Chasing History at the Ulster Museum

I’d obviously misheard or misread the weather forecast for last weekend but either way I was expecting another rainy autumnal Sunday so I decided to take our eldest up to the Ulster Museum rather than spend the day trapped at home by the rain.

The rain never came and in fact it was a gloriously mild and bright day so we decided to explore the rest of the Botanical Gardens before the main event. The Palm House and Tropical Ravine were both great hits with my 3 year old (“Look at the fish Daddy…I can’t see any sharks Daddy”). Entrance to the museum is free and there are donation boxes throughout in case you want to do your bit to fund their work. Two of the first exhibits you come across were an Irish Wolfhound and an Edmontosaurus both which were stared at with wonder and amazement.

Anyway, I was inspired to write this entry by two thoughts:

• The first is that 3 year olds don’t really care about human history so my advice would be to skip through those sections as quickly as possible and fast forward to the natural history floor (“Look at these creatures Daddy”). The highlight of this section was the Triceratops which was a bit scary (but not so much as we went to see it again before we left).
• The second thought I had was about the use of technology and exhibit displays. I’m pretty sure that the museum has a wealth of information available about each item it has on display. Why not put these on it’s website and then print out QR codes that can be stuck onto the existing display cards at no great expense. Visitors and android or apple phones/tablets would be able to scan these QR labels and have instant access to more detailed information and learn more about what they are viewing and the visit becomes more interactive.