The Darker Side of Museums: Over Collecting and Perceptions

Shropshire Museums has commissioned a series of short films exploring Shropshire Museums’ Natural Science Collections with Emma-Kate Lanyon (Curator).

This film explores how the Victorian era was the start of modern consumerism with Britain’s growing empire and industrialisation both acting as catalysts. This period saw a growing fashion for collecting, leading to crazes for collecting everything from porcelain and feathers to coins and taxidermy. The need for specimens to feed the collecting mania led to damage to both the natural and historic environment as sites were raided to fill collector’s cabinets and museum shelves.

In this film we will explore how the display approach taken by collectors and curators shaped how people understood the world. It also reflected how we saw people, both in our past and from other foreign lands.