The London Natural History Museum and Science Museum have been vividly imagining a melee between their exhibits, like some sort of fantasy draft for a Night at the Museum sequel, and I’m all about it.
It all started when user @bednarz asked the two museums who would win in a “staff battle” between them.
Who would win in a staff battle between @sciencemuseum and @NHM_London, what exhibits/items would help you be victorious? #askacurator
— Bednarz (@bednarz) September 13, 2017
The Natural History Museum was quick to jump in with their dinosaurs, but the Science Museum fired back with technology.
We have dinosaurs. No contest.
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
@NHM_London is full of old fossils, but we have robots, a Spitfire and ancient poisons. Boom! #AskACurator https://t.co/lsdOS3HqyO
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
We have robot dinosaurs, Pterodactyls and the most venomous creatures on Earth. Plus volcanoes and earthquakes … And vampire fish. pic.twitter.com/H2dNv0wgQr
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
What about this merman & we do have a Polaris nuclear missile as Khalil says! pic.twitter.com/uczMFrvKIw
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
From there, the battle descended into the fantasy and steampunk matchups of your dreams, like sea dragons versus bathyscaphes:
*Game of Thrones theme music* Send in the (sea)-dragons… (from The Book of the Great Sea-Dragons by Thomas Hawkins, 1840). pic.twitter.com/K4Duh3w7Vk
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
We see your dragons and have escaped in this bathyscaphe https://t.co/m4gMCpGNxq pic.twitter.com/zqs0YwiQRO
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
Or the mad scientist match-up of the century – revived dinos versus 3D-printed dinos:
Erm… oh, okay then. pic.twitter.com/xQwtLHjt7N
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
We were all set to call it a draw, but then we saw this. Turns out, we have a dinosaur AND it’s 3D printed! pic.twitter.com/vLRK0PI5JE
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
Or more generic feats of human ingenuity, like fleas versus flea traps:
In 1785 you’d be too distracted by our fleas… they are legion (and even have there own twitter feed @NHM_Fleas) https://t.co/TvgIg9EoTf pic.twitter.com/ckOSo5ks8m
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
We would have caught the fleas in this Chinese bamboo flea trap (on show in our Making the Modern World gallery) https://t.co/4LI5va8ECv pic.twitter.com/7zWk3gzEgS
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
You can read the whole Twitter thread here.
Now, this begs the question: which museums would you like to see take each other on next? Which collections would produce the best battles? The longest-lasting ones?
At first thought, my money’s on Maine’s cryptozoology museum (though it’s quite small), the Terracotta Army museum in Xian, China (because, come on! Mini army!), or the Metropolitan Museum in New York City (because I’d want to go full “Treguna Mekoides and Trecorum Satis Dee” on that arms and armor exhibit). But I’m sure the TMS readers can come up with even better suggestions.
(Via Daily Dot; public domain image via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949 (49.97.348))
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