The Story of Time': Managing a major loans-in exhibition at the National Maritime Museum

Abstract

Summary Temporary exhibitions are an important part of the work of many museums and often involve borrowing objects in order to support the museum's own collections. In 1999, the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, opened its Millennium exhibition, The Story of Time’, a nine-month-long exhibition which was the largest the museum had ever organized. This paper looks at the problems encountered when dealing with large numbers of objects and couriers, as well as when staging an exhibition in a seventeenth-century listed building. It also offers some practical advice for planning, communication, and decision making from the perspectives of the Registrar and Conservators.