The Museum of Cambridge

Activity: Bonfire Night Memory Café
2018-11-09 13:00 - 15:00 (Europe/London) | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot
Guy Fawkes Night… Bonfire Night… Fireworks Night… Do you remember your first Fifth of November?
It’s been more than 400 years since the Gunpowder Plot, but it’s still remembered each year with a host of bonfires and firework displays.
Join us in the Enid Porter Room from 1:00pm on Friday 9 November and share your stories in our special Bonfire Night Memory Café.

Play Reading: Man and Woman - The Question of the Day
2018-11-08 19:30 - 21:30 | The Old Lab Building, Newnham College, Newnham College, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 9DF, United Kingdom
A play in two acts by Mrs James Ward
Join us in the Newnham Old Labs Building on Thursday 8 November for a reading of this influential play, first performed in 1909.
A cast of prominent local thespians will rediscover the suffrage themes of Mary Ward’s work Man and Woman – The Question of the Day. The evening will be introduced by Dr Ann Kennedy Smith.
We are delighted that Newnham College will host this performance, as the author Mary Ward was both a student and later a lecturer at the College.
Tickets are available from Eventbrite at £5.00 each and £3.00 each for student concessions.

November Walking Tour: Hidden Cambridge and the Museum of Cambridge
2018-11-04 10:30 - 12:00 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Journey through the streets of Hidden Cambridge to the Museum of Cambridge
A walking tour for local residents who have always meant to explore the side streets and alleyways but never quite had the time, as well as for visitors to our city who want to discover more of Cambridge beyond King’s Parade.
The November Hidden Cambridge Tour is now full. Bookings for 2 December 2018 are now open.

Through the Door of St Peter’sPortugal PlaceWalking “Hidden Cambridge”The Round Church

Activity: Scene at the Museum
2018-11-02 - 2018-11-03 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
A new drama event for two nights in November only
The premiere of a suite of short plays, inspired by items in our collection.
Join us for six theatrical vignettes, written by local authors and fully staged in the environs of the Museum of Cambridge. Some may be comedies, others may be drama. Some may be historical, others may be contemporary.
Each play will draw upon an object to be found in our displays and the direction in which they take the author’s imagination may surprise you!
Join us from 7:30pm on either Friday 2 November or Saturday 3 November at the Museum for what promises to be a unique new view on things familiar.
Tickets £9.00 per person; £7.00 concessions are available, which includes Friends of the Museum of Cambridge.
Seats are limited to only 40 each night; so don’t delay, book today at writeonsatm.brownpapertickets.com
For more information on WRiTEON, visit www.writeon.org.uk
Milliner’s Tools and HatPoison BottleFeeding Cupjohn bull

Activity: Intergenerational Activity Day
2018-10-23 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Calling all grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles!
Bring all the younger members of your family along to a day of family fun at our Museum on Tuesday 23 October.
Join us in the Enid Porter Room for crafts, snacks and lots of family fun. Meet new people, create beautiful leaf prints, make kites and share your memories with your family and with us.
We’ll be running two sessions, one mid-morning from 10:00am to 12:30pm, the other in the afternoon from 1:00pm to 3:30pm. Both are free, but you’ll need to book for a session so we can manage numbers for the venue.
To book: call 01223 355159 or email enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk

Activity: Oral History Training
2018-10-22 12:00 - 17:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Help us to build our oral history archive
Our recent training session was so successful that we’re offering another opportunity to learn how to conduct oral history interviews, and it’s FREE!
– Always wanted to know more about the amazing things that your neighbours have done?
– Ever wondered about the life of that fascinating old person who lives down the road?
– Are you interested in learning more about your local area and how it has changed over the years?
Memories and reminiscences are valuable pieces of social history. Come along and find out how to conduct an oral history interview as well as learning constructive listening skills and the way to record stories – plus we’ll provide drinks and snacks!
Interested? Email Danny at danny.pedler@museumofcambridge.org.uk for further details.

Activity: Memory Cafe - Traditions Around Death
2018-10-12 13:00 - 15:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
This special Memory Café session will be an opportunity to talk about beliefs around death and related traditions and is held in collaboration with Dying for Life.

Walking Tour: Newnham Ladies
2018-10-11 10:30 - 12:00 | Arbury Community Centre, Campkin Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB4 2LD, United Kingdom
A walking tour around the streets and colleges of the Cambridge suburb of Newnham
Newnham Ladies have shaped the city of Cambridge and rights we take for granted today.
Join us on the streets of Cambridge to learn about Adela Adam, Maud Darwin, Caroline Jebb, Kathleen Lyttelton, Eleanor Sidgwick, Eliza von Hugel and Mary Ward, who contributed so much to the education of women and the success of the suffrage campaign.
Starting on the opposite side of the road to the main entrance of Darwin College on Silver Street at 10:30am on Thursday 11 October, the tour will be approximately 90 minutes in length.
Tickets are available at £7.50 per person, from Eventbrite.

You may also be interested in:

At Last! Votes for Women – our exhibition of items from the final fraught years of the fight for voting equality
Cambridge Banners and Suffrage – a talk that explores the design and manufacture of suffrage banners
Man and Woman – The Question of the Day – a reading of Mary Ward’s influential suffrage play from 1909

Talk: Cambridge Banners and Suffrage
2018-10-10 19:30 - 21:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Exploring the design and composition of suffrage banners
Banners were an essential part of equality protests and the choice of design and material were critical to their success
Friend and Trustee of the Museum of Cambridge Carolyn Ferguson examines suffrage banners and tells the stories of their designers and makers. An illustrated talk that will be of great interest to anyone who wants to find out more about suffrage banners and textiles.
Join us in the Enid Porter Room on Wednesday 10 October to learn more about the manufacture of the banners used during the long struggle for voting equality.
Tickets are available at £7.50 each, from Eventbrite.
Ticket fee includes admission to the Museum, after the talk, to view our current exhibition At Last! Votes for Women

You may also be interested in:

At Last! Votes for Women – our exhibition of items from the final fraught years of the fight for voting equality
Newnham Ladies Walking Tour – a street tour of Cambridge locations associated with the suffrage movement 10:30am-12:00pm, Thursday 11 October
Man and Woman – The Question of the Day – a reading of Mary Ward’s influential suffrage play from 1909

Talk: Cambridge Suffragists 1884-1913, Mary Ward and the Ladies Dining Society
2018-10-04 19:30 - 21:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Mary Ward, from a Newnham College newsletter, January 1934
Few people realise how important a group of University of Cambridge wives were to voting equality and education
Active between 1890 and 1914, the Ladies Dining Society was a discussion club formed by twelve Cambridge women, some of whom were connected with Newnham College.
Members of the Society included Ellen Darwin, Ida Darwin, Maud Darwin, Caroline Jebb, Mary Paley Marshall, Fanny Prothero, Eleanor Sidgwick, Margaret Verrall, Eliza Von Hügel and Mary Ward as well as founders Louise Creighton and Kathleen Lyttelton.
Join Dr Ann Kennedy Smith in the Enid Porter Room on Thursday 4 October and learn more about the importance of this notable group of women and most especially Mary Ward, author of the play Man and Woman: the Question of the Day and for many years the Honorary Secretary of the Cambridge Women’s Suffrage Association.
Tickets are available at £8.50 each, from Eventbrite.
Ticket fee includes admission to the Museum, after the talk, to view our current exhibition At Last! Votes for Women

Ann Kennedy SmithDr Ann Kennedy Smith is a freelance writer, researcher and literature tutor, she was awarded an MA in Creative Writing (Biography and Creative Nonfiction) at the University of East Anglia in 2015. Her book proposal Cambridge Wives was shortlisted for the Biographers Club Tony Lothian Prize for best uncommissioned biography. She has published articles and reviews in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, The Times Literary Supplement, Slightly Foxed and The Dublin Review of Books.
Ann is the author of a monograph, Painted Poetry: Colour in Baudelaire’s Art Criticism (Peter Lang, 2011) and a chapter in The Reception of Alfred Tennyson in Europe (ed. Leonee Ormond, Bloomsbury, 2017).

You may also be interested in:

Cambridge Banners and Suffrage – a talk by Carolyn Ferguson, 7:30pm-9:30pm, Wednesday 10 October
Newnham Ladies Walking Tour – a street tour of Cambridge locations associated with the suffrage movement 10:30am-12:00pm, Thursday 11 October

Activity: Memory Café - Shops and Landmarks
2018-09-28 14:00 - 16:00 | Cambridgeshire
Are your favourite shops still here in Cambridge? What can you buy here that you can’t anywhere else?
The shopping districts in Cambridge have been changing rapidly and independent shops are becoming less and less common. Come and talk to us about your favourite shops and old landmarks in Cambridge that may have been lost in recent years.
This is a joint event run by our two projects Tracing Traditions and Capturing Cambridge.

Talk and Signing: Cambridge Women and the Struggle for the Vote
2018-09-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Did you know that Cambridge was at the forefront of the struggles for women’s rights to vote a century ago?

Millicent Fawcett, the national leader of the non-militant Suffragists and arguably one of the most influential women in Britain during the last 100 years, was a city resident and founded the Cambridge Women’s Suffrage Association. What’s more, leading militant Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst spoke at a number of riotous rallies and meetings.
Author Sue Slack has researched the role of Cambridge women in the struggle for voting rights, from the late 19th century to 1918 Act that granted suffrage to women over the age 30 and on to equal voting rights in 1928. Alongside many familiar names are accounts of many others who fought for rights that we take for granted today.
Join us in the Enid Porter Room from 2:00pm – 4:00pm on Saturday 15 September to find out more about the local women who contributed to the Great War and protested against it, founded local groups for the Women’s Institute and Girl Guides, led developments in eduction and welfare, and became the first female MPs, barristers, magistrates and surgeons.

Exhibition: At Last! Votes for Women
2018-09-15 - 2018-11-11 | Cambridgeshire
A collection of archival items and objects of the women’s suffrage movements
Fresh from the Women’s Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science, we are proud to showcase banners, sashes, badges and documents that tell the story of the fight for equal voting rights.
Concentrating on the fraught final years of the struggle between 1908 and 1914, our exhibition explores the campaign methods of the three main groups for women’s suffrage, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and the Women’s Freedom League (WFL). The display also features the diaries of imprisoned campaigners and contemporary leaflets detailing protest tactics, including a plan to ‘rush’ the House of Commons.
The exhibition is part of a season of activities exploring the struggle for equal voting rights running throughout September, October and early November

Activity: Memory Café - Your Female Heroes
2018-09-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Cambridgeshire
Who are your female heroes?
Cambridge Women have been prominent in the national sphere for a variety of reasons, whether that be for their part in radical social reform or because of their role in significant scientific discoveries. There’s a lot of female grit, resolution and tenacity to celebrate in the city and we’d like to hear about it!
Join us for a special session that we will be running alongside London School of Economics’ At Last: Votes for Women exhibition hosted in our Dining Room.
This is a joint event run by our two projects Tracing Traditions and Capturing Cambridge.

Activity: Memory Café - Fairs and Festivals
2018-08-31 15:00 - 17:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Memories of the the fairs and festivals of Cambridgeshire? We want to hear about them.
From the excitement of the rides to the delicious food and treats on sale. From the music playing to the things available to buy. Did you or your family work at a fair? Did you look forward to them for weeks beforehand?
Fun fairs, markets and festivals, we want to hear your stories. Join us on Friday 31 August and share your recollections at our second Memory Café for August.
Through Tracing Traditions we are continuing the work of Enid Porter, folklorist and longest-serving curator of the Museum, collecting stories from the peoples of Cambridgeshire, preserving elements of the county’s culture and re-imagining them for future generations.
Tracing Traditions, a project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and delivered by the Museums Association

Activity: Ghost Hunt with Ghost Hunt UK
2018-08-25 20:00 - 2018-08-26 02:00 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Are there more visitors to our Museum than we could ever imagine…?

Having been on Castle Hill for hundreds of years, we must have gathered a ghost or two along the way. We know from personal experience that strange things happen after dark.
Join us and our friends from Ghost Hunt UK for a night of paranormal investigation and experience the Museum of Cambridge in a new and very different way.
The evening will include a group vigil in as well as a opportunity to explore the unique atmosphere of our building on your own. The Ghost Hunt team will bring a variety of equipment for you to use in your investigations, including K2 electromotive force meters, dowsing rods, a spirit box and a Ghost Ark. There will be a chance to communicate with our etherial inhabitants through glass work, table tipping and a spirit board.
Tickets are available from the Ghost Hunt UK booking page. We can guarantee that it will be a night that you will not forget in a long time…
You can find out more about some of the supernatural happenings at our Museum from our blog.

Activity: Summer at the Museums - Family Engineering Morning with the Cambridge Museum of Technology
2018-08-23 10:00 - 12:30, 2018-08-16 10:00 - 12:30, 2018-08-09 10:00 - 12:30, 2018-08-02 10:00 - 12:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for a morning of engineering and building fun
Be sure to book your places in advance for this popular annual event – it’s first come, first served!
As part of Summer at the Museums 2018, we’ll be hosting regular family engineering mornings with the Education Team from the Cambridge Museum of Technology throughout August. Bring the family and work together to to design, build and test a stethoscope, a parachute and even a towering chimney.
Suitable for children aged eight. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
To reserve tickets, email info@museumoftechnology.com. Please include the name and age of each attendee.

Activity: Summer at the Museums - Papercrafting with the Cambridge Museum of Technology
2018-08-21 10:00 - 12:30, 2018-08-14 11:00 - 13:30, 2018-08-07 10:00 - 12:30, 2018-07-31 10:00 - 12:30 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for a morning of papercrafting fun
Be sure to book your places in advance for this popular annual event – it’s first come, first served!
As part of Summer at the Museums 2018, we’ll be hosting regular papercrafting mornings with the Education Team from the Cambridge Museum of Technology throughout July and August. Bring the family and try your hand at a variety of papercrafting techniques, including paper mosaics and origami and well as printing with a small printing press.
Suitable for children aged five and over, there will be a charge of £3.50 per child to cover the cost of materials. All children must be accompanied by an adult, for whom there will be no charge.
To reserve tickets, email info@museumoftechnology.com. Please include the name and age of each attendee.

Activity: Memory Café - Growing Up in Cambridge
2018-08-17 14:00 - 16:00 | Enid Porter Room, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
As part of our Tracing Traditions project, we are relaunching our Memory Cafés, which will take place fortnightly starting on Friday 17 August.
Come along and tell us about your memories and experiences of growing up in Cambridgeshire.
Through Tracing Traditions we are continuing the work of Enid Porter, folklorist and longest-serving curator of the Museum, collecting stories from the peoples of Cambridgeshire, preserving elements of the county’s culture and re-imagining them for future generations.
Tracing Traditions, a project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and delivered by the Museums Association

Exhibition: Testament to Youth
2018-07-23 - 2018-09-14 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
A summer-long exhibition that focuses on being young in Cambridgeshire
join us for an exclusive insight into growing up in the city and across the county.
Drawing upon the many oral history interviews gathered as part of our Tracing Traditions and Capturing Cambridge projects, Testament to Youth explores 60 years of memories and reminiscences gathered from the people of Cambridgeshire. Using a variety of objects from our own collection, we will chart the evolution of toys and clothing through the years and the influence they have had on our childhood.

Hear Richard Pedler recall childhood games on “the hills” in the village of Thriplow

Tracing Traditions, a project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and delivered by the Museums Association. Capturing Cambridge is funded through a Cambridge City Council Community Grant

Event: Castle Hill Open Day - Wobbly Goings-on at the Museum
2018-07-21 12:00 - 17:00 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
Join us for an afternoon of frolics, laughter and fun on Saturday 21 July
Come and explore one of the oldest, most vibrant and interesting parts of the city of Cambridge as many of the venues in the area open their doors to visitors for the afternoon for Castle Hill Open Day 2018.
There’ll be events aplenty and something for every everyone from 12:00pm to 5:00pm on Saturday 21 July.
Join us here at the Museum of Cambridge as we explore the history of jelly with Sue Bailey – our very own Fanny Cradock – and find out how combining food and science can lead to loads of wobbly, fruit-flavoured fun in our practical demonstrations throughout the afternoon.
Fanny will tell us the history of jelly and about the copper and china jelly moulds on display in our collection. She’ll be making jellies in retro aluminium bunny rabbit jelly moulds, so familiar to children of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as testing modern day jelly moulds, courtesy of Tala.
You can even get involved yourself! Make your own fabulously-coloured, quick-setting agar jelly balls, see who can make the tallest tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti and create your very own vision of Cambridge in the the year 2196.
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
Dr Sue Bailey works as a food historian, food science lecturer and consultant. She has over 25 years of experience in food and education as lead for food communications and food science degree courses at London Metropolitan University.
A guest on Channel Four’s Great British Bake Off, Sue showed presenter Sandi Toksvig how to make a Cambridge Pudding. She is a frequent expert contributor to Channel Four’s Food Unwrapped, BBC One’s Rip Off Britain food exposes and ITV’s Save Money Good Health.
Sue regularly appears in the guise of the colourful and fabulously waspish Fanny Cradock, combining demonstrations of retro 1960s and 1970s party recipes with an exploration of the chef’s influential role as an early television celebrity gourmand. Fanny was keen to encourage children to get into the fun of cooking and trying different foods and Sue carries on her campaign with gusto!

Event: Museum of Cambridge at the Big Weekend
2018-07-14 - 2018-07-15 | Parker’s Piece, Parker's Piece, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB1 1NA, United Kingdom
Join us on Parker’s Piece for an afternoon of activities, chat and fun on Saturday 14 July
We’re venturing beyond the Grade II listed walls of our Museum for a day and coming to see you as part of the Cambridge Big Weekend.
Come along and make your own ‘stained-glass’ flower sun-catcher in our hands-on craft activity inspired by some of the beautiful stained-glass windows that we have on display on Castle Hill. We’ll have a collection of rare photographs of previous events in and around the city on display and we want to hear your stories about festivals and celebrations past in our reminiscence workshop, which will be running throughout the afternoon.
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Exhibition: Cambridge Then and Now
2018-06-02 11:00 - 2018-07-15 17:00 | Dining Parlour, The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
EXTENDED DUE TO DEMAND
Come and see pictures from the Museum of Cambridge collections paired with photographs of the same locations as they appear today, taken by students of Cambridgeshire Regional College
Students studying Visual Communications at Cambridge Regional College have trawled the photographic archives at the Museum and selected from a wide range of subjects in and around Cambridge.
Each has chosen three images that depict places across Cambridgeshire and then recaptured them in their modern context. The exhibition explores change, displaying each of the original archival images alongside its modern counterpart, as interpreted by the students.
A selection of contemporary images of locations that the students could not use because they no longer exist will also be on display. It’s a unique opportunity to explore Cambridge of the past through the eyes of present-day residents.
Cambridge Then and Now will run in the Dining Parlour throughout the month of June.

Activity: Ghost Hunt in May with Ghost Hunt UK
2018-05-19 21:00 - 2018-05-20 03:00 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
What restless spirits roam the corridors and rooms of your Museum once darkness falls…?

Over hundreds of years, we must have gathered a ghost or two along the way. We know from very recent experience that our spectral residents are active and abroad.
Join us and our friends from Ghost Hunt UK for a night of paranormal investigation and experience the Museum of Cambridge in a new and very different way.
The evening will include a group vigil in as well as a opportunity to explore the unique atmosphere of our building on your own. The Ghost Hunt team will bring a variety of equipment for you to use in your investigations, including K2 electromotive force meters, dowsing rods, a spirit box and a Ghost Ark. There will be a chance to communicate with our etherial inhabitants through glass work, table tipping and a spirit board.
Tickets are available from the Ghost Hunt UK booking page. We can guarantee that it will be a night that you will not forget in a long time…
You can find out more about some of the supernatural happenings at our Museum from our blog.
