Outreach

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A guest post by Isobel Evans, work experience student from Marriotts School, Stevenage

Isobel studies a museum accesion register, where we record items donated to the museum from 1914 to present day

Coming to north herts museum for my year twelve work experience was really enjoyable and gave me a lot of insight as to how a museum functions and how they prepare for exhibitions. The staff were really friendly which made my week here really fun. My work experience took place during the half term and the beginning of a new exhibition which meant I got to see a lot of people’s enthusiasm of the museum and what it displayed. Learning more about the history of the areas in which I grew up in and around was really insightful as it allowed me to learn about things that I more than likely wouldn’t of found out about anywhere else. Another thing that was interesting, were the accession books. Throughout the week, I spent a bit of time going through a few of them and helping log them onto a website they use to track what they have and also onto a spreadsheet. Seeing this was really insightful as I got to see what kind of things are donated to the museum and sometimes they were items I hadn’t heard of before and so it led to me researching them to gain a further understanding.

Thanks for all of your work during your week Isobel, all the best from us here at North Herts Museum.

Mia with some youth group archive

 

 

Guest Post by Mia Hoskins

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at North Herts Museum. In addition to gaining experience working as front of house, I got to see everything behind the scenes. I gained access to some amazing spaces such as the Archive, the Art Store and the Costume Store. The collections were extensive and fascinating. I received an in depth tour of the galleries and had several interesting discussions with the curators about how each display was carefully curated. I learned a lot about Digitisation and Data Entry, as well as being given the task of sorting through a collection of minutes describing youth groups/youth culture in the 60s and 70s. I also had the pleasure of organising and numbering a collection of stones painted by a local school during lockdown. A lot of the stones consisted of topical and inspirational messages advocating for BLM, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality and celebrating the NHS. It was lovely to see children using their creativity to make a positive change during the pandemic. I was also able to work with a group of children in a hand print workshop which tied into the wonderful ‘Tiger Who Came To Tea’ exhibition. Working with the public has been very enjoyable. I would like to thank the whole team at North Herts Museum for being so welcoming and helpful and for giving me some exceptional careers advice. It’s thoroughly prepared me for my MA in Museum and Gallery Studies. 

Good luck on the MA from all at North Herts!

Many of you may already have seen the new murals in the underpass of Hitchin Station and wondered about the different images shown and how the project came about. In early 2021 during the second national lockdown we were contacted by Groundwork East. They were looking to create a mural in the underpass of Hitchin Station as was part of Govia Thameslink Railway’s station improvement programme. After having a discussion with Groundwork, we agreed on the idea of creating large graphic panels to take advantage of our museum’s fantastic photographic collection.

The collection of photographs runs into many thousands and covers all kinds of subjects. Notably, we hold a lot of early examples: our earliest, which is included in the station display, dates from 1854. When Groundwork got in touch, we were coming to the end of our successful Frozen in Time exhibition. This was an exhibition of historic photographs of the district that had already involved a lot of sifting through different photographs and looking for inspiring exhibition material. This was a prime moment for another project using them.

Though Frozen in Time gave us a solid start for photo research, I had still only seen a small part of our overall collections. Though I knew we held photographs of the whole district, I thought it better to keep the Hitchin Station mural Hitchin focused. As I looked over some of our other photographs, star images began to emerge. Becca Huggins from Groundwork and I settled upon the idea of separating the images into themes. The final mural has 11 themes containing around 200 photographs. The themes are purposely varied to give a taste of local history. These include things like: Agriculture, “Captured Moments”, Football, Shops and War. Lovely photographs of the railway station and its staff (a must-have for such a project!) turned into a larger theme of transport as we also had so many amazing photos of local transport history.

A horse drawn carriage and early motor car in Market Place about 1902

Our earliest photograph, showing Market Place in 1854

 

Samuel Lucas Sr’s Market Place painting, 1841

 

A favourite theme of mine was the section showing momentous local moments. This section includes the oldest photo from our collection which I mentioned earlier. This features the building on the left, The Shambles, and the Corn Exchange (now Pitcher and Piano) on the right: a recognisable sight alongside a Hitchin of the past! The Shambles features on Samuel Lucas Snr’s Market Place painting. The photo is made even more interesting by the painting, which is on display in the museum. It also features on the mural as one of the few images that is not a photo! In the Lucas painting, you see different buildings on the right. These were demolished to make way for the Corn Exchange, with the owners of the Corn Exchange later demolishing the Shambles. The painting and the photo are just thirteen years apart! 

Another striking photo showing a captured moment is one which shows the supporters of the MP Dr Hillier, gathered to cheer his 1910 election victory at the Hitchin Conservative Club which is bedecked in “Vote for Hillier” banners.  

 

Gathered supporters of Dr Hillier

One notable part of our holdings, the football collection, features in its own theme panel. Hitchin was home to what is believed to be the world’s first museum of football. Founded in 1956, its almost 1,000 objects were donated to our museum in the 1970s.

 

Vic Wayling (left) the founder of the football museum, shows his collection to guests and FA Secretary Sir Stanley Rous (holding the ball)

 

One fascinating panel to gather together was Faces. We hold so many photographs of people. Some we know a lot about, others are complete unknowns to us. Our panel combines the image of, for example, Hitchin Suffragette Elizabeth Impey along with the picture of a sweet unidentified young child in a sun hat. We even managed to find some smiling Victorians!

Elizabeth Impey

Unidentified child

The next time you travel by train do build in a few minutes to take a look at the History of Hitchin through our brilliant images!

Assistant Curator Matthew Platt discusses with Herts County Councillor Phil Bibby and GTR Area Manager Karen Gregson some of his favourite images and how the display came together

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