Museum of the Home - a brief glimpse

 Today's journey started with a lecture, then a tube ride, then two museums, a long walk with a stop for lunch, and a final museum, all during a heat wave in the UK. This final museum was optional, but I wanted to at least get a taste for the collection. The Museum of the Home seeks to collect and display items related to home life throughout ages, locations, cultures, and events. The collections provide insight to the daily living situations and amenities of people throughout history, primarily in England. 

By the time I arrived at this museum, there was not much time before closing, and I was already tired and hot. Even so, I tried to at least make it to most of the available rooms and take pictures of items and collections I wanted to look at longer. The vast campus hosts several smaller, themed collections, such as In The Garden, images of elderly persons with their city gardens, or a room on comfortable seating over the ages. Rooms Through Time offer a look into the typical middle class English living room throughout various historic time periods. I will say I was briefly taken aback by looking into a model room that appeared similar to those I had seen in US history museums, only to realize this room predated the establishment of my country by a century. 

If I had the time and energy, I would return to view some of these rooms with more leisure. I was able to gather some information that might be useful to my eventual research paper, but ultimately I did not spend enough time in the collections for it to have made an impact on me. I do though appreciate the work that has gone into it and the sociological perspective in the curation, aimed at discovering and parsing the human experience through the objects we acquire and utilize. 

Furniture catalogs offering glimpses of standards of living at various time periods. Museum of the Home, UK.

"Right On, Jane" A feminist response to early readers in the 1970's. Museum of the Home, UK.

A recipe book for cleaning supplies. So much can be gleaned from this, including available resources, prices, practices, conventions, etc. Museum of the Home, UK.

"What Has Happened to Gus?" One of the Rhymes Through Time at Museum of the Home.

"Exploring the role of children in the home through poetry and interactive design, created by children's poet Valerie Bloom MBE and illustrator-as-historian Kremena Dimitrova"

The Reading Room at the Museum of Home.