One of Our Whales is Missing!
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Regular visitors to the Booth Museum will notice a large gap in our displays where our largest object has disappeared.
Our Orca (or Killer whale) skeleton which normally hangs in our osteology gallery has gone!
If you’re a fan of the Orca, don’t worry! The orca skeleton has gone on loan to the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (located in Falmouth) for the next two years, as part of their Monsters of the Deep exhibition. This exhibition looks at both the mythological and the real creatures associated with the sea.
The orca is one of several specimens borrowed for this exhibition. Other popular exhibits that have also temporarily moved to Cornwall include the merman, the narwhal skull and the fin whale skull. (Click on the image for the full sized gallery)
The reason for allowing such major exhibits to go on loan is that it allows us to carry out planned redevelopment work on the space whilst they are absent. This is important as it means we do not need to finance storage, removal and rehanging of large objects such as the Orca. It also allows us to utilise more storage at the booth for other objects to be decanted and stored during the redevelopment work. The final benefit is that the orca, which is due to return into the redeveloped space, will be cleaned and repaired for display at Falmouth, so will have essential work carried out on it before it goes back on display at the Booth Museum. We hope the Orca will have a whale of a time in the Monsters of the Deep.
The osteology gallery at the Booth Museum remains open for now but we’ll keep visitors informed on our website and social media accounts when it may be closed for periods of redevelopment work.
Lee Ismail, Curator of Natural Sciences