Documenting the Harrogate Loan

It’s now almost six months since over 800 objects arrived to the Egypt Centre on loan from Harrogate Museum. Since then, the objects have been photographed (c. 4000 photographs), documented (a continuous process), and entered into a new online catalogue, which will be launched in October. The launch will coincide with the Egypt Centre’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations, details of which are almost finalised (stay tuned for an update on this blog soon). At the same time, the first of three planned temporary exhibitions on the Harrogate collection will also be launched. The title of the exhibition is Causing Their Names to Live, which takes inspiration from a common vivification formula found on statues, stelae, and other objects. 

As we approach the date of our celebration (7 October), a series of eleven videos documenting the Harrogate loan and the stories behind it will be released. These videos were beautifully captured and produced by Katie Greenhalf and Gary Lawson of This Film Production Ltd. The first video, which was filmed in February, deals with the Packing Up of the collection at Harrogate ready for transportation to Swansea. It features May Catt (Visitor & Cultural Services Manager) and Karen Southworth (Curator), who were instrumental in making this loan happen. We are grateful to all the staff and volunteers in Harrogate for their hard work in carefully packing up the collection and for answering regular emails about the objects!