Our collections

From armchairs to vacuum cleaners and account books to wallpaper. Our collections offer a unique insight into what home means to different people, told through personal stories and everyday objects.

We hold around 40,000 objects, archive materials, photographs and books all to do with domestic life and the everyday lived experience of home.

Collections online

You can now enjoy exploring objects, photographs and books from our collections using our new Collections online. We'll be adding objects to this in time as we continue to make our collection more accessible to everyone.

Collecting

We have a collection of around 40,000 objects including library and archives. The collection is mainly everyday domestic objects dating from 1600 to the present day.

You can also explore collections on our website, including Stay Home Stories and Documenting Homes featuring contemporary stories of home, photographs, questionnaires and oral testimony.

Loans

We have made the vast majority of our collections available for other museums and cultural institutions to borrow. We wish for others to use our diverse array of objects and unique stories to enrich and inform in a variety of ways. We have a flexible approach to lending which means our collection is as accessible as possible to institutions looking to borrow.

If you are interested in borrowing, please get in touch with us at curatorial@museumofthehome.org.uk so we can discuss the availability of objects and arrange a visit to examine the objects in person. Please make any formal requests for loans, no sooner than six months before the start of the loan period.