Day #3: The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

The Petrie is a fantastic hidden gem, simply two rooms at the back of the UCL Science Library stuffed to the brim with Egyptian objects. There isn't much in the way of information available, and all in all the place has the feel of an old Victorian curiosities collection.

That's actually what it is. William Petrie collected and organised the objects in the collection during the Victorian era. He was the first ever professor of Egyptian Archeology, aided in his quest by Emilia Edwards - an amazing Egypt nut who founded the Edwards chair for archaeology at UCL.

Bizarrely, Petrie's head is preserved in a pickle jar in London. He donated his skull to medical research, but he died abroad during the war and it had to be preserved (flesh and all) to be shipped back. It has apparently remained in this state ever since. This sparked a really interesting discussion with Mads (the museum manager and really interesting pot maniac leading the day) about whether the display of human remains can be justified.

A new museum and location for the Petrie is currently being planned, with more space, more information and more stuff for school groups. It'll certainly render the museum more informative, but I worry that it may loose some of that unique, slightly kooky atmosphere.

The Petrie focuses more on the everyday artifacts (like jewellery) rather than the big statues. It also has material from all periods in Egypt, something which the curator Stephen Quirke deems very important. He spoke for a while about how often context and the idea of continuity in history is utterly overlooked.

We were also able to talk to some of the people involved in current projects at the museum.

Marwa, originally from Egypt, talked about her work with the Hidden Histories project - looking at objects in order to discover where they come from, how they were made, who owned them and many other hidden stories. She also had a lot of interesting things to say about the quality of Egyptology in Egypt itself: as an Egyptian she had to go to Belgium to study the history of her own country, which is more than a little ridiculous.

Two women involved in the conservation of objects also talked to us.

Basically there are two types of conservation: preventative (preventing the objects from being damaged) and active (repairing previous damage or reconstruction). They talked about re-stringing some of the collection's beads in preparation for new exhibitions in the new building, and about re-designing the storage with polythene foam cut around the shape of the objects so that the objects are better protected and so that draws can easily be seen by visitors.

The Petrie looks like a fab place to intern: small and friendly with loads of interesting, hands on stuff to do. The competition for the spaces looks like it'll be fierce, though.

V&A tomorrow.