The Royal Air Force Museum has launched a fundraising initiative that offers the public the chance to adopt objects in its collection.
More than 50 items have been chosen from the museum’s 1.3 million-plus artefacrs. Each is available to adopt across three tiers (Standard, Enhanced and Exclusive), starting at £25. Adoptions last 12 months from the date they are adopted.
All adoptees will receive a digital adoption certificate and photo of their adopted artefact. Recognition of their adoption will feature alongside the object on Collections Online, the museum’s new digital collections system.
“Support from adoptees will help the museum continue sharing the RAF Story, past, present and future, to engage, inspire and encourage learning for current and future generations,” said Edward Sharman, the head of development at the RAF Museum.
Artefacts can be adopted on an individual or corporate basis and those adopting one of the Exclusive tier items will receive additional benefits. The Exclusive tier consists of 13 aircraft, each available to only one adoptee.
Within the Standard tier, objects can be adopted by several people. These include unusual items such as a playing cards that were used by RAF prisoners of war in Germany during the Second World War to smuggle maps into camps.
Items in the Enhanced tier are exclusive to one adoptee and include the uniform of Avis Hearn, who refused to leave her post at an RAF radar station while under attack by German dive bombers. The RAF Museum has sites in Hendon, London, and Cosford in the West Midlands.
