Cuimhne visits the Museum of Brands
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“Brands carry meaning. They shape who we are”
“brands and packs, posters and ads, fads and fashions, toys and games. Evocative and inspiring, it’s a kaleidoscope of images and iconic brands. Featuring over 12,000 original items…”
Cuimhne volunteers visited the Museum of Brands this month and met with curator Alina to discuss how the museum may be able support people living with dementia, their families and carers.
We discovered a fascinating collection of household items, domestic object,s toys and games from different decades, presenting a history of everyday lives of ordinary people living in Britain.
The museum is keen to be as inclusive as possible and welcomes ideas from our Irish in Britain community of objects to display or include in the learning resource collection that may have special significance for people of Irish heritage living in Britain.
The Museum welcomes people of all ages. It offers pram storage and a baby changing area and it was delightful to have Cuimhne volunteer Anne’s seven–month–old grandson join our visit.
The building has disabled access and can be visited by bus. However, the nearest station nearby, Ladbroke Grove, has a lot of steps to negotiate. Mindful of some of the barriers to visiting, museum staff and volunteers have been making efforts to conduct outreach visits to dementia and dementia carer community groups and care homes.
Recently museum staff visited Decaf (a drop–in dementia cafe) at Irish in Britain member group, Ashford Place. Any groups accessible by public transport within an hour from the Museum are welcome to contact the museum to discuss the possibilities of a multi–sensory object–handing outreach visit by museum staff, to aid reminiscence.
On Tuesday mornings from 9.30–10.30am at a quiet time before opening to the public, the museum offers reminiscing sessions, welcoming people living independently with dementia accompanied by a carer. Participants are invited to stay and enjoy the café and beautiful garden afterwards. Click here to find out more.
The museum has created some learning resources and puzzles about popular household items that can be used to support people living with dementia. You can check out some of these resources here.
Tangible multi–sensory objects can often be marvellous in reminiscence sessions and passing round objects can help people from different generations connect and interact over a shared experience.
Scents can be a particularly powerful way of rousing memories. We discussed how scents of products like Sunlight and Life Buoy carbolic soap can help transport people back to memories of the past.
Alina passed a pot of cream with a mysterious scent around our group and asked everyone to try and guess what it might be. It turned out to be brill cream, a men’s hair product in the 1940s and 1950s, which became less commonly used as big and long hair came into fashion with pop and rock icons of the 1960s and 70s.
It is fascinating to reflect on how brands and packaging have changed through the ages. Alina challenged our group to guess the date of this packet of Rowntree’s jelly.
Rowntree old packet of sweets
We discussed how yoghurts started to replace jellies in the 1960s with household fridges.
This packet has no barcode and the weight is given in ounces rather than grams suggesting that it predates the 1970s when barcodes and metric weights were commonly introduced onto food packaging.
Passing round an old rationing book led to discussion about rationing lasting until 1955 in England. People remembered family members in Ireland where rationing did not exist sending over gifts of foods like turkeys and fish for special occasions to family in England. Sadly, these often had to be buried in the garden as they did not last the journey.
After Alina’s talk we travelled through the Museum’s Time Tunnel which explores how our consumer society has evolved since Victorian times:
“a journey of discovery that puts our favourite brands into their historical context. Along with royal coronations, two world wars, man landing on the moon and right up to the digital age. Laid out chronologically, the Time Tunnel reflects how daily life has been transformed by the invention of the railway, the motor car, and the aeroplane. Also, how the entertainment has been enlivened by the arrival of cinema, radio and television.
“Memories arise from toys and games that, since the 1950s, have reflected the most popular television programmes. Magazine covers illustrate the change in style and fashion, while colourful posters connected to the product aspirations of each period. Amongst these memories, there are stories to consider, as the advance in technology, or the passing of the domestic servant. Along with the emancipation of women, the takeover of the self–service, the benefits of refrigeration and the growth of plastics.”
The museum ordinarily charges an entrance fee. We thank it for opening its doors free of charge to people living with dementia their carers and Cuimhne volunteers during World Alzheimer’s month.