Manchester is packed full of culture, whether it be music, theatre or art, and the main museum to visit to see it all in harmony is – fairly obviously – Manchester Museum. As part of the University of Manchester, research and learning is in the Manchester Museum DNA, and it aims to build stronger emotional connections with visitors too, creating a space where everyone feels they belong.
Wander through the beautiful 130-year-old building and lose yourself in stories of what it means to be human, including the moving, personal narratives of the South Asia Gallery, co-curated with 30 inspiring community members.
Rethink your relationship with the natural world, whilst enjoying rich natural science collections that underpin vital conservation work. Unusually, collections at Manchester Museum even include live amphibians and lizards – the only place in the world outside Panama where you’ll see the extraordinarily beautiful and critically endangered harlequin toad.
In February 2023, the Museum completed a major redevelopment that created new gallery spaces and visitor facilities with collaboration and co-creation at their heart. You’ll find a beautiful picnic area, a spacious prayer room for all, a quiet room and Changing Places toilet.
The Museum is also attempting to confront its past with honesty and transparency. Although Manchester Museum was built from a sense of civic pride, it was also borne of Empire, so they continue to grapple with these colonial roots, opening all collections to the possibility of return to communities of origin – and as such, foregrounds diaspora voices, Global Majority partnerships and Indigenous perspectives.
The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery profiles some ground-breaking research collaborations; including Prof Henry Yi Li’s work in Manchester and Hong Kong on smart textiles and Prof Shulan Tang’s research and practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine – showing the Museum’s commitment to expanding its research.
The new Dinosaur Gallery has been created to share ‘how to think like a palaeontologist‘, taking lessons and activities from what you would study if you came to the University. The experience and expertise of staff and students has shaped and is central to the display, and remains a unique experience to the Museum.
Find a sense of joy and connection through events that bring communities together to celebrate, share and learn, from Vaisakhi to Lunar New Year and Africa Day. Exhibitions and events differ throughout the year, from exploring identities through art, tai chi sessions and group reading, to a look into the climate and biodiversity crisis, wellbeing sessions and much more. You can find more information about what’s on at Manchester Museum here.
Featured collections to see at Manchester Museum:
Golden Mummies of Egypt
Golden Mummies of Egypt is a collection that explores expectations of a life after death during the relatively little-known ‘Graeco-Roman’ Period of Egyptian history (between 300 BCE and 300 CE).
Type & Figured Palaeontology Collection
This collection contains fossils from the Manchester Museum palaeontology collection that have been published in the scientific literature. There are over 2900 fossils in this collection, and a small number of the Type & Figured specimens are on display in the Fossil gallery.
Contact the Curator of Earth science Collections (David Gelsthorpe, david.gelsthorpe@manchester.ac.uk) if you would like to look at any of the fossils in person.
The Manchester Moth
The famous ‘Manchester Moth‘ is the species described by the eminent British entomologist of the 19th century J. Curtis from Kersal Moor in Salford in 1830. This species still remains an unsolved scientific conundrum, though its taxonomic validity was proven in the late 90s.
Only three specimens of this species exist today (one is in the Manchester Museum), and it is believed that the species does not occur outside Britain and is now most likely extinct.
Plowrights’ British Dye Plants
Manchester Museum holds this unique collection item from Charles Plowright, representing historical methods obtaining colourful fabrics using plant-based dyes. Coming in a set of four, this collection consists of one notebook and three rolls of linen holding a set of 152 skeins of wool in a dazzling array of colours.
Charles Bagge Plowright was a 19th century scientist and surgeon, specialising primarily in mycology, the study of fungi. However, he also had an interest in archaeology and traditional dying methods. This unusual item reveals the extent of his dedication and desire for knowledge, recording several years’ worth of research.
An Aboriginal Anthropologist
Erlikilyika (also known as Jim Kite) was an Aboriginal man from the Arrernte area of the Northern Territory of Australia, born around 1865. In 1901, he was ‘hired’ by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis Gillen to join their anthropological expedition of Central Australia.
In the book that Spencer and Gillen published about the expedition, Erliklyika was not credited or paid for his hard work. Manchester Museum holds 57 objects from the expedition, and there is no way of knowing the full extent of Erlikilyika’s involvement with their collection. Nevertheless, we do know for certain that he was an invaluable member of the team, and that the nature of the information recorded on the expedition would not have been the same without Erlikilyika.
Manchester Museum opening times:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 10 am–5 pm
Wednesday: 10 am–9 pm
Thursday: 10 am–5 pm
Friday: 10 am–5 pm
Saturday: 8 am–5 pm
Sunday: 10 am–5 pm
Entry to Manchester Museum is free and unticketed.
📍 Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL.