Bridport Museum opens for the new season on Saturday 5th April with some fascinating new exhibitions:
Drawing Inspiration… From West Bay: curated by volunteer David Alcock, this is an exhibition of paintings and drawings of West Bay from our collection. They have been selected because they capture changes over time– both from nature, and from man. This is part of a Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty project across the AONB area– find out more here: http://www.dorsetaonb.org.uk/our-work/drawing-inspiration2 . This exhibition will also feature online to allow people to discuss the paintings, and add their own images and photographs if they wish to.
Feathers, Fur and Frills: improvements in our stores last year has enabled us for the first time in many years to explore our incredible natural history collection once again. The collection, which comprises around 100 birds and a variety of mammals, were all collected by the Revered Hutton and given to the Museum in the 1930s. Several different displays will explore these collections, alongside our social history and textile collections.
The Chideock Egg Lady: One Woman’s Role in the First World War:
This exhibition has been curated by local writer Frances Colville, who has spent a long time transcribing letters from our collection, using them both to inspire her own writing, and to put together this exhibition which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. This archive is known as the ‘egg letters’: written by soldiers in hospital to a Chideock lady, Chrissie Squire. Across the county there was such as thing as the National Egg Collection. Towns like Bridport were a central point for collecting eggs that were sent to wounded soldiers in hospital. Chrissie Squire decided she would paint the eggs she was sending- with little pictures, poems and good luck messages. Some of the soldiers wrote back to her, thanking her for her kind thoughtfulness. As you can imagine, many are extremely touching. Some of the letters will be on display to view, as well as recordings of them. They are also due to feature on Bridport FM later in the year.
