Collecting in new ways

Our Collections Development Policy underpins all of our activity with the objects and stories in our care. It guides our thinking, plans and ideas and makes sure we’re fulfilling our legal and ethical responsibilities whilst exploring what home means to different people.

Collecting priorities

We have three main collecting priorities alongside our continuing Documenting Homes strand:

Homes Through Time

We are prioritising the migratory and marginalised experience and working with our community, we will collect and tell the stories that are missing from our collection as part of the redevelopment of the Rooms Through Time and Gardens Through Time.

Radical Home

Through community and co-curated work we will collect the everyday items we use in the home and the stories they tell us about what we think and who we are.

Rapid Response Collecting

Building on the success of our Stay Home collecting project, we will collect contemporary objects and photographs to document crucial moments and shifts in society that affect the home in response to major events as they happen.

Our current collections

Our existing collections reflect the history of the Museum.

From an early focus on furniture and furniture making, to collections reflecting the everyday experience of urban, middle class homes we look after a unique collection of typical domestic objects and the personal stories behind them. Alongside our growing Documenting Homes collection which records people's everyday experiences of home, our recent acquisitions have broadened to reflect more diverse homes and themes, including religious practice, entertainment and housework.