We need your help!

The Museum of Dartmoor Life is currently conducting a public consultation to find out what members of the generally public think of the museum. Do you like our displays? Think we need better lights? Do you want more events? Let us know, any feedback positive and negative will be gratefully received. Your feedback is very valuable and helps us to increase visitor enjoyment and to make your experience more interesting.

Surveys can be completed - online, just follow this link surveymonkey.com/s/2KB25JD
                                         -  by paper version available in the museum

Surveys need to be completed by the 1st of December.

Thanks for your help!

Updates

So many exciting things for all ages have been happening at the museum over the past few months.

Recently we held a spooky Halloween Fun Day. Children got to hear scary stories and got to make their own creepy bats.

We held a Wine and Wisdom evening in October in aid of the museum, which went down well.

The Camera Club also held a display in the John Young Gallery in September. Beautiful pictures were up on display. (If you want to have your own display up in the museum or are looking for a space to work with a group, why not contact the museum? Details of the John Young Gallery and how to book are on the museum's website at http://www.museumofdartmoorlife.co.uk/gallery_for_hire.html).

The museum also partnered with Okehampton Rotary Club to produce a time capsule. The capsule is on display in the museum and will stay there for another 50 years! The time capsule conceals our views and values in the 21^st Century and provides a way to educated the future, as well as reminding ourselves of the life and society we now live in.

The museum is also participating in Cards for Good Causes again this year. Cards are available for purchase in the museum reception and will be available for sale until the 15th of December. Money from cards sold goes to different charities.

September's Famous Devonian

Henry Austin Dobson is September’s famous Devonian. Dobson was born in Plymouth on the 18^th January 1840 and was a poet and essayist.

Dobson was the son of an engineer. In December 1856 Dobson entered the Board of Trade and rose to the rank of principal in the harbour department.[1] He retired from this position in the autumn of 1901.

Dobson is particularly remembered for his use of French verse forms, such as the chant royal, the virelai nouveau, the triolet and the rondel.[2] Whilst his official carer was uneventful, he became a distinguished poet and biographer, those who study his work are often struck by his maturity.[3]

An example of a Dobson triolet is A kiss-

               Rose kissed me today.

               Will she kiss me tomorrow?

   Let it be as it may,

               Rose kissed me today.

               But the pleasure gives way

               To a savour of sorrow;-

               Rose kissed me today,

               Will she kiss me tomorrow?

From 1885 Dobson focused mainly on critical and biographical prose. He wrote biographies on Henry Fielding, Thomas Bewick, Oliver Goldsmith, Horace Walpole and William Hogarth. These studies are ‘marked alike by assiduous research, sympathetic presentation and sound criticisim’.[4]

Dobson passed away on the 2^nd September 1921. He is buried in grave number 7800 in the Westminster Cemetery, Uxbridge Road, Middlesex.[5]

[1]- Poet’s Graves, ‘Henry Austin Dobson’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.poetsgraves.co.uk/dobson.htm. (Accessed 21/08/2012).

[2]- Poet’s Graves, ‘Henry Austin Dobson’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.poetsgraves.co.uk/dobson.htm. (Accessed 21/08/2012).

[3]- Poem Hunter, ‘The Biography of Henry Austin Dobson’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.poemhunter.com/henry-austin-dobson/biography/. (Accessed 21/08/2012).

[4]- Poem Hunter, ‘The Biography of Henry Austin Dobson’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.poemhunter.com/henry-austin-dobson/biography/. (Accessed 21/08/2012).

[5]- Poet’s Graves, ‘Henry Austin Dobson’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.poetsgraves.co.uk/dobson.htm. (Accessed 21/08/2012).

Mystery Item No 7

Here it is....

It's a mouse trap!

Mystery Item No 7

Up for a few days here is another mystery item. Can you guess what it is?

Adopt a Museum

So the museum has just been adopted!

Adopt a Museum is a site where people can 'adopt' their favorite or a deserving museum. The twist is that the museum can't be a well known museum or one that regularly features in Top Ten Museum lists, so no British Museum or the Louvre. As the website states, you don't actually adopt the museum, their is no sponsorship or money involved, you just become a champion for that museum. You can read more about Adopt a Museum and apply to adopt your favorite museum here- http://adopt.museum140.com/about/ Museums can be adopted all around the world, so far museums in Asia, Switzerland, Canada, America and Wales have been featured. What a fantastic way to give a bit of help to these smaller museums who are often missed!  

The Museum of Dartmoor Life got adopted this week, so thank you! http://adopt.museum140.com/2012/08/14/47-museum-of-dartmoor-life/ We are glad to see that people enjoy coming to the museum, that they think we have lots to do and that we are good value for money. 

Family Fun Day

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to all those who came along to our family fun day on Saturday the 4th August. 

We had a range of activities available this day- from dressing up in Victorians and Bronze Age costumes, making your own mosaics and bracelets, being a spy for the day and guess the mystery objects.

We hope you all had a great time and we look forward to seeing you at our next event!