The National Museum of Labour History, better known as the People's History Museum, keeps the archives, displays the evidence, and tells the story of the long and sometimes dramatic British struggle for democracy. Specifically, it tells the story of the struggle for human rights that resulted from sudden rapid change as Britain led the world into the Industrial Revolution. Workers' rights, women's rights, and black people's rights all feature here.
The Pump House Spinningfields building
The museum, at Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, is actually one museum inside another, because its main building is a conserved relic of Manchester's industrial past. The Pump House building which houses part of the museum gave it its name for some years. Based on the riverbank (of the Irwell) the Pump House was used to supply hydraulic power around central Manchester. One of its functions was to turn the hands of the Town Hall clock, another was to raise the curtain at the Opera House. This was achieved by pumping water at pressure through six-inch pipes to power many hydraulic lifts and machines, especially in the multi-storey textile warehouses situated around the city centre.
Pump House temporary exhibitions
Since the museum's extension 2007-2010, the refurbished Pump House building houses the Changing Exhibition Gallery and the Community Gallery, each of which can feature artifacts from the archive or special assemblages of relevant material.
The Community Gallery, in the Engine Hall, features regularly changing displays on different political issues, such as the Christmas 2010 Politics, Protest, and the Christmas Card. The 2011 summer exhibition, Retracing Salford, A-Z of Lost Salford Streets, was stimulated by the loss of 1500 streets demolished since 1960. Material was collected and collated through the auspices of the Streets Project, which is now processing some of the material into an online museum.
In 2011 a major changing exhibition has been On The March: An Exhibition of Banners by Ed Hall, a vast array of recent and contemporary campaigning banners, many of which have been exhibited internationally. From November 2011 until June 2012 the Changing Exhibition Gallery houses Picturing Politics - exploring the political poster in Britain, which has its own blog kept by exhibition curator, Chris Burgess.
The People's History Museum Main Galleries
This is the national collection relating to labour history in the UK, but its housing in Manchester is very apt, since many of the greatest landmarks in the development of civil rights activism originated or occurred in this significant centre of industry and trade. The artifacts and visual evidence on display on the first and second floors range from commemorative ceramics through everyday objects to campaign posters and workers' guild and union banners. They are arranged in seven themes, based around the fact that ideas have always been worth fighting for.
- Revolution: Including the Peterloo massacre, and the Cato Street conspiracy.
- Reformers: The Chartists, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the Anti Corn Law League, among many others.
- Workers: The first Trades Union Congress met for the first time at 103 Princess Street, Manchester in 1868, in the building that housed the museum for some years.
- Voters: Women's suffrage benefitted from Manchester's Emeline Pankhurst and her daughters and their followers, but many workers had no vote either; who campaigned for their rights?
- Citizens: The growth of political philosophies such as socialism, liberalism and conservatism, as well as the experience of West Indian immigrants when they arrived in Britain in the 1960s.
- Time Off: Workers in leisure industries had their own struggles, illustrated here through material from the Professional Footballers' Association and the Musicians' Union, for instance.
- Banners: Displayed throughout the museum, but especially the second floor gallery.
Co-operation as well as revolution, reformers as well as workers, citizens' rights and migration all feature in the historical timeline that stretches from the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819 to the present day (with a glance backward to Mary Wollstonecraft, who died a couple of decades sooner).
The layout of the galleries encourages browsing or pausing to peruse the many displays. Interactive exhibits occur in every theme, encouraging the opening of cupboard doors or boxes, or even dressing up, trying on types of hat, for instance. There are audio-visual displays, making good use of archive footage or contemporary photographs, and written explanation panels on exhibits to suit most interest levels.
Gallery Two Textiles
This gallery has a double height ceiling, so that some of the museum's extensive collection of historic very large campaign banners can be hung, thus displaying them properly, as they were meant to be seen. Many are double-sided and vistors can walk right around them and view from both sides. The museum houses the largest collection of these banners, and from this gallery, visitors can also see in to the Textile Conservation Studio where renovation and cleaning takes place.
Labour History Archive
The Labour History Archive and Study Centre welcomes serious scholars to delve into the donated papers of many organisations, but this is weekdays only, and only by appointment. An online catalogue and a list of downloadable guides to the Labour History Archive is available on the museum website.
The People's History Museum also organises ongoing Lifelong Learning opportunities, incuding cross-curricula activities for learners of all ages. Participatory or interactive events have been regular features of this programme.
The museum is open 10am to 5pm seven days a week. Admission is free to all to the main galleries, the changing exhibition gallery and the community gallery. A charge is sometimes made for occasional talks or special exhibitions.
Sources
Steve Little & Lynda Jackson (c2004) Conservation Plan The Pump House People's History Museum
The People's History Museum website http://www.phm.org.uk/
The Streets Museum http://www.streetsmuseum.co.uk/
Valerie Williamson - Dr. Val Williamson is a freelance journalist and academic specialising in historical and popular culture topics.
