Browse past displays from The MERL and exhibitions exclusive to our website.

We constantly add new exhibitions throughout the year, so check back regularly to discover more about English rural life and our collections!

View of Mount Meru from Simba Farm, with hazy cloud-covered mountain in the distance, hills, trees, and an arable field in the foreground.

Snapshots of Simba Farm

Snapshots of Simba Farm

Three teapots from the MERL collection, modeled after cottages

Tea culture in our collections

Tea culture in our collections

Where Do We Go From Here? — Audio Trail

Where Do We Go From Here? — Audio Trail

Our Green Stories: Life on Land Films

Our Green Stories: Life on Land Films

A mixture of cultivation and craft objects with a shellmex petrol pump globe and a mannequin in a smock wearing a facemask

Stories we live by: Life in the Anthropocene

Stories we live by: Life in the Anthropocene

Display case containing museum objects, crafted picnic items and makaton symbols

Hear our Voice in the Countryside – Video Labels

Hear our Voice in the Countryside – Video Labels

Painting of a historic coal mine

Coal Mining: It’s the Pits

Coal Mining: It’s the Pits

The Landscape of Housing

The Landscape of Housing

Jones Family CS - featured image for sewing memories exhibition

Unpicking the past

Unpicking the past

Image of daffodil pickers showing how UK farming relies on seasonal migrant workers

Migrant workers: hidden rural mobilities

Migrant workers: hidden rural mobilities

The logo for Our Green Stories

Our Green Stories in the Galleries

Our Green Stories in the Galleries

Detail showing domestic pruning knives inspired by billhooks sitting on a table top surface.

In Conversation with Bill Hooks

In Conversation with Bill Hooks

A Singer sewing machine.

Fast Fashion: Then and Now

Fast Fashion: Then and Now

A beekeeper's suit

Extra.Ordinary

Extra.Ordinary

A group of beech trees and vegetation on the edge of a pond.

Lantern Slides of the Open Spaces Society

Lantern Slides of the Open Spaces Society

One of 30 ink and watercolour sketches by Sarah Hannis providing insight into the daily lives of migrant agricultural workers who came to the UK in 2021. This image shows workers walking to work.

Migrant workers: Summer on a strawberry farm

Migrant workers: Summer on a strawberry farm

Close up of snail on a leaf from JC Niala, 'Portal: 1918 Allotment' (Fig: Oxford, 2022), p.2

1918 Allotment, Oxford

1918 Allotment, Oxford

Detail from one of 30 ink and watercolour sketches by Sarah Hannis, provide an insight into the daily lives of migrant agricultural workers

Migrant workers: The raspberry planter

Migrant workers: The raspberry planter

A Friendly Society festival.

‘Be ye kind to one another’: rural togetherness in times of crisis

‘Be ye kind to one another’: rural togetherness in times of crisis

Changing Perspectives in the Countryside

Changing Perspectives in the Countryside

Featured image for the online exhibition.

51 Voices

51 Voices

Superstition and folklore object trail

Superstition and folklore object trail

Featured image for Fowler exhibition

Fowler: National and International Steam Power

Fowler: National and International Steam Power

The Commons: Re-Enchanting The World

The Commons: Re-Enchanting The World

An image of the Space to Think display in The MERL Staircase Hall.

Space to Think: Rural Wellbeing

Space to Think: Rural Wellbeing

Black and white photograph of two men looking at each other in a landscape setting, by Gemma Dagger.

Queer Constellations: The Histories of Rural Gay Men

Queer Constellations: The Histories of Rural Gay Men

Our Travelling Museum – Garland Junior

Our Travelling Museum – Garland Junior

GRT History Month: An Unfinished Painting

GRT History Month: An Unfinished Painting

Entrance to HMP Reading

Rural Queer Lives in Berkshire Criminal Archives 1861-1967

Rural Queer Lives in Berkshire Criminal Archives 1861-1967

Five children/evacuees standing in a row, smiling in the sun

Life Stories

Life Stories

A series of colourful paper puppet figures showing farm animals, vehicles, and rural features

Farmer Arthur’s Paper Theatre

Farmer Arthur’s Paper Theatre

Still from film called 'The Groundnut Scheme at Kongwa' showing ploughing using tractors

The Groundnut Scheme: A colonial failure

The Groundnut Scheme: A colonial failure

River Colne protest, courtesy of Gurpreet Kaur

The Evolution of Rural Protest

The Evolution of Rural Protest

Black and white photograph showing a group of Indian labourers standing in a field

Reflections of Colonial India at The MERL

Reflections of Colonial India at The MERL

Featured image for Alana House online exhibition, showing Caversham Bridge, Reading.

Unlocking our Lockdown Stories: Alana House and The MERL

Unlocking our Lockdown Stories: Alana House and The MERL

Woman caning a chair in garden with cat.

Lockdown Crafts

Lockdown Crafts

Horse pulling hay wagon, farm wagons exhibition

Along the Road We Go

Along the Road We Go

Squash Court at Balcombe Place, Sussex, used as a Women's Land Army uniform store

The Land Girls

The Land Girls

A History of the Open Spaces Society

A History of the Open Spaces Society

The curve of a horse's neck with decorated mane runs across the bottom-left-hand corner of the image and parachutes cross the sky above

The Country Show: Arnhel de Serra

The Country Show: Arnhel de Serra

Computerised image of figure wearing smock-frock

#AniMERLCrossing: A Gallery of Smocks

#AniMERLCrossing: A Gallery of Smocks

Thinking Rationally?

Thinking Rationally?

playing at farming exhibition farm toys

Playing at Farming: A Display

Playing at Farming: A Display

playing at farming exhibition case of farm toys

Playing at Farming: A Journey

Playing at Farming: A Journey

Photograph of power station courtyard with two large chimneys in the background, substation on the left-hand side and building on the right, with electric cables connecting the two buildings across the yard

Landscapes of State Industry

Landscapes of State Industry

Shoulder to the Wheel

Shoulder to the Wheel

online exhibition artsmark journeys

Artsmark Journeys Between The MERL and Reading Museum

Artsmark Journeys Between The MERL and Reading Museum

Detail of wooden threshing sled with lava teeth inserted in surface

Farming: The First 12,000 Years

Farming: The First 12,000 Years

Smocks, Smocking, Smocked

Smocks, Smocking, Smocked

Welcome Case

Welcome Case

Sire.

Sire.

A playground of grass, children and playground furniture, for the Landscape Institute conference on play

Design for play

Design for play

online exhibition stakeholders featured basket

Stakeholders

Stakeholders

Black and white photograph of men dressed as mummers drinking pints

FOLK AND CUSTOMS

FOLK AND CUSTOMS

close up of bouquet of flowers from Wellbeing and the Countryside exhibition

Wellbeing and the Countryside

Wellbeing and the Countryside