Darwin the Geologist

This feature from our Project Manager explains how your comments have improved the Sedgwick Museum’s new exhibition.

When developing the ‘Darwin the Geologist’ exhibition we listened to your comments carefully and responded to them in the final exhibit. We ran focus groups with adults, families, teachers, further education college students and undergraduate students. The feedback from these groups on prototype displays and interactives was extremely useful.

In response we made the text and text area larger and edited it down and split it up into more manageable sections. We colour coded the different sections of the exhibition to improve visitor orientation. We added more handling specimens than we originally planned and we added more quotes from diaries and manuscript material. We added more images and made the captions easier to read. Finally, we gave the exhibition a more maritime feel and added high-level signage. All these ideas came from you and they helped to make the exhibition a much richer experience.

But we did not stop collecting your comments and ideas after the exhibition opened in July. We interviewed visitors in the museum after they had seen the exhibition and read the remarks you made on the comment cards in the exhibition with great interest. In response, we made changes to the Magic Planet globe interactive to make it more responsive and user friendly. We developed a Darwin Discovery Chest for younger visitors and we are currently developing a website that will put the key objects and stories online so that you can re-visit some of the ideas in the exhibition at home.

Thank you for your input so far and please keep the comments coming.

This Saturday Sedgwick Museum visitors had the chance to participate in ‘Spinning Yarns’ a December event celebrating Darwin’s famous voyage round the world with storytelling, crafts and the debut of a brand new under-fives’ discovery chest.

Four story telling sessions led by Marion Leeper concentrated on Darwin’s travels and featured the first on gallery appearance of the Museum’s new story mat made by tallented textile artist Jenny Langley.

Craft activities led by Ricki Outis encouraged visitors of all ages to create their own fabric pictures of rocks.

The activity chest created by Gilly Vose was also a big hit with visitors of all ages. It includes Russian dolls of passengers and crew on board the Beagle, hands-on puzzles, a plush globe and a trail round the rest of the museum. It will stay on gallery beside the Darwin exhibition from now on.

Artist Ricki Outis worked with Years 5 and 6 at Milton Road Primary School and children at Brunswick Nursery to create textile pieces inspired by Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle and the rocks and fossils he collected.

The older children created drawings inspired by a visit to the Darwin exhibition at the Sedgwick Museum which were then developed on a light sensistive fabric. Both schools worked with Ricky to produce felted textiles inspired by rocks and fossils.

Working alongside her, storyteller Marion Leeper helped the children invent their own stories of exploration using a story mat specially commissioned from Cambridge-based textile artist Jenny Langley.

The project finale was a ’story bazaar’ at Brunswick Nursery, where the older children entertained the under fives with their tales of adventure.

Selected textiles made by children at both Milton Road and Brunswick are now on temporary display at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.

In this feature, Collections Assistant, Matt Riley takes us though the measures the Department of Earth Sciences and Sedgwick Museum have taken to make sure as many people as possible are able to experience the Darwin the Geologist exhibition and the rest of the museum.

When Dr John Woodward donated his collection to the University of Cambridge he stipulated in his will that the collections should be available “to all such curious and intelligent persons as shall desire a view of [it] for their information and instruction.”

The new Darwin the Geologist exhibition certainly grants access like never before to a world famous and incredibly important part of our collections.  However, disabled visitors faced a number of barriers both in and around the Museum, which limited their physical access to the Museum galleries and to this new exhibition.

In a project running concurrently with the Darwin Exhibition Installation, I worked alongside Department of Earth Sciences Principal Assistant Nigel Johnson to address these physical access challenges.  The result is that our world famous collections can now be seen and enjoyed by a wider and more inclusive audience.

Improved wheelchair access to Museum and Department of Earth Sciences

The main entrance to the Sedgwick Museum is located on the first floor at the top of a steep and awkward flight of steps.  The Department entrance, located beneath the stairs leads to the Department lift, but was itself stepped and inaccessible to wheelchair and pushchair users.  A new permanent ramp with a gentle slope now leads into the lobby and an intercom has been installed so that visitors can contact Museum staff for assistance.  To further improve access a number of large rock specimens have been removed from the corridor and the uneven flooring has been replaced.

Access to the Museum entrance vestibule on the first floor is via double fire doors.  Magnetic holdbacks have been fitted so that a single member of staff can safely assist wheelchair and pushchair users who require lift access.

Disabled access within the Museum

The Museum’s two main galleries are on slightly different levels connected by series of steps that used to have an unsatisfactory and potential dangerous arrangement of ramps.  Two motorized platform lifts, designed specifically for wheelchair users, have now been installed on the steps.  Visitors can sign out a key and a set of simple instructions and self operate the lifts, or they are welcome to ask Museum Staff for assistance.

Improvements for visually impaired

Dino-lite USB cameras were purchased to help visually impaired researchers look at objects and read tiny specimen labels.  They eliminate the need for complicated and delicate microscopes when showing visitors objects and are especially good for children.  Look out for them at our future fossil ID events - you can even have a go yourself!

Improvements for hearing impaired

Hearing loops have been installed at both the Department Reception on the ground floor and Museum Shop on the first floor for hearing impaired visitors. A loop system has been installed in the Department’s Tilley Lecture Theatre, used by Museum visitors during special events and by the Friends of the Sedgwick Museum for their monthly guest lectures.

Improved signage

Site signage is being upgraded to help visitors find the Museum more easily and to display access and health and safety information more clearly. New signs have already been installed at the base of the Museum steps and by the Department entrance.  They include information about Museum opening times and directions for using the intercom.  Planned signage on the step risers will direct visitors to the accessible entrance. A sign on Downing Street will show updated visitor information and will have space for posters to advertise Museum events.

We hope that these improvements enrich your visit and we welcome any feedback.