In the late eighteenth century Wedgwood’s medallion rallied people to the radical cause of abolition. Can it still inspire radical change today? Georgia Haseldine discusses the medallion’s historic radical power and re-making the medallion into an empowering object for the 21st century.
To what extent has colonial money helped build Britain’s heritage sector? Isabel Gilbert on the importance of publicly and transparently acknowledging the problematic roots of British country houses and their collections.
In our series on ‘Radical History after Brexit’, Matt Stallard of the Legacies of British Slavery project reflects on the ongoing politicisation of heritage.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery holds hand-painted banners from the first political union in Britain founded in the 1820s, a plaque made from plaster scraped from the walls of Wormwood Scrubs by a First World War conscientious objector and over 100 badges collected by a local supporter of the miners’ strikes to name a few items, and this exhibition is presenting this hidden collection to the public in many cases for the first time.
What does the heritage trail format offer to the communication of radical histories? Charlotte Tomlinson introduces the East End Women’s Museum’s (EEWM) Brilliant Women of Whitechapel, Bow and Barking Heritage Trail, which explores stories of ‘ordinary yet extraordinary’ women who have lived in East London.
By Nancy Biberman We were an optimistic and righteous generation, many of us conceived and raised by men and women who had survived World War II. My dad was an Army combat vet who fought in the South Pacific and trained GIs on the use of top-secret proximity fuse weaponry. […]
A handmade wooden gun confiscated by the British during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya made its way into Birmingham’s museum collection.
