Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum opens a new exhibition to celebrate its 150th year

As Mumbai’s oldest museum celebrates a 150-year-long legacy, we tour through its new visual spectacle, A Hall of Wonder

Wandering into wonder is one of those few enduring relationships we build in a lifetime. And hark; we hear that summoning ding of surprise each time it signals. A new display that owes its name and character to a quote by Dr George Birdwood waves us into a historic maze. Long ago, Birdwood had pitched Dr Bhau Daji Lad (BDL) Mumbai City Museum (then Victoria and Albert Museum) as ‘a hall of wonder’ in a botanical garden to raise funds for the repository. Fifteen decades on, the museum bookends its journey with unpublished exhibits that depict the gallery as a key piece of the Rani Baug quarters, heralding art and culture through the past, present and beyond.

At the entrance, a work called Mistry Ke Haath by Sheba Chhachhi greets us with its wry commentary on the fallouts of the Industrial Revolution. As mills and factories began to shut shop in Bombay, Chhachhi photographed an unemployed worker holding his ID card.

The acquired piece was first showcased at the museum in 2011. In memory of many such faceless workers, the print of the picture was made to resemble the size of a tile for a seamless embossed floor segment.

Back in the day, the gallery held a mirror to Rani Baug’s botanical garden — a place to discover natural history. Not just taxidermy samples, the museum also had live venomous snakes on display. The practice was discontinued after a snake bit a staffer

All that glitters can sometimes be gold. With engravings of bombils, pomfrets, and the fishing net, this is the only gold medal the museum boasts of. The medal was awarded to the gallery at the International Fisheries Exhibition in 1883

A potter at the Pottery Making Studio in Sir George Clarke Studios and Laboratories. This photograph was taken sometime between 1910 
and 1930

A mask from the series called Masks of Trans-Himalayan Tribes (1854-1857) by Hermann and Robert Schlagintweit

In the 1880s, Indian carpets were valued across the globe for their intricate details. Understandably, the art of making piled carpets was taught to jail inmates, too. This restored piece was made by the inmates of Yerawada Central Jail in Pune

Till: August 31 Thursday to Tuesday; 10 am to 5.30 pm
At: Dr BDL Museum, Byculla. 
Log on to: bdlmuseum.org

A silk route

After Edwin Heycock, then Sheriff of Bombay, used a Tussar silkworm to illustrate the advantages of an economic museum in the city, attendees became interested in quality silk farming. Specimens of silk worms such as Bombyx croesi and Attacus atlas were reared and displayed in the museum’s natural history section till the 20th century. Merchants, and scientists from around the world came to the museum attracted by its collection and experiments. To learn more about sericulture, attend an online session by Dr AP Jayaraman today. Register at education@bdlmuseum.org.

1867
The museum won a medal at Exposition Universelle a Paris

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