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A Place For Everything: Making Order Out of Chaos

01 May 2007

New exhibition opening at The Manchester Museum on 5 May 2007

How do people classify the world? Who named the animals and plants around us? Find out the answers in "A Place for Everything: Making order out of chaos", a new exhibition at The Manchester Museum celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. New exhibits will examine Linnaeus's work, showcasing objects from the collections that have not been on display before and include the return of the amazing Spider Crab.

During the 18th century western museums developed from private 'cabinets of curiosities'. As vast quantities of material flooded into Europe from colonies and empires it became increasingly important to know how to sort this huge quantity of material. In the natural sciences, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus devised a system of naming that gave each species a unique scientific name, for example Homo sapiens, which still shapes science today.

Museum displays will examine the usefulness, and otherwise of names and categories. Particular attention will be paid to alternative schemes of classification that reflect the diversity of the world and the importance of language. A number of new exhibits exploring the ways museums collect, classify and name objects will be located throughout the Museum.

Henry McGhie, Curator of Zoology said: "Our Giant Spider Crab with its 11 foot leg span will be making a special appearance. We will also be displaying an original copy of Linnaeus' ground-breaking book, the Systema Natura published in 1758, alongside a number of strange but fascinating exhibits which seem to defy classification".

Artist Fred Langford Edwards will also be exhibiting new work in the Museum reception, funded by the Arts Council. Based on photographs of the Museum's fascinating natural history collections, his dramatic artwork, entitled Systema Naturae after Linnaeus' book, explores the nature of natural history specimens and how the naming of species has been culturally determined.

To mark the 300th anniversary of Linneaus' birth, The Manchester Museum will be hosting a programme of special events and activities to complement "A Place for Everything: Making order out of chaos" during May-October. These will give visitors an insight into the rich variety of material in the Museum and how we understand it, with opportunities to explore different ways of seeing the world and the importance of language in the way we understand nature. Through its playful nature, the exhibition and activities will generate debate and discussion, appealing to the curiosity and wonder of visitors, qualities that Linnaeus certainly had.

Related talks and family activities

Talks:

The following Ideas Cafes talks are at 6.30-8pm. Entry is free, but please book on 0161 275 2648.

  • Monday 14 May, Life before Linnaeus
    Dr Matthew Cobb, from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester, will explore pre-Linnaean thoughts on natural history.
  • Monday 21 May, Happy Birthday LinnaeusIt's traditional to be nice to people on their birthdays. So, in light of much recent criticism, Dr Leander Wolstenholme, Curator of Botany at The Manchester Museum will defend Linnaeus, the man and his work, and assess his contribution to science from a favourable point of view.
  • Monday 11 June, Recent developments in classification and taxonomy - DNA, barcoding life and the internet
    Several million different species have been identified and named by scientists. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature is responsible for the rules on how scientists give names to animals, vitally important for conservation and studying evolution. Dr Andrew Polaszek from the International Commission, based at the Natural History Museum in London, will give a fascinating insight into recent developments.
  • Monday 18 June, An artist's response to classification
    Bryony Bond, Alchemy Curator at The Manchester Museum, and artist Fred Langford-Edwards discuss his new work Temporary Names - Nomenclatio transitorius created in response to the ordering and naming of the natural world as set out by Linnaeus.
  • Monday 16 July, The work of a classical taxonomist - recent fieldwork on Siberian Spiders
    Not everyone is familiar with the work of taxonomists, the specialists who discover, describe and classify new species. Dr Dmitri Logunov, Curator of Arthropods at The Manchester Museum, will share his first-hand experience of fieldwork in remote Siberia and Central Asia and discuss his research into the species he has discovered there.
  • Monday 17 September, Order and disorder in the universe
    Professor Tom Mullin is Director of the Manchester Centre fo Nonlinear Dynamics. Chaos normally implies complete disorder but to a physicist the apparent randomness often contains structure. This lecture will explore these ideas using simple but spectacular demonstrations.
  • Monday 15 October, Classification in an imperialist context
    Dr Sam Alberti holds a joint position between The Manchester Museum and The University of Manchester Centre for Museology. This talk will examine the colonial history of museums and collections. What challenges face twenty-first-century museums holding collections gathered at the height of empire?

Activities for families:

Most Big Saturday activities are free and drop-in but some may cost £1.50 or require pre-booking. Please call 0161 275 2648 or check our website for details. Suitable for all ages.

  • Saturday 5 May, 11am-4pm, Big Saturday: Welcome Weekend - Fabulous Finds Day
    The Manchester Museum opens its doors for our family friendly day of collections to celebrate Museums and Galleries Month. Our curators will be on hand to show you amazing things such as the world's largest seed and the world's oldest rock. Bring along your own collection to show our experts and make your own museum to take home.
  • Saturday 9 June, 11am-4pm, Big Saturday: Naming Nature
    Join us for an action-packed day of talks, tours and themed activities. You can find out how dinosaurs got their names and create new names for the animal of your choice. Suitable for budding natural scientists of all ages! Activities include two children's workshops around creative naming for under 5s; handling objects from the collections with curators; drop-in art sessions to make your own cabinet of curiosity; a talk on the evolution and classification of dinosaurs with Dr Phil Manning and tours of the galleries from our very own 'Linnaeus' at 12.30 and 2pm. This event is part of the BBC Breathing Places campaign.
  • Saturday 6 October, 11am-4pm, Big Saturday: Rainforest Day
    Visit the Museum for a day of exploration with talks, tours and hands-on activities where you can learn about the Museum's collection of endangered rainforest frogs and their conservation. Suitable for conservationists of all ages! Activities include a talk by Curator of Herpetology Andrew Gray about his work on rainforest frogs and their conservation; two children's workshops around creative language for under fives; handling objects from the collection with curators; drop-in art sessions and tours of the galleries from our very own 'Linnaeus' at 12.30 and 2pm.