The Galleries and Display rooms.

Space at the museum was always a problem, as this cluttered gallery of exhibits, (around 1966) clearly shows. On the left and far wall of the ground floor room were displayed the museums collection of ephemera and memorabilia and on the right the famed 'McGallion Archive', which was later relocated to the Long Gallery, on the second floor.

(reproduced by permission of NNHS)
Close up of the 'Victorian Fairy Cabinet' and the 'McGallion Archive of Photographs'.

(reproduced by permission of NNHS)
Gallery 1. shown here in 1967 after it's refurbishment.
It is known to have contained many of the more unusual exhibits including the 'Da Vinci Machine'
and the ' Blatherwick apparatus for measuring assumed weights'.

Exhibition of Brankling and Brankle tools, exhibited in 'History Gallery'
and that also is known to have featured in a special exhibition in 1967.

These wall cabinets were situated in the ground floor 'History Gallery'.
The 'Huachol Mask' acquired around this time was displayed here following
the 1967 expansion of the buildings.

This version of the museum visitor's guide was published between 1963-1966. The inside pages illustrated the gallery and room plan. Much like the 1931 Polish Museum guide, this single document (actually just one of several we have acquired) has given us much information about the layout of the museum during this period. It includes the positions of the main display cabinets in each room and the visitors route through the museum. The text gives a brief (if slightly romanticised) outline of the museum's establishment, a description of the building and each of the galleries and room's subjects or themes. Although it is priced at 6d, we know that it was often given out free as part of the entrance fee.
In 1967 when the museum was extended this was replaced by a larger and more expensive souvenir guide book, but no copies of these have as yet been discovered.

Produced by hand painting over photographs, the first postcard shows the small retail shop on the right. Like many such institutions this helped raise funds and extra finance by selling to visitors a few souvenirs (like these postcards) as well as small gifts, associated books and a few light snacks, including ice cream.
The third postcard illustrates the two 'famous' doors that became a feature of the museum itself. The story. probably apocryphal. relates that the left hand door was reputed to be from the shack in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, U.S.A. where Robert Johnson, the famous blues singer & composer was born in 1912. while the right hand door was said to be from Berkland House, home of the 16th century philosopher and alchemist Paracelsus. The doors were removed when the museum closed.

Souvenier Postard 1966
This oddly designed welcome sign was originally thought to have hung outside the museum and copied from one used at the Polish museum. It is also known to have been used as the cover image of a post '67 guide book.

Many small adverts and notices similar to this were printed in local papers and for tourist guides. This version shows several parts of the museums collection and includes the opening times and admission prices. These adverts usually featured the slogan - The museum of lost science and forgotten histories.

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Exhibitions
The museum would occasionally put on special or themed exhibitions featuring items from the collection. These were often announced in the local press and tourist guides.The advert for the 'open day' is dated 1963 but we do not know what the 'machines and apparatus' demonstrated actually were.

(reproduced by permission of NNHS)
The Brankle Exhibition leaflet is from 1965, the museums collection of rare Brankles is known to have been featured more than once (a display shown above). The Ultima Thule exhibition was part of the 'Thule' archive and took place in July 1966.

(reproduced by permission of NNHS)
We do not know what 'The lost history' of 1968 featured as the leaflet gives very few details, but the 'Claggs' were part of the McGallion Archive and this was featured again in the final 1969 exhibition.

There was little publicity about the permanent closure of the museum in 1973. To all intent and purposes to most people it had been closed since 1969 when it ceased to allow visits except by appointment. The announcement itself came a week before the museum was due to close for the winter period at the end of September. A short statement was given to the local press affirming that the increased expense of maintaining the buildings and lack of space were the main reasons and added that they hoped to open up another museum to house their collection sometime in the future. It also stated that the collection was being put into 'safe keeping'. In this article a local councillor is quoted as saying this is very sad news and the area was losing an unusual and remarkable amenity. The museum was vacated within a few months and by December was empty, finally being sold in March 1974, bringing to an end an illustrious if now forgotten 44 year history.

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