animal mummy box

The Chemical Experimenter

Various individuals influenced the Egyptian collections here at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA). There are some very unusual characters – like the banjo playing Lady Meux – and there are some more reserved antiquarians and entrepreneurial collectors. They all, however, contributed to what we now see in the museum in one way or another. The Chemical Experimenter Joseph… Read full article

What’s in a label?

Sometimes we find objects in our store that have little or no known documentation – the object has in effect become ‘lost’. Sometimes, however, museum staff are lucky enough to have an old label or mark on the object. But how can we build an object biography from old labels? During the autumn term – Michaelmas Term here in Cambridge… Read full article

Unpacking Cambridgeshire’s past

The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) houses outstanding collections from the Cambridgeshire region, but for much of this material little has been documented and photographed. What happens when we delve into this material, sometimes for the first time since it arrived in the museum, and how can we make it better known? In 1923 Sir Cyril Fox published his… Read full article