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Totally Chaotic History Museum Trail

Over the Easter Holidays 2024, families all over the UK took part in the Totally Chaotic History Museum Trail.

On a yellow background, there is an image of a book cover top right. The book is called Totally Chaotic History Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly by Greg Jenner. There is a cartoon of a brown skilled man wearing a yellow and blue headgree and white shorts being chased by a crocodile. Beneath the image of the book is a cartoon of an Ancient Egyptian goddess with blue feathered wings and a dark orange dress. To the left is a large red scribbled cloud. On top of the cloud is the words Totally Chaotic History Museum Trail in white and blue writing. At the bottom of the image are logos for Kids in Museums and Walker Books.

This Easter, families discovered amazing stories and objects from Ancient Egypt at their local museum as part of the Totally Chaotic History Museum Trail, organised by Kids in Museums and Walker Books. The national trail for families celebrated the release of Totally Chaotic History Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly by bestselling historian and podcaster Greg Jenner with expert interruptions by Dr Campbell Price, an Egyptologist from Manchester Museum and illustrations by Rikin Parekh.

Over 20 museums across the UK took part from 23 March to 14 April 2024.

Families could pick up a free activity sheet to join in and explore the intriguing objects that have survived from Ancient Egypt and the people who used and made them. They pretended to be a pharaoh and planned what they would take with you to the afterlife and learnt more about the hundreds of Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses.

We also gave children the chance to take part in a national competition to win a copy of Totally Chaotic History Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly and a Double Art Pass Plus Kids donated by Art Fund.

About Totally Chaotic History Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly

Join hit historian Greg Jenner on a rollercoaster journey through the ENTIRE history of Ancient Egypt, all the way from the brilliant beginning to its collapse with Cleopatra. Accompanied by interruptions from expert Egyptologist and myth-buster extraordinaire Dr Campbell Price and with side-splitting illustrations from Rikin Parekh, this whirlwind tour travels through all 3,000 years of this popular time period. Discovering jaw-dropping facts about making mummies, awesome art, incredible architecture, odd gods, medical marvels and plotting pharaohs – this book leaves no (rosetta!) stone unturned.

Featuring a timeline, a chaos meter that tracks the level of ancient drama, a myth-busting buzzer and a fast-forward button to dive straight in to the action, this entertaining page-turner brings Ancient Egypt to life to captivate curious young minds like never before.

Participating museums

The museums that took part in the trail were.

  • The Atkinson
  • Bagshaw Museum
  • Blackburn Museum
  • Bolton Museum
  • Brighton Museums
  • Cliffe Castle Museum
  • Durham Oriental Museum
  • Egypt Centre
  • Eton College Museum
  • Fitzwilliam Museum
  • Great North Museum: Hancock
  • Haslemere Educational Museum
  • Macclesfield Silk Museum
  • Manchester Museum
  • Museum of Cornish Life
  • National Museum Scotland
  • Petrie Museum, UCL
  • Pitt Rivers Museum
  • Royal Albert Memorial Museum
  • Swansea Museum
  • Torquay Museum
  • Towneley Hall Museum & Art Gallery
  • Worcester Museum

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