Strang, assistant curator of biology, is pictured with one of our Great Auks, and has also been installing our selection of Dodo bones which have been mounted with a manmade skull. These feature in a section on relatively modern extinction stories.
The huge whale skull
In the next section is huge whale skull which is suspended from the ceiling.
At the other end of the room a lion skeleton sits high up on a ledge, as if leaping out over visitors' heads.
Our lion skeleton
Both these animals are featured to highlight conservation efforts to save them from decline.
Over in the Roman York gallery, staff and volunteers have been busy installing objects into an area devoted to activity before the Romans arrived in York, in the Neolithic period, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
Natalie with a sharpened flint
One of the display cases will be open so that visitors can pick up pieces of sharpened flint tools and Natalie McCaul, assistant curator of archaeology, is pictured with one of these larger flints, bottom right.
Natalie, incidentally, is also the photographer behind the atmospheric images of the northern English landscape used as the backdrop for this section - which you'll be able to see in full when we reopen on 1 August!
And there's more... in the new Roman York gallery
13 July, 2010
Mint your own Roman coin
The new Roman York gallery is coming to life as more and more artefacts and displays are installed.
Here are some pictures of what visitors will be able to do while they walk round. First is the chance to mint coins inspired by a coin featuring Severus, the African emperor who lived in Eboracum (York) for three years.
We also have a map of York where visitors will be able to lift flaps around the city to find out what archaeologists have found where.
The Four Seasons Mosaic - on the floor!
And finally, right, here's just a portion of what is sure to be one of the most popular parts of the Roman gallery - the chance to walk on a real Roman mosaic.
Roman relics return
7 July, 2010
Andrew Morrison, head curator, lifts the Neptune statue into place
Roman gravestones and sculptures are being brought back into the Yorkshire Museum this week to take pride of place in our new Roman York gallery.
Earlier this week Mars, God of War, was put into position in the Central Hall.
Stonework was being put in place around the walls, including a piece of a statue of Neptune, the God of the Sea, riding on his chariot, in front of an image of a Roman mosaic showing the same scene.
Discussing the Lucius gravestone
In the next section of the Roman York gallery, the gravestone to Lucius Duccius Rufinus,a French standard bearer of the Ninth Legion, has returned....
Geoff Hutchinson and Dave Evans examine the gravestone of Corellia Optata
,,, and another gravestone was being brought in at the same time, which tells of the sadness felt by the father of Corellia Optata, who died at the age of 12.
Lost legion and more light
29 June, 2010
The inscription above the gateway
Our inscription to the famous Roman Ninth Legion has now been put into place in the Central Hall.
The mysterious Ninth Legion has been the subject of many stories after its soldiers apparently disappeared after travelling to Scotland to fight the Picts. Our inscription is the last dated record of them and dates from AD107-8. It was found in York and celebrates the building of the south east gateway to the city’s fortress. The inscription has been positioned above a Roman gateway, which will hold a screen giving a sneak preview film of our six citizens of Eboracum – Roman York.
The Medieval York gallery, built around the Abbey ruins
Downstairs the Medieval York gallery is nearly ready for our array of Anglian, Viking and Medieval treasures to move in. Now that the space is clear, the windows exposed and the floor covered, the sunlight really does light up the arches of the ruined St Mary’s Abbey.
Fitting out the galleries
9 June, 2010
A fresco is already up on the wall as fitters work in the Roman Gallery
Painters, decorators, shopfitters – they’re all hard at work now preparing our Yorkshire Museum galleries to be filled with fascinating things to see once we reopen on 1 August.
A wooden frame is being put up to hold the three huge sea reptile fossils - the ichthyosaur, the plesiosaur and the pliosaur, and a spot-lit case has been sunk into the ground of another gallery to hold our dinosaur footprint trackway. In the Roman galleries a fresco has been put up on one of the walls.
Letting in the light
11 May, 2010
Light flows down into the Yorkshire Museum's Central Hall
The light is now shining down into parts of the museum it hasn't reached for many years. Work to remove window coverings and partitions has been completed making the building much brighter inside.
The Central Hall, which will welcome visitors into the museum with a look at the Roman Empire when we reopen on 1 August, looks particularly striking now that the ceiling windows are exposed, and visitors to the new Medieval York gallery on the lower floor will be able to see out onto the Museum Gardens.
15 weeks to go!
14 April, 2010
The hoarding outside the museum
“Caution – Historians at Work!” Opening day is now approaching fast... New art work has been put up around the museum to mark the final countdown until we reopen on August 1.
The hoarding shows how many weeks are left until the big day, as well as showcasing some of our star exhibits, such as the York Helmet and the Cawood Sword.
The ichthyosaur hole...
17 March, 2010
The ichthyosaur-shaped hole
One of the most striking moments of the dismantling process was when a wall was exposed which had held our huge ichthyosaur fossil.
When a stretch of panelling was pulled down the shape of the giant sea monster could be clearly seen on the wall. The fossil had been taken down from the wall some years earlier and is due to go back on display when we re-open in August.
Geoff Hutchinson, right, and Roger Weal brick up the hole
Geoff Hutchinson and his assistant Roger Weal carefully bricked up the wall again so it could be replastered and redecorated to form part of the new Extinct gallery.
The ichthyosaur will be re-displayed against the same wall but this time laid out on a flat surface.
Measuring the ichthyosaur
24 February, 2010
Isla Gladstone and Stuart Ogilvy measure up the ichthyosaur
Our curators Isla Gladstone and Stuart Ogilvy have been hard at work piecing together the 100-or-so sections of a giant ichthyosaur fossil.
The massive sea creature, more than 20 feet or six metres long, was a predator during the time of the dinosaurs.
Our ichthyosaur is one of the biggest in Britain and its remains were found in Jurassic rocks near Whitby on the Yorkshire Coast. It is very rare to find one as well-preserved and complete. Isla and Stuart had to work out exactly how much space the huge fossil would take up and how it should be mounted to display it to its best effect in our new gallery, Extinct – A Way of Life.
Before and after...
15 February, 2010
Here’s a glimpse of three of our galleries before and after our building work began…
For those familiar with the building, the difference is already striking. Not only have all the cases and displays gone, but internal walls have been torn down and covers taken off hidden windows, letting in daylight and giving the place a feeling of being much more spacious.
The Abbey Gallery is pictured before closure on the left, and on the right pictured from the other side of the arches once demolition work had begun.
The old Medieval Gallery on the ground floor is shown left, with the Middleham Jewel case in the corner. On the right is the same view with the displays gone and windows revealed.
The long Roman Gallery is pictured as it was on the left, and again on the right once displays started to come down.