Ten Treasures from the People's History Museum's Collection

People's History Museum spent 2019 exploring the theme of protest. Audiences particularly responded on the issue of environmental protest, reflecting what was happening and concerning them in the wider world. 

The placard ‘There Is No Planet B’ was collected at the first Youth Climate Strike in Manchester, which was held in February 2019. As a museum that tells the story of ideas worth fighting for, contemporary collecting is vital – which is powerfully summed up by this piece. 

Contemporary collecting is very important to People's History Museum, so we were delighted when actor Julie Hesmondhalgh donated the iconic anorak coat that she wore in ITV’s Coronation Street from 1998 to 2014 while playing the UK’s first transgender soap character.  The storyline was influential in helping to shift opinions, but also brought criticism for the failure to cast a trans person to play the role. 

Liz Thorpe, Learning Officer at People’s History Museum, says ‘2017 was a year to be proud of. It really felt like a coming together of different communities to tell an important story through the objects that shaped their lives. Having never before handed over so much curatorial control there were a lot of uncertainties on what the outcome would look like, but the end result felt much more than a successful exhibition or event launch.  It felt like a coming together of people that was full of interesting conversations and emotions.’    

Cliff Rowe (1904-1989) was an artist that used his paintbrush to draw attention to the ideas he believed in. He spent much of his professional life visiting factories and painting the workers that he saw, it is these images that dominate the vast collection that was donated by the artist to the museum in 1985. The painting here of a female scientist at work reflects a common theme for Rowe; one that is fascinating to reflect upon from a contemporary perspective. 

Rowe lived and worked in Russia in the early 1930s, at a time when back home Britain was going through the Great Depression. His experiences would see him go on to create the Artists’ International Association in 1933, the aim of which was to use art as an influential tool in the class struggle and to promote peace. Rowe’s own story is as intriguing as the work that he produced.  

Kloe Rumsey, Conservator at People’s History Museum, says ‘I love the style, colour use, and changes in the collection we have at PHM, but I particularly love the depictions of women in science and industry.  The professional and unromantic insight into women’s everyday lives of the time is rare and very valuable to today’s audiences.  They are often painted on MDF wood which deteriorates badly, so we have been cataloguing, recording, and storing them safely; and there is much more to discover in the rest of the collection.’    

It was following a crowdfunder that the Manchester suffragette banner came into People’s History Museum's collection in 2017. Having appeared alongside Emmeline Pankhurst during some of her most significant speeches, including when she addressed a crowd of 50,000 people at Heaton Park in Manchester (19 July 1908), the banner had been out of the public eye for almost a century. 

PHM has the world’s largest collection of trade union and political banners, making the oldest trade union banner a prize piece. It was made by William Dixon for the celebration of the coronation of George IV (19 July 1821). On permanent display it takes its place alongside both contemporary and historical banners which are changed every January to enable the public to see as much of the vast collection as possible. The oil on linen piece is fragile, but with a specialist in-house Conservation Team, PHM really is the best place for it to be.

Jenny van Enckevort, Conservation Manager at People’s History Museum, says ‘This is an example of an early trade union banner that is derived from a flag like configuration, both in terms of its proportions and the addition of the Union Flag in the upper corner. There is also evidence that it was once flown from the right hand vertical edge but was later altered with pole loops across the top, thus enabling the image to be seen clearly. Alterations such as these are common with social history objects. Conservators can spend hundreds of hours working on a single banner so we get to know it inside out; this close interrogation is an important part of understanding our cultural heritage and helps the stories we tell at the museum come to life.’    

Cartoons form a significant part of the collection at PHM, both historical and contemporary. This piece was commissioned by influential London print shop owner George Humphrey in July 1819, just one month before the Peterloo Massacre of August 1819. It was designed to warn of the dangers of radical reform and potential revolution. Humphrey’s customers were mainly wealthy upper class men, many of whom were anxious about growing demands from the working class for the vote. 

Cruikshank produced many similar anti-reform prints for Humphrey, but it’s difficult to say if he had any sympathy for the print’s message. His motivation may have been largely financial, as he also created many anti-establishment works during this same period.  

Mark Wilson, Exhibitions Officer at People’s History Museum, says ‘For me this is one of the most interesting objects in PHM’s collection. It is a typically bold George Cruikshank creation. The print depicts a multi-headed beast perched atop a smoking mound, made up of the discarded symbols of royalty, religion and the arts. The many headed monster balances a cap of liberty on its tail; an emblem of the French Revolution. Beyond its visual invention and assured draughtsmanship, the print also offers us a window into the attitudes that would directly fuel the events of the Peterloo Massacre on 16 August 1819 in Manchester.’

The story of writer and political activist Thomas Paine is a fascinating one; a man who shook the world with his radical writings. The second part of the most famous of these, Rights of Man (1791), was written on this desk. 

In the book he suggested that all men over the age of 21 should receive the vote.  The British authorities were outraged at the suggestion, they banned the book and Paine fled to France. Paine would eventually settle in the USA, where he’d spent some of his earlier life, and where his active support of the American Revolution (1765-1783) earned him a place as one of the Founding Fathers.  ‘A share in two revolutions is living to some purpose’ Paine wrote excitedly to George Washington. The desk illuminates Paine’s story and reminds us that, even with the passage of time, many of his ideas remain as radical as the day they were written. 

Shirin Hirsch, Researcher at People’s History Museum, says ‘You can imagine Paine at his desk here hard at work on his polemical writing. At three shillings part one of Rights of Man was expensive, but at once it became a bestseller. The second part of the book was followed up the next year, on similar lines but with even stronger language.  Despite a huge propaganda campaign against the book, nothing could stop its success and by the time of Paine’s death in 1809 it had sold over one million copies. Paine’s words unleashed a mass desire for change in British society.’