Sheffield Museums’ What on Earth! exhibition is an all-in-one-feast all about the natural world, seasoned delicately with Sheffield-specific homages scattered about, making the exhibition intimately tied to the region.
This exhibition has no shortage of life-like figures that look so convincing I’d be unsurprised if they’re real animals frozen in time. Creatures ranged from the tiniest insects to the largest beasts – the largest of which being a colossal woolly mammoth that made me feel cartoonishly dwarfish in comparison. There is no shortage of creatures, crammed into every nook-and-cranny, which means there’s a treat for lovers of the birds, the creepy-crawly, the aquatic and the mammal.
The Earth itself isn’t abandoned, with a variety of rocks on display, some of which being formed within Sheffield 310 million years ago. In front of a towering Chatsworth tree, a plaque asserts Sheffield as “the most wooded city in Britain” and a tunnel in an earth welcomes all those fine with crouching down a few centimetres to explore the underbelly of it’s soil, and the homes of a few unique burrowing creatures.
Interactive elements were a treat; these varied from openable kitchen cabinets, to a game where you could predict which resized animals could compete against humans, to things you could cram your eyes into – including a telescope into the real outside world to spy birds and other creatures. The most disturbing for me was a storage jar where you could physically open and observe fake rice weevils worm through rice grains, and the most fun was definitely discovering that a human-sized elephant could definitely not beat a human in a boxing match.
There was a lot to read too; removable folders on the wall were filled with facts about all sorts of nature-related tales and phenomena, book shelves were lined with encyclopaedias teeming with information about nature and science, displays illustrated the geological timeline and the water cycle, and a display even paid tribute to the 52 editions of the Sorby Record, with journals stuffed with local natural history.
Truthfully, if I wanted to go into every nuance of the exhibition, it would take a few thousand characters more: I can assert this exhibition is equipped to nourish anyone’s mind, nature-lover or not, with hands-on elements for the grabby, reading elements for the more studious, dress-up for the kids, and interactive games and activities for those looking for a little fun.
Rating: ★★★★★
What on Earth! is a continuing display at Weston Park Museum
