PHM is the national museum of democracy, telling the story of its development in Britain: past, present, and future.
On this blog we share posts from the PHM team and other experts, with behind the scenes stories, coverage of PHM's exhibitions and events, and highlights from the museum's unique collection.
#OnThisDay in 1936 the Spanish Civil War began. To highlight the Printers Demand Arms for Spain banner on show in PHM’s 2019 Banner Display, our fantastic volunteer and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) post graduate student Beth Lane shares insight from previously unseen Spanish Civil War photographs in PHM’s internationally significant collection.
Many of the treasures on display for the very first time in PHM’s Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest exhibition were acquired thanks to a joint National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) grant with Salford’s Working Class Movement Library (WCML). To celebrate the opening of the Library’s Peterloo: news, fake news and paranoia exhibition, we asked Lynette Cawthra, Working Class Movement Library Manager to talk about the project which gave both institutions funds to go shopping for new acquisitions.
The first National Minimum Wage (NMW) was introduced on 1 April 1999, the rate was £3.60 per hour (£3 for 18 to 21 year olds). Here Darren Treadwell, Archive Officer at People’s History Museum (PHM) shares memories from his first job in 1981.
To complement the display of a first edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy from Friday 1 March until the end of April 2019, we invited Dr Michael Sanders, Senior Lecturer in 19th century writing at the University of Manchester to share his insight into Shelley’s protest poem.
In his blog Michael reveals his first encounter with the poem on a record sleeve.
Stephen M Hornby, award winning Manchester writer, is coming to the end of his time as Playwright in Residence at People’s History Museum (PHM). During his time with us, he has written the first draft of a play called First Rumours. The play is about seasoned human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell’s time as a Labour Party candidate in the hugely controversial 1983 Bermondsey by-election.
First Rumours, was given a first rehearsed reading at People’s History Museum on Sunday 10 February 2019 followed by a Q&A with Peter Tatchell, chaired by LGBT activist and historian Paul Fairweather. In his final blog for us, Stephen reflects on the experience of having Peter Tatchell attend the rehearsed reading of the play.
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