# pitt rivers museum, oxford



## wayward bob (Oct 12, 2011)

could equally go into science i guess, but who cares.

best. museum. ever. 

can't believe i've never been before.

just a total headfuck of a place


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## sim667 (Oct 13, 2011)

Whats so mad about it?


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## scifisam (Oct 13, 2011)

TBH I find it a completely ordinary museum.


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## fredfelt (Oct 13, 2011)

Ordinary museum - Pah!

Where else in the world can you see the famous shrunken heads, walk a few paces and then find a display of smoking and smoking devices with an exhibit labelled 'Herbal Cannabis, Glastonbury circa 1970'.  Then around the next corner there's a display of surgical instruments collected from different ages around the globe.

I've been there plenty of times.  Every time I see something new which takes hold of my imagination and makes my mind boggle!


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## fractionMan (Oct 13, 2011)

Thirded.best museum ever


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## wayward bob (Oct 13, 2011)

scifisam said:


> TBH I find it a completely ordinary museum.



oh sam how could you say that 

it has its own logic, like i've never seen. instead of being sorted by date or region everything's grouped functionally, because pitt rivers was interested in how different cultures solved the same problems. like the half dozen rat traps spanning hundreds of years and the whole globe that are all practically identical. i've never seen a museum display that grouped 1950s conical bras and those bizarre 50cm diameter african anklets, and dissection drawings of chinese women's bound feet, all together. and it's utterly overwhelming - the sheer number of artefacts jammed together in those awesome cabinets, that are all jammed together themselves. sure there are guides to help you make more sense of the collection, but the way it's displayed forces you to juxtapose the weirdest things. it's like being inside his head - it makes a kind of logical sense but is totally alien to me. it's one enormous cabinet of curiosities. and i love the tiny little handwritten accession labels


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## fredfelt (Oct 13, 2011)

And we haven't even mentioned the Museum of Natural History which you walk through to get there!

(glowing scorpions anyone?)


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## sim667 (Oct 13, 2011)

I want to go there already!


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## wayward bob (Oct 13, 2011)

BigPhil said:


> And we haven't even mentioned the Museum of Natural History which you walk through to get there!
> 
> (glowing scorpions anyone?)



and the best trilobites i've ever seen  i was also rather taken by the somewhat random tank of cockroaches  hissing cockroaches


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## scifisam (Oct 13, 2011)

I like that description - nicely worded. Thing is, lots of small museums are like that.


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## wayward bob (Oct 13, 2011)

scifisam said:


> I like that description - nicely worded. Thing is, lots of small museums are like that.



i think it's the scale of the place that got to me the most. it was totally awesome in the overwhelming number of objects crammed together


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## BoatieBird (Oct 13, 2011)

I love this museum, I've been there several times and it was great taking BoatieBoy there for his first visit a couple of years ago.
Although some of the display cabinets are too high for kids to see them properly so my arms ached by the end as I had to keep picking him up so he could see.
I think I'm going to plan a return visit for half term


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## blossie33 (Oct 13, 2011)

Agree, it's a brilliant place.


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## Stigmata (Oct 13, 2011)

One of my favourites as I like anthropology collections. You should also try the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (although the archaeology section is pretty terrible), or the Russell Cotes Museum in Bournemouth.

Also Lieutentant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers is one of the best names ever


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## blossie33 (Oct 13, 2011)

Yes - I love the Russell Cotes in Bournemouth too!

Never been to Cambridge.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Nov 5, 2011)

wayward bob said:


> oh sam how could you say that
> 
> it has its own logic, like i've never seen. instead of being sorted by date or region everything's grouped functionally, because pitt rivers was interested in how different cultures solved the same problems. like the half dozen rat traps spanning hundreds of years and the whole globe that are all practically identical. i've never seen a museum display that grouped 1950s conical bras and those bizarre 50cm diameter african anklets, and dissection drawings of chinese women's bound feet, all together. and it's utterly overwhelming - the sheer number of artefacts jammed together in those awesome cabinets, that are all jammed together themselves. sure there are guides to help you make more sense of the collection, but the way it's displayed forces you to juxtapose the weirdest things. it's like being inside his head - it makes a kind of logical sense but is totally alien to me. it's one enormous cabinet of curiosities. and i love the tiny little handwritten accession labels



I always love museums organized under that principle.  We have this little podunk museum called Pioneer Village that the founder stocked by going to auctions and buying 50 different sewing machines, washing machines, player pianos, gas lamps, hundreds of odd cars and airplanes, etc.  In the center of the whole thing was a old carved wood merry-go-round, complete with caliope and painted unicorns.  It was fun just to go in and plug nickels into the player pianos.


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