Haslemere Educational Museum
Posted August 26th, 2008 by phl.costelloe
Location:
78 High StreetLocation:
HaslemereLocation:
SurreyLocation:
GU27 2LAFunding Organisation:
Independent, run by trusteesYLM Questionnaire Completed:
YesHuman Remains Policy:
YesComment:
Disposal Policy:
YesHR On Display:
YesHR Count:
39HR Count Pre-Christian:
12How many human remains are in its collection, and how many of those are of ancient British provenance:
39 human remains (bones/archaeological)
5 ancient Romano-British, 4 ancient British (late Bronze/Iron Age), 1 Ancient Egyptian, 2 Peruvian, 1 Aboriginal, 2 Saxon, 2 Indian, 1 Vancouver Island, rest provenance unknown.
5 boxes of human tissue samples in microscope slides
How many of these human remains are well documented, with clear context of date and place of exhumation?:
6
Where there are human remains in store, is there a history of use?:
No real records of use as documentation until recently was quite sketchy.
Where there are human remains in store, is there potential for use, in display, education or scientific analysis?:
Yes, all our objects are accessible by appointment, our Egyptian Mummy and human skeleton are on display in our permanent galleries and we do very popular school workshops on Ancient Egypt and skeletons.
Does the museum have a disposal policy, and is it including HR with negligible potential in its discussions about disposal?:
Yes, we do have an acquisitions and disposal policy including guidance on human remains disposal and a separate human remains policy too.
What sources of information about these human remains are in the public domain and where?:
We promote information about collections on our website, have reserve collections leaflets for visitors and include human remains such as our Egyptian mummy in all our general advertising for the museum and its educational activities.
Are any of these remains currently on display and in what context?:
Yes, our Egyptian mummy is in our human history gallery in a separate, alcoved low lit room and our human skeleton is in our natural history gallery in the context of learning about vertebrates.
What is your opinion, and that of other Pagans or local community, of this display?:
We have visitor feedback forms and only a couple of visitors have commented that they wanted to avoid viewing our Egyptian mummy.
Does the museum hold any iconic HR, i.e. figures of local or national importance, and are these on display?:
Our human skeleton is on display but sadly it has no provenance or story behind it, however our Egyptian mummy has been well researched and x-rayed and this information is displayed along side it.