The Royal Cornwall Museum
How has Modes helped you?
The Royal Cornwall Museum has a large and varied collection, which in the late 1980s was in need of proper documentation. Modes user-friendly format proved invaluable in sorting out a formidable backlog. We cannot speak too highly of the friendly advice given us by other more experienced Modes users and the excellent training sessions and workshops. We have recently transferred our data to Modes Complete, which opens exciting possibilities, enabling us to keep up to date with new technology. It vindicates one’s faith in the program over the years.
Overview of the organisation
Website: www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk
Source: Margaret Morgan, Collections Manager
The Royal Institution of Cornwall – the organisation that owns and manages the Royal Cornwall Museum and Courtney Library – was founded in 1818 for ‘the promotion of knowledge in natural history, ethnology and the fine and industrial arts, especially in relation to Cornwall’.
The Royal Institution of Cornwall has acquired diverse collections over the years which are held within the Library and Archive. Over the years, benefactors have donated an array of objects, broadening the collection so that it covers for example Egyptology fine art and world cultures, as well as classical Greek and Roman objects. The Rashleigh Gallery contains a world-famous collection of minerals. It includes the largest specimen of liroconite ever found, and a large gold nugget found at Perranarworthal. The Museum’s decorative arts collection and old master drawings are also very strong.
The Courtney Library and Archive holds books, periodicals, archive material and ephemera relating to Cornwall and the South West of England. In addition, there is an extensive photographic collection, which records the history of Cornwall from 1845 to date.
The Royal Cornwall Museum holds collections of Cornish and European archaeology and social history, as well as world cultures. The fine and decorative art collections hold work by Cornish artists, designers and makers but also contain significant works by nationally and internationally important artists from other parts of the world. The geology, and flora and fauna of the South West of England, are represented in the geological and biological collections and are complemented by UK and world material.
When did you start using Modes software?
1987
How many people use Modes?
It is used across the Museum.
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