Whitby Museum
The museum contains a wide range of material relating to the history of Whitby, and has specialist collections relating to:
- Jurassic fossils, in particular ammonites and marine reptiles
- Whitby jet
- Captain James Cook and HM Bark Endeavour
- Whitby's whaling industry.
- The Natural History of the North Yorkshire coast and moors
- Costume and textiles
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Hand_of_Glory.jpg/220px-Hand_of_Glory.jpg)
The museum also contains a Hand of Glory, the dried and pickled hand of a hanged man, said to have magical powers.
The museum has a reference library and archive documenting the industries and social history of the town and area. This is used as a research facility.
History
Between the 1890s and 1930 the museum collection included the mummy of an Egyptian man who had died around 300 BC. The mummy had previously been owned by Sir George Elliot, 1st Baronet and was donated to the museum on his death. The mummy was purchased for £15 by Thomas Sheppard, the then curator of the Hull Municipal Museum, in 1930 and is now at the Hands On History Museum in Kingston upon Hull.
References
- ^ "Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, registered charity no. 1171266". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
- ^ "Fossils". Whitby Museum. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
- ^ "Hand of Glory". Whitby Museum. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ^ Campbell, James (1 December 2019). "The mysterious story of Hull's Egyptian mummy - and how scientists made a big mistake". Hull Daily Mail. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
- ^ Young, Angus (11 November 2022). "The story of how a 2,600-year-old Egyptian mummy ended up in a dark corner Hull's Old Town". Hull Daily Mail. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
External links
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