Cambridge University Reporter


The Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate's one hundred and fifty-eighth Annual Report to the Council

This Report covers the period between August 2006 and July 2007. In the course of the year the Museum received more than 300,000 visitors, proving once again that it is one of the most popular attractions in the East of England, and while exhibitions continued to play an important part in the overall programme of events, we are pleased to note record attendances at concerts, lectures, and gallery talks. In addition to the Sunday promenade concerts given by Instrumental Award holders and other, mostly local, musicians, our Honorary Keeper of Music, Dr Gerald Gifford, gave a series of recitals based on the Founder's collection of music, including several of Fitzwilliam's own compositions. Thanks to the sponsorship of Bonhams, Art in Context, ever popular lunchtime talks on works in the permanent collection, received additional publicity. Details of these and all of the other activities which enlivened and enriched the experiences of our visitors appear in the divisional reports which follow. This is the place, however, to acknowledge the contributions above and beyond the call of duty made by members of staff and volunteers to devise and implement all of these events.

Behind the scenes, the last of the works associated with the Courtyard Development were completed. The unsightly wooden fence in front of Grove Lodge was removed and replaced by iron railings, in keeping with the rest of Trumpington Street. Inside the Museum, the conversion of the Graham Robertson Room into a study room for prints and drawings was made possible by the bequest of John Cornforth, while other improvements were funded from the endowments provided by Paul Mellon. In June we joined forces with other beneficiaries of his extraordinary generosity to celebrate the centenary of his birth; Paul Mellon: A Cambridge Tribute presented memorabilia and works of art which belonged to Mr Mellon, generously lent by the Center for British Art he established at Yale, alongside objects from our own collection, some of which he had given during his lifetime to this, his other University.

In the conclusion to last year's Report, we drew attention to the importance of the core funding we received annually from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. At the end of the year under review we awaited news of how it would be replaced when the current scheme expires in 2009. Meanwhile, we have become increasingly dependent upon funding from 'Renaissance in the Regions', that national initiative supported by the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport and administered by the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council. Much as we welcome the increase in this relatively new income stream, we are conscious of the responsibility placed upon us by our acceptance of it; funding is strictly additional and precisely aimed at the enhancement of the services we provide as a partner in the regional hub. Once again we acknowledge with gratitude the support we received during the year from those individuals and organizations listed below. Their contributions, together with grants and donations, provided a significant element of income, which augmented the University's allocations to the Museum. Those too have risen in the past year, and must do so in future if the Museum is to maintain its reputation for excellence in research, teaching at all levels, and public services. We are grateful to our colleagues throughout the University for recognizing the importance of the Museum academically and socially as a highly visible interface with the wider world.

To maintain an institution of such status and historical significance carries a heavy cost, as we were reminded on several occasions during the year under review. Our buildings count among the most important in the University's estate, calling for specialized care and attention. As work continued on the domes of the Founder's Building, it was discovered that further external repairs will have to be made to the central dome, the portico, and the clerestory windows above Gallery III. Internally many of the mechanical systems which are essential for the control of the environment are in need of replacement. On two occasions, faulty equipment caused minor damage to the Museum's fabric which, unfortunate in itself, also served as a warning; one we cannot afford to ignore, for the sake of the collections and the reputation of the University as their custodian. Expensive though these remedial measures will be, it is our responsibility to draw attention to them and to urge immediate and effective action.

Finally, we were saddened by the untimely death in September of the Hon. Simon Sainsbury, one of our most generous (and most discreet) benefactors. During his lifetime, his gifts were strictly anonymous; to the Courtyard Development and, through the Monument Trust, for the conservation of the Entrance Hall. Fortunately his executors have taken the view that he can be credited posthumously for his philanthropy, from which the Fitzwilliam benefitted hugely.

This is also the place to announce the bequest we received from Dr Karen Spärck-Needham. Both she and her late husband, Professor Roger Needham, were over many years generous supporters of the Museum, but neither of them advised us of their ultimate intention to include the Fitzwilliam among the beneficiaries of their Estate. As a result, we have been able to establish a Trust Fund in their names; income from the Spärck-Needham Fund will be devoted to supporting the preservation and management of the Museum's digital assets, and for general Museum purposes.

Central Services

The Central Services Division supports the Museum's strategic aims through financial and personnel administration, buildings and security maintenance, marketing and press, photography, and IT services to colleagues across the Museum and services to the public including access, outreach, and education. Much of its work is now supported by external funds which have allowed the Fitzwilliam to strengthen and expand its services to its many audiences within the Museum and in the wider world through the website.

In 2006-07, 300,535 visits to the Museum were recorded during daytime public opening hours on 316 days, 47,665 of them by children, of whom 25,659 came on educational visits. The website received over 34 million hits and 1,065,197 'visits'. The curatorial departments recorded 3,415 visitors and 67% of the collections were documented to national standards. In addition to its own, exceptionally well-attended exhibitions which are described in the report of the Collections Division, the Museum also hosted the City of Cambridge's 800th celebratory exhibition which was mounted in the Courtyard during the summer of 2006 as a prelude to touring around the city. The use of the Museum buildings out of hours was extended and the surplus income thus generated supported staff costs. Negotiations with Unison regarding Gallery Attendants' contracts were successfully completed to ensure easier management of gallery invigilation. Major research projects were completed.

It was another busy year for public service delivery which included an increase in the number and variety of daytime and evening activities. In addition to public opening on six days a week and Bank Holiday Mondays, the Museum welcomed 6,872 guests at 43 evening and out-of-hours events which included musical concerts, client receptions, exhibition private views, student recruitment presentations, and the annual University Alumni Weekend reception for 500+ guests in September. The Museum continued to develop its 'Music in the Fitzwilliam' programme with a series of free weekly promenade concerts arranged by volunteer co-ordinator, Penny Robson. Twenty-two such concerts took place during the academical year 2006-07, attended by 2,305 people, and two live jazz sessions were held in May 2007. In addition, Dr Gerald Gifford, Honorary Keeper of Music, gave four harpsichord recitals, and the Museum was the venue for three evening and four daytime concerts in the Cambridge Summer Recitals series and the annual Christmas Concert. The year ended with a special concert of music by Viscount Fitzwilliam performed by Gerald Gifford on his Shudi & Broadwood harpsichord which is on loan to the Museum, at a reception given by the Vice-Chancellor to mark the impending retirement of Duncan Robinson as the Museum's Director.

Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises continued to perform strongly in 2006-07, continuing its recovery from a downturn in 2002-04 when trading was affected by the Courtyard Development and relocation to 33 Trumpington Street. The merchandise produced for the Howard Hodgkin exhibition was exceptional; the range of new everyday stationery on offer increased greatly; and partly thanks to the greater number of evening events, it was the most successful trading year to date for Tate Catering, our providers of high quality services in the café by day. The annual return to the Museum was £60,000 in the year of this Report.

Education and outreach

As a partner in the East of England Museum Hub under 'Renaissance in the Regions', the Fitzwilliam is committed to providing a comprehensive education service to schools. At the same time, the work of the Education Department extends far beyond this remit. During the year the Department expanded to a team of twelve people led by Julia Tozer, Head of Education: six part-time teachers (equivalent to two and a half full-time posts), an artist, an outreach and access officer, two part-time education assistants, and an administrator working full-time. The Museum continued to provide a rich and varied programme of talks and courses for the general public (7,829 adults participated in 2006-07). These included the Art in Context series of lunchtime talks linked to objects in the permanent collection and special displays, Study Days which often have a practical element, and participatory courses where learning is developed over a period of time. 723 teachers and student teachers participated in activities to develop their teaching practice. Meanwhile, work with groups of people with special health and learning needs, conducted both inside and outside the Museum, was further developed.

Family and adult learning

The emphasis in all our services is on access - access for education and for enjoyment - to all of the collections, and with a particular eye for new visitors and visitors with particular requirements. Specially trained Blue Badge Guides added regular Saturday tours to those booked through the City Tourist Information Centre for groups. Friends Information Volunteers provided a welcome at the main entrance and on the Shiba landing, while others engaged members of the public in 'Meet the Antiquities', hands-on sessions in the galleries. The ever-popular Fitz Kits, toolboxes for under-tens full of clues leading to objects, with prompts for adults, were used 2,730 times in the year. Two new family trails were developed during 2006-07 and a range of weekend and holiday workshops took place throughout the year.

Working collaboratively in Cambridge

In support of the exhibition of Literary Circles, the Museum collaborated with Helen Taylor, Cambridgeshire County Literature Development Officer to offer three literary evenings featuring readings by Lucinda Hawksley, Claire Tomalin, and Andrew Motion. Over 470 people attended these celebrity events.

During May, staff throughout the Museum contributed to provide a record number of activities to mark Museums and Galleries Month. 'Welcome Weekend' (4-7 May) had the theme 'Try it … you might be surprised'. Events included staff and VIP guest talks in the galleries, special tours focusing on famous historical personalities in the collections, family workshops in clay, 'Meet the Antiquities' drop-ins, music, and six performances of a widely acclaimed family play 'Bulls Eye', based on the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. All members of staff were invited to write labels expressing personal responses to works in the permanent collection which were then displayed. All events were free of charge and were broadcast in a radio interview with Radio Cambridgeshire. Attendance by 4,353 visitors on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday represented a 55% increase on 2006, and included large numbers of first time visitors. Support from Renaissance East of England and Barclays plc underwrote the cost of 'Bull's Eye', which was seen by some 200 children and adults.

In the frame: exploring film and the visual arts

This six-week course was the result of a first-time collaboration between the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Arts Picture House. It also provided an opportunity to work once again with Kettle's Yard. The sessions comprised seminars, informal discussion, film screenings, tours of the permanent collection, and the Hodgkin show.

Summer trail and the Big Day Out

Liz Hide, University Museums Development Officer funded by Renaissance and based at the Museum of Zoology, played an important co-ordinating role in a series of family activities involving the University museums, the Botanic Garden, and the Cambridge and County Folk Museum. Among these were a summer trail and a stall at the city's Big Day Out which provided an excellent opportunity to encourage families to take part in Cambridge-wide museums- and collections-based activities.

Outreach and access

Since her appointment in October 2006, the Outreach and Access Officer has built on existing partnerships and developed new ones, extending the Museum's work with adults with mental and physical health conditions, and with elderly people in resident care. She has continued working with people living in hostel accommodation and with Alzheimer's patients, and has taken over responsibility for the monthly outreach visits to the Oncology ward at Addenbrooke's run in partnership with Kettle's Yard and the Mary Wallace Cancer Support Service. This partnership was the subject of a presentation at a conference organized by the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council (MLA) in March 2007.

The Outreach and Access Officer has worked on community participation by engaging in city and region wide consultations. She has collaborated with curatorial staff to offer touch tours and audio described tours in the Museum for visitors with visual impairments. She has also worked in parallel with Visitor Services and Personnel colleagues to increase staff awareness about disability issues.

Activities for schools

The Education Department increased its work with schools and in 2006-07 facilitated visits led by a museum teacher for 9,360 primary school pupils and 2,845 secondary school students. This would not be possible without funding from 'Renaissance in the Regions'. Demand is high, reflecting the fact that the service on offer provides an inspirational experience for pupils and their teachers.

'A museum is a unique resource of real artefacts … the children had 'freedom' to explore today and to see real artefacts and discuss their topic with an expert. Today could never be replicated in a classroom'.

Schools now have the option of practical workshops led by artists as well as sessions with Museum teachers in the galleries; nine workshops were arranged during the year, alongside 41 studio sessions for schools. In addition, through 'Art in Action', a project with funding from the Prince of Wales Trust, seventeen classes of children from six Fenland primary schools visited the museum (almost all were first time visitors) and carried out practical work at school with artist Denise Casanova. This project, which involved nearly 500 children from deprived areas, is being evaluated by the Faculty of Education with a view to our working with the same schools during 2008.

'The sense of awe and wonder experienced by the children was priceless. For some of our children it was the first time they had ever experienced going to a museum or anything like it … Teachers spend most of their time giving and it was lovely to receive such a rich tapestry of knowledge, ideas, and experience from you. We've been inspired!'
(Class teacher, Fridaybridge Primary School)

Visits from secondary schools participating in formal and informal programmes continued to increase. Education staff worked with teachers, exam boards, and sixth form students, who produced the publicity material to launch SOURCE, a unique half-term drop-in opportunity for GCSE art students. Nearly 200 students from 30 schools came to explore the collection and develop ideas in the studio, producing work submitted as part of their exam. During the Howard Hodgkin exhibition, two drop-in studio-based days were organized and have resulted in monthly sessions alongside Headspace, which offered practical sessions for 14-21 year olds.

The Education Department became the subject of research into pupils' attainment in relation to museum visits which was commissioned by the East of England Museums' Hub and was carried out by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester.

Outreach from the Antiquities Department

Research Assistant, Helen Strudwick, and Senior Assistant Keeper, Sally-Ann Ashton, have continued to develop outreach work based on the Egyptian collections. Mrs Strudwick's work focused on visiting schools and community groups, whilst Dr Ashton pioneered the Virtual Egypt in Prisons Project, working in six prisons. She delivered lectures on subjects including 'Were the Ancient Egyptians black?' and 'Cleopatra: black and beautiful'; and offered eighteen sessions to the Changing Times project, a collaboration between HMP Edmunds Hill and the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. At the end of the year, Dr Ashton was awarded a Knowledge Transfer Fellowship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council which will allow her to concentrate on this project in 2007-08 and 2008-09. Her post will be back-filled by Mrs Strudwick.

The Egyptian Virtual Gallery, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is being developed in response to an idea from long-term prisoners and with their input. This e-gallery will feature material from the Museum's Egyptian and Nubian collections and, once developed, it will be used for teaching purposes in prisons and will be made available through the website to wider audiences. Meanwhile, information in the Egyptian Galleries has been made available in Arabic in the galleries and on the website.

The exhibition of Passport to the Egyptian Afterlife: The Book of the Dead of Ramose in the Shiba gallery (June-September 2007) was accompanied by a series of workshops and activities on two days of each week. The work of the participants was later incorporated into the virtual exhibition on the Museum website (http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/papyrus/) as the Book of the Living (http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/ant/egypt/living/).

Real teaching

This is a regional, Renaissance funded project led by Frances Sword, former Head of Education, to introduce some experience of museum education into the training of every student teacher in the region. She is working in partnership with Philip Stephenson of the Faculty of Education, focusing on five clusters of museums and teacher training colleges to develop courses for museum education staff and trainee teachers and their tutors. As part of the project, a training event at the Faculty of Education engaged 120 mentor teachers who are responsible for the school-based aspects of teacher training and who can therefore become powerful advocates for museum education, both as mentors and within their schools.

Documentation and digitization

MLA's Renaissance Museums Hub funding and the Designation Challenge Fund have enabled substantial progress to be made in documentation and in developing access to information about the collections. By July 2007, the total number of object records on Adlib, the Museum's central collections database, exceeded 145,000. The majority of these records are available in the online catalogue, significantly improving research and public access to the Museum's collections.

There has also been an impressive increase in the number of items with stored images. Over the last year 20,000 images have been added to the database, increasing the number of objects with images by nearly 13,000. Much work has been done on scanning coins and prints as part of the retrospective accessioning process, as well as improving existing records across the Museum.

Location records for all paintings and for applied arts items on display have been added to the database, creating centrally stored location references and enabling more effective use of Adlib for collections management tasks.

A documentation assistant began a project to index a variety of records according to subject, to assist users searching the online public catalogue. This will also include developing a range of collection level descriptions (high level descriptions of groups of objects) to supplement object records.

Work on Adlib has been supported by an internal user group, which meets on a regular basis, as well as communicating by email, and provides a forum for discussion and solution to problems that are encountered in using the Adlib system software. Documentation standards were reviewed in the spring of 2007 with the launch by MDA (the Museum Documentation Association) of an update to the national SPECTRUM standard. This group, with others, has also looked at the development of services for users and will make recommendations for the improvement of the Online Public Access Catalogue.

Website

Work has continued on consolidating the re-designed Museum website with the addition of new resources such as virtual exhibitions and the launch of an electronic newsletter. Work on an interactive floorplan, providing an introduction to each of the gallery spaces, along with architectural notes and display history, was begun. New tools for streamlining the creation of web content and managing web editing have been trialed, as well as refinements to the public catalogue search options.

Research into the use of ICT in museums

An AHRC Museums and Galleries Research Seminar award was made to the Museum in partnership with the Department of Architecture and the Computer Laboratory to run workshops in March (fourteen participants) and a Symposium in May (35 people) exploring ICT interventions in the museum environment under the title Discursive Formations: Place, Narrative, and Digitality in the Museum of the Future.

Renaissance Hidden Histories project under the Designation Challenge Fund - Names and Faces

The first year of this two-year project to develop a new approach to the collections was completed. In February 2007 an art historian was appointed to write 50-100 biographies of people associated with objects in the collection, identifying, as far as possible, links to other collections and institutions, to historical events, and to local knowledge. The project is designed to reveal personal stories and associations as a way of enlivening interest in objects belonging to the Museum. Alongside a more historical approach, the Hidden Histories project also explores ways in which contemporary artists and writers have drawn on the Museum for inspiration for their work.

Marketing and Press

The Marketing and Press office supports and promotes the work of the Museum as a whole. It enjoyed a particularly active year in which the promotion of temporary exhibitions was a major focus: Literary Circles: Artist, Author, Word, and Image in Britain 1800-1920 (Mellon Gallery, 17 October - 30 December 2006) and the associated Chasing Happiness: Maurice Maeterlinck, The Bluebird and England (Shiba Gallery, 3 October 2006 - 7 January 2007), and displays of the work of living artists including Maggi Hambling, No Straight Lines: Drawings 1963-2007 (Octagon, 6 February - 29 April 2007), Frank Auerbach: Etchings and Drypoints 1954-2006 (Shiba Gallery, 6 March - 10 June 2007) and Howard Hodgkin: Paintings 1992-2007 (Mellon Gallery, 24 May - 23 September 2007).

Press views were arranged for four exhibitions in addition to press liaison for Museums and Galleries Month, for other exhibitions, and for the Museum's education and conservation work, resulting in over 460 items of coverage across most major national newspapers, local and regional press, and subject specialist journals as well as heritage, culture, and lifestyle periodicals such as the RA Magazine, Country Life, and History Today. This was complemented by numerous pieces of online coverage, broadcast interviews, and coverage on regional television and radio.

Three four-monthly 'What's On' events and exhibitions leaflets were produced and distributed. Following the launch of the Fitzwilliam's re-designed website in the summer of 2006, news areas of the website were developed and a regular monthly eNews bulletin was launched in spring 2007.

Partnership with the other University museums included a profile-raising presence at the Big Day Out on Parker's Piece - in which our Marketing Department took a lead role - and the Cambridge University Freshers' Fair. The Marketing and Press Officer was also active as a member of the East of England Museums' Hub Communications Group. She also led the regional attraction consortium Great Days Out Around Cambridge in marketing related matters.

Photography

During 2006-07 high resolution digital photography became the dominant method for imaging and supply to clients, resulting in approximately 800 high resolution images being added to our archives, either scans from existing transparencies or new photography. This imaging also aids the teaching undertaken by Museum staff and, as a result, there are now many thousands of digital images available for PowerPoint presentations. Image resources were also prepared for marketing, press, and development purposes containing properly profiled digital images appropriate for press reproduction up to A4 but with a file size small enough for them to be emailed, thus speeding up the Museum's response to requests for information and images. Digital photography, however, has major resource implications in terms of file storage, the backup of large uncompressed files, and the management and retrieval of files.

Three major catalogue projects were undertaken: Egyptian Coffins (530 digital images of eleven coffins) following the conservation of these objects as part of the redisplay project; Cambridge Illuminated Manuscripts, Volume 1 (628 images); and The Book of the Dead of Ramose Papyrus (52 images). This last was photographed in sections and the images will be 'stitched together' to create larger sections. The photographers also provided digital images for the exhibition catalogues of the exhibitions of Paul Mellon: A Cambridge Tribute and From Reason to Revolution: Art and Society in Eighteenth Century Britain. They also scanned transparencies of Maggie Hambling's and Howard Hodgkin's work for press use and product development by Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises.

The non-exclusive contract with the Bridgeman Art Library was negotiated for a further five years. An additional 475 transparencies and high resolution digital images were supplied to them with more to follow. The Museum also agreed to the use of its images in their new venture 'Fine Art Prints on Demand'. Just over 1,000 Fitzwilliam Museum images are already available and links will be developed between the relevant records on the Museum's website and the Print on Demand website to ease and speed access.

Technology infrastructure

The departure of the Computer Manager and a gap of five months before the arrival of his replacement was ably managed by the Computer Associate, although of necessity it slowed down progress in certain areas.

Of prime concern over the last year has been the growing amount of image based data held, requiring more storage. Active management has reduced unintentional file duplication and is improving the quality of images gathered in preparation for the adoption of long-term storage solutions.

The Museum, supported by the University and MLA, is drawing to a close its current phase of ICT physical infrastructure improvement with the construction of a second server room. A new phase has now begun, focusing on empowering the individual users, and managing demands on the IT department. We have also been looking to increase the resilience of services by following trends in server virtualization. The investment in time and resources in the infrastructure has also put the Museum in a good position for the imminent mandatory conversion of the University telephone system. The Museum has also extended its remit to include oversight of the Hamilton Kerr Institute and efforts are being made to integrate the Institute's IT systems into the model of the Museum as a whole.

In support of sustainability a number of initiatives are under way, including internal policy and procedures for the selection and recording of long-term digital assets. The Museum has also been leading a Cambridge Imaging Project in conjunction with the University Library, the Scott Polar Research Institute, and other museums of the University towards a single, collaborative system for digital asset management using the Institutional Repository, DSpace, for storage and preservation.

Personnel and workforce development

Following a successful introduction of Staff Review and Development for all eligible staff during Autumn 2006, 101 reviews were completed by February 2007. As a result, individual, team, and organizational training needs were mapped for the year ahead. 'Bite Size' half-hour training sessions began in January 2007, initially for front of house staff, but the sessions attracted a wider audience from other Museum staff in the course of the year, with average attendance of twenty per session (52 sessions held) .

The sessions began with an overview of University induction topics and then concentrated on the theme of Communications for the rest of the year. Sessions were also presented to give further insight into exhibitions, initiatives, and ongoing museum projects. Staff from the wider museums community also attended to benefit from shared experience. 'Bite Size' training was used as part of a set of Renaissance Case Studies to demonstrate 'Modernising the Sector'.

A total of ten tailored training interventions have also been provided for 54 staff to meet both individual and organizational requirements, such as Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Risk Assessment, and IT needs. Two members of staff are being supported towards achieving NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration as well as a junior staff member being financially supported towards Associate Membership of the Museums Association (AMA).

During summer 2007, twelve school students undertook two-week work experience placements and a six-week 'work shadow' programme was arranged in Central Services for an undergraduate. Fifteen placements have already been arranged for 2008 when the Museum will be working to capacity in this area.

Workforce Diversity and the production of an action plan and audit is an MLA requirement for 2007 and beyond. However, in advance of this requirement, a broader recruitment base has been established through MENTER (Minority and Ethnic Forum for the East of England). MENTER will advise and support the Museum in developing workforce diversity in the future.

The appointment of a Personnel and Workforce Development Officer, funded by Renaissance, proved to be invaluable in a year dominated by the introduction of the single spine for salaries throughout the University. She played an important part in the negotiations concerning harmonization of museum attendants' pay, contributed to the European Museum Forum in Bologna, Italy, and the South Midlands Museum Federation on managing volunteers, and provided advice to the wider Cambridge museums community and the Region.

Buildings, services, and security

Throughout the year, Central Services continued to work with the University Estate Management and Buildings Service on the maintenance and improvement of the buildings and air handling systems. Difficulties were encountered both with the newly installed systems and the 30-50 year old equipment in the Italian and Dutch galleries.

Repairs to the original nineteenth century domes of galleries II and IV were undertaken under the scrutiny of English Heritage and the City Conservation Officer, employing traditional materials and techniques. A survey of the rest of the Founder's building revealed the need for urgent repairs to the portico, the dome over the main entrance hall, and the clerestory roofing of gallery III. As Syndics observe, elsewhere in this Report, these essential items of long-term maintenance pose a formidable problem for the University over the next several years.

Finally, we report the retirement of our long-serving colleague Roger Stretch, after completing 39 years' service to the University at the Museum. During his long tenure he served as a technician in the Departments of Antiquities and Paintings, Drawings, and Prints before taking on the newly created post of Security Manager.

Collections Division

The Collections Division is responsible for the display and arrangements of all the Galleries, the temporary exhibition programme, loans-in and loans-out, cataloguing of the collections, research into them, their overall care, and for making them accessible to the public and to scholars. Much of its work is supported by Central Services and it depends on the Conservation Division for advice and remedial and preventative care.

Known Consignor status for air cargo shipments

Recent changes in the Department of Transport's procedures for air cargo shipments required the Fitzwilliam Museum to become a Department of Transport Known Consignor as the only alternative to submitting its shipments of works of art to being x-rayed and/or hand-searched by a DFT Listed Agency. At the Museum's request a Department of Transport Inspector visited the Museum to carry out a Validation Inspection as a result of which the Inspector confirmed that the Museum's procedures for air cargo shipments met the Department of Trade's criteria and the status of Known Consignor was thereby granted, subject to annual inspections in future.

To complete the re-arrangement of the Egyptian Galleries, a new permanent exhibition of material from Ancient Sudan and Nubia opened in Gallery 24. Remedial work to the light boxes in the cases in the Greg gallery (19) was undertaken by Goppian. The last major part of the Museum to be re-displayed after the completion of the Courtyard scheme, the Fan Gallery, re-opened to the public on 1 May. In addition to Oriental and European fans, a small display of samplers is incorporated into the gallery, which will be changed periodically. We hope that this will go some way to compensate for the loss of the textile gallery.

Thanks to the generosity of the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, new bookcases were installed in the offices of the Department of Antiquities, and the Department of Applied Arts. Exactly 100 years after John R. McClean gave to the Museum the first portion of his fabulous collection of Ancient Greek coins, and 81 years after his brother William Newson McClean paid for the construction of the McClean Coin Room, members of the McClean family paid for the two bookcases to be made to match the room's original furnishings.

During the year, the Graham Robertson Room was converted into a study room for access by appointment to printed books, musical manuscripts, archives, autograph manuscripts, prints, and drawings. On Tuesdays the room is reserved for teaching purposes, with priority booking available for the History of Art and other Departments of the University. Bookcases have been installed around the room, the floor has been re-polished and sealed with a matt finish, and the blinds above the central windows have been removed. New furniture designed by Luke Hughes and strong trestle stands were paid for from the Mellon Fund. The room opened on 17 January and under the supervision of Peter Greenhalgh it proved to be enormously successful.

Several galleries have had new displays whilst objects normally on show have been lent to exhibitions. To replace the Rodin sculptures which were lent to the Royal Academy, a display of Barye bronzes, including several from the Batchelor loan, was installed. Camille Pissarro's Woodland scene, Spring, on loan from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, was displayed in Gallery 5. Part of the 20th Century Gallery (11) was re-hung to accommodate a number of the new paintings given by Sir Alan Bowness. Several sculptures, St Jerome, attributed to Andrea da Fiesoli, Filippo Parodi's spectacular Head of Cleopatra, Auguste Rodin's Torse de jeune fille and his Mouvement de Danse H, Aristide Maillol's Nu debout [Petite Venus sans bras] and Henri Matisse's Ecorse d'après Pugin, and his Portrait of Marguerite were displayed for the first time. Roubilliac's cleaned and restored sculpture of Henry Herbert 9th Earl of Pembroke from the Founder's Collection was re-displayed in the Broughton Flower Gallery (17). Newly acquired paintings were also displayed, including three items acquired through the in-lieu process, Sir John Everett Millais's Twins, Sir William Nicholson's Begonias, and Jean-Etienne Liotard's portrait miniature of Laura Tarsi in Turkish costume.

In the summer we again benefitted from the loan of a spectacular group of paintings from the Chattels Settlement Trust, by kind permission of Lady Juliet Tadgell. These included Stubbs's beautiful frieze of Fox-hounds in a landscape, his Scrub with John Singleton up, Van Dyck's full-length portrait of Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, and Daniel Mytens's swagger portrait of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, all of which were displayed in Gallery 3. In Gallery 4, three of the Claude-Joseph Vernets bequeathed us by Dr McDonald were re-displayed to complement the anonymous loan of Vernet's atmospheric View of Avignon from the right bank of the Rhone, near Villeneuve and in the 20th Century Gallery (11) re-arrangements were made to incorporate three paintings by Sir Howard Hodgkin, borrowed specifically to enable visitors to the exhibition of his more recent paintings in the Mellon Gallery to see examples of his earlier work.

One of the old air-conditioning units in the Courtauld Gallery (8) leaked steam on two occasions, causing slight damage to the guazzo of The Infant St John the Baptist meeting the Holy Family on their return from Egypt, now attributed to the young Guercino. A flood in the 20th Century Gallery (11) caused no damage to any art object.

Exhibitions

After the closing of Mission Impossible?, an exhibition which showcased recent achievements in the conservation of the collections, Literary Circles: Artist, Author, Word, and Image in Britain 1800-1920 opened in the Mellon Gallery. Co-ordinated by Jane Munro, with contributions by Dr Linda Goddard and other members of staff and students in the History of Art Department, several of whom were taking part in a graduate course devoted to the subject of Text and Image, this exhibition demonstrated the unique ability of the Fitzwilliam to produce an absolutely fascinating display of collaborations between artists and authors, drawing exclusively on the Museum's collections. It was thus able to illuminate the network of interests that linked authors and artists such as John Keats, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Robert Browning, Algernon Swinburne, Edward Burne-Jones, Thomas Hardy, Augustus John, and Siegfried Sassoon. In this way, it explored the bonds of affection and creative collaboration that were central to the Museum's evolution and the enrichment of its collection. To complement Literary Circles, an exhibition in the Shiba gallery, Chasing Happiness: Maeterlinck, The Blue Bird, and England celebrated the acquisition with the help of The Art Fund and the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund of seven magnificent set designs for Maurice Maeterlinck's so-called 'fairy' play, The Blue Bird. All but one of the designs were painted by Frederick Caley Robinson (1862-1927) and the other was by Sidney Sime (1867-1941).

Following on from Literary Circles was a dazzling display featuring masterpieces in silver, gold, and enamel from the outstanding collection of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, Treasures of Today, Silver from Goldsmiths' Hall, London 1980-2006. This showed over 100 innovative and dramatic examples of contemporary British silver created by 50 mainstream silversmiths since 1980. The Museum's Courtyard Shop took advantage of this exhibition to sell contemporary silver by some of today's most accomplished silversmiths. The exhibition was complemented by a programme of talks by practising silversmiths, courses, and family workshops supported by Johnson Mathey.

Further exhibitions by contemporary artists were displayed in the Octagon Gallery, No Straight Lines: Maggi Hambling Drawings 1963-2007, and in the Print Room Frank Auerbach: Etchings and Drypoints 1954-2006. Maggi Hambling, born in Suffolk in 1945, is a distinguished painter and sculptor and one of very few contemporary draughtsmen of real distinction. As she pointed out, drawing lies at the core of all her work. In charcoal, graphite or ink, a unique life-force is manifest - and there are no straight lines. The Fitzwilliam has a complete collection of Auerbach's prints thanks to the generosity and benefaction of Mrs Ruth Bromberg, James and Clare Kirkman, and the artist himself. This was the first occasion when they were displayed all together.

Earlier in the year an exhibition in the Octagon predominantly of English seventeenth-century needlework, Figures on Fabric, showed the skill of both professional and amateur embroiderers. The final exhibition in the Octagon was Paul Mellon: A Cambridge Tribute, which marked the centenary of one of the Museum's greatest benefactors, the American philanthropist and art collector, Paul Mellon, who from his time at Cambridge University in the 1930s developed a life-long love of English culture and created one of the greatest collections of British art outside this country with which he founded the Yale Center of British Art. The exhibition focused on Paul Mellon's personal taste, tracing his love of British art and sport to his formative years at Clare College from 1929-1931. Works from the Museum's collections by Stubbs, Constable, Samuel Palmer, Blake, and Rowlandson were displayed alongside memorabilia and loans from Paul Mellon's own collection, now at Yale.

Other exhibitions held in the Print Room highlighted strengths from the Collection. As part of the continuing conservation of the Museum's prints by Rembrandt, and to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the artist's birth in 1606, Rembrandt and Saskia focused on images of Rembrandt and his wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh (1612-1642), captured in formal portraits, intimate studies, and works where the artist used Saskia as a model for other subjects. The year had begun with Albrecht Altdorfer in Renaissance Regensburg: Prints of Allegory and Devotion, an exhibition which showed his variety of techniques and the freshness of his approach to subject matter. It ended with a colourful and witty exhibition which contrasted the approach of French and English artists in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century to caricature, Vive la différence! The English and French stereotype in satirical prints 1720-1815. The final exhibition in the Shiba Gallery, A Passport to the Egyptian After-life: The Book of the Dead of Ramose gave the opportunity of public display to one of the finest surviving of Egyptian papyruses. Ramose was a high official who lived c. 1200 BC and this papyrus had been discovered in his tomb in 1922. The beautiful papyrus, containing spells to ensure safe passage through the afterlife, had been the subject of a major conservation programme and this exhibition offered a rare opportunity to view this unique object in which vivid scenes of people, birds, animals, and plants offer fresh insights to the world of the Egyptians.

In the summer the walls of the Mellon Gallery were painted a battleship grey and a group of bulkheads were papered with gold to act as a breathtaking background to an exhibition which was held in tandem with the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Howard Hodgkin: Paintings 1992-2007. This celebrated the work of Sir Howard Hodgkin over the last fifteen years with a unique selection of his painting produced during that period. Painted on panel these varied in size from the tiny to the very large and all were of individual subtlety. Some exemplified his intense use of colour, whereas others were more subdued, using the texture of the wood on which they were painted to add an additional stimulus to the eye. Hodgkin has described his paintings as 'representational pictures of emotional situations'. Anyone who saw this vibrant exhibition could have been in no doubt that Hodgkin has a unique ability to persuade and delight his audience.

Acquisitions

Once again important acquisitions came through the AIL process, in which works of art are accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated (often at the wish or specification of the former owner) to registered museums. The Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints benefitted from the AIL system in the period under discussion. Sir William Nicholson's late still-life Begonias, painted when the artist was staying at Bretton Park, the home of Lord Allendale in Yorkshire, in the winter of 1939-40 had been bequeathed by Marguerite Steen, Nicholson's companion and biographer, to the dealer, Lillian Browse CBE (Mrs Sidney Lines). She made a generous bequest to the Museum in 2006, but this painting was kept back to be offered in lieu of taxes on condition that it be allocated to the Fitzwilliam. It joins a distinguished group of paintings by William Nicholson already in the collection, which hitherto lacked a flower painting by him, an area in which he excelled. The artist wrote about this painting to his daughter at Easter 1940 '... my very latest still-life painted with an urge in an all night sitting after a perfect dinner (O! The wine).' The colour and composition are masterly and the handling of the paint is particularly succulent.

Bequests were important this year. Two nonagenarians in particular benefitted the Museum.

For the Department of Coins and Medals, the death of Philip Grierson meant the loss of its much venerated Honorary Keeper, but his bequest of about 20,000 medieval European coins and other numismatic items, his numismatic books, periodicals, off-prints and papers, and a half share in his residuary estate ensured that the Fitzwilliam will remain the prime centre for the study of this material. Amongst many coins of renown, three of the most important are the portrait denier of Charlemagne (76-810) and two gold coins, the augustale of Sicily, reign of Frederick II (1220-1250), a spectacular example of the homage paid to antiquity and in particular to Roman coinage from an Empire which has been thought responsible for the first genuine Renaissance in the thirteenth century and a petit royal, reign of Philip IV of France (1285-1314).

For the Department of Applied Arts and the Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints the bequest of Lillian Browse CBE (Mrs Sidney Lines) provided three bronzes by Auguste Rodin, one by Aristide Maillol and a bronze medallion by Thomas Stirling-Lee (1856-1916) featuring the Head of Walter Sickert. Sickert, like William Nicholson, was fundamental to Browse's interests and the bequest included two paintings by him, one of The façade of St Jacques, Dieppe by moonlight, c. 1900, the other of Chagford churchyard, Devon, 1915. There was also a good group of drawings by Joan Eardley, an early wash drawing of a bearded man by Amedeo Modigliani, a Standing female nude by Kees van Dongen and a brilliantly drawn late study of Dancers in the wings in black chalk and pastels in superb condition by Edgar Degas.

Other bequests included paintings by Austin Davies and Ellzabeth Vellacott from Sir Nicholas Shackleton, and also from him for the Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books, Max Ernst's La femme 100 têtes of 1929. The Department of Applied Arts received bequests from Mrs Lorna Betty Sutherland, Professor Karen Spärck Jones, and Mrs Pamela Hope Williams. The Department of Coins and Medals also received as a bequest from John Coubro' Mossop (died 1996) an important collection of 3,836 ancient and other coins, mainly of Asia Minor, which had been on deposit in the Museum since 1990. Michael Lambert relinquished his life interest in the bequest of his brother, Charles John Lambert (died 1991) which included a fine drawing in red chalk of Three male nudes attributed to the young Guercino.

Other drawings came as gifts to the Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, notably a group of old masters from Miss Helen Vaux, who had decided that 'now that she was 100 the Museum might as well have them'. Pride of place goes to a large Design for an embroidered cope: Worshipping the Lamb - Revelation V, 8 by Palma Giovane, which is blackened on the back and pricked for transfer. There were drawings too in the generous gift from Sir Alan Bowness of modern art mostly from the 1950s and 1960s. One painting, Richard Smith's Alpine of 1963 was given specifically to mark the Directorship of Duncan Robinson. Amongst the others were fine examples by Bryan Wynter, William Scott, and Allen Jones, as well as a Mark Tobey, West Coast, March 1962 given jointly by Sir Alan and his wife, Sarah. A group of prints by Robert Austin was given by the artist's daughters, Clare Calder and Rachel Austin, and The Print Studio gave 136 prints/portfolios by contemporary British artists. We were touched to receive from John Oppé, in memory of his father Denys L. T. Oppé, Sir John Everett Millais's study for Cimon and Iphigenia, which had been given to his father by his grandfather, the collector Paul Oppé, as a wedding present. John Oppé also helped us buy a caricature by Cham from his grandfather's collection. Nicholas and Judith Goodison continue to regale us with contemporary objects, this year in glass, ceramic, and silver, items which they give through The Art Fund.

Without The Art Fund we would purchase very little. This year they enabled us to acquire the important collection formed by Professor G. W. de Wit of 481 early Anglo-Saxon and related gold and silver coins of the seventh and eighth centuries, their generosity being implemented in this purchase by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Art Fund also enabled us with the additional help of the MLA/V&A purchase grant fund to acquire an enchanting scent-bottle and stopper decorated with a portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie on one side and the arms of Lady Mary Hervey on the other, made in Capodimonte and probably painted by Giovanni Sigismondo Fischer c. 1753-55.

The Friends, staunch in their support as always, gave an Anglo-Saxon gilded mount with interlace decoration from the seventh century which had been stopped from export by the Export Reviewing Committee. They also gave a large painting by Christopher Le Brun, The Eye's Castle 1996-2004, to mark the Directorship of Duncan Robinson.

A rare purchase has turned out to be a previously undescribed first edition in excellent colour of Kitagawa Utamaro's book printed in 1802, (Michiyuki) Koi no futozao (On the road: Love songs for the thick-necked shamisen).

Cambridge in America remains a useful conduit for gifts. This year Julia Crookenden and Michael Jaye in memory of Major-General George Crookenden and Mrs Angela Crookenden, gave a group of prints including four etchings of Yorkshire churches and abbeys, 1812-1819 by Paul Sandby Munn; Dr William Conte gave eight outstanding medieval coins, including a gold penny of Henry III (1216-72), and a medieval folding candlestick; and an anonymous friend gave a French school drawing, formerly in the collection of Anthony Blunt, which relates to Poussin's Moses trampling on Pharoah's crown: this in memory of Professor Francis Haskell. Also via Cambridge in America, the Post Family Trust established a fund in memory of Margaret R. Post for the purchase of numismatic books, and another fund in memory of F. Martin Post to invite visiting scholars to work in the Department of Coins and Medals.

Reference Library

During the year 1,428 visitors used the Reference Library. These included students and staff of this and other universities, and researchers pursuing private studies as well as casual visitors to the Museum. Since the Reference Library has been freely open to the general public it has become an increasingly popular resource for those who wish to learn more about objects in the Museum's collections, or simply to browse through the books and periodicals which are available.

A total of 2,454 books and catalogues were added to the Library's holdings in the course of the year, bringing the total stock to over 186,000 items. Many of these were donated by individuals or by other institutions; particularly generous gifts and bequests came from Philip and Myril Pouncey, Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton, and Mr Michael Farmer.

A major project which commenced during the year was the addition of the Library's extensive collection of dealers' catalogues to the online Newton catalogue. This material was not previously listed or indexed, and so accessibility was very limited. In view of the large number of items involved, completion of this project will take several years, but eventually each catalogue will be retrievable by title, dealer's name, subject, and principal artists. We are grateful to our Library volunteers, Joanna Salisbury, Eleanor Fletcher, and Verity Yeates, for carrying out the bulk of this work.

Conservation Division

For the Conservation Division the year began with Mission Impossible? Ethics and Choices in Conservation, the exhibition which ran from July to September 2006 and was organized and curated by the Division. The public appeared to enjoy the exhibition and to appreciate its aim; one visitor wrote that the issues raised 'were sobering and thought-provoking rather than 'fun' … clearly and admirably presented'. The part of the exhibition designed to tour as part of the East of England Hub Touring Exhibitions programme, has attracted several enquiries from Hub museums and elsewhere.

The Division continued to assist in the monitoring of the Museum climate. The investigation of the performance of the building started with the appointment of Linda Bullock, a freelance environmental engineer. A programme of thermal imaging was planned to detect local heat sources, such as unlagged hot water pipes within the structure. Conservators continued to work with students and interns from the Hamilton Kerr Institute on improving storage conditions.

Work continued on the Egyptian collection, focusing on the treatment of objects required for future rotation in the new displays. Barbara Wills, Senior Conservator of Organic Artefacts at the British Museum and a specialist in basketry conservation, joined the Department for July and August. She instructed conservation staff and interns on the technology and deterioration of the Egyptian baskets and assisted with their conservation. She participated in a number of public activities, such as 'Meet the Antiquities' and the 'Secrets of the Egyptian Craftsman' series. Her visit was part of an exchange of skills project with the British Museum as a result of which Julie Dawson, Senior Assistant Conservator in the Antiquities Department, will spend two months there in the Department of Conservation, Documentation, and Science during October and November 2007.

The conservation and mounting of sections of the papyrus Book of the Dead of Ramose was completed by René Waltham in readiness for the exhibition Passport to the Afterlife which opened in the Shiba Gallery on the 19 June. The proposed system of mounting sections of what was once a twenty-metre long papyrus by sandwiching its surviving fragments between sheets of glass with precisely cut connecting edges proved to be a successful solution to the problem of handling and storing this very fragile and light-sensitive object. A display of the techniques of papyrus manufacture and the production of the book was included in the exhibition and the Museum's website hosted an accompanying virtual exhibition.

For the Department of Applied Arts, conservator Jo Dillon prepared objects for exhibitions and photography. She worked with Mark Wingfield in the preparation of an account of the restoration of the Chinese Qing vases for the Museum website which will include short film clips, time lapse footage of the reconstruction, and still photographs. All three vases which were damaged by a visitor in January 2006 were expertly restored by Penny Bendall and returned to temporary storage in the Museum pending a decision on where they should be displayed. Marie Louise Sauerberg completed a survey of the wooden sculpture collection with the assistance of Dr Peter T**L214**ngeberg who visited the department in August. The collection of some 50 pieces has proved to be of greater significance than was thought at first, although some are in very fragile condition and require treatment.

Independent conservators were contracted to undertake specific conservation projects. Roubiliac's terracotta bust of Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, returned after conservation by Sasa Kosinova. Penny Bendall began a condition and conservation needs survey of the European ceramics in the Applied Arts Reserve and treated pieces, including four pieces of Dutch delft prior to their despatch for exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. Furniture in the collection was treated by Robert Williams. Suzanne Kitto and Jamie Hood, conservators at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, examined and advised on the construction, storage, and treatment of lacquered Oriental arms and armour. The cover of William Beckford's lapis lazuli standing cup and the figure of Apollo and the top section of the Tompion and Banger grand sonnerie clock case were despatched to Ruper Harris Conservation, London, to have their screw attachments repaired and made more secure.

Examination and analysis of the collections continued. Julie Dawson and Jo Dillon carried out x-radiography on ancient Egyptian and Oriental bronzes and metalwork for external clients, at The Welding Institute at Abingdon.

In the Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books, Svetlana Taylor continued working on the Handel manuscript project. She attended a four-day course held at West Dean College, Sussex on Conservation of Historic Leather Artefacts. The course was taught by the staff of Leather Conservation Centre and focused on current practices in leather conservation. It concentrated among other things on the use of leather as library material and informed decisions on the conservation of the bound volumes. Bob Proctor continued the conservation of the Macclesfield Psalter. He took part in the Montefiascone conservation summer project. With colleagues he visited the Luxmoor Traditional English Wood workshop in Suffolk in order to select appropriate wood for the binding.

For the Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Bryan Clarke completed conservation work in preparation for three exhibitions: Rembrandt and Saskia, Vive La Différence, and Literary Circles. He undertook conservation work on fans for the Applied Arts Department. He continued the programme of conservation of the Museum's collection of Rembrandt etchings. It is hoped that this project will be completed in 2009. He advised on the conversion of the Graham Robertson room from gallery to study room and designed a prototype trestle stand to support mounted prints and drawings. He initiated a scheme for improvements to the storage area for prints and drawings, which will start later in 2007. Linda Clarke, a volunteer, manufactured Melinex/card enclosures to house the collection of Celia Glaisher's photogenic drawings.

The Cambridge Colleges Conservation Consortium undertook the conservation of the bindings of the very large Founder's print album 'Imitations of Drawings'.

The Hamilton Kerr Institute treated 50 paintings of which fourteen were from the Museum's collections. Tristan's Adoration of the Magi was cleaned and restored, as was Simon Vouet's The Entombment. Abraham Hondius's The Hawking Party was restored. Two large unlined portraits of the Duke of Wellington from Stratfield Saye were treated. Dr Aviva Burnstock and Polly Saltmarsh, from the Courtauld Institute, examined paintings by Monet in the Museum's collection at the Institute for a collaborative project between the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Courtauld Institute of Paintings and Technology.

Early sixteenth century Portraits of Richard III, Edward IV, and Henry VII were conserved and restored for The London Society of Antiquaries. From the same collection, a portrait of King Athelstan, a fragment of a much larger composition possibly from Eltham Palace, was cleaned and restored. The oak boards appear to have been previously used as panelling and dendrochronology confirmed that they were made around 1500. A series of large-scale projects were started which necessitated extended periods of working away from the Institute. Marie Louise Sauerberg and three interns completed the conservation of the Testers of the Black Prince and of Henry IV in Canterbury Cathedral. Ian McClure, Emma Gore, and Daniela Leonard undertook a six-day in-situ project at Grimsthorpe Castle, stabilizing and cleaning the painted ceiling of the State Dining Room. A condition survey of more than 600 paintings at the Sir Alfred Munnings Museum in Dedham was completed by staff and students. A survey of the collection of polychrome sculpture at Anglesey Abbey was undertaken by Joanna Russell, an intern at the Institute, while Mary Kempski supervised in-situ work at Weston Park.

Lauren Fly, a second year intern at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, was awarded a Kress Conservation Fellowship to examine the collection of French paintings in the Museum in readiness for technical contributions to a new catalogue. She also completed the conservation of the icon of Sts Augustine, Jerome, and Benedict from the collection

The Hamilton Kerr Institute Task Force set up at the request of the Syndicate completed its review of the Institute's financial systems, teaching, research, and studio work and reported favourably. The maintenance of the Institute's buildings was returned to the care of the University's Estate Management and Building Service, which relieves a great burden on the Institute's resources.

Finally we record our gratitude to Ann Massing, who was appointed Assistant to the Director of the Institute in 1978, on the occasion of her retirement at the end of December. She will continue to be associated with the Institute, particularly in editing publications. She has been associated with many highpoints in the history of the Institute, for example the conservation of Uccello's Hunt in the Forest belonging to the Ashmolean Museum.

All staff in the Division gave lectures to the public in connection with exhibitions and as part of University courses. Dr Renate Woudhuysen gave historical techniques courses at Vaanta University in Finland and the University of Oslo. Staff also participated in conservation seminars, conferences, and projects. Bob Proctor worked from 25 April to 7 May on the Ms. Qu'ran collection of the National Library of Egypt, Cairo. The Museum hosted internships in paper conservation, antiquities conservation, and in paintings conservation.

Teaching and related activities

Information on teaching and related activities carried out by Museum staff is available from the Museum. The full Report is also available at http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/about/AnnualReport2006-2007.pdf. (available soon)

Publications by members of Museum staff

Martin Allen, 'The Cambridge Mint after the Norman Conquest', Numismatic Chronicle 166 (2006), pp. 237-44.

Martin Allen, 'The English coinage of 1153/4-1158', British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006), pp. 242-302.

Martin Allen, Review of Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 55: Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Part IV English, Irish, and Scottish Coins, 1066-1485, by Marina Mucha (Oxford, 2003), British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006), pp. 392-4.

Martin Allen, Julian Baker, Mark Blackburn, and Rory Naismith, 195 entries in 'Coin Register 2006', edited by Martin Allen, Philip de Jersey, and Ian Leins, British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006), pp. 364-88.

Martin Allen, 'The gold Double Leopard of Edward III', The Escutcheon. The Journal of the Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society 12 (2007), pp. 19-20.

Martin Allen, 'A Henry III gold penny given to the Fitzwilliam Museum', Spink Numismatic Circular 115 (2007), pp. 74-5.

Martin Allen, 'The medieval coin', in Julian Munby et al., From Studium to Station. Rewley Abbey and Rewley Road Station, Oxford Archaeology Occasional Paper 16 (Oxford, 2007), p. 33.

Martin Allen, 191 entries in Numismatic Literature 147 (2005).

Sally-Ann Ashton, with Susan Walker, Cleopatra (Duckworth Press, 2006).

Sally-Ann Ashton and Lucilla Burn, 'Ancient Egypt at the Fitzwilliam Museum', Minerva, September/October 2006, pp. 10-13.

Sally-Ann Ashton, review of J.-Y. Empereur and M.-D. Nenna (ed.), Nécropolis 2 (2003) in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49, 3 (2006), pp. 369-70.

Binski, P. and Sauerberg, M. L., 'The Faaberg St Peter: Matthew Paris in Norway', in Jilleen Nadolny with Kaja Kollandsrud, Marie Louise Sauerberg, and Tine Froysaker (eds), Medieval Painting in Northern Europe - Technique, Analysis, and Art History, Studies in Commemoration of the 70th birthday of Unn Plahter, Archetype Publications (London, 2006).

Mark Blackburn, 'Presidential Address 2005. Currency under the Vikings. Part 2: The two Scandinavian kingdoms of the Danelaw, c. 895-954', British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006), pp. 204-26.

Mark Blackburn, 'Review of the year 2005', British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006), pp. 398-400.

Mark Blackburn, 'The Loops as a guide to how and when the coins were acquired', The Hoen Hoard. A Viking gold treasure of the ninth century, ed. S. H. Fuglesang and D. M. Wilson, Norske Oldfunn XX and Acta archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia XIV (Oslo and Rome, 2006), pp. 181-9.

Mark Blackburn (with Shunji Oochi and Shinichi Sakuraki), 'Chinese coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, with a statistical analysis of weights of the coins', Shimonoseki City University Review 130 (2007), pp. 195-228.

Mark Blackburn, 'Profile: Philip Grierson (1910-2006)', The Fitzwilliam Museum Review 2004-06, pp. 21-26.

Spike Bucklow, 'New Age Old Masters', in The Object in Context, IIC, (London, 2006), pp. 267-272.

Spike Bucklow, 'Processes and Pigment Recipes' Kunsttechnologie (20, 2, 2006), pp. 269-277.

Adrian Challands and Martin Allen, 'Metalwork', in Excavations at Kilverstone, Norfolk: an Episodic Landscape History, edited by Duncan Garrow, Sam Lucy, and David Gibson, East Anglian Archaeology, 113 (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 205-6.

Julie Dawson, Conserving Ancient Egypt in Cambridge, ICON News, Issue 7, November 2006, pp. 30-34.

William Day, 'The petty coinage of Genoa under the early doges, 1339-1396', in XIII Congreso Internacional de Numismática (Madrid - 2003), vol. I: Actas - Proceedings - Actes, edited by Carmen Alfaro, Carmen Marcos, and Paloma Otero (Madrid 2005), 1295-1304.

William Day, 'The imitation florin of the «ex» Marquises of Carretto, Piedmont, c. 1350', Rivista italiana di numismatica e scienze affini 107 (2006), 448-69.

P. Grierson and M. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage 1: The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th Centuries) (Cambridge, 1986), first paperback edition, 2006 [2007].

Carol Humphrey, Quaker School Girl Samplers from Ackworth, Needleprint & Ackworth School Estates Ltd (2006).

James Lin, 'By Royal Appointment', in The Art Surveyor (London: 2007.2), pp. 8-9.

Jane Munro, 'Creative Relationships, Creating Collections' in Jane Munro and Linda Goddard (eds.) Literary Circles. Artist, author, word, and image in Britain 1800-1920 (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 10-35.

Jane Munro, Chasing Happiness, Maeterlinck, The Blue Bird, and England (Cambridge, 2006).

Jilleen Nadolny with Kaja Kollandsrud, Marie Louise Sauerberg, and Tine Froysaker (eds), Medieval Painting in Northern Europe - Technique, Analysis and Art History, Studies in Commemoration of the 70th birthday of Unn Plahter, Archetype Publications (London 2006).

Adrian Popescu, 'Coins' in R. C. Hatton, W. Hall, 'A late Roman cemetery at Durobrivae, Chesterton', Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 95 (2006), p. 14.

Adrian Popescu, 'Coins, tokens, and jetons' in H. Wallis, Excavations on the site of Norwich Cathedral Refectory 2001-2003, East Anglian Archaeology 116 (2006), pp. 48-50.

Adrian Popescu (with Kris Lockyear and Timothy Sly), 'The Noviodunum Archaeological Project 2000-2004: results and conclusions from the pilot seasons', Peuce 3-4 (2007), pp. 121-58.

Adrian Popescu, 'The Noviodunum Archaeological Project (NAP): Summary report of the 2006 season', in Cronica cercetarilor arheologice din Romania. Campania 2006 (Bucharest, 2007), pp. 189-90.

Marie Louise Sauerberg: Book review of Unn Plahter, E. Hohler, N. Morgan and A. Wichstrøm: Painted Altar frontals of Norway, 1250-1350, (London, 2004) in Studies in Conservation no. 4 2006, pp. 235-236.

Marie Louise Sauerberg, 'The Tester over the Tomb of the Black Prince', Canterbury Cathedral Chronicle 2007, pp. 41-44.

David Scrase, Review Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master in Master Drawings Vol XLIV, No. 3 (2006), pp. 362-365.

David Scrase, 'I Redouté del Fitzwilliam' in 'Pierre- Joseph Redouté' edited by Sandra Fusina, L'Erbolario Edizioni, Lodi (2006), pp. 99-100.

Helen Strudwick with Alice Stevenson, 'A class act?', review of J. Richards, Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom, in Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16.3 (October 2006), pp. 354-6.

Helen Strudwick, The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Amber Books (Oxford, 2006), 512 pages.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support for the Museum from the following individuals and organizations.

A. G. Leventis Foundation
Anna Plowden Trust
The Art Fund
Arts & Humanities Research Council
Aurelius Trust
Barclays Community Fund
Bonhams
British Academy
The estate of Lillian Browse CBE (Mrs Sidney Lines)
Professor Theodore Buttrey
Cambridge City Council
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University's Tenant Fund
Cheffins
The estate of Dennis Neligan Cole
The estate of Professor Geoffrey Cook
Co-operative Group
John L. Cornforth
Coutts & Co
Coutts Charitable Trust
DCMS Wolfson
Domino UK Ltd
Eridge Trust
The ESG Robinson Charitable Trust
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The estate of Seumas Vidal Finn
The Friends of The Fitzwilliam Museum
The estate of Philip Grierson
The Grocers' Charity
Headley Trust
Heritage Lottery Fund
Antigoni Iatrou
Idlewild Trust
The Isaac Newton Trust
J. Paul Getty Charitable Trust
Christopher Jeeps
John Lewis Partnership
Journeys by Design
KPMG
Lankelly Chase Foundation
The Marlay Group
Johnson Matthey
Mercers' Company
Michael Marks Trust
MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund
Museums, Libraries & Archives Council
Museums Association
NADFAS
National Manuscripts Conservation Trust
Pilgrim Trust
Mr Richie Post
Prince of Wales Art & Kids Foundation
Nigel and Hilary Pye
Rayne Foundation
Ridgeons Ltd
Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Melvin Seiden
Sotheby's
Denys Spittle
Mr Howard Thompson
Thriplow Charitable Trust
Trinity College
TTP Group
University of Oslo
Johnny van Haeften
Westminster Foundation
Woodmansterne Publications Ltd
Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers
XaarJet Ltd

Conclusion

In July 2007 we had expected to be saying goodbye to Duncan Robinson who was retiring as Director after twelve years in post, and were getting ready to welcome Timothy Potts from the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, as the incoming Director. However, as appointments processes had taken time and Timothy still had commitments to fulfil in Fort Worth, Duncan generously agreed to extend his stay and remain as Acting Director for the summer of 2007 and for the Michaelmas Term of the new academical year.

This softened the blow of his departure and meant that several farewell occasions for staff, Syndics, Friends, Trustees, and well-wishers in general were cheered by the thought that we would meet again in the autumn. But to preside over twelve very significant years in the life of the Museum, culminating in the completion of the Courtyard, is a huge achievement, all the more impressive when for the last five years he was simultaneously the Master of Magdalene College. We owe Duncan gratitude for so many artistic and architectural successes but also for a great deal of pleasure, for in his day the Museum has become a very lively and happy place which has, for the first time, been taken to the hearts of the citizens of Cambridge as well as the University. And here of course, he had an invaluable and indefatigable accomplice, his wife Lisa, always ready to join him in welcoming people in. We wish them well in their new roles and activities.

But change is good for all institutions, and for those who presided over them, and Timothy Potts, who comes originally from the world of archaeology and antiquities before directing galleries in Melbourne and Texas, will bring a new balance and a new outlook.
ANNE LONSDALE (Chair) RICHARD CORK JEAN MICHEL MASSING
NICHOLAS BARING MARTIN DAUNTON DAVID MCKITTERICK
PAUL BINSKI CAROLINE HUMPHREY VERONICA SUTHERLAND
JOHN BROWN JOHN KEATLEY RICHARD WILSON
PAUL CARTLEDGE  

October 2007