Folklore & Storytelling: MERL and the Pitt Rivers Museum
Ollie Douglas, our Assistant Curator, gave a gallery talk at the Pitt Rivers Museum recently and naturally homed in on objects relating to rural life. Here’s what he found… I recently […]
Chocolate box images & perceptions of the countryside
Alison Hilton, Marketing Officer, shows how, with a little bit of research, it is possible to link chocolate and English Rural Life, and invites you to come and talk about […]
Inspiring Creativity with Objects: Collections-based activities for families
During her time at MERL as Public Programmes Manager, covering maternity leave, Phillippa Heath has introduced some some great new workshops enabling families to get closer to our collections. In […]
Our Boneshaking connection to cycling
Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer. At the moment of writing, 198 lycra-clad men from across the world are cycling through the Cambridgeshire countryside. They’re riding the best bicycles in […]
Our Country Lives update: How we research
written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer. You may have noticed that we’ve been a bit quiet recently about our HLF-funded redevelopment project, Our Country Lives. This is because we’re waiting […]
Collections Based Research opportunities
There are currently several opportunities to work and study with the University of Reading’s museums and collections: Collections Based Research Programme Director We are seeking an outstanding candidate to be responsible for […]
Press release: Science Week is a riot at Uni Museum
Volunteers at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) will present a Reading Science Week event with a difference on Saturday 22nd March. Reading Science Week is part of National […]
Research tip #4: Confused by codes?
Confused by codes? All archives use reference codes to identify their collections, files and individual documents. These are often confusing, even for the archivists, but they are necessary to help […]
Project news: Rural images discovered: Colin Shaw
written by Nancy Fulford, Project Archivist. A couple of weeks ago marked the end of the Rural Images Discovered Project which has seen over 15,000 prints digitised, and many more negatives […]
The MERL Classification – what it is and why we’re updating it
Project Officer, Greta Bertram, explains more about the work she has been doing to revise the MERL Classification over the last few months. Classification systems are used by museums to […]