HISTORY IN HAND
Doctor’s hoard of everyday treasures to be celebrated by museum with an invitation to add your own
York Castle Museum’s interpretation and content manager Helen Langwick is pictured holding a firemark, one of the artefacts which is due to go on display for a new exhibition as the venue prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary in the spring.
HAD HE been alive today, Dr John Kirk would likely have been labelled a hoarder and his obsessive collecting seen as sign of some troubling disorder.
However, it was the Pickering GP’s eye for the minutiae of everyday life that made him one of Britain’s greatest ever collectors of social history and helped blow the dust off traditional museum displays.
Dr Kirk did not reckon much to exhibits being housed in glass cabinets and when he founded York Castle Museum in 1938, with its recreation of a Victorian high street through which visitors could walk, it was the country’s first ever interactive attraction of its kind.
With the museum now about to celebrate its 80th anniversary, staff have been going back through Dr Kirk’s original collections for a new exhibition in his memory.
Helen Langwick, the interpretation and content manager for York Castle Museum, said: “He was working in North Yorkshire before the days of the NHS and from the 1890s onwards he became aware that the rural way of life he saw every day was disappearing.
“He decided that he should be the one to preserve it. He collected anything and everything he could and when one of his patients was struggling for money he would often take a particular object in lieu of payment.
“These weren’t pieces which had any intrinsic financial value, but he was able to see their worth in a wider social context and that’s what makes his collection so valuable.
“As we approach this landmark anniversary it has been a real privilege to go back through the collection and we have unearthed some really unusual finds, including an umbrella which claims to have been the first in York.
“We can’t be absolutely certain that it was, but what it shows is how even the most ordinary of objects has a story to tell.”
As part of the anniversary celebrations, a new showcase of some of the earliest and more unusual items collected by Dr Kirk will open in April, but the museum is also asking members of the public to suggest an object to be included in the display.
Ms Langwick added: “Dr Kirk had a real passion for collecting metal firemarks (inset), which were fixed onto the side of buildings to show they were insured. They have disappeared into history and we are really keen to continue his legacy by finding objects which reflect either a current trend in York or something which is disappearing from modern-day life. “It doesn’t have to be made in the city – it could be a massproduced item – but it should have a very strong York story to tell. The chosen items will go on display and afterwards they will become part of the permanent collections of the museum.
“Even the simplest thing, like old chocolate packaging, can spark a dozen stories and that’s why we want to continue the conversations Dr Kirk started 80 years ago.”
A special weekend of celebrations will take place on April 21. To submit an object for possible inclusion in the exhibition, go to www. yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk.
Even the most ordinary of objects has a story to tell. Helen Langwick, interpretation and content manager for York Castle Museum.