{"id":2037,"date":"2016-12-08T15:06:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T15:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2017-03-14T20:30:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T20:30:25","slug":"the-first-museum-and-the-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/?p=2037","title":{"rendered":"The First Museum and the Library"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"St. <\/a>
St. Joseph’s Museum <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The collection in the school museum, 1890 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

About 1870, a school museum was created in St. Joseph’s\u00a0by one of the Christian Brothers probably Br. Reddington,\u00a0who was a very popular teacher and admired by pastpupils\u00a0because he was deeply interested in the scientific study of\u00a0language and education in order to make progress in the\u00a0education of deaf students. There was also a library\u00a0associated with the museum.<\/p>\n

The museum consisted of twelve Victorian display cases\u00a0containing a valuable and varied collection of objects. They\u00a0included specimens of minerals and seashells, African and\u00a0Native American implements preserved fruits and reptiles a\u00a0collection of Roman, Medieval Irish English and other\u00a0coins. and dozens of the small plaster medallions of\u00a0emperors popes and bishops. The collection also included\u00a0religious items some iron swords daggers and spears as\u00a0well as an archive of old books and photographs. In\u00a0addition, numerous glass cabinets displayed exotic stuffed\u00a0birds and animals.<\/p>\n

The museum and library were used as a resource centre for\u00a0teaching and learning. Pupils attended lessons there and\u00a0read in the library every weekend. The St. Josephs book of\u00a01930 shows us the interior of a large exhibition case in the\u00a0library with a collection of books stuffed animals and other\u00a0items on display. In 1935 with funding from the Irish\u00a0Hospital Sweepstakes new classrooms and a playhall were\u00a0constructed on the west wing.<\/p>\n

As a result the library was dismantled and the museum was\u00a0moved to the north side of the building to be reinstalled in\u00a0two rooms. It remained so until 1974 when the rooms were\u00a0converted into a canteen for teachers. The two sections of\u00a0the museum can be seen in an old architectural plan of St.\u00a0Josephs dated to 1935.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the museum and its fascinating collection\u00a0have now disappeared. The artefacts and specimens were\u00a0wantonly destroyed thrown away given to other\u00a0institutions or sold to dealers. This material was part of our\u00a0Deaf Heritage and should have been preserved. We would\u00a0have been proud to have it in our new centre. Other\u00a0valuable items have disappeared too. These include some\u00a0old furniture and school desks which we hoped to reserve\u00a0for the museum. There was also a bronze bell which was\u00a0located in the hall at the front entrance. lt mysteriously\u00a0disappeared sometime in the 1990s. Although I made\u00a0extensive enquiries I have not been able to discover what\u00a0happened to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 1870, a school museum was created in St. Joseph’s\u00a0by one of the Christian Brothers probably Br. Reddington,\u00a0who was a very popular teacher and admired by pastpupils\u00a0because he was deeply interested in the scientific study of\u00a0language and education in order…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2042,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions\/2042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deafheritagecentre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}