Commemorative Medal
Medal issued to mark the opening of Calthorpe Park.
Contributions of Africans in Birmingham from 1950
Introduction
This exhibition offers an insight into the experience of African migrants in Birmingham since 1950. In the sixty years since 1950 Birmingham has changed beyond all recognition physically, ...
Crescent Bicycles Catalogue, Arthur E. Sayer & Co., Sherlock Street, Birmingham
This catalogue shows that companies were actively marketing bicycles to women by 1900. Inside we find the 'Crescent No 3' Ladies Safety model, which has 'saddle and handle positions arranged to allow ...
Cyril Burt, Report of an Investigation on Backward Children in Birmingham
The idea of the ‘normal child’ was reinforced by research by psychologists in the early 20th century which identified and categorised some children as being ‘abnormal’. Cyril Burt designed tests to identify ...
Daily routine in Norton Reformatory
The boys’ lives were strictly regulated. Activities were timetabled for each day between waking up at 6am and going to bed at 10pm. Cleanliness was required at all times. The boys were under constant ...
David Cox - 'A Gypsy Encampment'
Artists have often sentimentalised gypsies, using them as local colour in idealised rural settings. Here, however, it appears that David Cox has sketched these people from life, and they are the main ...
Discussion of Park Closure at Night
Parks in Birmingham were usually kept closed at night, but in 1954 the Parks Committee did consider leaving Calthorpe Park open. These pages from the Parks Committee minutes consider this proposal, which ...
Domestic Economy Lesson, Somerville Road Board School, Birmingham by William Woollaston
This photograph has been carefully constructed. It was taken to be displayed or circulated as evidence of good educational practice. The blackboard is used to describe what is happening. The subject is ...
Domestic Interior, by Reginald Edgecombe
The Edgecombe drawings demonstrate that urban planners in Birmingham were considering the internal layout as much as the external appearance of new houses. This sketch illustrates the creative processes ...
Dormitory rules in Norton Reformatory
Drawing of a Church by Jessy Watt
Drawing of a Middlemore Girl
As an Edgbastonian, John Middlemore was proudly celebrated in the pages of the Edgbastonia magazine:
‘A benevolent Edgbaston gentleman who has solved one of the difficult social problems of modern ...
Drawing of George De Courcey, All Saints Mental Health Casebook
This drawing by Robson, the asylum doctor, is the only visual record of a child in All Saints Asylum. George was admitted from the workhouse in 1876 aged 9. Like Ellen Allport he is described as insane ...
Drawing of Trees by Gregory Watt
Birmingham born Gregory Watt (1777-1804) was the son of the inventor James Watt’s second marriage, to Ann McGregor. Gregory and his younger sister Jessy (1779-1794) were both accomplished child artists ...
Drawing of Trees by Gregory Watt
Dress by M. & E. Abbott
This striking dress in yellow trimmed with black velvet was made by M. & E. Abbott of 65 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, in 1896. However, we can't be sure exactly how it looked when it left the dressmakers. ...
Edgbaston with Tower of Edgbaston Church
This drawing shows how rural Edgbaston was in the mid-nineteenth century. The tower of Edgbaston Old Church is visible in the background.
Edgbastonia Title Page, 1881
‘The contents will be of local interest, or local production, and […] they shall be of a healthy moral tone, and be altogether non-political and unsectarian’. So says the editor of Edgbastonia in May ...