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People's History Museum blog

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.

Posts tagged 'Collections'

Image of National Union of Journalists Official Picket armband, around 1985. Image courtesy of People's History Museum.

Strike action in PHM’s collection, past and present

15 November 2023


After a year marked by ongoing strike action, People’s History Museum have uncovered strike related objects in the museum’s collection.  These objects, collected from 40 years of picket lines, represent major UK strikes of the 1980s and 1990s, with more recent acquisitions illustrating contemporary strike action.



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Image of Image taken by photographer Jake Hardy, who attended the Black Lives Matter protests in Manchester during May and June 2020. People’s History Museum’s contemporary collection © Jake Hardy

The raised fist: a history of the symbol

4 September 2023


Art historian Simon Faulkner considers the history and meanings of the raised fist using examples that include posters and photographs from People’s History Museum’s collection.



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Image of Mark Ashton Trust banner, 1988. Image courtesy of People's History Museum.

Mark Ashton Trust: a response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s

2 June 2023


Mark Ashton was an activist and campaigner in the 1980s, perhaps most known for co-founding Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners during the miners’ strike of 1984-85. He was a member the Communist Party of Great Britain and joined Red Wedge, a collective of musicians aiming to engage young people with the Labour movement. Mark died of AIDS related illness in 1987. The Mark Ashton Trust was set up by a group of friends to respond to the ongoing crisis 



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Image of Lorina Bulwer sampler, late 1800s. Image courtesy of Costume and Textile Collection, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norfolk Museums Service)

The fabric of protest in disabled people's activism

13 April 2023


Gill Crawshaw is a curator, based in Leeds, who draws on her experience of disability activism to organise art exhibitions and events which highlight issues affecting disabled people. She is interested in the intersection of disabled people’s lives with textile heritage in the north of England, as well as with contemporary textile arts.

In March 2023, Gill took part in People’s History Museum’s (PHM) The Fabric of Protest workshop. She reflects on how disabled people have used textiles as a powerful tool of communication and on some of the objects on show in PHM’s current exhibition about disabled people’s activism, Nothing About Us Without Us.



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Image of Fempress poster, by Pescina, around 1980s

International Women’s Day: posters for female liberation

8 March 2023


In celebration of International Women’s Day 2023, People’s History Museum’s Collections Officer Shivaya Prasad selects campaign materials for women’s rights from our collection of almost three thousand posters. These distinctive posters use bold slogans and illustrations to campaign for issues such as female liberation and bodily autonomy.



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