At the National Railway Museum not only do we have a wonderful collection of objects, we also have over 360 amazing volunteers. They support our work in a variety of ways, from assisting with research to running our miniature railway. We value their input tremendously and it’s important to us that they have a strong voice within our organisation. One of the ways we do this is through our “My favourite object” posters. Each month a volunteer writes 100 words on their favourite object from our collection, these are then displayed throughout the museum. As well as providing our volunteers with the chance to share their passion with our visitors, it has also proved a fascinating and personal way of interpreting the collection.
Since we started, almost two years ago, we have displayed a huge range of objects. My personal favourites include a story about the parents of one of our volunteers travelling on Golden Arrow and one man’s affection for a station bench!
Each month I’ll be sharing one of these stories with you. If you have any personal connections with the objects please let me know, as I’d love to hear them.