A big bumper batch of work experience updates

Summer 2024 saw us host a number of students on work experience. Read about the sorts of things they got up to below.

Catriona wrote:

I came to North Hertfordshire Museum for my Year 12 work experience, as a history student and heritage fanatic I found it thoroughly enjoyable. During my time there I was given a wide range of tasks, such as researching objects and donations given to the museum, learning how to catalogue items onto the museum’s accession register and shadowing the work of a curator alongside fellow work experience student Sam. We also got the opportunity to attend a meeting regarding the preparation and planning of a new exhibition which provided insight into the museum’s day-to-day running.

My favourite part of work experience was being tasked with researching for a potential object of the week post for a future social media post. I chose to look at the museum’s wedding dress and mourning bonnet belonging to Elizabeth Mary Salusbury (née Burroughs) of Offley Place from the 1830s where I furthered my knowledge on the tradition of the white wedding dress and the culture of mourning attire.

I also further researched the concept of “Vinegar Valentines” after finding interest in the museum’s own mean-spirited postcard. These unflattering items were most popular during the Victorian era and were also sometimes known as “mock” or “mocking” Valentines. They were cheaply mass-produced allowing all classes to be able to send their caricature, messages or rhymes to whoever they did not like. This can be seen in the photo below showing the illustration’s typically “ugly” expression revealed when pulling a flap which is accompanied with the caption “Oh! That I could forget thee”.

I also enjoyed looking at the museum’s object database on eHive as well as the various items the museum is planning on relocating to more relevant local museums across and outside of Hertfordshire. For example, my favourite items to look at were the various wartime Tatler magazines. I found it fascinating to see the contrast of the traditional high society content and the war-specific advertisements for products such as “Warm Raid Wear” and Huntley & Palmers Biscuits. I appreciate how I was given the opportunity to access such fascinating objects of social history first-hand!

I recommend this experience for any student interested in history or the work of a curator, there is so much more to discover beyond the exhibits. I have loved every part of my time here and the welcoming friendly team has made it a memorable and priceless experience!

Matti wrote:

Imagine for a second that it’s the early 1800s. An arms race was brewing in the rural areas of North Herts between poachers – rural criminals with a love for hunting, and gamekeepers – working for unpopular land owners enforcing the anti-hunting laws that kept poachers at bay.

Poachers would carry a wood and leather cosh with embedded nails to fight off gamekeepers. But before the poachers could get close, gamekeepers would ensnare them in man traps. Big traps like those you see for bears on American television programmes, placed around their land. Gamekeepers would attempt to arrest poachers, but poachers such as the infamous Fox Twins were often able to evade justice by fooling courts, pretending that their twin and not themselves were the true culprit. This rural battle that took place across the countryside, Is now mostly forgotten.

Stories like these sound comedic, even crazy, to us today! However, they are a key chapter in our local history, and the North Herts Museum ensures they stay preserved for years to come via keeping the weapons of poachers and gamekeepers on display. So when I had the opportunity to do four days of work experience there, I was ecstatic.

A man trap on display at our museum

I got to tour primary students around the exhibits, design props, help out with conferences, and help manage interactive displays. I even managed to visit their extended archive, where I got to see thousands of artefacts of both natural and human history, which was my favourite part of my work experience. It gave me an insider perspective on how museums run and how people enter the museum workforce, plus a broader set of skills that could help me no matter what workforce I enter.

I’d recommend work experience here to anyone with an interest in the humanities and a drive to see how much history your local area is really hiding!

Hayden wrote:

During my two days work experience at the museum I read through Second World War newspapers to find stories about local people and local life during the war. It was fascinating to learn about how our area was impacted by the event. Seeing the names and faces of soldiers and civilians who lived so close to where I do now put a very different perspective on the war that you don’t get when learning about it in school. I also logged items collected from the North Herts Pride Picnic 2024 into the accessions book. The accessions book was really interesting as it had records of items collected over 100 years ago, and it was great to be able to add things to the list myself. It did feel slightly strange adding items from this year to a collection of such old things, but it was nice to know that I’d helped in documenting them as part of North Herts history.

My favourite part of work experience at the museum was being able to go through historical sources about WW2, a topic that I am very interested in, and talk about it with people who have a lot of knowledge and interest in the topic as well. As well as the newspapers, I was able to read memories submitted by local people living in North Herts during the war, which made learning about it feel more personal as the stories were told through the eyes of those experiencing it.

The item in the museum that I found most interesting was the painting of Hitchin Town Square by Samuel Lucas. I went to Samuel Lucas Primary School, and it was great to see some of the paintings by the man my school was named after. It was really interesting to see how the town looked back then and to spot the similarities and differences between the painting and the current day. It was also really interesting to see the different people in the paintings. Alongside the painting, there was information about the people painted in it, and it really brought the picture to life to be able to learn about who the people were and the things they did.

Hayden’s favourite object, Hitchin Marketplace by Samuel Lucas Snr

Emilia-Elza and Caitlin wrote:

We came to North Herts Museum for our year 10 work experience. As we both take history, we took this opportunity to put our historical knowledge to use and discover more about our local history and the inner workings of a museum.

During our week we got to design displays, visit the museums expansive archive, dating historical findings and recreated fossils. The thing that Emilia most enjoyed was the visit to the archive where we got to try on high quality costumes and touch real fossils and look at taxidermies. Caitlin’s favourite moment was organising new acquisitions such as photos of the old Hitchin High School for Girls.

Emilia enjoying some Saxon costume

We were both surprised with the amount of history our seemingly small community was steeped in. From the skeletons of the first recorded triplet birth to an extensive football collection, there is something for everyone to be amazed by.

In summary, we recommend this place for anyone doing work experience, even if you don’t feel like you’d enjoy it. The staff are more than friendly, easy to talk to and get along with and the day-to-day workings of this building are never mundane.