When searching through the York Castle Museum’s collection of beautiful Christmas objects, Assistant Curator of History Rachael Bowers came across the more unusual aspects of Christmas past… We are fortunate at York Castle Museum to have a large collection of beautiful Christmas decorations and cards. Many of these are now decorating the period rooms …
Dr M Faye Prior, Assistant Curator of Costume and Textiles at York Castle Museum, has been busy auditing the museum’s collection of men’s and children’s shoes. In this blog post, she shares a few of her discoveries: shoes that were used as protection against evil spirits. When renovating old houses, workers often …
As part of World Menstrual Hygiene Day (28 May), discover the fascinating history of a rare item in our costume collection at York Castle Museum. Collections Facilitator, Dr M Faye Prior, tells us more in this blog entry. Until quite recently it wasn’t considered acceptable to discuss menstruation in public, and in many places it …
Gaenor Rudall, a volunteer at the Yorkshire Museum, has been working to catalogue a collection of mostly Roman coins that the museum acquired in the 1990s. Find out what Gaenor’s discovered in this blog update. The coins originally belonged to an archaeologist called Leslie Peter Wenham, who taught at St John’s College in …
York Castle Museum opened on 23 April 1938 thanks to the passion of a local doctor from Pickering called John Lamplugh Kirk. Dr Kirk collected everyday objects which he thought would become obsolete or unwanted in the future. We’re revealing some of these finds as part of our 80th birthday celebrations. Click on the images below …
York Castle Museum was created thanks to the vision of a Pickering doctor called John Lamplugh Kirk. Dr Kirk wanted to create a museum that would transport people back in time featuring objects from local communities that reflected everyday life in the past. As part of our 80th anniversary, we’re sharing some of the …
Dr John Lamplugh Kirk was a doctor from Pickering and an avid collector of ‘bygones’. His collection was opened as York Castle Museum 80 years ago on 23 April 1938. Over 32 million people have since visited. Dr Kirk wanted the focus of his museum to be on the objects shown in their original context, and the museum became …
York Castle Museum celebrates its 80th anniversary this month, having opened to the public on 23 April 1938. The museum is perhaps most famous for Kirkgate, a recreated Victorian street which transports visitors back in time. Find out more about the man behind the museum and its creation in this blog entry. Dr John Lamplugh Kirk was …
Nearly 300 years ago this month, a seamstress called Elizabeth Grant was one of 40 prisoners taken from York Prison to Liverpool, where they would sent to Antigua as indentured servants. Discover more about her life and fate in this blog entry by our volunteer, Steve Pickard. On 17 December 1745, the Jacobite Army under Charles Edward Stuart (the …
Katie Brown (Assistant Curator of History) and Helen Thornton (Documentation Assistant) from York Castle Museum’s Curatorial Team have written a blog entry on some of our hidden histories. Read on to discover some of the experiences of people in minority or historically disempowered and discriminated-against groups. Their stories have often gone unrecorded or unrecognised …
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