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.
As we approach the weekend of Manchester Pride, Bernard Donoghue, Trustee at People’s History Museum (PHM) and CEO of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) reflects on why he chose to be the PHM Radical Sponsor of Alan Turing.
All year PHM is marking 200 years since the Peterloo Massacre; a defining moment for Britain’s democracy. For Bastille Day we asked Dr Jonathan Spangler, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern European History at Manchester Metropolitan University to describe how political activity on one side of the Channel certainly influenced outcomes on the other in August 1819.
We’re exploring the past, present and future of protest throughout 2019, and have compiled our own protest playlist. Here our friend, curator, DJ and co-founder of Manchester Digital Music Archive, Abigail Ward shares her highlights from Manchester’s history of rebel music.
To complement the display of a portrait of Hugh Hornby Birley, who as captain of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry played a central role in the events that unfolded at the Peterloo Massacre, we asked author Jeff Kaye to share his research on Birley from his forthcoming novel All the People and treat us to an excerpt about the painting, now in People’s History Museum’s (PHM) collection.
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.
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