July 1, 2016

The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, tacked onto the back of the National History Museum, houses an odd collection of objects from surgical equipment to toys. The setup of the Pitt Rivers blatantly seems to reject the ‘traditional’ way to set up a museum – that is following a setup that travels through time periods or that follows the narrative decided upon by the museum. Instead, the Pitt Rivers has chosen to keep like-objects together, combining objects from all over the world based on their similarities. Most times, museums group objects and works of art together by their region and the regions are grouped together based on the time in which they were around. For example, you are likely to find Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt in the same area of the museum. These places are using similar types of tools but they are grouped by region to keep the objects organized and make touring the museum more streamlined.

However, the Pitt Rivers has rejected this idea of organization and instead groups the objects by use and not on region or time period. Weaponry, like swords and shields, are grouped together from all over instead of with their region or time period for example. When you first walk down into the Pitt Rivers, it already gives of an eerie vibe as the lights are dimmed and the cases are all very close together. Already, the atmosphere of this portion of the museum gives the visitors the feeling of uneasiness. Straight off the stairs and you’re in front of a case full of dolls modeled to look exactly like humans – here is a hint as I don’t have a picture, they look like creepier versions of people. From the creation of man, the human form has been the subject of many types of art. People have always tried to capture the exact proportion to explicitly show the human form; however, it never really works out. We aren’t as ugly as some of these artistic versions and we are not all as beautiful as Michelangelo’s David. However, these figures do set the tone for the rest of the museum.

The Pitt Rivers’ organization leads you in circles around the room to observe the clothes of different areas, which are separated by their area on the ground floor, but still follow the theme of attire. Upstairs, the floor covers objects from tools for surgery from all over the world. The ones I noticed immediately are from Mukden, Manchuria; with these tools, it must have hurt terribly to have surgery. And in the same breath, you can turn from these tools to see toys found in areas in America. One of the most notable ones to me was the puppet of the cow, which was used to teach children moral lessons. I believe the cow was from the Midwest and it’s noticeably older, as you can see somewhat in the picture I took.

It’s interesting to look in the Pitt Rivers Museum; I wish I could have devoted more time than I had at the time I visited, which was twice, to really explore all of the floors and to read more about the objects. The organization of the museum leaves you in awe of the adaptations of people around the world, just in a different manner than you would normally find in a more traditionally set up museum. 

catch you later,

Karleigh