My favourite object: an Earl’s armillary sphere

Leave a Comment

Helen Pooley, the Museum’s Primary Education Officer, tells us about her favourite object, an armillary sphere once owned by an Earl. 

You can’t really miss the armillary sphere, which boasts a central spot in the Top Floor in the Museum. The kind of scientific instrument you might expect to find on the opening sequence of Dr Who or the Game of Thrones, it is in fact a model of the Ptolemaic universe.

Helen Pooley standing behind the armillary sphere - an interlocking set of rings balancing on top of three lions. The armillary sphere is the same height as Helen.

A large object, it comprises a sphere (representing stationary Earth) surrounded by rings (representing the heavens) mounted on three imposing lions. Beautiful, but also functional. Closer inspection reveals images of the zodiac, the points of the compass in their Latin form, a number scale and curious human forms.  The pathway of the sun, as it travels through the constellations of the zodiac, is represented by a broad band encircling the sphere.

School children often ask me what sort of person owned this amazing object. It’s always fun telling them about the owner Henry Percy, the 9th Earl of Northumberland, also known as the Wizard Earl. Percy was imprisoned in the Tower of London owing to his suspected involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. But, that didn’t prevent him from pursuing his scientific interests. One visitor to the Tower describes finding him ‘engaged in mysterious rites’ involving crucibles and a zodiac table suspended from walls, revolving celestial globes and a human skeleton holding an hour glass in its hand!

I find the sphere intriguing as a working mathematical model and as a work of art – but also as a wonderful connection to a mysterious figure from the past.

Discover how an armillary sphere works with our Animate It series:

The Museum and the City

Leave a Comment

Rachel and Thabo standing in a large sports hall behind a table of Museum handling objects. Thabo is holding a shield and Rachel is holding a type of flask.

Rachel and Thabo representing Multaka-Oxford at Oxford Mela 2018 Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre

The Multaka-Oxford team have had an amazing few months and the project is developing rapidly. In this post they talk about their work inside and outside of the Museum, and highlight some of their favourite objects.

**

In the Museum…

We have had some great sessions with volunteers over the last months. In May Silke Ackermann, the Museum’s Director, showed the team how an astrolabe worked and practised her Arabic. In June we took out some of the Museum’s objects for a handling session. The objects acted as a focus point for our discussions and we learnt a lot from each other.

Group of volunteers sitting and standing around a table looking at brass astronomical instruments.

Abdullah, Nuha, Cheryl, Rana, Thabo, Megan and Rachel looking at objects. © Tammam Aboukerech.

“I am really happy to be involved – talking and learning about the collection. Getting to learn about these objects from Arabic speakers is amazing.”

“this is the first time I have sat at a table and talked with people from Syria and Iraq. I have enjoyed it today”

“I was really happy because I did some research about these astrolabes and it was great to share it with others today, I was really pleased to do this.”

And Out and About with Multaka-Oxford!

We have also been running activities elsewhere in the city. On Sunday 17 June we went to Oxford Mela 2018 in Blackbird Leys.

“It was a great opportunity to participate in Oxford Mela as a project volunteer. As Multaka-Oxford represents the interchange of diverse cultural and historical experiences through museums as a meeting point, participation is especially important because it helps us see the beauty in diversity and brings about more tolerance and acceptance.
It was my first experience with Multaka to share knowledge, display the Museum objects and give some details about these objects. I hope we did our best to address people in clear and simple language.”

Mohammed – project volunteer

Choosing Objects

On our Tumblr page we have shared objects that mean something to us. Rana Ibrahim, Museum History of Science Collections Officer for Multaka-Oxford, chose an astrolabe by Khalil Muhammad ibn Hasan `Ali:

“For the month of May 2018, I have chosen this small incredible astrolabe to celebrate the Islamic month of Ramadan, the ‘Month of God’. I admire this object very much and I consider it one of my favourites … One of the reasons that this object is my favourite is because of the Quranic inscription of ‘Ayat Al- Kursi’ (The Throne Verse) engraved on the brass, which is a very significant verse in the Quran.”

Read more about Rana’s choice in English and Arabic

Abdullah, one of our volunteers, chose the Museum’s astrolabe with a geared calendar by Muhammad b. Abi Bakr.

“I chose the oldest complete geared astrolabe as I want to find out about the history of Islam through it. I want to find answers to my questions, such as who made it, how was it made, what is for, and more. It is a very interesting museum.”

Read more about Abdullah’s choice

 

You can keep up to date with our news and see more objects on our Tumblr page, or by following the hashtag #multakaoxford on Twitter.

Multaka-Oxford: Creating Opportunities

Leave a Comment

Six people from the Multaka-Oxford team sitting around a table discussing astronomical instruments. In front of them are two astrolabes of different sizes, and a globe sitting in a brass mount.

Thabo, Nuha, Tammam, Rachel, Rana and Abdullah from the Multaka-Oxford team looking at objects from our collections.

We are excited to let you know more about Multaka-Oxford, our new project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund. It will be running until September 2019. The project will create volunteer opportunities for forced migrants and use museums and collections as a ‘meeting point’ to bring people together.

We are jointly delivering Multaka-Oxford with the Pitt Rivers Museum, and with local community organisations, grass-roots groups and individual people. It focuses on two collections at the museums: our Islamic astronomical instruments, and a recent acquisition of textiles from the Middle East at the Pitt Rivers.

Our project is inspired by ‘Multaka: Museums as a meeting point’, based in Berlin. This project trained volunteers to create Arabic tours across four museums in the city. Multaka is Arabic for “meeting point”. The aim of the Oxford and Berlin projects is to create places where people can meet and share their experience, knowledge and skills. Through this, we will improve understanding and engagement with the collections, whilst also supporting people to build confidence, gain work experience and support community integration.

Rana Ibraim, Silke Ackermann and Rachel Harrison sitting at a table. Behind them is a large replica astrolabe that has been attached to the wall.

Rana Ibraim, Silke Ackermann (Director of the Museum of the History of Science) and Rachel Harrison.

The Multaka-Oxford team are Nicola Bird (Project Manager), Rachel Harrison (Community Engagement and Volunteer Officer), Rana Ibrahim (Museum of the History of Science Collections Officer) and Abigael Flack (Pitt Rivers Collections Officer).

Our First Volunteers

Already we have 9 volunteers signed up and giving their time generously to the project.

Photograph of Silke Ackermann, Tammam and Abdullah looking at a replica astrolabe. They are pointing to different areas of the astronomical instrument, which has been dismantled.

Silke, Tammam and Abdullah looking at a replica astrolabe.

Why did they join Multaka-Oxford?

“I want to volunteer to practice in my career. I want to help in exciting things and in a nice environment. Do something useful”

“[I want to volunteer] to regain confidence and self-worth by helping to make a difference, give something back, I will gain and develop new and existing skills and knowledge”

“generally the project is important in bringing confidence to refugees and asylum seekers, encouraging them to engage in cultural activities, it helps newcomers integrate into British society, a chance to learn more about my home country.”

The volunteers have lots of knowledge, inspiration and ideas that connect with our collections. We are looking forward to sharing this knowledge widely.

Everyone has brought a new skill to the project. Tammam Aboukerech has taken lots of the project photographs. Tammam is a photographer and he will be helping us to visually document the project. Gihan – a talented designer – will help us to create our project logo and identity.

You can discover more about Multaka-Oxford on our Tumblr page, or by following the hashtag #multakaoxford on Twitter.