Welsh Journals

EXHIBITION REVIEW CENTENARY EXHIBITION, 100 Years of Collecting. Newport Museum and Art Gallery. On May 21st 1888 Newport Museum and Art Gallery was officially opened by the Mayor of Newport Thomas Pugsley. The new wealth in Newport during the 19th century led to the establishment of cultural amenities which included the Free Public Library opened in 1870. The Library Committee then recommended that the building should be extended to include a museum for "the deposit of works of art and objects of scientific and local interest". This aim reflected the Victorian enthusiasm for preserving all aspects of their heritage. The exhibition showed how over the years the collecting policies have become more specific. In 1937 the Curator commented that the museum intended "to maintain a very high standard of exhibits which fit into organised scientific and other schemes with a purpose behind them". Today the Museum and Art Gallery attempts to collect, preserve and display objects of domestic and cultural life relating to Newport and the surrounding area. The exhibition showed through its displays how these concepts had changed. In the beginning the Museum collected anything and everything from exotic animals to an egyptian mummy presented by the Hon. member for Monmouth Borough (Sir George Eliot). Unfortunately this was one object which was not on display. Otherwise the exhibition presented a wonderful opportunity for the curators, who for the first time in their careers could juxtapose stuffed gorillas, chimpanzee and orangutan collected in the 1920s with Frances Woodley's ceramic gorilla 'Degas dancer' dating from 1981. Despite my disappointment at the missing mummy we were treated to the obligatory skeleton from the cupboard and wonders of the sea. These included a 4lbs 12oz tench caught by Mr. W. R. Harvey (probably his only claim to fame) at Maton Mere Montgomery, Wales on the 5th September 1837 to a porcupine fish from the West Indies. In some areas such as Ethnography, collecting has ceased all together. Whereas the Archaeology collections have continued to grow. In 1903 the Four Seasons Mosaic from the Roman town of Venta Silurum (Caerwent) was displayed in the museum (now the central feature of a new archaeology display) and in 1916 Lord Tredegar and the Trustees of John Lysaght had presented the museum with a vast amount of Roman objects excavated at Caerwent between 1899 and 1912. Caerwent's loss is Newport's gain. This was despite furious opposition from the locals led by the Vicar of Caerwent. The exhibition admitted the catalogue of these finds is still in preparation! As far as the museum staff go it must have been a pleasure to put this exhibition together all those wonderful objects so long admired in the