World Museum is a large

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the museum is free. The museum is part of

National Museums Liverpool National Museums Liverpool, formerly National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool, England. All the museums and galleries in the group have free admission. The museum is a no ...

History

The museum was originally started as the Derby Museum as it comprised the

13th Earl of Derby Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (21 April 1775 – 30 June 1851), KG, of Knowsley Hall in Lancashire (styled Lord Stanley from 1776 to 1832, known as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe from 1832-4), was a politician, peer, landowner, bui ...

's natural history collection. It opened in 1851, sharing two rooms on Duke Street with a library. However, the museum proved extremely popular and a new, purpose-built building was required. Land for the new building, on a street then known as Shaw's Brow (now William Brown Street), opposite St George's Hall, was donated by local MP and Merchant William Brown, as was much of the funding for the building which would be known as the William Brown Library and Museum. Around 400,000 people attended the opening of the new building in 1860. Reports detailing the museum's activities and acquisitions were presented to the committee of the borough, city and corporation of Liverpool annually. In the late 19th century, the museum's collection was beginning to outgrow its building so a competition was launched to design a combined extension to the museum and college of technology. The competition was won by Edward William Mountford and the

College of Technology and Museum Extension The College of Technology and Museum Extension in Byrom Street, Liverpool, England, was built between 1896 and 1901, the architect was Edward William Mountford. The building was constructed to provide a new College of Technology and an exte ...

opened in 1901. Liverpool, being one of the UK's major ports, was heavily damaged by German bombing during the

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

. While much of the museum's collection was moved to less vulnerable locations during the war, the museum building was struck by German firebombs and suffered heavy damage. Parts of the museum only began to reopen fifteen years later. One of the exhibits destroyed in 1941 was the little

yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

'' City of Ragusa'', which twice crossed the Atlantic in 1870 and 1871 with a crew of two men. The museum underwent a £35 million refurbishment in 2005 in order to double the size of the display spaces and make more of the collections accessible for visitors. A central entrance hall and six-storey atrium were created as part of the work. Major new galleries included "World Cultures", the "Bug House" and the "Weston Discovery Centre". On reopening the museum's name was changed again to World Museum.

Collections and exhibits

Astronomy, space and time

The physical sciences collection of World Museum was built after the devastation caused by the incendiary fire of 1941. The collection has expanded, in part, due to transfers from the Decorative Arts Department, Regional History Department,

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

and the Prescot Museum. The collection also contains several significant collections from the Liverpool Royal Institution, Bidston Observatory, later the Proudman Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, and the Physics Department of the University of Liverpool. Collections such as these are often made up of items of a singular type designed for a particular experiment such as DELPHI or LEP at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

– the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or the

Equatorium An equatorium (plural, equatoria) is an astronomical calculating instrument. It can be used for finding the positions of the Moon, Sun, and planets without arithmetic operations, using a geometrical model to represent the position of a given ce ...

, a post-Copernican planetary calculator made to special order in the early 17th century. As a consequence the collection is small but contains a number of significant items.

Planetarium

World Museum is home to a

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariu ...

. The planetarium opened in 1970 and has 62 seats. It currently attracts about 90,000 people per year. Shows cover various aspects of space science, including the Solar System and space exploration; there are also special children's shows.

Human history

Archaeology and Egyptology

The archaeological collection includes many fine British objects, including the Anglo-Saxon

Kingston brooch The Kingston Brooch is the largest known Anglo-Saxon composite brooch, and is considered by scholars to be an outstanding example of the composite disc brooch style. The brooch, created in the seventh century, is now in the World Museum Liverpool ...

and

Liudhard medalet The Liudhard medalet is a gold Anglo-Saxon coin or small medal found some time before 1844 near St Martin's Church in Canterbury, England. It was part of the Canterbury-St Martin's hoard of six items. The coin, along with other items found with ...

, with other objects from the

Canterbury-St Martin's hoard The Canterbury-St Martin's hoard is a coin-hoard found in the 19th century at Canterbury, Kent dating from the 6th century. The group, in the World Museum, Liverpool, consists of eight items, including three gold coins mounted with suspension ...

. The Egyptian antiquities collection contains approximately 15,000 objects from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic ...

and is the most important single component of the Antiquities department's collections. The chronological range of the collection spans from the Prehistoric to the Islamic Period with the largest archaeological site collections being Abydos,

Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the ...

Beni Hasan Beni Hasan (also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) ( ar, بني حسن) is an ancient Egyptian cemetery. It is located approximately to the south of modern-day Minya in the region known as Middle Egypt, the area between Asyut and Me ...

Esna Esna ( ar, إسنا , egy, jwny.t or ; cop, or ''Snē'' from ''tꜣ-snt''; grc-koi, Λατόπολις ''Latópolis'' or (''Pólis Látōn'') or (''Lattōn''); Latin: ''Lato''), is a city of Egypt. It is located on the west bank of ...

and Meroe. Over 5,000 Egyptian antiquities were donated to the museum in 1867 by Joseph Mayer (1803–1886), a local goldsmith and antiquarian. Mayer purchased collections from Joseph Sams of Darlington (which contained material from the Henry Salt sale in 1835), Lord Valentia, Bram Hertz, the Reverend Henry Stobart, and the heirs of the Rev. Bryan Faussett. Mayer had displayed his collection in his own ‘Egyptian Museum’ in Liverpool with a purpose of giving citizens who were unable to visit the British Museum in London some idea of the achievements of the Egyptian civilization. On the strength of this substantial donation other people began to donate Egyptian material to the museum, and by the later years of the 19th century the museum had a substantial collection that Amelia Edwards described as being the most important collection of Egyptian antiquities in England next to the contents of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

. The quality of the Mayer donation is high and there are some outstanding items, but with a few exceptions the entire collection is unprovenanced. The collection was systematically enhanced through subscription to excavations in Egypt. Altogether the museum subscribed to 25 excavations carried out by the Egypt Exploration Fund (no
Egypt Exploration Society
, the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and the Egyptian Research Account between 1884 and 1914. It was further developed through links with the Institute of Archaeology a
Liverpool University
and important collections came to the museum from the excavations of

John Garstang John Garstang (5 May 1876 – 12 September 1956) was a British archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt, Sudan, Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the younger brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS, a marine bio ...

who was honorary reader in Egyptian archaeology at Liverpool University, 1902–1907, and Professor of Methods and Practice of Archaeology, 1907–1941. The museum has always had a close relationship with the university; in the early 1920s

Percy Newberry Percy Edward Newberry (23 April 1869 – 7 August 1949) was a British Egyptologist. Biography Percy Newberry was born in Islington, London on 23 April 1869. His parents were Caroline () and Henry James Newberry, a woollen warehouseman. Newber ...

, Brunner Professor of Egyptology, and his successor T. Eric Peet, catalogued the collection, assisted with the rearrangement of the displays, and produced a handbook and guide to the Egyptian collection (1st ed., 1923). In May 1941, at the height of the

Liverpool Blitz The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the English city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the German ''Luftwaffe''. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area of the country, outside L ...

, a bomb fell on the museum, which was burnt to a shell. Large parts of the collection had been removed at the outbreak of the war, but much remained on display or in store and many artefacts were destroyed. What remained was quite inaccessible and it was not until 1976 that a permanent Egypt gallery was opened in the rebuilt museum. Following the war the museum actively augmented the collection through collecting of new material from excavations in Egypt and Sudan and the purchase of other museum collections. In 1947 and 1949 the material from Garstang's excavations at Meroe came to the museum, and in 1955 Liverpool University placed substantial amounts from its own collections within the museum, including many items from Beni Hasan and Abydos. In 1956 the museum purchased almost the entire non-British collections of the

Norwich Castle Museum Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...

. This included EES excavated material from Amarna and other sites, botanical remains from Kahun and the private collection of Sir

Henry Rider Haggard Sir Henry Rider Haggard (; 22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform t ...

. In 1973 the collection was increased further by the acquisition of part of the Sir Henry Wellcome Collection, and by the bequest of Colonel J. R. Danson in 1976, which included more material from Amarna and from Garstang's excavations at Abydos. A handy lavishly illustrated guide to the collection is available: ''Gifts of the Nile'' (London: HMSO, 1995). Following a successful application to the Museums & Galleries Improvement Fun

of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, DCMS and the

Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that awards grants to support excellence in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. Overview The endowment of the Wolfson Foundation is currently some £800 million, ...

the museum will be opening a new Egypt gallery in August 2008. The project with a total budget of £600,000 aims to build on the success of the hugely popular World Museum by revitalising the Egyptian gallery, which is now 30 years old.

Ethnology

The

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

collection at World Museum ranks among the top six collections in the country. The four main areas represented are: Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Asia. The exhibition includes

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but ...

displays.

Natural history

In the Natural World area can be seen a range of exhibits, including live colonies of insects and historic

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

and

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Gree ...

exhibits. Visitors can examine the collections up close in the award-winning Clore Natural History Centre, where there are interactive displays. World Museum's natural history collection is divided into the Botany, Entomology and other Invertebrates, Geology and Vertebrate Zoology collections.

Vertebrate zoology

The

founded the original museum with a major donation of zoological specimens in 1851, including many rare and ' type' specimens, the ones that act as standards for the species. This collection was vastly increased with the purchase of Canon Henry Baker Tristram's collection of birds in 1896. File:NML-VZ T3959 Ceyx gentiana.jpg, Holotype of ''Ceyx gentiana'' Tristram (NML-VZ T3959). File:NML-VZ D2304b Alaudo chelicuti.jpg, Holotype of ''Alaudo chelicuti'' Stanley (NML-VZ D2304b). File:NML-VZ T2057 Chelidon rustica transitiva.jpg, Holotype of ''Chelidon rustica transitiva'' Hartert (NML-VZ T2057). File:NML-VZ T3961 Symmorphus (Lalage) affinis.jpg, Syntype of ''Symmorphus (Lalage) affinis'' Tristram (NML-VZ T3961). File:NML-VZ T3965 Symmorphus (Lalage) affinis.jpg, Syntype of ''Symmorphus (Lalage) affinis'' Tristram (NML-VZ T3965). File:NML-VZ D1486b Peristera histrionica.jpg, Syntype of ''Peristera histrionica'' Gould (NML-VZ D1486b). File:NML-VZ 23.7.1900.4 NML-VZ 23.7.1900.4a NML-VZ 23.7.1900.4b Trichoglossus novaehollandiae septentrionalis.jpg, Syntypes of ''Trichoglossus novaehollandiae septentrionalis'' Robinson (NML-VZ 23.7.1900.4; NML-VZ 23.7.1900.4a; NML-VZ 23.7.1900.4b). File:NML-VZ D704 Psittacus Taranta.jpg, Holotype of ''Psittacus Taranta'' Stanley (NML-VZ D704). File:NML-VZ D1868 NML-VZ D1868a Psaris fraserii.jpg, Syntypes of ''Psaris fraserii'' Kaup (NML-VZ D1868; NML-VZ D1868a). There also specimens of several extinct species housed in the museum, including the Liverpool pigeon, the

great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless bird, flightless auk, alcid that Bird extinction, became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related t ...

(an egg), the Falkland Islands wolf, the

South Island piopio The South Island piopio (''Turnagra capensis'') also known as the New Zealand thrush, was a passerine bird of the family Oriolidae. Taxonomy and systematics The South Island piopio was originally described in the genus ''Tanagra'' (a synony ...

, the

Lord Howe swamphen The white swamphen (''Porphyrio albus''), also known as the Lord Howe swamphen, Lord Howe gallinule or white gallinule, is an extinct species of rail which lived on Lord Howe Island, east of Australia. It was first encountered when the crews ...

, the

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The t ...

, the

long-tailed hopping mouse The long-tailed hopping mouse (''Notomys longicaudatus'') is an extinct species of rodent in the family Muridae. It was found only in Australia. It is known from a handful of specimens, the last of which was collected in 1901 or possibly 1902. I ...

and the

thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasman ...

. File:World Museum's Mounted Dodo Skeleton.jpg, Mounted Dodo File:Spotted green pigeon specimen.jpg, Spotted Green Pigeon, also known as the Liverpool Pigeon (NML-VZ D3538). The only specimen of the species in existence. File:NML-VZ D3213 Porphyrio stanleyi.jpg, Mounted Lord Howe Island Swamphen (NML-VZ D3213). One of only two specimens of this species in existence. The museum had extensive public galleries containing vertebrate taxidermy specimens, but these were lost when during the air raids of May 1941 the building was completely destroyed by fire. The galleries featured an exhibition of British mammals, amphibians and reptiles, with several cases imaged in 1932. File:Adder, Grass Snake, Frogs, Toads and Newts. British Vertebrates Case C, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, Adder, Grass Snake, Frogs, Toads and Newts. File:Roe Deer. British Mammals Case 18, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, Roe Deer. File:The Weasel. British Mammals Case 8, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The Weasel. File:Squirrels with Drey. British Mammals Case 15, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, Squirrels with Drey. File:The Otter. British Mammals Case 9, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The Otter. File:The Stoat, British Mammals Case 7, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The Stoat. File:The Mole. British Mammals Case 4, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The Mole. File:The Polecat. British Mammals Case 6, Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The Polecat. The British Birds Gallery featured 131 cases, with several cases imaged between 1914 and 1932. These were the work of taxidermist Mr. J. W. Cutmore who would later produce a series of well-known dioramas at Norwich Museum. File:The Wren. Case 43. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...

. Case 43. File:The Reed Warbler. Case 65. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Reed Warbler The ''Acrocephalus'' warblers are small, insectivorous passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Acrocephalus''. Formerly in the paraphyletic Old World warbler assemblage, they are now separated as the namesake of the marsh and tree warbler fami ...

. Case 65. File:The Bearded Titmouse. Case 66. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The Bearded Titmouse. Case 66. File:The Cuckoo. Case 70. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes sepa ...

. Case 70. File:The Long-eared Owl. Case 82. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Long-eared Owl The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...

. Case 82. File:The Kestrel. Case 83. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Kestrel The term kestrel (from french: crécerelle, derivative from , i.e. ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviou ...

. Case 83. File:The Gannet. Case 92. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Gannet Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. Gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the ...

. Case 92. File:The Mallard or Wild Duck. Case 99. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argen ...

or Wild Duck. Case 99. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14564155908).jpg, Hooded or

Grey Crow The gray crow (''Corvus tristis''), formerly known as the bare-faced crow, is about the same size (42–45 cm in length) as the Eurasian carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') but has somewhat different proportions and quite atypical feather pigm ...

Group. Case 102. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14748462514).jpg, The Ruff Group. Case 106. File:The Curlew. Case 125. British Birds Gallery, The Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool, 1932.jpg, The

Curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been i ...

. Case 125. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14564130560).jpg, The

Pied Wagtail The white wagtail (''Motacilla alba'') is a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae, which also includes pipits and longclaws. The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa. It has a toehold in ...

and

Dipper Dippers are members of the genus ''Cinclus'' in the bird family Cinclidae, so-called because of their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Taxonomy The genus ''Cinclus'' ...

Group. Case 156. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14750499622).jpg, One of the

Groups. Case 160. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14564156969).jpg, The

Barn Owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalaya ...

Group. Case 180. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14748467634).jpg, The

Eider Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quilt ...

Duck Group. Case 193. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14564370737).jpg, The Oyster-Catcher Group. Case 198. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14770678693).jpg, The

Tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of ...

and

Ringed Plover The common ringed plover or ringed plover (''Charadrius hiaticula'') is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from ...

Group. Case 202. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14564164508).jpg, The

Great Black-backed Gull The great black-backed gull (''Larus marinus'') is the largest member of the gull family. Described by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as "the king of the Atlantic waterfront", it is a very aggressive hunter, pirate, and scavenger. It breeds on t ...

Group. Case 208. File:Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool (1914) (14564165378).jpg, The

Black-throated Diver The black-throated loon (''Gavia arctica''), also known as the Arctic loon and the black-throated diver, is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere, primarily breeding in freshwater lakes in northern Europe and Asia. It winter ...

Group. Case 217. Botany The museum's collections have grown considerably since then and now also include important botanical specimens dating back over 200 years, which represent most of Britain and Ireland's native flora.

Geology

The geological collection at World Museum contains over 40,000 fossils as well as extensive rock and mineral collections. Each of these exhibits show information about the origins, structure and history of the planet earth. Founded in 1858, only seven years after the museum's establishment, much of the original collection was destroyed during the Second World War. The post-war collections have expanded considerably, thanks in part to the acquisition of several significant museum and university collections. The largest of these was the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

's geological collection that includes some 6,600

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

specimens. The collection covers the following areas:

palaeontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

s and

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...

Facial recognition system

Facial recognition technology A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and w ...

, widespread in China, was used at Liverpool's World Museum, during the China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors exhibition. The museum claimed the scanning equipment was used on the advice of local police (

Merseyside Police Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The service area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of September 2017 the service has 3,484 police of ...

), not the Chinese lenders. In a statement, the director of

Big Brother Watch Big Brother Watch is a non-profit non-party British civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation. It was launched in 2009 by founding director Alex Deane to campaign against state surveillance and threats to civil liberties. It was fou ...

, Silkie Carlo, said that the "authoritarian surveillance tool is rarely seen outside of China." In 2019 Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, launched an investigation into the use of facial recognition software in the King's Cross area of London.

Notes and references

External links

World MuseumLiverpool Planetarium
{{authority control 1853 establishments in England National Museums Liverpool Archaeological museums in England Natural history museums in England Planetaria in the United Kingdom Museums in Liverpool Egyptological collections in England Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom Museums of ancient Greece in the United Kingdom Numismatic museums in the United Kingdom Geology museums in England Insectariums Science museums in England Museums established in 1853 Neoclassical architecture in Liverpool