The duck that broke the web
Joe Shute visits the quaint Museum of English Rural Life, which has become an unlikely ‘viral’ success
How to crack the internet is a conundrum that preoccupies businesses across the world. Vast sums are languished on creating that mysterious alchemy that makes something go viral. It is one of the most sought-after skills in our digital times.
But Silicon Valley can take a breather. The Museum of English Rural Life in Reading appears to have found the answer. The museum, which was established on the campus of Reading University in 1951 and boasts England’s oldest farm wagon and an unparalleled collection of smocks, has garnered a huge online following through its unexpectedly hilarious social media presence, which has left the world’s top museums struggling to keep up.
Its most recent viral hit came in the new year when the museum – abbreviated to MERL – tweeted a black and white photograph of a baby duck taken in 1934 accompanied by the caption: “Mother, I’m ready to conquer the world.”
The museum staff challenged other institutions to send in their own duck photographs prompting contributions to pile in from around the world, including the J Paul Getty Museum in California, the Textile Museum of Canada and others from across Europe and Asia. There has even been a contribution from China. To date the original tweet now has more than two million impressions.
The man behind the posts is Adam Koszary, a softly spoken floppy-haired 28-yearold in rolled-up skinny jeans and striped socks, who is programme manager and digital lead at the museum.
Koszary’s previous blockbuster hit came last year when he tweeted another black and white photograph, this time depicting an Exmoor Horn ram taken at the Devon Show in 1962 accompanied by the caption: “look at this absolute unit”. It was shared so widely that the museum doubled – then trebled – its Twitter following in a matter of days. Such success provoked articles in numerous publications including Time in the US. The tweet also inspired a range of T-shirts – now sold out.
This online audience (the museum’s Twitter following now stands just shy of 100,000) is also translating to the real world, with a huge upsurge in visitors. In 2018 numbers were up 47 per cent compared with the previous year. Many are American tourists who follow the museum online and decide to factor it into their tour of the UK’s most iconic landmarks. This Christmas it even received a dozen or so Christmas cards posted from across the Atlantic.
“The weird thing is I don’t even find what I do that funny,” says Koszary, who was raised in the Black Country on a diet of Monty Python.
“It’s this vein of British humour that I think people latch on to. People look at us as this nice quaint place but with this dark edge.” I am given a tour of the museum by Dr Ollie Douglas, a farmer’s son who grew up in the Scottish borders and who has been curator for the past 10 years. We pass portraiture of prizewinning Dexter cows, scythes, spades, strawcraft, more smocks, and an Edwardian mouse trap containing an actual dead mouse which had the misfortune of climbing in at some point in the past few years. This grisly and deeply unfortunate discovery prompted the museum’s first viral hit.
Further on is a timber carriage, a bovine tattooing kit and two metal spiky balls used as a sheep contraceptive. No one seems clear on how exactly it works.
Douglas points out a pair of wellington boots donated by the founder of Glastonbury Festival, Michael Eavis, as well as an Eighties board game called Grade Up, which, he says, “is probably the only one based on the artificial insemination of cattle”.
Such curios aside, the museum does boast a remarkable collection detailing an almost-forgotten way of life. It possesses an unparalleled fleet of ancient wagons, ploughs and agricultural machinery as well as more than one million photographs depicting rural England as it once was.
Isabel Hughes, head of curatorial and public engagement at MERL, says: “I actually think English country life is very funny.” And it was she who hired Koszary six years ago. “He’s got a natural instinct for it and it’s funny in a silly and gentle way,” she says. “Everyone wants to know the secret.”
As MERL’s online presence has grown, Koszary has found himself in demand and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.
So, what is his secret? On this Koszary is clear. “Tragically I spend an unhealthy amount of time on the internet. So I know what people are talking about.”
‘This online audience is translating to the real world, with a huge upsurge in visitors’