Talk: From the Nile to Newbury

The story of how West Berkshire Museum ended up with its own Egyptology Collection. Harold Peake was the first curator of the museum in Newbury. He was very keen that the displays should show the whole panorama of human history and the very first ones he designed led up to a mirror labelled "Homo Sapiens". At the time this would have been quite remarkable. How did his attitude towards the origins of humanity affect how he collected objects for the museum? Why was he interested in collecting objects from Ancient Egypt for a museum in the middle of West Berkshire? Come and find out, including more about the personalities Peake dealt with such as W M Flinder's-Petrie, Gertrude Caton-Thompson and more. The speaker Rachel Cotton is a member of the Thames Valley Ancient Egypt Society and currently reading for an Egyptology MA at the University of Manchester. She is particularly interested in examining the colonial and ethical underpinnings of early Egyptological collections by Western museums. Her dissertation is on Walter Gustav Kemp who was a member of George Reisner's Harvard team in Egypt. The Kemp Archive is held at West Berkshire Museum. Tickets are free but must be booked online. https://tinyurl.com/5n7jm8dr Bookings close at 4pm on Tuesday 16 April. Wednesday 17 April | 1pm | Free | West Berkshire Museum | Free