'We are looking for volunteers to get involved in the planning and delivery of our exhibition ‘A History of Children’s Nursing.’
This message arrived in my inbox in March and immediately caught my imagination. Since retiring a few years ago, I have been working as a volunteer at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and have been enthralled by the world of museums and exhibitions. Volunteers are privileged to gain an insight into some of the background planning that goes into planning an exhibition through talks by the curators. I have always been interested in the history of nursing so hoped that I might be able to make a useful contribution to the planning of this RCN exhibition so applied to assist immediately.
I was disappointed to miss the initial meeting and opportunity to learn about object handling but was able to join most of the online planning meetings. I was particularly captivated by the session about interpretation and object labelling, led by David Francis from King’s College London. I could relate what he was suggesting to my personal experiences at the Ashmolean and wanted to get started with some research of my own.
I was brought up in Norfolk and recalled passing the site of the Jenny Lind Hospital for children on my way to school in Norwich, so curious to find out more, began researching. This was fascinating and quite addictive work. I had not realised that the ‘Jenny’ was the second inpatient children’s hospital in the UK, or that it had been located on several different sites across the city before becoming a department in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. In search of suitable exhibits I contacted the NNUH Nurses League and the Norfolk Record Office. I was also fortunate to be able to speak to a former ‘Jenny Junior’ who began her nursing career at the Jenny Lind. My next challenge was working out a way of condensing my research into an appropriate format for an exhibition.
The online planning meetings were arranged so that we all had an opportunity to bounce around ideas. Following one meeting I contacted the play team at my former workplace and was able to negotiate to borrow some books and preparation tools for the exhibition. I enjoyed researching these objects and writing object labels, who knew there was so much information about Ladybird books!
As the planning stages of the exhibition are ending, I am excited to see how everything comes together and visiting the exhibition itself. I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get involved in this project and recommend the experience to anyone who has an interest in exhibition planning.
Angela Houlston
If you'd like to get involved, you can take part in the volunteer exhibition programme for our next exhibiton on the history of nursing support workers.
