Booth Museum to unveil first new display in 92 years

The Booth Museum is preparing to unveil its first new display in 92 years tomorrow.

The new Life in the Garden display, or diorama, will celebrate wildlife in the city and the effects of climate change on the environment.

It’s the outcome of an 18-month project called Discover our Dioramas which saw museum staff talk to a range of local people including 2,000 children aged under 10.

Their feedback helped to decide what should be in the first diorama added to the displays at the Booth Museum since the 1930s.

The Booth Museum was founded in 1874 by Brighton based naturalist and collector, Edward Thomas Booth. During Booth’s lifetime he collected a wide variety of stuffed British birds and was a pioneer of the environmental type of display called ‘diorama,’ displaying birds in recreations of their natural habitat.

Edward Booth left the museum to be enjoyed by the people of Brighton in his will and it was this collection of over 300 dioramas that launched the opening of the museum under Brighton civic ownership in 1891.

The new diorama will be unveiled to the public on Saturday, 27 January, highlighting life in a modern urban garden. Stuffed animals include birds and mammals such as a fox, hedgehog, parakeet and bees.

Brighton and Hove Museums Director of Engagement and Public Programmes Ceryl Evans said: “Our consultation showed climate crisis is contributing to anxiety and depression, especially with children and young people and that people really want to do their bit in combating climate change.

“We wanted our new diorama to reflect this as well as celebrate the multitude of wildlife found in our city.

“As well as our diorama project exploring climate crisis, our ambition is for the Booth Museum to become the city hub to celebrate all things wonderful in our natural world and connect people to the city and the wildlife surrounding us.”

The taxidermy work for the diorama has been carried out by taxidermist Jazmine Miles Long who only works with animals that have died of natural causes or been killed by accident.

The new diorama will have a 360-degree view of an immediately recognisable scene of an urban garden with a bird feeder and the many species that live, thrive and eat together in the space.

At the very top of the scene a sparrowhawk, foot first with wings behind it, is hunting a distracted starling.

The nut dispenser is mid swing as a ring-necked parakeet has landed on it. A blue tit is on the other side of the swinging feeder. On a second food dispenser, a starling peers down at a grey squirrel which is looking at the fox cub below it on the ground.

The bird feeder stands on paving slabs with patches of grass, dandelions, daisies and poppies growing from the cracks between the slabs as a bee sits on a daisy.

A hedgehog sniffs out some food near a small water bowl with a frog in it. Nearby there are some children’s toys, left behind as the child has been called in for tea. A little mouse sits in one looking out, with a slug and a snail close by. A stag beetle, a butterfly, and some ladybirds are dotted around the scene.

The project was funded by the Esme Fairburn MA Collections Fund.