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Archaeology and History

Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

The Department of Archaeology and History at the University of Exeter have joined with ‘Friends of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum’ in Exeter to give an annual public lecture. This lecture helps to build on the longstanding partnership between both the department and the museum, enabling the department to share their expertise on RAMM’s collections both with Friends and with the wider public.

Each year a member of the department will provide a lecture which uses some aspect of RAMM's wonderful collections of historic, cultural, ethnographic, artistic, architectural, and natural history materials as a point-of-departure to explore a theme in archaeology or history.

The inaugural lecture to begin this collaboration was provided by Professor Nandini Chatterjee, Professor of South Asian History and Holly Morgenroth, natural sciences curator at RAMM. They explored an exquisite collection of nature-themed prints and watercolours produced by Indian artists in the early days of the British Empire in India. These drawings record British experience of new environments, and cross-cultural efforts at capturing new knowledge, through collaboration that was unequal but creative.

*News* The Second Annual History Department Friends of RAMM Lecture - 25th February 2025

From the Ottoman World to Exeter: The Untold Story of RAMM’s Natural History Collections

Ever wondered how European museums got their hands on natural history treasures from the Middle East in the 1850s?

Join us for a lecture by Dr. Semih Çelik, a historian from the University of Exeter, as he unravels the story of how minerals, fossils, stuffed animals, dried plants, seeds, and other natural history specimens journeyed from the Ottoman Empire to Europe. You will discover the story of Major General George Elliot’s collection in RAMM and travel back in time to the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea and have a chance to see rarely exhibited objects from RAMM’s natural history collection.

For more information and bookings, please see https://rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/from-the-ottoman-world-to-exeter-the-untold-story-of-ramms-natural-history-collections/