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.
Tag: museums
Walking as radical history on the East End Women’s Museum Trail
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.
Remembering 1968: Children of the New Age at Columbia University
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. […]
Radical Object: A Handmade Rifle Confiscated by British Soldiers during the Mau Mau Uprising
A handmade wooden gun confiscated by the British during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya made its way into Birmingham’s museum collection.
Radical Objects: Migration and Museums – A Response
‘The lifejacket is a symbol and a provocation’, Christopher Whitehead responds to Manchester Museum’s acquisition.
Radical Objects: A Refugee’s Life Jacket at Manchester Museum
How are museums responding to the refugee crisis in Europe? Bryan Sitch on Manchester Museum’s acquisition & display of a refugee’s life jacket from the Greek island of Lesvos.
The Heritage Justification: Public Monuments and Uses of History in Charlottesville and Oxford
As statues spark controversy, Laura Leonard critically examines how white supremacists in Charlottesville, as well as critics of the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign, have invoked heritage as a legitimising language.