Handling Collection: Good Practice

In the final article of this series on handling collections, Muriel Bailly gets to the heart of things: how can we use handling collections in museums for public engagement?

While conducting research for this blog series, I’ve been amazed at the inventive ways to use handling objects in museums. Each institution I spoke to had its own way of using handling objects; there’s a wealth of ideas across the sector and we can learn so much from each other.

The benefits of using handling collections seem endless to me, but here are some concrete examples so you can make your own mind up.

Handling Collection: Challenges

In the previous articles on handling collections, Muriel Bailly has looked at the benefits of using touchable objects to enhance learning, as well as the different motivations and strategies for developing such collections. Once you’ve decided to provide hands-on experiences for your audience and have your objects ready, you’re good to go. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’ll be challenge-free.

Developing a handling collection is an exciting opportunity for museums and similar institutions to engage more deeply with their audiences, but it also brings a whole new set of challenges. Although Wellcome Collection had a handling collection pretty much since its opening in 2007 it was a little underused until a couple of years ago. The handling collection was reserved for specific outreach projects, school groups and partially sighted visitors, while our general public offer focussed on more traditional gallery tours.

Chinese shoes for bound feet (Wellcome Collection).

When our development project started in 2013, parts of our galleries were closed; we had to find new ways of engaging with the public. That’s when we metaphorically dusted off the handling collection and integrated hands-on “busking” into our permanent public offer.

Handling Collection: Origin

Some handling collections use genuine artefacts, while others use replicas. Does this affect the visitor experience? And how do you put such a collection together? Muriel Bailly continues this series about museum handling collections by looking at their origins.

The public museum is a product of the 18^th century, with major public institutions such as the Musée du Louvre and the British Museum both opening then (1792 and 1753 respectively). In the 19^th century, a primary function of museums was to demonstrate the wealth and power of their governments. The Louvre’s collection, for example, displayed the booty of the Napoleonic conquests. Museums had an educational role, but instead of inviting learners to draw their own conclusion, the message was more than implied through collections and displays.

In the 20^th century, museums emancipated themselves from their governments’ agendas; they were able to decide on the messages they wanted to convey to their audience, as well as how to do so. That’s quite a decision to make! It is no surprise, then, that this time coincides with a flourishing of museum education theories. As George H Hein puts it in his 1998 publication Learning in the Museum: “understanding visitors’ learning has become a matter of survival for museums”.

Two main schools of thought have emerged: one that claims learning (the real world) exists outside of the learners. This view is called “realism” and Plato is probably the best advocate for this theory with his famous Allegory of the Cave. In this theory, people absorb information bit by bit as it is transmitted to them.

The second main theory of learning, which is called “idealism”, considers that knowledge already exists in the mind of the learners. In this theory, people construct knowledge by playing an active role in the learning process. This theory is characterised by active and experiential learning (hands-on).

Nicola Fyfe and Edwin Wood (Visitor Hosts) using the handling collection for public engagement at the Museum of London.

Handling Collection: Touch

For some people, seeing an object in a glass case is enough. For others, reading every single word of interpretation in an exhibition is a necessity. Many of us, though, enjoy the chance to hold something in our hands. Muriel Bailly introduces this new series about museum handling collections by looking at the sense of touch.

Touch is one of the five traditional senses which allow us to interact with our environment. It’s perhaps better described as a multitude of senses which encompasses all physical sensations felt though the skin. Through the stimulation of neural receptors on our skin, hair, tongue and throat we are able to interpret the world around us, gathering millions of bits of information from our surrounding environment, without us necessarily noticing.

For instance, as you read this you might be touching the mouse of your computer or swiping the screen of your device, feeling the smoothness of the surface with one hand and reaching for your cup of tea with the other, without looking away from the screen. This simple, every day action is filling your brain with sensory information. Yet, you probably didn’t realise how much your sense of touch was being activated before reading those words.

Hand showing the surrounding electromagnetic field. (Credit: N. Seery, Wellcome Images)

Fancy being a curator?

With Wellcome Collection’s development project underway, the Youth Programme team wanted to recruit young people to develop their handling collection, to be used during study days and future projects. From January to April 2014, Visitor Experience Assistant Muriel Bailly had the chance to work alongside the team on a fantastic project called Fancy Being a Curator? and tells us about her experience. 

Developing a new collection is always challenging, even for experienced curators. Luckily we had just the right people for the job: a group of nine young people aged 14 to 19 who volunteered to take part in the project. Over only five sessions they managed to acquire the most wonderful objects for our handling collection.

To help the group to become familiar with the museum’s collection, they visited our galleries on the first day of the project, as well as our stored collection at Blythe House. Needless to say, it was a heavy day for the participants. They had to absorb an incredible amount of information! Lesser individuals may have run away but the group bravely stuck to it, their curiosity triggered by our collection.

The youth group get to grips with Henry Wellcome’s collection by visiting Blythe House. (©Wellcome Images)

Over the following sessions the group met with various key staff members at Wellcome Collection to get an understanding of all aspects of collection management. With Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes, they discussed curatorial decision making: how do you decide what is worth acquiring and what isn’t? How do you create a narrative through your collection and how do you communicate this narrative effectively through label and panel writing?

Members of our Visitor Experience team, Jeremy Bryans and Rob Bidder (yes, the famous one from our Curious Conversations), explored the galleries’ handling collection with the group and discussed how we use it in context with visitors.

After these sessions, newly armed with information and insight, the group were ready to buy new objects for our collection. After seeing so much of our collections the group brainstormed and identified the main themes for the new objects: the history of medicine; body image; and the history of sexuality. By the end of a very long day of intense research on the internet, the group had acquired 14 objects linked to the themes identified. They got it spot on.

For instance, for the history of sexuality (to complement the Chinese sexual aids and Victorian anti masturbation device displayed in Medicine Man), we now have a collection of 1920s sexual education booklets which make for delightful reading:

“Never wear social dress to business. A low neck behind a counter or at a desk is as much out of place as high heels shoes and thin hose. Dress with becoming modesty.” Extract from Sex Facts for the Adolescent and Matured Woman by S. Dana Hubbard, M.D, New York.

Young people and members of the public get closer to the newly acquired collection. (©Wellcome Images)

After ordering the objects, our young people met with conservators Stefania Signorello and Amy Junker Heslip to discuss the conservation and monitoring needs of the newly acquired collection.

Finally, for the last day of the project, the youth group curated their own exhibition. They put on a display of their objects in our brand new studio and delivered handling sessions, talks and had fun with visitors popping in.

Young people and members of the public get closer to the newly acquired collection. (©Wellcome Images)

Young people and members of the public get closer to the newly acquired collection. (©Wellcome Images)

I was aware we were asking much from these young people. Over only a few weeks they had to build familiarity not only with our large collection but also with the principles of collections management and develop the confidence to expose their work to other museum professionals, but they did it brilliantly. The success of this project is, to me, a perfect example of the wonderful things that can happen when you give voice to your audience and visitors. I hope to see more of this, both here at Wellcome Collection and elsewhere.

Muriel Bailly is a Visitor Experience Assistant at Wellcome Collection.