Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
On Sunday morning, inspired by Helen Dorey's talk about collecting and collections, the party visited Oxford University's famous Pitt Rivers Museum (photo by Rakshita Patel)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
The Pitt Rivers Museum is accessed through the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, one of whose exhibits is the reconstructed skeleton of the legendarily extinct Dodo (Photo by Tom Atkinson)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
By 1681, the harmless dodo, native to Mauritius, had been rendered extinct by the action of humans and the animals they introduced to the island (Photo by Tom Atkinson)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
In the Pitt Rivers Museum itself, some of the items displayed are obviously relevant to the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes - opium pipes, for instance (photo by John McNabb)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
Harpoons also have an obvious relevance to the great detective's life and work - specifically the case of Black Peter c (photo by Tom Atkinson)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
Knuckledusters are now classed as illegal offensive weapons. Possession by an individual is a criminal offence (Photo by Tom Atkinson)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
This head, modelled in clay and painted, comes from a "ghost house", a place of traditional ancestral worship in New Guinea (photo by Rakshita Patel)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
This is a collecting box for donations. The wooden figures move, and their eyes light up! Each represents a benefactor of the Museum, including General Pitt Rivers (photo by Rakshita Patel)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
From the Pitt Rivers Museum, our party repaired to The Chequers for lunch and the opportunity to chat about the weekend's exploits (photo by Tom Atkinson)
Sherlock Holmes Society of London:
Chairman Calvert Markham's vote of thanks to Helen, Marcus and Raks was enthusistically supported! Then it was time for everyone to start heading homeward... (photo by Tom Atkinson)