DIORAMIC EXHIBITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23859, 13 July 1939, Page 6

DIORAMIC EXHIBITS

TWO EFFECTIVE DISPLAYS LATEST MUSEUM TECHNIQUE Two exhibits of outstanding merit which now have a permanent place in the Otago Museum are dioramic displays depicting comparatively rare types of marine life on the Otago Peninsula and the Moeraki boulders respectively. These two exhibits are the work of Misses L. A. Daff and Betty Batham, of Dunedin. and are examples of one of the latest developments in museum technique. The principle of a dioramic display is to have a modelled foreground merging imperceptibly into a cainted background, and when such a display is mounted in a case and viewed through a glass panel with the aid of effective internal lighting, the effect, as a visit to the museum will show, is an extra-

ordinarily lifelike and natural one. The value of such displays as exhibits, moreover, is added to by the fact that scenes of scientific interest can be presented to scale in the proper surroundings and in their natural colours.

The scene taken from the Otago Peninsula is of a beach just north of Cape Saunders and the familiar coastline of the harbour can be seen in the painted background. The modelling in this instance is of rocks and boulders on the beach (which is represented by real sand) about which two or three seals and some penguins are disporting themselves. The second display, which is the work of Miss Batham alone, is also remarkably true to life. The famous boulders modelled in the foreground are similar in every detail to the originals and merge almost imnerceptibly with those painted on the “ back cloth ” which was painted on the site. The disp’ay is to be placed by the window from which can be viewed the Moeraki boulder presented to the museum some time ago by Mr W. Gordon.