museum – Page 7 – Palely Laura

The Cinema Museum

I’d never heard of the Cinema Museum until I saw it appear on Groupon. I mentioned this to the very knowledgeable and informative guide who conducted my tour, and he said, “If I had a pound for every time I heard that…” I think the museum deserves to be better known, as it is fascinating.

The address of the Cinema Museum is The Master’s House, 2 Dugard Way, London SE11 4TH. It is near Elephant & Castle tube station, surprisingly near to where one of my friends used to live. Other than organised events, it is only possible to visit the museum via a conducted tour, and this was how I got to look round on Saturday.

I’d booked in advance, but was disconcerted to find the place so quiet – I wondered if I’d turned up at the wrong time, but luckily someone opened the door for me. The first part of the tour involved watching a couple of short films while sitting in original theatre seats. One was a rather abstract promotion for the Post Office while the other was about the last tram in London – which fitted in well with my London Transport obsession. We joined up with the previous tour to visit the display of cinema uniforms, which came from a variety of different periods and cities and which varied considerably in colour, style and appeal.

After the first group left, their tour completed, our guide took us around the rest of the museum, which holds a wide and varied collection based around the concept of going to the pictures. Fixtures and fittings (e.g. carpets and signage), marketing materials, photographic images and publications such as fan magazines, films (e.g. B-movies, ads, trailers), equipment (e.g. projectors, sound systems and uniforms) and other random items. I was surprised at the number of items which seemed to be from Cumbria: when I asked the guide at the end he said that this was because one of the major contributors to the museum lived in a nearby town, and always made a point of turning up at cinema closures to get hold of bits and bobs. A piece of carpet from Workington and a sign from Egremont were just two of the items I spotted.

As a librarian by profession, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the museum has a library, which has been sorted by a volunteer (from what I could work out, the vast majority, perhaps even all, of the people associated with the museum are volunteers). There is also a room devoted to pictures of different kinds, such as stills from film sets.

On the first floor, there is a room devoted to Charlie Chaplin. Fittingly, the man actually spent time here: the building used to be the Master’s House of the former Lambeth Workhouse, where Chaplin entered alongside his mother when he was a child. The room we ended up in, the former workhouse chapel, was beautiful and the ideal place to rest and have a cup of tea.

Former workhouse chapel (complete with giant Charlie Chaplin sculpture!)

I definitely recommend a visit to the Cinema Museum. It’s a hidden gem and well worth a look if you’re remotely interested in cinema. Get in touch on 0207 840 2200 or email info@cinemamuseum.org.uk to arrange a tour, which costs £10 for adults and £7 for children and concessions.

FACTS

Address: 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London, SE11 4TH

Website: cinemamuseum.org.uk

Opening Hours: Pre-booked visits only

Prices: Adults £10, children and concessions £7

David Bowie Is… at the Victoria & Albert Museum – V&A

I visited the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A last week with my parents and an old friend of theirs. Not because I am a particular fan of Bowie, but my dad is. This was the first time he had visited London since I moved here over two years ago, and it was Bowie who helped to finally lure him down.

I had booked our tickets well in advance, which was just as well as the exhibition was completely sold out and people had to queue up for their time slot. Once we were finally inside, we were given audio guides and allowed to wander freely about the exhibition.

The first section covered Bowie’s early life, musical influences and early music. While not being a particular fan, I admired him for the huge range of influences on his music and the way in which he reinvented himself so many times. It was interesting to see his costumes and early recordings, including Top of the Pops appearances.

The second section had even more costumes, lyrics, artwork and stage props on display. I admit I got particularly excited about the props from Labyrinth.

My dad stayed in the exhibition for three hours. He said he didn’t want to miss anything. Needless to say, my mam and I didn’t stay that long. We went for a cup of tea and a piece of cake instead.

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum and Tour

I’m not really a tennis fan at all, but I thought it would be really interesting to visit Wimbledon, as it has such a long history. I went there on Sunday to look round the museum and partake in a tour, and ended up being infected by some of the enthusiasm clearly felt by tennis fans.

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club is located in south west London, and can be reached by bus 493 which goes through Tooting and encompasses both Southfields and Wimbledon stations. I actually got off at Wimbledon Park station and walked through the park, which was a lovely experience on what turned out to be a rather pleasant day. To get to the museum you enter the site at Gate 4, and the entrance is nearby.

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum — Entrance to the Museum and Shop

Entrance to the Museum and a tour of the site costs £22. This sounds expensive but I actually found it to be well worth it. I looked around the Museum first, which took about an hour. The Museum was renovated in 2006 and tells the story of lawn tennis and Wimbledon from the early days of the game and the first Championship in 1877 to more recent 21st-century developments. I found it to be interesting, well laid-out and informative, with fascinating items displayed including early tennis rackets, tennis-related memorabilia and outfits through the decades. I was appalled by the female outfits from the Victorian era, which included full corsets and long skirts. Frankly I’m amazed women were able to play the game at all in those clothes. There is also a hologram of player John McEnroe projected into a model of a dressing room, as well as videos and other interactive exhibits. Finally, the famous Wimbledon trophies are displayed in all their glory. These remain permanently on-site and winners get small copies to keep.

After looking around the Museum, it was time for the tour. This took an hour and a half and was a really good experience. Our guide was a Blue Badge guide and very knowledgeable. I was amazed at all the different nationalities of those on the tour – there were people from the USA, Australia, the Netherlands, India, Mexico and Thailand. It just goes to show how famous Wimbledon is the world over. We met at the statue of F. J. Perry, Britain’s last ever Gentlemen’s Singles Wimbledon Champion. His ashes are contained alongside.

On the tour we were shown a number of the courts, and introduced to the famous Wimbledon grass which we were ordered not to touch on pain of death (not quite!). One of the courts was the location of the nail-biting 2010 match between John Isner (USA) and Nicolas Mahut (France), which at over eleven hours turned out to be the longest ever Championship match. Our guide had been there at the match, and her recollections made me – who has never watched more than five minutes of tennis in my life – wish I had been there too.

Plaque recording the longest match in 2010

Near the beginning of the tour, we were shown the large board showing the results of all the Singles matches from Wimbledon 2012. Our guide explained that even the best players can be beaten by up-and-coming stars, and this is part of what makes tennis such an exciting game.

Boards showing the 2012 Wimbledon results

After a look around No. 1 Court (not to be confused with Centre Court), we were shown and given the chance to climb up Aorangi Park, so called because it was constructed on land previously leased to the New Zealand Sports and Social Club. It is a popular place for visitors to sit during the Championships because a giant screen is placed above the stairs by No. 1 Court showing all the matches that take place in that court. The area has been known informally as ‘Henman Hill’ and ‘Murray Mound’ as it has been commonly used by fans of these two British players.

Wimbledon logo

View of No. 1 Court, showing where the large television screen is placed during the Championships

Later we were shown the players’ reception, where they are required to sign in each day during Wimbledon. We also visited the press room, where players are required to give interviews to the media if requested to do so. We were offered, and a lot of my fellow tourists took the opportunity, the chance to sit in the seats ourselves and get our photos taken! I chickened out, partly because I would have been on my own, and it would have been a bit weird.

Our guide took us past an old-fashioned roller, originally pulled by horses to ensure the grass was smooth enough for tennis. She explained that the roller played an important part in the history of Wimbledon – if it wasn’t for it breaking, the club officials would never have come up with the idea of holding a tennis tournament to raise money for another. After the success of the first tournament, a second was held the following year, and the year after that… the rest, as they say, is history.

Finally we headed to Centre Court. On the way, we passed the boards on which are engraved the names of all the Wimbledon Champions dating back to 1877.

Championship Winners' Boards — Championship Winners’ Boards

Centre Court itself looks rather similar to No. 1 Court, but there are several important differences: it is the only court to have a Royal Box, and is currently the only court to have a roof (though one is planned for No. 1 Court in the next few years). If it should start to rain, the roof can be activated; normally folded like a concertina at either end of the court, it folds out and is ready for play within 40 minutes, which is very good news given the unpredictability of British weather.

There the tour ended, leaving me, as I mentioned earlier, with a new-found appreciation of the game of tennis. Unfortunately, the ballot for tickets for the 2013 Championships closed at the end of last year, and I don’t think I am quite dedicated enough to get up early at a ridiculous hour and queue for day tickets. However, I intend to register for the 2014 ballot when it opens in August, and see what happens.

FACTS

Address: The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Church Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 5AE

Website: wimbledon.com/en_GB/museum_and_tours

Opening Hours: Museum open 10am-5.30pm (5pm in winter); tour times vary

Prices: Museum only – Adult £13, Concession £11, Child £15; Museum and tour – Adult £24, Concession £21, Child £8

Freud Museum

As well as the huge, famous museums in the centre, London has a number of smaller museums dotted around the city. One place I’d never heard of until fairly recently was the Freud Museum, located near Finchley Road.

Most people will have heard of the ‘Father of Psychoanalysis’ Sigmund Freud. Though he lived and worked in Vienna for many years, his Jewish background meant that he and his family were vulnerable to persecution from the Nazis when they annexed Austria in 1938. He emigrated to England along with several members of his household, and spent the last year of his life in this house at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead, where he died in 1939. His daughter Anna, herself an influential and respected child psychoanalyst, lived in the house until her death in 1982.

The house is large, comfortable and welcoming, and I imagine it would be a very pleasant place to spend time in. Letters and documents belonging to and relating to both Sigmund and Anna, including Sigmund’s suit, are displayed. I thought the study was the most interesting room: it was where Freud saw his patients, but it seems more like a library, with shelves of books and archaeological artefacts. Sigmund Freud apparently had a strong interest in archaeology, which he compared to the study of the human mind.

I loved the landing in between the two floors, where there was a table next to the large window. The upstairs rooms also had some interesting information, including a Freud family tree, photos and books relating to Anna Freud and a temporary art exhibition.

FACTS

Address: 20 Maresfield Gardens, London, NW3 5SX

Website: freud.org.uk

Opening Hours: Wed-Sun 12pm-5pm

Prices: Adult £7, Senior Citizen £5, Concession £4; under-12s free.

Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind – British Museum

I’d originally planned to see Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind on Friday night a few weeks ago, but when I went along to the British Museum after work I found that the exhibition was completely sold out. I ended up buying an advance ticket for the 10th of March, so that I could visit before going to the Manet exhibition a bit later on.

Although timed entry was in operation, the exhibition hall was still really full and there was a bit of queuing and waiting around. I was surprised at how popular this exhibition was. What struck me about most of the exhibits was how small they were: some of them were only as big as a finger, very few larger than my fist. I suppose it would be easier to transport these smaller pieces from wherever they are held permanently, but I also found myself wondering if they were made so small to make them easier to carry around at the time, whether as pieces of jewellery or amulets, or just because smaller items were easier to transport in a nomadic society.

The first half of the exhibition displayed art from 40, 000 to 20, 000 years ago, the majority of it from Siberian Russia or central Europe. Several pieces stood out for me: the ‘Lion Man’, which, in its representation of something that does not exist in reality, reveals the creative and imaginative capabilities of Ice Age humans, and a flute, which shows that they enjoyed playing music. Several animals, such as bison, lions or mammoths, are depicted, a reflection of the world in which these people lived, and in fact many of the sculptures are made of mammoth ivory.

Images of nude women abound in Ice Age art, and it’s unclear whether these represent real women or a symbol. Their nudity clearly indicates an artistic convention – in Ice Age society, clothes were a necessity – but were they made for and by women, perhaps to protect them in pregnancy and childbirth, or did they serve some other purpose?

Later in the exhibition, art from the later time of 20, 000 to 10, 000 years ago is displayed. The sheer number of horse sculptures and pictures are astounding, and some of them are really beautiful. The exhibition questions whether these pictures are designed to represent individual horses, or the horse, a symbolic creature. Horses were undoubtedly hugely important to Ice Age people, and it is possible that they worshipped a deity that took the form of a horse. Perhaps we’ll never know.

The reasons for and meanings behind many of the sculptures and artworks here are shrouded in mystery. We can only speculate as to the purpose they served and the role they played in the lives of Ice Age society. However, we can certainly appreciate the artistic ability of their creators, and if it is true that the ability to make art is what distinguishes modern humanity from the animals, then these artworks are crucially important in helping us understand how we evolved.

Alongside the ancient artworks, several modern pieces from the 20th century are displayed. I don’t feel these are really necessary, but they do seem to illustrate that in some ways art has come full circle – the representations of the body, for instance, in several modern sculptures and images closely resembles those of the Ice Age.

Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind is on at the British Museum until 26th May.

Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars – V&A

I was at the V&A yesterday in order to buy advance tickets for the Bowie exhibition (my parents are coming down at the end of May and my dad in particular really wants to see it), and while I was there I thought I might as well visit the new exhibition Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars. I am very interested in history – I have a degree in the subject and actually studied the Tudors at A Level – and I am fascinated by anything to do with Russia, so this exhibition sounded ideal for me.

The background to the exhibition is that the Tudor era was when relations with Muscovy – now Russia – began to be established. The explorer Richard Chancellor reached Muscovy in 1553, while looking for the north east passage – his route took him over Norway and Sweden rather than via the Baltic – and this kick-started the diplomatic and economic relationship between the two powers. In 1556 the English Court House was founded in Moscow and from then until the end of the reign of Charles I, English ambassadors were a regular presence in the city. Relations soured during Oliver Cromwell’s rule – Russian powers were appalled that the English had executed their monarch (understandably, given what would happen in 1918!) – but were reinstated at the Restoration of Charles II.

The exhibition attempts to convey the nature of the treasures of the Tudor and Stuart courts via displays of armour (including an impressive suit worn by the portly Henry VIII), beautifully wrought jewels and miniatures, and impressive pictures. As soon as you enter you see a pair of magnificent stone leopards that once graced one of Henry VIII’s palaces – they reminded me of the two living leopards that attend Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Just beyond are four large animal heralds belonging to the Dacre family – Thomas, Lord Dacre, fought for Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. Impressive as these riches all were, I did wonder what they had to do with the Russian Tsars (other than the fact that they were from the same time period) – I thought the exhibition title was slightly misleading. Maybe that was just me?

Eventually, I came to a selection of displays that did have a clear connection to Russia, including diplomatic gifts that have been kept in the Kremlin in Moscow for years. Interestingly, their presence in Russia ensured their survival during the English Civil War – had they remained in this country, they would almost certainly have been destroyed. Some beautiful silver was on display, and a small replica – alongside video footage – of a magnificent carriage given to the Tsar Boris Godunov (immortalised in Alexander Pushkin’s play). I also enjoyed looking at the manuscript records and sources, including a record that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was performed – possibly for the first time – on Twelfth Night 1601 in honour of the Russian ambassador Gregory Mikolin.

The exhibition didn’t take very long to go round, which in a way was a good thing as it meant there wasn’t too much to take in. Although I was disappointed that the connection of some of the displays to Russia was tenuous, I did enjoy it and I don’t regret going.

Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars is on until 14 July.

Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men – Museum of London

On Sunday I visited an exhibition at the Museum of London, entitled Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men. It explores the relationship between the trade in dead bodies and the study of anatomy in the early 19^th century, and was inspired by the 2006 excavation of a burial ground at the Royal London Hospital, in which evidence of dissection, amputation and anatomical examination was found. I am rather squeamish and was worried that the exhibition would be a bit gruesome for me, but despite a few icky bits I was fine. The exhibition was sensitively arranged and the bones and anatomical models on display were generally presented from a scientific point of view.

Surgery during this period was difficult and dangerous, made even more risky by the lack of anaesthetic. Surgeons needed to develop their knowledge of anatomy and disease, and the best way to do this was by examining and dissecting real bodies. However, demand far outstripped supply. Religious beliefs, superstitions and personal feelings meant that the vast majority of people were terrified at the prospect of their bodies being cut up after death. In addition, they did not want to be equated with murderers, whose corpses were habitually donated after being hanged.

The ‘resurrection men’, or ‘body snatchers’, stepped in, raiding churchyards to provide the surgeons with the corpses they required. They were feared by the population at large: the exhibition displayed an iron coffin used to protect its inhabitant from being removed, and other artefacts designed to prevent grave robbery. This fear is understandable, especially given the publicity surrounding those body snatchers who did not stop short at robbing graves, but actually resorted to murder. Still, the bodies were necessary to the surgeons in order to broaden their knowledge of anatomy, and thus enable them to save lives.

I was interested and surprised to learn, at the end of the exhibition, that there is still a shortage of bodies for dissection at the beginning of the 21^st century. Maybe there needs to be some sort of campaign?

The Bank of England Museum

After my trip up the Monument I walked up to the Bank of England. Here I visited the Bank of England Museum.

2012 1205 Museumofthebankofengland — Bank of England Museum

This is a small, free museum at the back of the Bank. It is free to enter and is open Monday to Friday. When you go in you have to go through airport-style security – understandable I guess, given the proximity to the Bank.

For a free museum, there is quite a lot to see. Exhibitions explore the history of the Bank of England, which was founded in 1694. The inside of the museum has been designed to resemble Sir John Soane’s original design for the vestibule area. Sadly his building was demolished in the mid-20th century to enable a new, multi-storey building to be constructed. I liked looking at the different images of the Bank throughout the years, as well as examples of the different bank notes and coins produced over time.

The most surprising section of the museum was a small display devoted to Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind In the Willows. He worked at the Bank for many years and wrote his famous novel during this time. A first edition of the book is on display.

The Bank of England Museum is well worth a visit if you are in the area. It is informative and interesting and best of all free.

FACTS

Address: Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8AH

Website: bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/museum/visiting

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm

Prices: Free

Death: A Self-Portrait – Wellcome Collection

I was intrigued by the poster for Death: A Self-Portrait, the current exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, as well as the title of the exhibition itself. I visited the exhibition on Saturday with two of my friends, after having lunch at the African Kitchen Gallery next to Euston Station (which I highly recommend).

I had to laugh at the sign outside the exhibition door. It read:

No photography is allowed in Death

Well, I can’t imagine it’s easy to transport cameras to the other side.

The exhibition is based on the collection of Richard Harris, a former antique print dealer based in Chicago. He has amassed a diverse and fascinating collection of objects and artworks exploring attitudes towards and the iconography of death. The collection prompts questions about the role of art in exploring attitudes to and ideas about death, and the existence of a collection at all suggests a desire to somehow escape or transcend death.

For a free exhibition, Death: A Self-Portrait is extremely comprehensive, containing about three hundred artefacts spread over five rooms.

Contemplating Death

The first room looked at how death and mortality might be contemplated. It displayed several memento mori (Latin for “remember you must die”) artefacts, including Adriaen van Utrecht’s 1643 painting, comprising a skull set in the midst of assorted items including flowers and a pocket watch. The desire for personal possessions seems to contradict the knowledge that we are all going to die: it is commonly said that “you can’t take it with you”, whether the ‘it’ is money or valued possessions. Perhaps our love for things is a way of fighting against the idea of mortality?

The Dance of Death

I found this section bizarre, but brilliant. The Dance of Death, or Danse Macabre as it is more commonly known, appeared first in the medieval period when death was at the forefront of peoples’ minds: plague, famine and war conspired to kill off individuals in their hundreds. Death was the ultimate leveller: it came to peasants and nobles alike. I have come across images of the dance of death before, in the course of my historical studies. Pictures of grinning skeletons dancing with humans are both amusing and morbid. My favourite item on display was a giant skull made largely out of plasticine during the last few years in South America. Looking more closely, you can see the shanty towns of South American cities, crushed by capitalism and Western culture: tiny books with recognisable covers – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Great Expectations, Catch 22 – lie in layers at the skull’s eye level.

Violent Death

This section was, I thought, the most disturbing. Here, images showing violent death, often in war, were displayed. I studied the First World War for A Level English Literature and one of the ideas that came out of my studies was that World War I was the first in which the horror and violence of war were truly condemned: before that, the honour and glory of soldiering was emphasised. Francisco Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ series, produced in the wake of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1810-20, seem to disprove this theory. They are disturbing, vivid and brutal images; at the beginning, only the invaders are violent, but towards the end brutality is evident from both sides. Jacques Callot’s ‘The Miseries and Misfortunes of War’ of 1683 also contributes to the debate, while Otto Dix’s ‘The War’ of 1924 is equally violent, but in a way less immediately disturbing, given that the horror of World War I is well documented.

Eros and Thanatos

Eros and Thanatos are the contrasting instincts towards life and towards destruction, according to Sigmund Freud. In this room, our fascination with death, pain and disturbing phenomena is examined. Anatomical studies reflect the knowledge gained from the dissection of the dead, while postcards of lovers, or of friends playing cards, have been made to look like skulls. I found this room intriguing too, and especially loved the postcards, which were very clever.

Commemoration

The final room examined the ways in which we commemorate the dead, suggesting that the varied ways different cultures achieve this have one thing in common: to connect with the dead and our ancestors. From the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico, to the American families posing with skeletons, they are all about exploring our relationship with the dead. Other interesting artefacts in this room included Tibetan ceremonial cups and Aztec vessels, as well as a rather frightening grave guardian from a Pacific island.

Conclusion

I thought this exhibition was excellent: well put together, thought-provoking and varied. At the end, there is a video which shows Richard Harris discussing the exhibition and there is also a chart which provides much food for thought, showing the ways in which people died during the 20^th century. The larger the circle, the greater the number of deaths, and related methods of death are linked together. Some of the results were to be expected – the high proportion of deaths from cancer, for example – but others I found surprising, such as the huge numbers dead from diarrhoea. A few I actually found reassuring: the number of deaths caused by air travel accidents is tiny by comparison to most other causes.

This free exhibition is on at the Wellcome Collection, near Euston, north London, until 24 February 2013, and comes highly recommended.

Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire – British Library

The British Library always puts on good exhibitions and the new one, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire is no exception. I visited on Saturday and found it an enlightening experience.

I know very little about India; in fact most of my literary, historical and cultural interests are very Western-based so I hoped this exhibition would give me the chance to broaden my horizons. The Mughals ruled India for over three hundred years, from 1526 when Henry VIII was on the throne in England until 1858, the time of the early Victorian era. I am roughly familiar with the progress of British, and to a lesser extent European, history during this period, but my knowledge of Asian history of this (or any) period is slim.

I found it interesting that the Mughals were an Islamic dynasty, but those over whom they ruled were mostly Hindus. By and large, according to the exhibition, rulers exercised religious tolerance. This helped to keep the peace throughout the empire and fostered debates on different aspects of religion. Geographically, the empire at its height spanned a large and diverse area, including most of what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The first Mughal emperor was Babur (1483-1530), who came from Samarquand (modern Uzbekistan) to conquer Kabul, Lahore and Delhi. Descended from Genghis Khan and Timur, the emperors adopted Persian as their cultural and administrative language.

There were fifteen major emperors over the years: traditionally the early six emperors are known as the ‘Great’ Mughals, famed for their expansion of the empire and their commissioning of great buildings such as the Taj Mahal and the Delhi Red Fort. I found it difficult to get my head around all the different emperors, but a central part of the exhibition displays pictures and artefacts relating to each emperor in chronological order. I found this very handy to help me work out who was who and give me some insight into the achievements and character of each emperor.

The exhibition was divided into sections, looking at life in Mughal India, painting, religion, literature, science and medicine. Images and artefacts were displayed clearly, and there were numerous books and other examples of writing, as you might expect from an exhibition at the British Library. I thought the art was incredibly beautiful, very different to the Western style of painting, colourful and vivid. I found it particularly interesting to see paintings of British and other European visitors in this style, which were in great contrast to the paintings you see in places like the National Gallery. One of the most unusual pictures was of one of the emperors engaged in some bedroom fun with a mistress: I found it very bizarre that an emperor would agree to being painted in such a compromising position!

Of course I couldn’t read works in Persian or other languages of the empire, but I found the descriptive cards next to them to be good sources of information. Many rulers were patrons of literature and several wrote poetry or kept diaries themselves. I found the works on science extremely fascinating: great advances were made through the study of the sciences, in medicine for example. Geography and astronomy were especially important and the Mughals were also influenced by astrology.

The empire began to reduce in size over time and towards its end covered only the area of the Delhi Red Fort. The dynasty came to an end in 1858 after the failed Uprising against the British East India Company.

I really enjoyed this exhibition. It was very different to what I am used to but I found it fascinating, and once again I feel I learned something.