http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/13609318.WEIRD_AND_WONDERFUL__Acorn_from_tree_planted_by_Napoleon_set_to_go_on_display_in_Blackburn/?ref=rss
WEIRD AND WONDERFUL: Acorn from tree planted by Napoleon set to go on display in Blackburn
AN ACORN from a tree planted by Napoleon will be one of the curios on display at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery next year.
It will be on show alongside the newly discovered head of an ox roasted to celebrate the opening of King Georges Hall in 1921.
The latest finds will be part of 60,000 items displayed at the Museum Street venue.
The finds were uncovered by Blackburn students Victoria Smith and Fern Nicholas during a month-long placement to help with an inventory of the social history collection.
Now they will choose which items go on display at a show provisionally titled ‘Weird Stuff’.During their placement they have also found items of Victorian taxidermy including a fruit bat and a sturgeon, and a block of nails welded together in the heat of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Museum education officer Stephen Irwin said: “The museum opened in 1874 and having made the building you need to have things to put in it so the people of Blackburn gave things.
“I’m sure someone stopped off at St Helena and picked up the acorn, there’s a 19th century note accompanying it.
“We have 60,000 items squirrelled away here; some collections are well documented like the fine art and Egyptology but not the social history.
“We were trying to find an object earlier this year and we knew what room it was in and that room has 10,000 objects in it.
“Victoria and Fern are going through every single box and documenting and photographing the contents.
“They will then decide what goes on show.”
The students have managed to document more than 600 items and now Steve hopes it will be the start of a rolling programme to ensure their entire collection is on a database.
Mr Irwin said: “They have done a phenomenal job.
“All this information is being added to our collections database, making it easier to answer inquiries from the public.”
Victoria is completing her first year of an Egyptology degree at Liverpool and Fern is in her second year of studying Fine Art at Preston.