Is this street sloping up or downhill? Harold Riley wrote “I played with pictures of streets. I can’t tell if it’s going up or down, Some think it’s going down to the sea, or rising up to the hills. I like to play this trick. I find it interesting.” Like his friend, associate and local Salford artist L. S. Lowry …
So proud are the people of Chesterfield of George Stephenson that they held not only these celebrations outside the market hall in 1881 (marking the centenary of his birth) but also further festivities in 1948 on the centenary of his death …
We know very little about Molly. She was baptised in November 1764 in the Priory Church close to the Judges’ Lodgings and was buried just a month later. It’s likely she was intended to live as a servant, free or enslaved, with a local merchant family. In the same year …
The interpretation doesn’t have much detail on these pots, but the copy seeks to entice us into the display: “Colours can dazzle us, inspire us and calm us. Cherry blossom pink, chestnut brown, sky blue: the way we describe a colour can help us imagine it …
The famous battle took place in 1066 on this day, but not where you think. And The Bayeux Tapestry isn’t even a tapestry. With its countless details embroidered on linen cloth, the embroidery (not tapestry) …
Regarded by many as the single most important document in Thai history, this object is not without controversy. The pillar features inscriptions which have traditionally been regarded as the earliest example of the Thai script. Discovered in 1833 by King Mongkut …
Antinous was the so-called ‘favourite’ of Roman Emperor Hadrian. But we know it was more than just favouritism. You don’t turn your best friend into a god, create a cult in their name and make a statue like this, shown here as Dionysus, the god of wine. They were lovers ...
Perhaps the last thing I expected to find in a Nazi documentation centre were Minnie and Mickey Mouse Pride toys. But in an exhibition about the pushback against Anti-feminism, it's a good conversation starting object ...
Museums can be so straight at first sight. But it doesn’t take too long looking at these characters to realise that the one in a dress has rather impressive sideburns, mutton chops even. Subverting and celebrating at the same time ...
The River Thames, full of evocative atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant colour as captured by someone who understood exactly how to replicate the effects of light on the canvas. It’s on display in London, just a few metres from where Monet made the painting ...
An oil rig is a little like the tip of an iceberg – only a little is visible over the horizon, leaving our imagination to fill in what’s under the water. It’s just that one is being destroyed by climate change and the other is part of the network of problems that have led us to the planetary crisis ...
Getting into costume allows us to step into another character, to put on a show. Picasso was intrigued by performance – bullfighting but also concerts, cabaret, puppetry and costumed balls. As a parent, he dressed his kids up ...
“Seeing two men being intimate was something I never saw growing up in small town UK. I was 18 before I saw two men kissing, that was on TV and was just the briefest of pecks” writes a participant in a Queer interpretation project at the Whitworth …
Perhaps one of the most striking objects in the new museum displays is a very early sketch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo. It’s a privilege to get up close to something in the making that is now recognisable the world over. But here you can see the artist working …
These personal objects are among items found at sea following shipwrecks, each of them able to tell a story of a life in flux – a straw hat, a Koran, an Eritrean child’s drawing testifying to the torture. Did these objects belong to those who survived crossing the Mediterranean Sea, or those who perished? …
For three months in 1966, Hendrix lived in a flat in Brook Street, which is now a museum to his time in London. He is known to have given his phone number out to so many people that his girlfriend had a …
French King Louis XIV had hundreds of scale models made, showing key defensive landscapes across France made. These strategic tools at 1/600 scale, are accurate representations of the towns and surrounding countryside, making it possible to plan …
The process of raku firing uses fire and air and produces unique pieces like this bowl. The appearance reflects the landscape around Allison Weightman’s home on a remote peninsula of Wester Ross in north-west Scotland, which is only accessible by boat …
As part of the process for sitting for this portrait, Horse sang her best-loved song Careful live and a cappella for the artist in her London studio. Roxanna Halls has captured something of Horse’s charismatic and enthralling performance style …
Executed in 1381 for his role in the first great rebellion in English history, John Ball is today remembered by the people of the town, right on the place where he was tried for his crimes. The rebellion, in response to low pay and the introduction of an unpopular poll tax …
In the early 1700s, the emerging industry of buildings insurance (following the Great Fire) was doing big business. Insurers created plates, such as this one, in order to identify which houses were insured by each company when the fire brigades arrived …
Visitors to the museum on 21st June are invited spend an hour doing daylight astronomy from the garden where William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. It’s the summer solstice, when the Earth is fully tilted towards the sun …
Hands are reputedly the hardest part of the body to paint. And so I typed ‘hands’ into ArtUK and waited to see what came back. There’s a lot, and largely very well executed (to my untrained eye). This pair of hands caught my eye. Even though there’s only one full hand visible …
Museum objects tend to stay still in their display cases. Chatting with an interpretation friend who works in natural heritage recently, I reflected on how difficult it must be to tell stories about things that move. And so meet Dash, a three-year-old tiger …
Not the beady eyes of a spider with heterochromia, nor shining lamps at a harbour entrance marking port and starboard, this is instead a ruby and an emerald, set into a golden ring from the 1400s. It was probably a love token or betrothal ring …
Cross boomerangs such as this one were used in throwing competitions by older Aboriginal boys and men of the Yidinji language group near Cairns in northern Queensland. The contests judged both the skill of the player and the quality of their boomerang's construction. The tips …
Designed for being blasted into space and orbiting the Earth, the word Soyuz (in English, Union) has come into modern parlance and is synonymous with the Soviet space programme from the 1960s onwards …
Even on dry land and with no flesh on its bones, this whale is still a stunning sight. This 9m (29ft) skeleton of a young humpback was washed ashore near Barry in 1982. It’s thought to have been …
The jostling legs, the frocks and the headdresses of the cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge capture a moment in 1890s Paris, summoning something of the thrills and delights of Bohemian Montmatre. This is Toulouse-Lautrec’s first poster for the club …
This bronze head, created by the so-called ‘father of modern sculpture’ is one of the earliest works going on display in the Pompidou’s current temporary exhibition. The gallery podcast says this object: “hints at dreams and utter tranquillity, free of all material …
