International Museum Day
The 18th of May marks International Museum Day, an event organised by the International Council of Museums to celebrate local museums and raise public awareness of the role museums play in society. Observed since 1977, International Museum Day is celebrated in hundreds of countries and tens of thousands of museums worldwide. These celebrations are usually formed around a theme that allows museums to coordinate their message to the public and provide a topic for discussion and events. Past themes have examined the role museums play in the lives of young people, their connections to environmental struggles, and how museum objects can be used to preserve memories of the past.
This year’s theme is Museums Uniting a Divided World, focusing on how museums can foster dialogue and understanding between communities and cultures through the shared exchange of objects and information.
Edinburgh Museums
So in the spirit of the day, we’d like to talk a little about the local museums here in Edinburgh, as well as tell you about the historical collections we have on display at Napier.
One of the great things about Edinburgh is the abundance of museums dedicated to preserving the art, culture, and lived experience of others, whether from other cultures or from those who came before us.
A wonderful example of just such a museum can be found on the Royal Mile: The People’s Story Museum, dedicated to recording the everyday lives of working-class people in Edinburgh from the late 18th century to today. At the museum, you can step into galleries depicting life in 18th-century tenement houses, letting you see how the people of Edinburgh would have lived over two hundred years ago.
Edinburgh is also home to Europe’s only Palestinian museum, located not far from Princes Street. The museum is dedicated to chronicling the art and culture of the Palestinian people and how they have persevered through generations of hardship. The founder of the museum, Faisal Saleh, says that the goal of the project is to demonstrate that Palestinians are “human, creative, and resilient”.
There is also the Museum of Childhood, which preserves the history and interests of local children going back hundreds of years, with the oldest item on display being a doll of Queen Anne that dates to the mid-18th century! This little museum can be a great way to understand the youthful hobbies and toys from past generations and how the role of children in society has changed over the centuries.
Little Museum at Craiglockhart
If you’re interested in something a little bit closer to campus, you can have a look at some of our university’s Heritage Collections, perhaps the most famous of which is the War Poets Collection housed at our Craiglockhart campus.
Our Craiglockhart campus has a long and storied history before it became part of the university, with the building originally constructed in the Victorian era as a Hydropathic – a building dedicated to providing water therapy to those suffering from sickness and other ailments. When the First World War began in 1914, Craiglockhart was converted into a military psychiatric hospital where it treated military officers believed to be suffering from Shellshock.
Two officers who recovered at Craiglockhart were Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, both poets who were inspired by their experiences in the First World War to create art as a way of processing what they had been through. Their time at Craiglockhart was important in the development of both men’s work. Especially Owen, who was still an aspiring poet at the time and who used his time at Craiglockhart to surround himself with other artists who were staying at the hospital, as well as becoming involved in The Hydra, a magazine run by patients at the hospital in order for them to remain active and productive during their recovery.
War Poets
Today, our War Poets Collection holds hundreds of items related to the men who recovered at Craiglockhart. These include first editions of Sassoon’s and Owen’s writings, along with collections of letters written by patients, and photographs and other items from throughout the history of Craiglockhart.
You can find these items on permanent display in our War Poets exhibition on the ground floor of Craiglockhart, and they provide a great insight into the inner lives of men struggling with the trauma of the First World War, and lets us better understand the experiences of those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder in a time before that was understood.
The next time you’re at Craiglockhart, why don’t you take the opportunity to have a quick look at the collection and learn some more about the history of one of our campuses
By Matthew Ferrie
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