The Great University of Reading Museums and Special Collections #12off

Posted on January 7, 2015 by merl

The Great University of Reading Museums and Special Collections #12off: It doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, does it, but the idea for a MERL #12daysofChristmas series of tweets emerged in one of our weekly social media meetings before Christmas, and our colleagues at the Ure Museum and the Special Collections jumped at the chance to challenge us to a #12off!

Although it started as a bit of light relief in the run up to the holidays (the University is closed over Christmas and the New Year, so our 12 days were actually our 12 last working days) there’s nothing like pitting collections against each other to stir staff into digging deep and coming up with some amazing images and fascinating objects. In fact, the exercise turned out to be a great excuse to browse the online catalogues, image banks, Flickr photostreams and Pinterest boards looking for interesting pictures and selecting them based on the happy chance of their numerical suitability rather than any other thematic consideration! (But I probably shouldn’t admit to the great joy of matching the number with an appropriate theme, as in the case of our Day 9…!

9 turkeys chilling P_FW_PH2_T27_14

The result was three fantastically random but fascinating collections of images, ranging from the Special Collections’ ‘4 winged monkeys’ to the Ure Museum’s ‘7 lyre strings’ strumming’…

These sets of images have ended up showcasing the incredible diversity of the collections and activities in (just three of) the University’s Museums and Collections; maybe next year we’ll have to persuade colleagues in the Cole Museum, Herbarium, Typography and Art collections to join in! In the meantime, check out the #12off collections from MERL on Pinterest, on the Special Collections blog round-up, and on the Ure Museum’s twitter feed or on our joint Tumblr and let us know which would be your ‘star collection’!

MERL in Marseilles: reflections on the International Congress of Agricultural Museums

Posted on December 11, 2014 by merl

MuCEM

Ollie Douglas, Assistant Curator at MERL, reflects on the common challenges faced by museums similar to MERL around the world, after attending the International Congress of Agricultural Museums.

At the beginning of November, Isabel Hughes, MERL Curator, and I travelled to Marseilles to present MERL’s latest ideas to an international audience. Our presentations formed part of CIMA 17—the 17^th International Congress of Agricultural Museums—organised by the International Association of Agricultural Museums, of which MERL was a founding member. Indeed, back in 1976 our predecessors hosted CIMA 4 and the Museum’s founding father, John Higgs, spoke about ‘the role of agricultural museums in the advanced and developing countries.’

This year’s Congress was held at MuCEM, the Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerrainée. This extraordinary institution incorporates the collections of the former Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires (founded in Paris in 1937) into a modern endeavour to curate the shared culture of southern Europe. The displays are as ambitious as the architecture, beginning with the longue durée of agricultural origins and the earliest Middle Eastern farmers, exploring the complex religious history of the Mediterranean, and examining the diversity of present-day Europe through contemporary art (including a temporary exhibition focussed on Food).

A very gallic exhibit in the ‘Food’ exhibition

The packed conference programme included too many papers to mention but two speakers in particular caught our attention, their work resonating with things that we are also thinking about. Surajit Sarkar of Ambedkar University spoke of how the mechanisation of Indian farming is driving proposals for a National Museum of Agriculture in New Delhi. Indeed, Surajit and his colleagues face similar challenges to those addressed decades ago in many European museum projects. They are salvaging traditional approaches to farming before they disappear, just as MERL sought to do in the 1950s. Several generations from now our Indian partners will face the challenge that we and many others now face, of a visitor base detached from the countryside and of technologies beyond living memory. These same challenges formed the basis of Isabel’s contribution. She introduced our redevelopment plans and how we plan to deliver a MERL focussed on the strength of collections to inspire and engage audiences unfamiliar with rural life, whilst also catering to those who know the countryside well.

Isabel presenting at the conference

Elsewhere, Barbara Sosic spoke of recent activity at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, of how they seek to cater for audiences both online and in the Museum’s galleries, and of how their content resonates with people from rural communities. Their dynamic, user-centred approach chimes with the direction that we at MERL are taking, as we become more open to programmes of co-creation and co-curation and increasingly aware that museums cannot work in isolation. My own presentation used recent projects at MERL to explore the changing role of the curator and how inclusive and open-minded approaches might reap dividends in terms of reconnecting museums of agriculture with rural stakeholders, as well as researchers and members of our more immediate and local communities.

These words from John Higgs reveal just how little has changed since 1976 and how the same challenges of contemporary relevance and meaningful engagement that drive our work today also drove our international peers in the past:

‘The changes in institutions and patterns of rural life, the crops that grow and were grown, the climate and ecology and the changes in living conditions when imaginatively interpreted all have a part to play in providing a wider opportunity for learning. Agricultural museums have hardly begun to face the challenge … of a ‘learning society’.’ (Higgs, 1976)

Marseilles - Land Rover Defender parked in the port

A surprising rural icon on the Marseille waterfront, reminiscent of our own Landrover!

Back at home once again, we hope that Our Country Lives will help us to address these challenges and many more besides. The executive board of the International Association of Agricultural Museums (of which Isabel and I are now members) are set to hold a meeting in Reading in 2015, offering a perfect opportunity to showcase our work during development, and we look forward to revealing its successful outcomes at future Congress gatherings.

Discovering the Landscape #9: 1000 books catalogued!

Posted on December 2, 2014 by merl

Written by Claire Wooldridge, Project Senior Library Assistant: Landscape Institute

LI books on the shelf: 1000 books catalogued

We are delighted to be able to say 1000 books from the Landscape Institute library have now been integrated into our MERL library collection. Each book has been cleaned, processed, catalogued and labelled. The books are available in our open access library. A small number of rare books received from the Landscape Institute have also been catalogued into our closed access MERL LIBRARY RESERVE collection.

These titles complement our existing holdings, particularly our MERL library books on topics such as gardening, land policy and the environment, this new material also prompts us to consider our MERL collections afresh. The landscape is the backdrop to all aspects of rural life, but must also be seen as a worthy subject of consideration in its own right.

We’re very grateful to our library volunteers who have been a great help with the processing and labeling of this collection. There are still many hundreds of books to go! Please contact us on merl@reading.ac.uk if you would like more information.

Weekly What’s on: Sat 25 to Fri 31 Oct

Posted on October 25, 2014 by merl

Archives and texts seminar series:
Travels in a publisher’s archive: John Murray and nineteenth-century travel publishing
Dr Innes M. Keighren (Geography, Royal Holloway)
Monday 27 October
5-6pm
Conference room, Museum of English Rural Life*

For details of this seminar, read the latest post on the ‘Archives and Texts’ blog

Our Country Lives display

Saturday 25th to Friday 31st October (Closed Monday 27th)
Normal opening times
Don’t miss the last chance to visit MERL before we close for redevelopment! See a display of plans and pictures of our new galleries, tell us what you’d like to see in the new Museum and garden, and try our image key words activity.

Half term family fun!
Saturday 25th to Friday 31st October (Closed Monday 27th)
Normal opening times

Pumpkin hunt!

Follow a free pumpkin hunt and receive a chocolate prize!

‘Chocolate box’ make and take

Make and decorate a chocolate box in our free make and take activity.

The Our Country Lives Big Draw

Thursday 30th October
10.00am-11.00am, 11.30am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-2.30pm and 3.00pm-4.00pm

Location*: The Print Studio and room G10, Art Building L04 on the London Road Campus.
*Park and meet at MERL reception and we will walk to The Print Studio together.
£3 per child
Booking required
Suitable for children aged 7+.

Work with University of Reading art students to help make beautiful artwork to decorate hoardings which will be used whilst MERL is closed redevelopment work to take place. During this session, attendees will design large format art inspired by the MERL’s collections using mixed media and the Print studio’s fantastic printing presses.

Rural reads plus

Thursday 30th October
5.30-7pm, free, drop-in
This month we’ll be discussing The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch, the first book inspired by the University’s Special Collections. Read more about why Rural Reads is expanding it’s remit on the website

Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures
Until October 31st
Temporary exhibition space
Free, drop in, normal museum opening times
Since 2008 the Museum of English Rural Life has been adding even more objects to its collection, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme, in order to represent each decade of the last century. (Find out more in Curator, Isabel Hughes’ blog post) This exhibition gives a taste of what has been acquired. The exhibition will help the Museum to explore how to incorporate more recent histories and representations of the English countryside into its displays as part of the Our Country Lives project.

Chocolate box images & perceptions of the countryside

Posted on September 29, 2014 by merl

Alison Hilton, Marketing Officer, shows how, with a little bit of research, it is possible to link chocolate and English Rural Life, and invites you to come and talk about your perceptions of the countryside at our first Our Country Lives Information Day on Sat 4th October.

Staff and volunteers spent last weekend on the University of Reading’s chocolate-themed (award-winning!) stand at the Berkshire Show. MERL has been a part of the stand for several years, adding a historical element and a family activity to dairy, bread and fruit themes. After last year’s show, when the other departments involved suggested that the 2014 stand could be on the theme of chocolate, we were worried that we would find it hard to find a link with our collections – not much cocoa is grown in rural England after all! Fortunately, Assistant Curator Ollie Douglas was quick to remind us of the concept of the ‘chocolate box’ image of the countryside.

I’d heard of this term, but had never asked myself why quaint pictures of cute cottages and pretty rural scenes have come to be labelled ‘chocolate box’ images. Preparing our display for the show, colleagues explained all; it appears to be down to Cadburys:

Bournville is a ‘model village’ developed in the late-nineteenth century by the Cadbury family to house the workforce of their chocolate factory. At that time Bournville was on the rural outskirts of Birmingham, though it has now been subsumed by suburban expansion. The Cadbury family believed they had a paternalistic responsibility to provide a healthy and moral rural community for their workers. Families moved from inner-city slums to a planned village with large semi-detached houses, schools, a boating lake and a picturesque cricket pitch next to the factory. This scene was made famous on Cadbury Milk Tray chocolate boxes throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.

The term ‘chocolate box art’ is now often used to refer to such quaint countryside scenes, and the use of this imagery in the arts, entertainment and popular culture is often idealistic and sentimental. Our ideas about the countryside are often influenced by these representations.

Although we don’t actually have one of these chocolate boxes in our collections, we’ve recently deliberately acquired objects, as part of the HLF-funded Collecting 20C Rural Cultures project, which portray this kind of image of the countryside, such as a collection of ‘rural nostalgia’ plates, by Wedgwood…

The most popular image with visitors on our Berkshire Show stand was this one from a Wedgwood plate

This Cottage Ware tea set from the 1940s, made by Keele Street Pottery of Stoke-on-Trent, captures the quintessential image of the quaint thatched English country cottage. (MERL 2009/52 – 2009/54)

1940s Cottage Ware teaset (MERL 2009/52 – 2009/54)

This 120 piece wooden jigsaw puzzle entitled ‘A Cotswold Alley’ was made by Chad Valley, in the 1920s. The jigsaw depicts a classic ‘chocolate box’ cottage scene. (MERL 2008/99/1 – 2008/99/2)

1920s Chad Valley jigsaw (MERL 2008/99/1 – 2008/99/2)

We copied, traced and reproduced these images for children to colour in on the stand at the show and used them as a starting point for talking about how our perceptions of the countryside are influenced.

The working title of one of the new galleries is ‘Rural views and perceptions’. It will tell the stories of the home in the countryside (as a place for both living and working) and the changing nature of crafts. We really want to explore the idea that the popular image of the countryside is part-myth and part-reality, and to consider the contrast between the idea/ideal and reality of living in the countryside, and think about how these ideas have come about.

Our ideas about the countryside are often influenced by how rural people and places are represented in the arts and popular culture. Sometimes we are given a nostalgic sense of a golden rural past, idealising the countryside way of life.

In contrast, the countryside can also be represented as a remote and frightening wilderness, removed from the rest of society. Film makers have often portrayed the countryside as a harsh and brutal place, with the quietness seeming sinister rather than peaceful.

For people from more urban backgrounds, the countryside is sometimes seen as a place to retreat at weekends and for holidays, yet for rural dwellers, living and working in the countryside can mean a life of hard labour and sometimes even poverty.

Root harvest in the fens 54_11_11_20

At the Information Day on Saturday 4^th October, we’ll be asking visitors to look at contrasting images of life in the countryside from our photographic archives and talk about how they affect their perception of the countryside.

Information Day, Saturday 4th October, 2-4pm
Come and see the current displays for one last time, learn more about the project, see the first artist impressions of some of the proposed new galleries, and find out how you can get involved…

Hear a short presentation outlining plans for the new galleries, facilities and activities
See artists impressions and initial plans for the new galleries
See some of the hidden treasures from the stores which will feature in the new displays
Have a go at object handling – an example of the kind of activity which will be available in the new museum
Take part in an ‘image keywording’ activity with staff to discuss contrasting images of the countryside & help inform one of the new galleries focussing on percetpions of the countryside
Make a chocolate box decorated with nostalgic rural images and see the objects which inspired them
Find out about the new Family Forum & Youth Forum and sign up to take part in consultations to have your say in the future of MERL
Enjoy delicious tea & cake!

A Take on Teen Twitter Takeover Day

Posted on September 26, 2014 by merl

Teen Twitter Takeover Day – Wednesday 27^th August, written by Chloe

On Wednesday 27^th August I took part, on behalf of MERL, in ‘Teen Twitter Takeover Day’. Organised by Kids in Museums, this was a day designed to promote their national Takeover Day in November, by having teenagers take over the Twitter accounts of museums and related organisations.

To introduce myself, my name is Chloe, and I first came to the museum in summer 2012 after having completed my GCSEs. I knew it was going to be a long summer break, and wanted to do something worthwhile with at least some of it! My favourite subject was (and still is!) history, so I thought it would be a good idea to see a real world application of this. Since I knew I liked museums, what better way to do so than to find out a bit more about how they are run and the different jobs involved? I had a lovely few days at MERL, and admittedly was slightly surprised by how interesting I found the subject of rural life, something I’d never thought about in great depth before. I thought the museum was brilliant, with really interesting exhibits, and great fun events.

After that, I was very grateful to be asked to come back and help at events like Apple Day and the Village Fete, and since then have been returning in school holidays for such events, as well as craft workshops – equally fun for me and the children I attempt to help with their various activities, I think! In October I’m off to start university, but hope to keep returning to the museum when I can. I always have a great time when I visit, especially because everyone I meet is unfailingly welcoming, kind and helpful. So, when asked if I would like to take over the MERL Twitter account for the day, I jumped at the chance!

The day itself began with me successfully navigating various technological barriers with the help of Tom, the marketing intern, in order to log into the MERL Twitter account. Once there, I set about introducing myself, trying to summarise all the information above (1390 characters) in a couple of 140 character tweets!

After a coffee break, I followed the example of other Teen Tweeters and showed the world of twitter my face, in the form of my favourite part of the museum…

I wasn’t lying, I really have always loved dressing up, so finding my favourite part of the museum was embarrassingly easy!

All jokes aside, during the day I also tweeted about the Youth Forum that MERL are launching on Takeover Day in November. Having read up on various sources of information about this before the Twitter Takeover, I knew it was important to spread awareness about it, and twitter is undoubtedly a great way to spread information amongst young people, as well I know. For most of my peers, twitter is the way we keep up to date constantly throughout the day – not only with each other, but also with world news and events. It has infiltrated media outside of its own zone even, with ‘hashtag’ becoming part of spoken language for many. As such, this was clearly a great opportunity for the museum to attract attention to the Youth Forum. Keeping within the 140 character limit proved difficult, but I managed to keep my descriptions concise and direct anyone interested to sources of further information, rather than overload their timelines with a long string of tweets about it!

On the subject of youth groups, I took the chance to ask other teen tweeters about their experiences and what they advised for a youth group, with some interesting responses.

By late afternoon I felt I had tweeted about everything I needed to, and enjoyed some great interactions with other participants. I had a lovely day and was really impressed by how connected and engaged museums are with social media and its power. As a follower of MERL on twitter (of course!) I know they are well versed in the importance of social media for reaching wider audiences, and hopefully this can be used in the future to further encourage young people to visit the museum and get involved in the Youth Forum. Thanks MERL for a great opportunity, I thoroughly enjoyed spending my day on twitter, as many a teenager would!

Project update: What happens next?

Posted on September 18, 2014 by merl

Having heard the news of our project funding earlier this summer, you may be wondering what happens next? So in this post Alison Hilton, marketing officer, answers some ‘frequently asked questions’

Has work on the project started yet?

We are still going through the processes required before work on the Our Country Lives project can start. There are contractors to engage, project staff to employ and plenty of red tape to cross! You will, however, notice some small changes taking place in the Museum already, as our Conservator prepares for the process of moving the entire collection out! The Museum is still open and there’s plenty to see, but if you’re planning a visit to see a specific object, it would be a good idea to check in advance that the item is still on display. There is also the ongoing conservation work on the Festival of Britain wall-hangings taking place in the ‘farming cycle’, which means we are currently unable to offer the brass rubbing activity.

The collections team are already well into the in depth research phase, combing the object records and archives for details relevant to each of the new themed galleries. They will be blogging regularly about their fascinating finds here and on the research blog.

When will the Museum close?

We are hoping to have everything in place in the next few weeks, and are expecting to close by the end of October – we will let you know as soon as we have a confirmed date. We expect to reopen at the end of 2015 / beginning of 2016.

Will the reading room be closed?

The only part of the building to be affected by the closure will be the Museum itself. Access to the reading room and Special Collections Services, shop and rooms for hire will be unaffected.

Are you running events this term?

We are holding a public Information Day on Saturday October 4th at which we will be able to share more details about our plans, including the latest artist impressions of the new galleries.

To give us time to concentrate on Our Country Lives, we will not be running our regular Autumn events such as Apple Day, the Traditional Craft Fair and the Annual Lecture. These popular events will be back when we open!

Our monthly Rural Reads book club will continue to meet on the last Thursday of every month but will move into the Staircase Hall and expand it’s remit to include the University’s Special Collections.

Toddler Time will run as usual on Friday mornings throughout September and will then from October 3rd will take place next door in the Learning Hub on the first Friday of each month.

There will be one family workshop, The Our Country Lives Big Draw, during half term.

You can find details of the Our Country Lives events programme here.

How can I get involved?

Once the project is up and running there will be lots of new volunteering opportunities and community projects to take part in. Our Volunteer Coordinator will keep you updated via the Volunteers’ Voice posts. In the meantime, we are launching a Family Forum and a Youth Forum this Autumn. If you’d like to find out more, call Rob Davies on 0118 378 8660 or email merlevents@reading.ac.uk

Weekly what’s on: Sept 15th to 21st

Posted on September 16, 2014 by merl

You can find details of all our forthcoming events at on our What’s On pages, but here’s what’s happening at MERL this week…

Guided tours
Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 3-3.45pm
Free, booking advisable but not essential
Let our fully trained tour guides tell you the stories behind the objects on display and visit the object store to see MERL’s hidden treasures.

Toddler Time
Friday 19th, 10am, £2 per child, drop-in
Join us for songs and rhymes followed by a craft activity inspired by the Museum’s collections and garden.

MERL at the Berkshire Show
20th & 21st September. Click here for ticket details.
Come and find MERL staff and volunteers on the University of Reading’s chocolate-themed stand at the Royal Berkshire Show this weekend. As part of the Our Country Lives project, we’ll be exploring perceptions of the countryside using chocolate box images as a starting point. Families will be able to make and decorate a chocolate with us and then join University colleagues to make something to put it in!

Conservation project
There is currently a unique opportunity to see one of our 1951 Festival of Britain wall hangings. Conservation work is currently underway in the Museum gallery to prepare them for display as part of MERL’s redevelopment project. Don’t miss this rare opportunity during your visit to see detailed conservation work taking place and to catch a glimpse of these incredible pieces which have not been seen in over 60 years. Read more about the project in our conservation blogs

Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures
Until Autumn 2014
Temporary exhibition space
Free, drop in, normal museum opening times
Since 2008 the Museum of English Rural Life has been adding even more objects to its collection, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme, in order to represent each decade of the last century. (Find out more in Curator, Isabel Hughes’ recent post) This exhibition gives a taste of what has been acquired and challenges visitors to suggest the modern-day objects that the Museum needs to collect for the future. The exhibition will help the Museum to explore how to incorporate more recent histories and representations of the English countryside into its displays as part of the new Our Country Lives project.

Weekly what’s on: Sept 8th to 14th

Posted on September 8, 2014 by merl

You can find details of all our forthcoming events at on our What’s On pages, but here’s what’s happening at MERL this week…

Events

Heritage Open Day tours
Thurs 11th, Fri 12th 11am & Sunday 14th, 3pm (house only)
Free, booking required
Join us for a free behind the scenes tour of our Victorian home and see some treasures in the archive and rare book stores.

Family Heritage Open Day tour
Saturday 13th, 3pm, free, booking required
For the first time we are inviting families to see what’s behind the scenes at MERL! Find out what’s in those parts of the Museum you’re not usually allowed to visit!

Toddler Time
Friday, 10am, £2 per child, drop-in
Join us for songs and rhymes followed by a craft activity inspired by the Museum’s collections and garden.

A Day in the Life of a MERL-man…

Posted on August 13, 2014 by merl

Written by Tom Hewitt, MERL Intern.

My name is Tom Hewitt and I’m currently working as an intern at MERL. The title of my post may be somewhat misleading, as I’ve actually been here for 40 days (and 40 nights!) already and have just been set the scary task of writing my first ever blog post.

Tom celebrating #YorkshireDay

FAQ

1) What are you doing? (Why are you even here?)

Of course one of the first questions people ask, and it’s a hard question to ask without sounding rude! My week is split 3 ways, with 2 key aims: to develop MERL’s online presence and to help with researching for the new galleries. Two days a week I work on social media and marketing, tweeting, planning, and evaluating our social media impact, and 1 day a week I help plan and create video blogs and an accompanying schedule! For the remaining 2 weekdays, I research for the galleries as well as scanning interesting photos and indexing journals. I’ve also spent quite a bit of time handling objects and perusing the stores! Aside from that, there are plenty of meetings and of course mandatory coffee and cake time – or as it would be called in Sweden, Fika.

2) What are you going to do next?

Here at MERL, I’ll be carrying on with similar tasks, as well as helping to organise some fun events in the Museum, quite possibly involving model railways and remote controlled cars! Beyond that – who knows! It seems to be the most common question for all students or graduates, and must be one of the most avoided questions of all time (so that is precisely what I’m going to do here…)!

Tom has also been enjoying the MERL tradition of regular cake days..

3) How are you finding your Internship?

I’m really enjoying working at MERL, particularly because the staff are so friendly and lovely to work with. It’s very interesting working with people with different interests and personalities, and different outlooks on various aspects of the Museum. The research side of things is fascinating too (as a History graduate, it would be somewhat out of character were I to say otherwise!), and the social media work is comfortingly familiar, but actually offers just as much if not more of a challenge than the research.

4) Is it what you expected?

To be completely honest, I was a mixture of nervous, excited and apprehensive when I started. Would I be any good at my job? Would it be exciting – was there actually anything in the Museum’s collection I might be interested in, and could I put up with this marketing business? Well, I actually think that the answer to the latter two questions was no – until I started working here that is. Since then I’ve found tons of items in the collections that interest me, and the challenge provided by the social media marketing is actually quite stimulating and interesting, not at all as boring as I worried it might be!

So I suppose my closing message has to be a cheesy one – don’t write something off before trying it out, you never know how exciting something might be until you try it out.

Our Country Lives – the new MERL blog

Sharing insights into the activities of MERL staff, volunteers and visitors during a period of change and transformation…

Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Great University of Reading Museums and Special Collections #12off

MERL in Marseilles: reflections on the International Congress of Agricultural Museums

Discovering the Landscape #9: 1000 books catalogued!