> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Drunken Ancients and Mummy Restoration: The Best GIFs from #MusGIF Day - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/drunken-ancients-and-mummy-restoration-the-best-gifs-from-musegif-day/ - Published: 2015-10-21T21:00:40.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:59:04.000Z - Description: Culture Themes, the same group behind #AskACuratorDay, has organized yet another fun way for museums to engage the public with objects in their collections. - Author: Claire Voon - Tags: Art, Getty Museum, High Museum of Art, Horniman Museum, Wellcome Collection, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3) ![The Huntington reimagines a medieval scene, captioned, "Remember that time St. Patrick stabbed the High King in the foot? #MusGif" (GIF via @TheHuntington)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-9.gif) The Huntington shared this reimagined medieval scene on Twitter, captioned, “Remember that time St. Patrick stabbed the High King in the foot? #MusGif” (GIF via @TheHuntington/Twitter) Culture Themes, the same group behind [#AskACuratorDay](https://hyperallergic.com/performance-hazards-odd-objects-and-more-insights-from-askacurator-day/), has organized yet another fun way for museums to engage the public with objects in their collections. Today was the inaugural [#MusGif](http://culturethemes.blogspot.com/2015/09/next-culturethemes-october-21-musgif.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) — that’s Museum + GIF, if the hashtag threw you off — a day for cultural institutions to exhibit some of their lesser-known works through GIFs, posted on Twitter. The social media platform [introduced](https://blog.twitter.com/2015/introducing-a-more-seamless-video-experience-with-autoplay?ref=hyperallergic.com) automatic playback of GIFs only this June, and the integrated technology has proven to be a useful tool for museums, among many others. Today, for example, some teams demonstrated the functionality of objects that still images cannot capture. The Royal College of Physicians shared two gems: some delicate, interactive pop-ups [hidden](https://twitter.com/RCPmuseum/status/656797755176787969?ref=hyperallergic.com) in a a 16th-century engineering book, and the [rotating mechanics](https://twitter.com/RCPmuseum/status/656796781267824641?ref=hyperallergic.com) of a paper wheel chart, tucked into a 1561 copy of Trithemius’ Polygraphia, a tome devoted to cryptology: ![(GIF via @RCPmuseum/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-2.gif) (GIF via @RCPmuseum/Twitter) ![(GIF via @RCPmuseum/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-3.gif) (GIF via @RCPmuseum/Twitter) Brass reveals some unexpected flexibility through the wriggly locomotion of this Indian decorative fish, [shared](https://twitter.com/HornimanMuseum/status/656861906666455040?ref=hyperallergic.com) by the Horniman Museum in South London: ![(GIF via @HornimanMuseum/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-crop-3.gif) (GIF via @HornimanMuseum/Twitter) Other museums took advantage of the format’s multi-frame functionality to overcome the limits of a normal picture frame, which can make capturing the entirety of large artworks difficult. London’s National Portrait Gallery [surveyed](https://twitter.com/NPGLondon/status/656802187234816000?ref=hyperallergic.com) the longest portrait in its collection: the funeral panorama of the Duke of Wellington that stretches over 66 feet long. About 1.5 million people [attended](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVeKLoGd9Bg&ref=hyperallergic.com) the actual event in November 1852. ![(GIF courtesy @NPGLondon/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-crop-5.gif) (GIF courtesy @NPGLondon/Twitter) Worcester Cathedral Library and Archive [posted](https://twitter.com/WorCathLibrary/status/656845836232560640?ref=hyperallergic.com) the first fold-out section of a book showing the city of Venice in 1486, which stretches more than five feet long. ![(GIF via @WorCathLibrary/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize1.gif) (GIF via @WorCathLibrary/Twitter) In a similar vein, the Wellcome Collection, a museum of medical curiosities, [compiled](https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/656811930246512640?ref=hyperallergic.com) a series of nine watercolors from Japan that depict the death and decay of a noble lady into one somewhat macabre GIF: ![(GIF via @ExploreWellcome)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-8.gif) (GIF via @ExploreWellcome) Wellcome also [stitched](https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/656852807170043905?ref=hyperallergic.com) together a number of Eadward Muybridge’s locomotion studies into a single image. Below is one of the photographer’s running cats (which also serves as its website 404 error message!), and the museum also shared similar GIFs of a [raccoon](https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/656790712843923457?ref=hyperallergic.com), and, of course, a [horse](https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/656735932855377920?ref=hyperallergic.com). ![(GIF via @ExploreWellcome/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-crop-6.gif) (GIF via @ExploreWellcome/Twitter) Muybridge’s stereographs are also well known. But Harvard’s Center for the History of Medicine [shared](https://twitter.com/HarvardHistMed/status/656852708905885696?ref=hyperallergic.com) an unusual one of a doctor performing an operation in France: ![(GIF via @HarvardHistMed/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-6.gif) (GIF via @HarvardHistMed/Twitter) Other institutions saw #MusGif as opportunity to reveal objects from different perspectives. The University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology [provided](https://twitter.com/AshmoleanMuseum/status/656843559967039489?ref=hyperallergic.com) a tour of an ivory *memento mori* pendant; seen in the round, the carved trinket reveals the face of a dead man attached to a decaying skull: ![(GIF via @Ashmolean Museum)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-4.gif) (GIF via @Ashmolean Museum) Another direction in which some took the prompt was to offer a peek into the rarely seen restoration processes. The Wellcome Collection [provided](https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/656799297091014656?ref=hyperallergic.com) a fascinating clip of one of its mummies receiving a CT scan. According to its [blog](http://blog.wellcomecollection.org/2015/07/28/mummies-revealed/?ref=hyperallergic.com), this mummy, a male who arrived from Peru, is naturally preserved. ![(GIF via @ExploreWellcome/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-crop-4.gif) (GIF via @ExploreWellcome/Twitter) And here’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse of London’s National Portrait Gallery’s conservators [prepping](https://twitter.com/NPGLondon/status/656817314977837056?ref=hyperallergic.com) an original frame for a Van Dyck painting before it toured. The entire conservation process is also available [online](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGNZarDTR8&ref=hyperallergic.com). ![(GIF via @NPGLondon/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-crop-2.gif) (GIF via @NPGLondon/Twitter) This timelapse, [shared](https://twitter.com/BM%5FAG/status/656770188730351616?ref=hyperallergic.com) by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, documents the conservation of a shooter’s cheekpiece, a gun attachment that protects the wielder’s face: ![(GIF vi @BM_AG/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-crop-1.gif) (GIF vi @BM\_AG/Twitter) And, of course, GIFs allow for playful experimentation with artworks. Many museums chose to animate objects that would otherwise remain static, like the Freer and Sackler galleries, which [created](https://twitter.com/FreerSackler/status/656911599211405312?ref=hyperallergic.com) this beautiful graphic of Tawaraya Sōtatsu’s “Waves at Matsushima” ahead of the Freer’s [exhibition](http://www.asia.si.edu/sotatsu/making-waves.asp?ref=hyperallergic.com) of the Japanese painter’s works: ![(GIF via @FreerSackler/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-7.gif) (GIF via @FreerSackler/Twitter) Here’s Arcimboldo’s “Fire,” as [reimagined](https://twitter.com/HighMuseumofArt/status/656846190575820800?ref=hyperallergic.com) by the High Museum of Art: ![(GIF via @HighMuseumofArt/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-resize-1.gif) (GIF via @HighMuseumofArt/Twitter) And the Getty had this great [update](https://twitter.com/thegetty/status/656913068568346624?ref=hyperallergic.com) to a red-figure skyphos showing a woman who drank just a tad too much wine: ![(GIF via @thegetty/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/e-com-maker.gif) (GIF via @thegetty/Twitter) [*#MusGIF 2015*](https://twitter.com/hashtag/musgif?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues on Twitter through midnight on October 21.*