The dioramas at the museum were originally constructed by Major Powell-Cotton in an attempt to present to the public a collection of animals appearing as though in their natural habitat. The reason why I think this is important today is that it is representative of, and relevant to, a pre-television culture. That is, the people for whom these displays were designed had a very different world-view to that of the majority of people in Britain today. Consequently in order to fully understand and appreciate the museum, it is important to remember that it was constructed for a different audience than that of today, an audience with different values and ideas about the world.

What Major Powell-Cotton did in building his dioramas was a radical step from the more common function of people displaying trophies in order to impress upon people not only their hunting abilities but also the power of the British Empire. The museum at Quex Park was attempting to bring some scientific validity and setting to the presentation of specimens. However, that is not to say that it has no value today. If viewed as a representation of museum, the museum can then be seen as an exhibit in its own right, an example of how a museum was presented to people in the past.

View stills of dioramas:-

Gallery 1.

Gallery 3.

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