Textiles Therapy: Aiding mental health, mourning, disability and injury
2024-05-02 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/London) | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Have you ever picked up a needle and thread? It could have been patching up a hole in your favourite t-shirt, popping a button back on your coat, or maybe trying your hand at something a bit more ambitious, such as an embroidery project or a quilt.
Alongside the more practical uses of sewing, textiles have been used for centuries as outlets for mental health, mourning, disability, and injury. Beau Brannick, the Museum of Cambridge’s Collections Officer, and curator of ‘The Stories Behind the Stitches’ exhibition, will discuss objects in the collection and exhibit which explore these themes. These range from embroideries stitched by injured and disabled out-of-action soldiers whilst residing at the First Eastern General Hospital to samplers stitched in memory of a lost loved one.
Due to the nature of our 16th-century old building, the Museum of Cambridge is not wheelchair accessible. However, the talk will be held in our hireable space, which has level access, and there is an accessible bathroom on site. We are working on enhancing our accessibility, and we recognise that this is a core development priority. This talk allows the Museum to discuss disability within the collection and share these objects and research in an accessible space.
About the Speaker:
Beau Branick is the Collection Officer at the Museum of Cambridge and Curator of their new exhibition, ‘The Stories Behind the Stitches’ (Exhibition: “The Stories Behind the Stitches” – The Museum of Cambridge), which explores people’s connections and stories within the Museum’s textile collection.
Beau is currently studying MA Queer History at Goldsmiths University of London, with an interest in the intersections of queerness and disability. They are a keen textile enthusiast and have participated in projects such as co-curating the Norfolk Trans Joy Community Quilt.

Supporting the Museum of Cambridge
The Museum of Cambridge is an independent Charity and is not part of either the Cambridge Council or the University of Cambridge. We kindly suggest a donation of £7, which includes the talk and entry to the Museum of Cambridge (usually £6 for Adults, £4.50 for Students/Jobseekers). Your donation supports the daily running and conservation care of the Museum, an independent charity.
NOTE: Eventbrite has changed its set up and now only allows one ‘donate as you feel’ ticket per purchase. Please kindly book tickets separately per email; the same email can be used.

Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email sumyin.wong@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

Talk: The Great Plague in Cambridge 1665-1666: A People’s History
2024-03-26 18:00 - 19:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Using 17th century records this talk starts with an account of the first plague victim identified in Cambridge in 1665. A chronological narrative follows tracing the course of the epidemic through the streets of Cambridge, introducing the victims, their families and friends, and looking at the effect of the plague on the social and economic life of the town. The whole is set within the context of life in 17th century Cambridge, and the epidemiology of the plague is discussed. Although there are many harrowing tales to be told about the victims, even at its darkest point the talk shows that there was hope, love and humanity.
About the Speaker:
Before Retirement Evelyn Lord was the course director for the University of Cambridge Masters degree in Local History. Her Ph.D. was awarded by the Department of English Local History, University of Leicester and she has worked at the universities of Manchester and Derby. She is the chair of the Cambridgeshire Association for Local History, and of the Cambridgeshire Records Society editorial committee. She is the convenor of the Landscape and Local History Research Group and is an emeritus fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email sumyin.wong@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

Does Mill Road matter? Local history and museums in the 21st century
2024-03-15 19:30 - 21:00 | Cambridgeshire
As part of the Cambridge Festival, Mill Road History Society and The Museum of Cambridge present a talk by Roger Lilley, looking at their history, relationship and opportunities for the future, as well as some of the interesting material in the Museum. Roger is Chair of Trustees at MoC and an editor for the museum social history website, Capturing Cambridge.

Roger Lilley looks at the relationship between a local history museum and a local history group and the opportunities presented for their interaction.
Roger will be talking about the Museum of Cambridge, its history, trials and tribulations and future development. He’ll be talking about the way it can interact with local history societies and in particular with the Mill Road History Society. He’ll look at their legacy to the Museum, Capturing Cambridge, and how the Museum has used that resource to widen its outreach and collect more resources.
He’ll also look at new material that the Museum has collected on people and events in the Mill Road area and talk about opportunities to enrich that collection of data further. In comparison, he will look at other roads, communities and villages in Cambridgeshire and how the Museum has and continues to play a role in fostering a knowledge of local history.
He will ask how communities such as those living in the Mill Road area would like to see the future of the Museum of Cambridge, and whose responsibility it is ultimately is to ensure that its collection and influence continues into the 21st century.
Roger is currently the chair of the Trustees of the Museum of Cambridge. He is a former Cambridge primary school teacher with a mixed background in classics, religious polyphony, catastrophe reinsurance and environmental campaigning. He’s lived in Cambridge for over thirty years and devoted himself to local history research for the last ten.
This talk is a joint venture between the Mill Road History Society and the Museum of Cambridge, as a part of the Cambridge Festival.

Doors open at 7pn, and the talk will start at 7:30pm. Entry is free and open to all. Booking is recommended via an email to bookings@millroadhistory.org.uk but everyone is welcome on the night subject to space.

Location:
Mill Road Community Centre
6 Hazell Street
Cambridge CB1 2GN
United Kingdom
More information is available at: https://millroadhistory.org.uk/event/does-mill-road-matter-local-history-and-museums-in-the-21st-century/

Talk: Polish folk tradition and the regional folk costumes of Poland
2024-02-15 18:45 - 20:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Poland is rich in its folklore tradition, with each region or town having its own distinct decoration, customs, costumes, songs and dances. The presentation will explore this rich tradition, focussing on the costumes, fabrics and embroidery that make them unique, exploring their origins and how they have evolved in the present day.
About the Speakers:
Lucyna Mazur is an art educator and lecturer. She was born in Cambridge to Polish parents and grew up in the city. She has danced with Polish folk groups for a number of years, and this sparked her interest and study of Polish folk art and tradition. Her Polish heritage has inspired her own creative practice and she now designs fabrics which are made into textile items.
Nick Mazur also has his family’s roots in Poland and danced with Polish groups in both London and Cambridge over the years. Both Nick and Lucyna studied Polish folk choreography and ethnography at the University of Lublin in south east Poland.

Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email sumyin.wong@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

Talk: The Railways of Cambridge: 1845 to the Present Day
2024-01-25 13:00 - 14:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
In this illustrated talk Tony Kirby will explore how the railways have influenced the townscape of Cambridge from 1845 to the present day, the history of Cambridge station itself and its surroundings, how trams and then buses have connected it to the town centre and show some of the immense variety of trains and locomotives (steam, diesel and electric) that have been seen here over the years.
Tony Kirby taught History at CCAT/Anglia Ruskin University from 1970 onwards, and was latterly the University’s Co-ordinator of Strategic Planning. Until 2023 he was Secretary of the Cambridgeshire Association for Local History and the County Advisory Group on Archives and Local Studies, and is Co-President of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.

Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email sumyin.wong@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

The Golden Years of Clara Rackham: Socialist, Suffragist, Social Reformer
2024-01-18 18:45 - 20:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
After her widely acclaimed talk in March, 2023 Emerita Professor Mary Joannou, Emerita Professor at ARU and author of the first biography of Clara Rackham, returns to discuss Clara’s ‘golden years’. Using rare archival photographs, Mary’s richly illustrated presentation traces Clara’s work in Cambridge during the ‘People’s War’ and after the Labour Landslide of 1945 including the new housing programmes in the city and the great international crises of Suez, Cuba and Hungary.
The talk combines Clara’s experiences of ageing, disability, bereavement and personal loss with the pleasure she derived from her extended family, her support of CND and the peace movement and the controversial national campaign for the retention of grammar schools. What emerges is not only a picture of a tireless city and county councillor who helped to change the face of modern Cambridge, but also of a very modest ‘private person’ and impassioned feminist public intellectual, still politically active at the age of ninety, whose work was instrumental to the establishment of the postwar settlement and the Welfare State.
Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

'Ruth is stranger than fiction' presented by Ruth McPhee
2023-10-27 18:30 - 21:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
A special live podcast event with Ruth McPhee and guests, taking a journey into the darker side of Cambridge’s history with stories from the old county gaol at Castle Mound. From the mid 17th to early 20th century, the prison housed some of the region’s most wretched and devious criminals, and provided the site for high profile and historic executions. Join us to hear about the fate of such infamous villains as serial killer Walter Horsford, violent preacher John Green, and scheming poisoners Mary Reeder and Elias Lucas.

Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

Talk: Pre-Conquest East Anglia as Inspiration for a Murder Mystery Novelist
2023-10-12 18:30 - 20:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join the Museum of Cambridge online for a fascinating evening with author Lindsay Jacob.
Author, Lindsay Jacob, talks about how the material wealth and spiritual anxieties of Anglo-Saxon East Anglia, and limitations of the systems of law and order, inspired him to start writing a series of pre-Conquest murder mysteries. The area was rich; but to criminals and other kingdoms, it was ripe for theft and conquest. To the covert ‘pagan’, it was a land of spirit-filled fens, meres and woodland; but to the senior echelons of the Church, these same places were home to demons and monsters. The scene was set for tensions within and between secular and spiritual worldviews to inspire murders. And as the Anglo-Saxon legal system struggled against secretive crimes, for these to be solved in imaginative ways by an inquisitive priest.

Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

Talk: Objects of the Mind: Using film to engage audiences with the Science Museum’s mental health collections.
2023-09-27 18:30 - 21:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join the Museum of Cambridge for a talk by Tim Snelson, media historian and Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia.
After the Second World War, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals intervened in and influenced cinema culture in unprecedented ways, changing how films were conceived, produced, censored, exhibited and received by audiences.
In an ongoing Research Council-funded project, Tim Snelson and colleagues at the University of Manchester have researched these interactions. A key, but unexpected, finding of this research has been the vital role played by objects – psychiatric instruments, laboratory equipment, diagnostic tools, psychological tests, perceptual apparatus – as the embodied materiality of the psychological ideas that the films circulated and contested.
In this latest project, Objects of the Mind, they have marshalled objects from across the Science Museum’s media and medical collections to explore the convergences between the psychiatric and cinematic and to communicate these findings to new audiences.
In this talk, Tim will preview three short films that he has made with the Science Museum, which will be screened on gallery at a Lates event for NHS’s 75th Anniversary in July in the Wellcome Galleries. These films contextualise objects within the Museum’s medical collections – the straitjacket, the electroencephalograph (EEG), the sand trays used in Margret Lowenfeld’s Word Technique. Tim will use these films to illustrate his research on the interactions of material cultures of media and mental health, but also consider the value of using films and other popular culture to recontextualise and recombine museum objects and, conversely, the potential of bringing an objects-perspective to film and media studies.

Tim Snelson
Tim Snelson is a media historian and is currently Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia. His research looking at the relationship between media and social history has been published in a number of books and journals, including exploring how changes in women’s roles and experiences in wartime shaped production of Hollywood genre films in a book titled Phantom Ladies: Hollywood Horror and the Home Front (Rutgers University Press, 2015). He recently led two Research Council-funded projects on the interactions of psychiatry and cinema, researched and delivered in collaboration with the British Science Association and Science Museum Group. Research from these projects, looking at the interplay of psychiatric and cinematic ideas, expertise and material cultures, will be published in a book titled Demons of the Mind: Psychiatry and Cinema in the Long 1960s by Edinburgh University Press in 2024.

Accessibility
You can also read about our accessibility information on our website. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Event attendees with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Photography
Please note that photographs will be taken throughout this event, and images may be used in future marketing and reporting materials. If you do not wish you or your family’s photograph to be taken, please make sure to let us know.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
Love events? Love them even more when they’re free? Join the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge today and you’ll get access to free events, discounts in our shop and year-round free entry for you and a guest.

The Bootlegging Waiter: A Story of Celebrity, Class, and Creativity in the 1930s with Dr. David Cowan
2023-01-25 18:30 - 20:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with the Cambridge historian Dr. David Cowan.
‘The Bootlegging Waiter: A Story of Celebrity, Class, and Creativity in the 1930s’
Arthur Henry Timmins, a waiter born in Southampton in 1907, burst into the pages of British newspapers in the late 1930s as the author of an autobiography and, soon after, a novel. A literary celebrity in the era before television, his works drew on his experiences serving customers in British hotels, cruise ship restaurants across the Atlantic, and illicit bars in Prohibition-era America. Dealing with still-resonant questions around tips and labour, Timmins’s writings drew attention to the exploitative conditions of service staff in the wake of the Great Depression. But it was a chance encounter in a restaurant with a customer that gave Timmins the confidence – and the opportunity – to break into London’s literary world.
About Dr. David Cowan
Dr. David Cowan teaches modern British history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He is a prize-winning historian of twentieth-century Britain. David’s recent article, ‘Nostalgia, Community, and Late Twentieth Century Television’ is available online and is free to access.
All of your donations towards this event will support the Museum. Thank you in advance for your kind generosity!
If you have any accessibility requirements for this event, please don’t hesitate to email us at enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. or call 01223 355159 and ask for Annie.
There will be photography at this event – if you’d like to opt out of photography, just add a note to your booking and let us know on the night.
Booking is via Eventbrite. Or, just give us a call on 01223 355159 and we can pop the booking through for you over the phone.
You can join us in person at the Museum, or sign up for a digital stream via Zoom (all you’ll need is a phone or laptop, the Zoom app, and an internet connection).
All tickets are available on a ‘Donate As You Feel’ basis – please give generously as every penny of the proceeds goes towards supporting the Museum and its collections.

Annual Appeal: 'A Fenland History Saver Shares All'
2022-11-29 18:30 - 20:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with renowned historian and researcher Mike Petty
‘A Fenland History Saver Shares All’
Cutbacks and Covid-19 have greatly impacted access to the resources available to local historians for researching Cambridgeshire’s heritage.
Mike Petty became interested in the history of his home village of Stretham more than 70 years ago.
While Librarian of the Cambridgeshire Collection he transformed a uncatalogued resource amassed since 1855 into a specialist library used by 1,000 people a month.
Since ‘retirement ‘ 25 years ago Mike has continued to share resources through posts to 10,000 followers of his Fenland History on Facebook group and providing access through Internet Archive to Cambridgeshire books, newspapers, illustrations, maps and audio files that have been consulted by 150,000 researchers across Cambridgeshire and around the world, including over 70,000 users during the period of Covid lockdown.
This evening he will reflect on Mike’s work over the years with plenty of time for audience questions!
About Mike Petty
In 1964 Mike Petty discovered tucked away in a back room of Cambridge Library a collection of books, newspapers, maps, illustrations and ephemera on Cambridgeshire. It had been carefully collected for 110 years – but nobody had had the chance to sort it.
Over the next 30 years Mike transformed it into the Cambridgeshire Collection, taking it into a separate suite in the new Central Library in Lion Yard. Over that time he became the most widely acknowledged authority on Cambridge and the fenland building up unique knowledge of resources which he continues to share through regular lectures to groups and societies.
His wide experience in assisting thousands of enquirers for over 50 years and unrivalled knowledge of published material – books, newspapers, illustrations, maps etc – combine to provide a unique service for those investigating any aspect of the area, past or present. More details are contained on his website – www.mikepetty.org.uk
All of your donations towards this event will support our latest Annual Appeal – more details can be found here, on our website. Thank you in advance for your kind generosity!
If you have any accessibility requirements for this event, please don’t hesitate to email us at enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. or call 01223 355159 and ask for Annie.
There will be photography at this event – if you’d like to opt out of photography, just add a note to your booking and let us know on the night.
Annual Appeal: Saving Our Stories
Behind every single object in our Museum are a whole host of fascinating stories; the story of the person who made it, the person who used it – or even the person who found it in a basement and gave it to the Museum.
Collections care and conservation is a complex and costly business, requiring specialist equipment, training, extensive staff and volunteer time, and substantial storage space – not to mention extremely high utility bills.
So today, we’re asking you for your help. Please help us keep our collections safe so that the unique stories each object tells can be handed down to future generations.
You can find out more about our appeal on our website: www.museumofcambridge.org.uk.

Annual Appeal: 'From Papua to Pampisford' -the origins of the 'Folk Museum' with Becky Proctor
2022-11-03 18:30 - 20:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for a talk from the wonderful Becky Proctor in support of our 2022 Annual Appeal. This is a special event just for Friends of the Museum of Cambridge. You can sign up to become a Friend here.
“From Papua to Pampisford” – the origins of the Folk Museum in 1930s Cambridge.
When renowned archaeologist Sir Cyril Fox officially opened the Cambridge & County Folk Museum in November 1936 he noted in his opening address, “I am inclined to think that in the University of Cambridge there is more exact knowledge of the social anthropology of, let us say, Papua, than of Pampisford.” Save for its archaeology, Pampisford, like other Cambridgeshire towns and villages, would have rarely featured in the collections or research interests of any one of the University museums at that time. This talk describes how a dynamic group of local people established the Folk Museum to preserve and display objects to reflect the lives and traditions of local people for future generations.
About Becky Proctor
Born and brought up in Cambridge, I spent more than 16 happy years at the Folk Museum as Assistant Curator, during which time we completed the huge redevelopment project, which opened to the public in 2005. I’ve worked at Royal Papworth Hospital as Heritage Officer since 2009, in combination with some varied roles delivering community and oral history projects. Museum work is always varied, from posing mannequins at Burwell Museum to training retired firefighters in cataloguing skills at Kent Fire Museum. In 2020 I had the pleasure to edit the book ‘Brush with the Past’ by Allan Brigham, and I continue to write and deliver history talks to local groups.
All of your donations towards this event will support our latest Annual Appeal – more details can be found here, on our website. Thank you in advance for your kind generosity!
If you have any accessibility requirements for this event, please don’t hesitate to email us at enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. or call 01223 355159 and ask for Annie.
There will be photography at this event – if you’d like to opt out of photography, just add a note to your booking and let us know on the night.
Booking is via Eventbrite.
Annual Appeal: Saving Our Stories
Behind every single object in our Museum are a whole host of fascinating stories; the story of the person who made it, the person who used it – or even the person who found it in a basement and gave it to the Museum.
Collections care and conservation is a complex and costly business, requiring specialist equipment, training, extensive staff and volunteer time, and substantial storage space – not to mention extremely high utility bills.
So today, we’re asking you for your help. Please help us keep our collections safe so that the unique stories each object tells can be handed down to future generations.
You can find out more about our appeal on the Support Us tab.

Toads, Lice, and Urine: Witchcraft and Folk Magic in East Anglia with Ruth McPhee
2022-10-28 19:00 - 20:30 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us as we talk with podcaster Ruth McPhee about Witchcraft and Folk Magic in East Anglia.
Ruth McPhee is the host of Ruth is Stranger than Fiction, a podcast all about the strange histories and unlikely characters of East Anglia. Past episodes have covered folkloric figures including will o’ the wisps, giants, and toadmen, gruesome events such as witch trials, bodysnatching, and tragic murders, and plenty of hauntings and ghostly goings on around Cambridge and other towns of the area.
An exploration of historical beliefs around witchcraft and magic in the fens and fields of Cambridgeshire and beyond, with Ruth McPhee from the Ruth is Stranger than Fiction podcast. From malevolent curses, spells and toadmen through to the counter-witchcraft and protective magic of bodily fluids, witch bottles and hag stones, join us for an evening of peculiar tales and magical intrigue.
Find out more about the podcast and how to subscribe at www.ruthisstranger.co.uk

Tickets on sale from October 1st.
Book Here!

Annual Appeal: 'Cambridge per diem' with Rosie Zanders
2022-10-05 18:30 - 20:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for a very special talk with Rosie Zanders, author of Cambridge per diem, to help us raise money for our Annual Appeal.
‘Cambridge per diem: A daily chronicle of Cambridge connections’
Rosie has long been fascinated by Cambridge time and the personalities who have travelled through it. Time is a recurrent theme of this illustrated talk; Rosie will share some personal reflections on the passing of time, whilst focusing on some notable Cambridge personalities. There will be a special mention, of course, of Cambridge connections on 5th October, the day of this talk.
Attendees will also have the chance to purchase a signed copy of Rosie’s book.
About Rosie Zanders
Rosie is a recently retired Cambridge Blue Badge tourist guide. A love of travel and meeting people led Rosie to a long career in the tourist industry, starting with coach tours across Europe to Austria and the south of France, before qualifying as a Blue Badge guide in London, specialising in conference programmes and in-house tours of Spencer House. More recently, as a co-owner and subsequent sole director, of Cambridge Tailor-Made Tours, she has focused on arranging and conducting personalised, tailor-made tours for small family groups and private clients. Her other passion, for reading and language, began with the study of medieval and modern French language and literature at UCL and culminated in the writing of several popular books on Cambridge. Her most recent publication is Cambridge per diem – a daily chronicle of Cambridge connections (Merak Publishing, Nov. 2021); it contains an eclectic mix of Cambridge-related anniversaries, at least one for every day of the year.
All of your donations towards this event will support our latest Annual Appeal – more details can be found on our website. Thank you in advance for your kind generosity!
Booking is via Eventbrite.
If you have any accessibility requirements for this event, please don’t hesitate to email us at enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. or call 01223 355159 and ask for Annie.
There will be photography at this event – if you’d like to opt out of photography, just add a note to your booking and let us know on the night.
Annual Appeal: Saving Our Stories
Behind every single object in our Museum are a whole host of fascinating stories; the story of the person who made it, the person who used it – or even the person who found it in a basement and gave it to the Museum.
Collections care and conservation is a complex and costly business, requiring specialist equipment, training, extensive staff and volunteer time, and substantial storage space – not to mention extremely high utility bills.
So today, we’re asking you for your help. Please help us keep our collections safe so that the unique stories each object tells can be handed down to future generations.
You can find out more about our appeal on the Support Us tab.

Annual Appeal: 'Josiah Chater and Victorian Cambridge' with Honor Ridout
2022-09-28 18:30 - 20:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
We’re delighted to invite you to join us for a very special talk with Honor Ridout to launch our latest Annual Appeal.
‘Josiah Chater and Victorian Cambridge’
Keeping a diary for nearly 40 years was an achievement that has provided us with a wonderful picture of the life of Victorian Cambridge. As Josiah Chater progressed from apprentice to businessman, he was also engaged in other Cambridge enterprises, while supporting his growing family. And how do we know about it? Because a heroine of Cambridge history, Enid Porter, curator of this museum for 28 years, delved through the many volumes of the diary to bring us a lively distillation, supplemented with her own meticulous research. This evening presents these two remarkable characters.
All of your donations towards this event will support our latest Annual Appeal – more details can be found here, on our website. Thank you in advance for your kind generosity!
Booking is via eventbrite.
If you have any accessibility requirements for this event, please don’t hesitate to email us at enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. or call 01223 355159 and ask for Annie.
There will be photography at this event – if you’d like to opt out of photography, just add a note to your booking and let us know on the night.
Annual Appeal: Saving Our Stories
Behind every single object in our Museum are a whole host of fascinating stories; the story of the person who made it, the person who used it – or even the person who found it in a basement and gave it to the Museum.
Collections care and conservation is a complex and costly business, requiring specialist equipment, training, extensive staff and volunteer time, and substantial storage space – not to mention extremely high utility bills.
So today, we’re asking you for your help. Please help us keep our collections safe so that the unique stories each object tells can be handed down to future generations.
You can find out more about our appeal by heading to the Support Us tab on the website.

Cambridge Talks: The Society for Psychical Research with Ruth McPhee
2022-05-23 19:00 - 20:30 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us as we talk with podcaster Ruth McPhee about the Society for Psychical Research.
Ruth McPhee is the host of Ruth is Stranger than Fiction, a podcast all about the strange histories and unlikely characters of East Anglia. Past episodes have covered folkloric figures including will o’ the wisps, giants, and toadmen, gruesome events such as witch trials, bodysnatching, and tragic murders, and plenty of hauntings and ghostly goings on around Cambridge and other towns of the area.
For this unique live event, join Ruth and special guests for an irreverent foray into the history of the Society for Psychical Research, founded by Trinity College fellows including Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers, and Edmund Gurney. The intention of the society was to investigate paranormal activity from a position of scientific objectivity and academic rigour. Let’s see how that worked out for them! There’ll be themed drinks and plenty of spooky ambience to get you into the paranormal spirit.
Find out more about the podcast and how to subscribe at www.ruthisstranger.co.uk

Tickets on sale from March 1st.
Book Here!

Cambridge Talks with Grahame Davies
2022-02-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
“Setting to work in one of the most over-interpreted cities on earth, Grahame Davies pitches for the margins, subtle undercurrents and overwritten terrains of Cambridge. This light-touch genial pyschogeographer seeks the company of a series of Virgilian guides to its habits and haunts, and the consequences are revelatory. For such reasons this warm and personal book stands a league apart from the scores of gushing screeds on the branded city and its ossified centre.” – Michael Hrebeniak
Cambridge: the right brain of Oxbridge, the composite capital city of Clever. For eight centuries, this quiet English seat of learning has been one half of history’s longest-running academic arms race. When it comes to stockpiling Nobel Prizes, only that Ivy League newcomer, Harvard, has more.
This is the mater of all alma maters, with the kind of A-list alumni – Newton, Cromwell, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Darwin and Hawking – so famous they don’t even need first names. This is the city where Wittgenstein split hairs and where Rutherford split the atom; where Watson and Crick discovered the DNA that shapes the human body, and where generations of students push those bodies to their limits.
But behind the picture-postcard image of punts, Pimms and polymaths, is another Cambridge: the working East Anglian fenland community that gave us Pink Floyd, Association Football, the Society for Psychical Research, the Cambridge Folk Festival, the Reality Checkpoint – and the graffiti protestor who sprayed his messages in Latin…
Poet and psychogeographer Grahame Davies explores both Cambridges: the world city and the workplace, the glamorous and the gritty; the famous and the forgotten. He discovers there’s always more to discover about this extraordinary city – no matter how clever you are.

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Fruit Farming in the Cam Valley: Jonathan Spain speaks with The Museum of Cambridge
2021-12-16 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
About the talk
Jonathan Spain will be speaking with the Museum about his book Fruit Farming in the Cam Valley [2021]. He will be looking at the history of the fruit industry in the Cam Valley, set in the wider regional and national contexts. He’ll exploring the origins and commercial development of the fruits grown locally, in particular the Cambridge Gage, for which the Cam Valley was famous, but also other plums, apples, pears, cherries and soft fruits. He’ll also take a look at the historical sources used in the book and consider the economic factors which brought about the rise and, ultimately, the fall of the industry.
About Jonathan:
After graduating from York University with First Class honours, Jonathan has worked in a wide range of history and archival jobs, including the Historical Manuscripts Commission (now part of the National Archives) and the MSS dept. of Cambridge University Library. He has also worked as a professional historical researcher on various projects and was a major contributor to the Oxford New DNB. He has published numerous articles on historical subjects and recently self-published Fruit Farming in the Cam Valley, an Horticultural, Social and Economic History set in the Wider Regional and National Context. The book includes maps and illustrations.
To order a copy of the book visit Jonathan’s blogsite where he also shares local history articles.
About the event:
This talk is part of the Museum’s ‘Cambridge Talks’ series. All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the Museum of Cambridge.
How to book:
Tickets are by donation. To book onto this event please visit our Eventbrite page and follow the prompts.

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The Eighty-Fifth Annual General Meetings of the Museum of Cambridge
2021-11-25 19:15 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Museum of Cambridge will be holding our Eighty-Fifth Annual General Meeting via zoom. The evening will consist of members voting on the Annual Accounts and election and re-election of Trustees. In addition, there will be a discussion on the forward planning of the museum. Observers are welcome to attend, please register via the Zoom link.

Title: The Eighty-Fifth Annual General Meetings of the Museum of Cambridge
Date: Thursday 25th November
Time: 7:15pm
Where: Zoom https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlde6gqz4qGtfu67MjAQsmS6BoPx8GWCtg

Note: You must register to attend this event

PERIPHERY: Ian Rawlinson speaks with The Museum of Cambridge
2021-11-24 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Event details:
As an artist Ian Rawlinson’s work has taken him around the UK, the world and back to his hometown of Cambridge. His recent artwork and filmmaking have seen him re-engage with his past, shedding new light on transitional places that remained hidden in his psyche for many years. He will talk about the process of making this work and why unearthing places and memories from his childhood have formed a powerful confluence with his present day experiences of working in Cambridge, drawing him back to the city he left as a teenager.
About Ian:
Born in Cambridge, Ian Rawlinson grew up in the city during the 1960s and 1970s. He studied art at Cambridge College of Art & Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) and left Cambridge in 1982 to further his studies at Winchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Since 1985 he has lived and worked in London. He has also travelled and worked in Europe, the USA and Mexico. To date his work has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions, both in the UK and internationally and is held in public and private collections.
In 2011 a revelatory moment caused Rawlinson to reconsider his relationship with the past and he decided to make a short film using images of his childhood home in Arbury and King’s Hedges to explore ideas of place and memory. Whilst researching this project he came across some evocative images of the old Kite (pre-Grafton Centre) and decided to make a film and series of work about the loss of this area. This work formed the exhibition ‘Vessel’, shown at Williams Art in Cambridge in 2014. ‘Trace‘, a second exhibition and film about his past connections with North Barnwell took place at the Leper Chapel in 2015. There followed a series of solo exhibitions at the newly opened Edge Café on Mill Road. ‘No Man’s Land‘, inspired by memories of Mill Road took place in 2017. ‘Frontier‘ included his work about Arbury and King’s Hedges along with his third film, in 2018. Further exhibitions ‘Liminal‘ and ‘Absence‘ took place in 2019 and 2020 respectively. His most recent exhibition, ‘Marginal‘, took place in September 2021 and featured Rawlinson’s work along with text by writer Grahame Davies.
Ian’s work:
Visit Ian’s website for more about his work.
About the event:
This talk is part of the Museum’s ‘Cambridge Talks’ series. All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the Museum of Cambridge.
How to book:
Tickets are by donation. To book onto this event please visit our Eventbrite page and follow the prompts.

BOOK NOW

ReStorying OUR Museum: Exploring the Museum of Cambridge's Colonial Legacy
2021-10-20 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
ReStorying OUR Museum was a pilot project that the Museum of Cambridge ran earlier this year to explore the colonial legacy of its collection. The museum worked closely with volunteers and other members of the local community to examine the Tobacconist Sign: a conflictive object that was not appropriately interpreted to tell the full story behind it.
In this talk Florencia Nannetti, Community and Visitor Engagement Officer at the museum, and Kirsten Huffer, one of the volunteers who is a recent MPhil in Heritage Studies graduate from the Cambridge University Department of Archaeology, will share their experience of carrying out a project like this, what the challenges and the results were, and what it means in a local and global context. This will be followed by a brief Q&A session for attendees to ask their queries.
This talk is suitable for anyone who wants to learn more about community work in their local museum, and colonial legacies of the everyday.
Book your tickets here

Football and Camp Ball in Cambridge and East Anglia Since the 14th Century
2021-09-22 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Join us for the next in our series of ‘Cambridge Talks’ as we talk all things football with Nigel Fenner
Whilst most famous for being the birthplace of the modern-day laws of football in the middle of the 19th Century, Cambridge and East Anglia also boast a long and illustrious association with the game, including the folk-version, called Camp Ball across East Anglia – going back to at least the 14th Century. This Zoom presentation follows an imaginary tour though Cambridge starting at St John’s College and finishing on Parker’s Piece, with reference also to the 200+ Camp Ball sites across East Anglia.
Nigel Fenner won his Football Blue for Cambridge University, where he trained as a teacher. Related to Frank Fenner, the local tobacconist who founded Fenner’s Ground, Nigel’s other ‘Town links’ include living and working locally since 1981, mostly with disaffected young people. He now runs Cambridge Sports Tours and will be publishing ‘Cambridge Sport: In Fenners’ Hands’ by the end of 2021.
All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the Museum of Cambridge.
How to attend this talk:
This talk will be held on Zoom. There is no need to download any software- you can access the talk via your usual internet browser from the comfort of your own home. Cup of tea/glass of wine is optional!
Once you have purchased your ticket on Eventbrite, you are officially signed up to the event and you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Eventbrite.
On the day of the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the talk.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

The Museum Makers with Rachel Morris
2021-09-10 18:30 - 19:45 | Zoom
In ‘How to Make a Museum Out of your Own Life’, Rachel Morris will be talking about their book The Museum Makers:
“My book, The Museum Makers, began when I opened up the boxes of old family mementos under my bed and saw inside them the entire history of my bohemian family. Despite all the years I had been running a museum-making company (called Metaphor) this was the first time that I realised that just as museums are about making meaningful sense out of the confusion of the world, so – in what we do with our pasts and how we try to make sense of them – we are all museum-makers. My book is part history of museums, part memoir of a wayward and bohemian family, part manual of how to make a museum out of your own life. Threaded through it are the themes that fascinate me most, of time and memory and the stories families tell themselves and others. It includes a chapter on the Museum of Cambridge and the story-finding skills of Enid Porter.”
Don’t miss out on this exclusive event!
You can purchase The Museum Makers online here or here.
About Rachel:
Rachel was one of the founding directors of Metaphor, a company specialising in museum master – planning and exhibition design. As part of the Metaphor team, they worked all over the world, from Chile to the Hebrides, and from Singapore to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Rachel specialised in museum interpretation – how to bring objects alive by the stories we tell about them. Prior to this they had two novels published – The Fringe Orphan and Ella and the Mothers – both of which were very well reviewed. Rachel has always loved writing. The only thing that could have enticed them away from it for twenty years was their equal love for museums. And one of the things Rachel will say in this talk is that storytelling and museum-making have many things in common.
Follow Rachel on Twitter
Please note that this is an exclusive event for the Friends of the Museum of Cambridge. Become a Friend today to gain access to this unmissable talk.
Already a Friend? Book your tickets here

A Great Unrecorded History: Cambridge’s Queer Past
2021-09-01 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Join us for the next in our series of ‘Cambridge Talks’.
The writer E.M. Forster once referred to the history of homosexuality in his time as ‘a great unrecorded history’. This was especially true of Forster’s adopted home of Cambridge, whose vibrant queer past has often gone unrecorded.
Diarmuid Hester’s popular queer audio trail of the city aims to set the record straight (as it were). In this talk, he discusses his work on the audio trail, and reveals how LGBTQ+ people have shaped the history of the city and been shaped by it in turn.
Dr Diarmuid Hester is a radical cultural historian, and an authority on sexually dissident literature, art, film, and performance. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3, and last year was named a BBC New Generation Thinker. Diarmuid’s new book on sexuality, culture, and place will be published by Allen Lane/Penguin in 2023. He teaches at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, and is a research associate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the Museum of Cambridge.
How to attend this talk:
This talk will be held on Zoom. There is no need to download any software- you can access the talk via your usual internet browser from the comfort of your own home. Cup of tea/glass of mulled wine is optional!
Once you have purchased your ticket on Eventbrite, you are officially signed up to the event and you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Eventbrite.
On the day of the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the talk.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

Cambridge Talks: Cambridge 1888-1990, A Chronicle of an English University City
2021-07-28 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Join us for Cambridge Talks, a series of events raising funds for the Museum of Cambridge.
Join us as eminent local historian, Mike Petty takes us on a tour of his chronicle of Cambridge, 1888-1990, as reported in local newspapers.
To compile this chronicle, Mike read more than 100 years of Cambridge newspapers and noted ‘significant’ articles. These are summarised under 100 headings including museums, shops, pubs, military conflict, customs, street changes, theatre, music and religion.
As well as summaries of stories the Chronicle has links to photographs of the thousands of the actual articles as published in the newspapers.
It is a source from which people interested in any aspect of the city’s history can find information not accessible elsewhere . In this talk, Mike will explore the story behind the creation of this chronicle, and some notable highlights from his research.
You can find the full chronicle here.
Mike Petty, MBE is an eminent local historian of the city of Cambridge and the surrounding area. Founder of the Cambridgeshire Collection, Mike has became the most widely acknowledged authority on Cambridge and the fenland, building up a unique knowledge of resources which he continues to share through regular lectures to groups and societies.
His wide experience in assisting thousands of enquirers for over 50 years and unrivalled knowledge of published material – books, newspapers, illustrations, maps etc – combine to provide a unique service for those investigating any aspect of the area, past or present. More details are contained on his website.
You can learn more about Cambridge’s history from the comfort of your home by visiting Cambridgeshire History on your Computer: the Library on your Laptop and The Cambridgeshire Scrapbook which summarises thousands of articles on Cambridge’s history. If you’re a Facebook user, you can also join the Fenland History on Facebook group.
All proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the Museum of Cambridge.

How to attend this talk
This talk will be held on Zoom. There is no need to download any software- you can access the talk via your usual internet browser from the comfort of your own home.
Once you have purchased your ticket on Eventbrite you are officially signed up to the event and you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Eventbrite. See the Eventbrite link below.
On the day of the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the talk. Do make sure you check your Junk Mail and Deleted Items, as this email can get lost.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, or any access requirements that you would like to discuss, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge or enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

Cambridge Talks: Historic Cambridgeshire Fires
2021-05-05 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Join us for Cambridge Talks, a series of events raising funds for the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou.
Throughout history, domestic fire has always been greatly feared, particularly by those living in the thatched cottages of the villages surrounding Cambridge.
In this latest in our Cambridge Talks , Roger Lilley will take us on an exploration of contemporary accounts of major fires in Cambridgeshire villages including Cottenham, Melbourn and Swavesey, as well as Cambridge itself.
Roger is a Trustee of the Museum of Cambridge, as well as coordinator of the Capturing Cambridge website. Currently a governor of Homerton Children’s Centre and treasurer of St John the Evangelist Hills Road, he was previously a teacher at Milton Road Primary School, a national campaigner for Friends of the Earth and an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London.
All proceeds from this event will go towards the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou, which aims to help us overcome the huge financial blow dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic.
We want to say a huge thank you to all our supporters who have helped us over the last few weeks and months. So, we have made this event ‘donate what you like’ – you can choose how much to donate in exchange for your ticket.
Please support us to survive the next few months by buying a ticket to this event.
How to attend this talk:
This talk will be held on Zoom. There is no need to download any software- you can access the talk via your usual internet browser from the comfort of your own home. Cup of tea/glass of mulled wine is optional!
Once you have purchased your ticket on Eventbrite you are officially signed up to the event and you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Eventbrite. See the Eventbrite link below.
1 day prior to the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the talk. Do make sure you check your Junk Mail and Deleted Items, as this email can get lost.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge or enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Do not telephone the Museum, as staff are currently working from home.

Cambridge Talks: Weathering Identity
2021-04-28 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Join us for Cambridge Talks, a series of events raising funds for the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou.
What does it mean to live in weather?
What memories do you have of weather in Cambridgeshire and the Fens?
How does weather relate to a sense of place and identity?
These questions are particularly relevant at a time when both weather and local identity are being reconfigured in England, the former through climate change and the latter through the changing role of the England in the wake of Brexit and Scottish nationalism.
These questions are explored through the project ‘Weathering Identity: weather and memory in England’, a collaboration between King’s College London and the Museum of Cambridge.
This project seeks to explore how people build their lives around the weather; how we remember the weather, and how weather relates to our sense of place and belonging, with a particular focus on the east of England.
The project is approaching the question through the medium of oral history; seeking to understand how weather weaves into the stories we tell ourselves about past and present experience, and what it means to live in England and within a changing climate.
This talk will explore the project’s preliminary findings, current academic thinking on weather and ‘weathering’ and representations of Fenland weather in poetry, prose and academic writings.
We will also discuss how you yourself can contribute to this project, and what we are doing with the stories we collect.
George Adamson in a Senior Lecturer in Geography at King’s College London. His work understands how weather and climate, and their associated risks, are ‘made’ through the interaction of personal experience, scientific knowledge, culture and institutions. His previous work has explored the construction of landslide and drought risk in India and it’s relationship to colonial and postcolonial politics, the representation of global climate modes such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation in science and media, and more recently the relationship between weather, memory and place in England. This work is underpinned by scientific research on long-term climate variability, often using qualitative sources to generate indices of climatic variabilities over the past three centuries.
Weathering Identity: Weather and Memory in England’ is a King’s College London project to look at the relationship between weather, memory and sense of place and identity in the east of England. We are interested in what does, and what does not, get remembered about English weather, and the meaning that people attach to those memories. Memories are being collected through oral histories and through the website weathermemories.org, and will be used to inform an artistic response by project artist Inés Cámara Leret. Weathering Identity is supported by the King’s Together fund and is a collaboration between the Department of Geography, Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries, and the Department of Neuroscience at King’s College London.
All proceeds from this event will go towards the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou, which aims to help us overcome the huge financial blow dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic.
We want to say a huge thank you to all our supporters who have helped us over the last few weeks and months. So, we have made this event ‘donate what you like’ – you can choose how much to donate in exchange for your ticket.
Please support us to survive the next few months by buying a ticket to this event, and/or donating directly to our fundraising appeal: bit.ly/MOCDonate
How to attend this talk:
This talk will be held on Zoom. There is no need to download any software- you can access the talk via your usual internet browser from the comfort of your own home. Cup of tea/glass of mulled wine is optional!
Once you have purchased your ticket on Eventbrite you are officially signed up to the event and you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Eventbrite. See the Eventbrite link below.
1 day prior to the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the talk. Do make sure you check your Junk Mail and Deleted Items, as this email can get lost.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge or enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Do not telephone the Museum, as staff are currently working from home.

Cambridge Kids! Riddle of the White Sphinx
2021-04-08 19:30 - 20:15 | Zoom
Hidden Tales author Mark Wells reads a bedtime story from the Riddle of the White Sphinx.

Have you ever wanted to go on a real-life treasure hunt?
Here’s your chance.

Join Hidden Tales author Mark Wells on an otherworldly adventure around the Museum of Cambridge as he reads from the Cambridge treasure hunt book, ‘The Riddle of the White Sphinx’.
But be warned, you may never visit a museum the same way again!
Learn more about the Riddle of the White Sphinx here.

Booking details:
This event is family friendly, aimed at families with children aged 8 and above (although children of all ages are welcome to join in).
You should book 1 ticket per device you are going to use (i.e. if there are three children, but all of them will watch at the same single device, you need to book 1 ticket only).
Children attending this event must be supervised by an adult at all times.
To attend, you just need to sign up via Eventbrite, have a broadband connection and Zoom installed on your computer. Installing Zoom is free, and you can access it via a phone, laptop, or tablet. You can download Zoom here: https://zoom.us/.
The day before the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the session.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, or have any access needs you’d like to discuss, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

You can donate any amount you like to attend this event.
All proceeds from this event will go towards the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou, which aims to help us overcome the huge financial blow dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic.
You can secure a ticket to this event by making a donation to our urgent appeal – you can choose how much to donate in exchange for your ticket. Please support us to survive the next few months by buying a ticket to this event, or donating directly to our fundraising appeal: bit.ly/MOCDonate

National Lottery Ticket Holders- Read on!
We will also be making 10 free tickets available to National Lottery ticket holders, to say thank you to them for supporting our Museum through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Simply email a photograph of a lottery ticket bought in the last year to annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk to claim your free ticket. One event ticket per lottery ticket, distributed on a first-come-first-served basis.

'How To' Guide to House Histories
2021-03-28 17:00 - 18:15 | Zoom
Join us to learn how to research your house history with public historian Helen Weinstein, followed by Q&A hosted by Lucy Walker, Chair of Trustees, Museum of Cambridge.
Please join us for this talk as part of the Cambridge Festival where Helen Weinstein, Community Historian at IronWorks, will showcase sources from Sturton Town in Cambridge telling stories of working class residents from the Victorian Era onwards.
In this illustrated talk Helen will be introducing a wide range of examples from the Sturton Town Area just off Mill Road in Cambridge, linking the stories of Resident Occupations in Victorian times to material objects in the Museum of Cambridge.
Helen will show participants how to find out about properties and the environment of Victorian Cambridge using well known sources like the 1891 census and the trade directories, sharing examples of the range of stories in newspaper and photography archives at the Cambridgeshire Collection. Helen also has considerable experience of maps and manuscript sources, and will show histories revealed when you dig deeper into the Cambridgeshire Archives with fascinating stories about the allotments, commons and parks, public health and sanitation, pub and brewery licensing, workhouse and charitable committees to illuminate the hidden histories of individual Victorian streets and their residents.
Q&A The talk will be hosted by Lucy Walker, Chair of Trustees at the Museum of Cambridge; and Helen & Lucy invite you to ask questions in response to the talk, as well as to share photos, objects or paperwork you’ve found associated with your own house history!
This event partners the Museum of Cambridge where Helen Weinstein has co-curated an Exhibition called “Forge” alongside local residents in Sturton Town and Artist in Resident at IronWorks, Hilary Cox Condron; which we invite Cambridge Residents to view online at our exhibition website here.
You can learn more about Cambridge Festival here.
Donations
The Museum of Cambridge is in need of your help. This event is free to attend, but we’d be so grateful if you can offer a donation of any size to support us to secure our future. Once you have secured your ticket via Eventbrite, you can donate to the museum here.

Cambridge Talks: Robert Sayle - Buildings and People
2021-03-17 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Join us for Cambridge Talks, a series of events raising funds for the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou.

Do you remember the Robert Sayle department store on St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge?
Or perhaps while out shopping at the Grand Arcade, you’ve wondered about the history of this imposing row of properties?
Before the archaeological excavations for Grand Arcade Cambridge could begin, a detailed record was made of the more than 120 structures standing on the site including the Cambridge institution of the Robert Sayle Department store.
This talk considers the results of this research, and looks at the stories of the people involved.
Alison Dickens has worked in Cambridgeshire archaeology for over 30 years. She recently left the University Unit to set up a small company specialising in buildings archaeology.

All proceeds from this event will go towards the Museum of Cambridge’s fundraising appeal #YourMuseumNeedsYou, which aims to help us overcome the huge financial blow dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic.
We want to say a huge thank you to all our supporters who have helped us over the last few weeks and months. So, we have made this event ‘donate what you like’ – you can choose how much to donate in exchange for your ticket.
Please support us to survive the next few months by buying a ticket to this event, and/or donating directly to our fundraising appeal: bit.ly/MOCDonate

We will also be making 10 free tickets available to National Lottery ticket holders, to say thank you to them for supporting our Museum through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Simply email a photograph of a lottery ticket bought in the last year to annie.davis@museumofcambridge.org.uk to claim your free ticket. One event ticket per lottery ticket, distributed on a first-come-first-served basis.

How to attend this talk:
This talk will be held on Zoom. There is no need to download any software- you can access the talk via your usual internet browser from the comfort of your own home. Cup of tea/glass of mulled wine is optional!
Once you have purchased your ticket on Eventbrite you are officially signed up to the event and you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Eventbrite. See the Eventbrite link below.
1 day prior to the event, we will send you a ‘Zoom Invite’ with joining instructions which explains how to attend the talk. Do make sure you check your Junk Mail and Deleted Items, as this email can get lost.
If you have any concerns or questions about attending this event, please email Annie on annie.davis@museumofcambridge or enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Do not telephone the Museum, as staff are currently working from home.
