For me, museums are about objects and stories. I’ve always found postcards particularly fascinating, especially those written during the second world war when the writers used every inch of the page.
Postcard Stories by Jan Carson, published in 2017, is a collection of short stories based on events and people observed in Northern Ireland. The author’s musings provide a snapshot of the people of Belfast. Amusingly, Carson describes how the “inability to take a compliment is wired into us Northern folk like the propensity to ignore rain or drink tea”.
This book makes me think about the work we do with people and how we don’t reflect enough on our achievements in museums. What if museum professionals took a moment each day to write a sentence on a postcard about what happened in our venue? What if we wrote down what a child said about an exhibition or the lyrics of a song a gentleman sang when you took a suitcase of memories to a retirement home?
We reflect on our achievements in terms of footfall, budget versus spend and reviews, but how often do we notice people, their behaviour and the immediate impact our museums have on them? I’m inspired to write about what happens in our museum workshops. Perhaps my collection of postcards will make for a more interesting AGM report this year.
Jenny Haslett is the museum manager at the Northern Ireland War Memorial in Belfast
Postcard Stories by Jan Carson, published in 2017, is a collection of short stories based on events and people observed in Northern Ireland. The author’s musings provide a snapshot of the people of Belfast. Amusingly, Carson describes how the “inability to take a compliment is wired into us Northern folk like the propensity to ignore rain or drink tea”.
This book makes me think about the work we do with people and how we don’t reflect enough on our achievements in museums. What if museum professionals took a moment each day to write a sentence on a postcard about what happened in our venue? What if we wrote down what a child said about an exhibition or the lyrics of a song a gentleman sang when you took a suitcase of memories to a retirement home?
We reflect on our achievements in terms of footfall, budget versus spend and reviews, but how often do we notice people, their behaviour and the immediate impact our museums have on them? I’m inspired to write about what happens in our museum workshops. Perhaps my collection of postcards will make for a more interesting AGM report this year.
Jenny Haslett is the museum manager at the Northern Ireland War Memorial in Belfast
