Princess Ennigaldi's Museum

From io9:

In 1925, archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered a curious collection of artifacts while excavating a Babylonian palace. They were from many different times and places, and yet they were neatly organized and even labeled. Woolley had discovered the world's first museum.

o who was responsible for this ancient wonder full of even more ancient wonders? That honor goes to Princess Ennigaldi, the daughter of King Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. As was traditional for the daughters of Mesopotamian kings, her primary duties were religious in nature, both as the high priestess of the moon god Nanna and as the administrator of a school for young priestesses. It was around 530 BCE that Ennigaldi created her museum. That comes dangerously close to being everything we know about the woman behind the world's first museum.

Closure: Joan of Arc Museum

From Mail Online:

A museum detailing the life and death of the French heroine Joan of Arc could close if nobody offers to buy it.

Opened when patriotism was at its highest in 1955 and regularly visited by the French, eager to learn more about their past.

But now, nearly 40 years later it is thought a lack of interest in history and Joan of Arc has meant the French have turned their back on one of their most famous heroines whose death became a defining moment in history.

Burned at the stake by the English in 1431 in Rouen, a Normandy town, the museum sits in the same square where she perished.

Alain Preaux, the owner of the Musee Jeanne D'Arc is now being forced to shut up shop after being at the helm since 1977 and says that he has more British visitors than French.

Fake Amarna Princess On Show

From BBC News:

A fake ancient Egyptian statue has returned to the museum in Greater Manchester which was tricked into paying £440,000 for it.

Bolton Council bought the Amarna Princess in 2003 after Christie's and the British Museum authenticated the figurine as 3,300 years old.

But the statue of the granddaughter of King Tutankhamun was created by Shaun Greenhalgh in his shed in Bolton.

It, and other fakes, will go on display at Bolton Museum from 16 April.

See post from 16th November 2010 - Fake Amarna Princess

Vietnamese Women's Museum

Interesting article from the blog: Equal Writes - as the author takes us on a virtual journey through this museum.

The museum is under construction, so there were only three rooms open - one permanent exhibit, and two very limited temporary exhibits, one on women in war propaganda, and one telling the stories of female street vendors.

Glasgow Women's Library

From 24Hour Museum:

Scotland's Feminism Archive To Be Given New Home
"Scotland’s long and distinguished history of feminism is to be preserved in a new dedicated Women’s Archive.

The Glasgow Women’s Library currently has material in storage filling 500 packing boxes, containing material documenting the social history of women over the last ten decades.

Now, thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £410,000, the boxes will be unpacked, catalogued and properly archived to form the core collection of a new purpose-built facility within the city’s Mitchell Library.

Containing thirty thousand publications, letters, drawings, recordings, film and photographs the collection illustrates women’s experiences and activism and includes material on family planning, the Suffragette movement and the second wave of Feminism (1960’s – 1980’s).

It also includes rare materials such as the first edition of the 1928 Lesbian novel, the Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, which despite containing no explicit sexual references, was seen to defend homosexuality and, as such, was instantly banned. Nearly all copies were recalled by the publisher and subsequently figured in an obscenity trial."

Library Details:
2nd Floor, 81 Parnie Street, Glasgow, G1 5RH, Scotland
T: 0141 552 8345