100 Objects Bradford tells the stories of the most significant items in Special Collections at the University of Bradford, inspired by the British Museum series, A History of the World in 100 Objects. It is curated by Special Collections Librarian Alison Cullingford with support from colleagues notably past and present Assistants John Brooker and Martin Levy.
Beginning in January 2011, the exhibition unfolded weekly with the occasional break for holidays, exhibitions, building work and other activities.
100? 100 feels right. It is large enough to cover all aspects of the collections, but small enough to make the project manageable and, more importantly, it is small enough for readers and ourselves to feel connected to each item.
Objects? In Special Collections, “objects” tend to be materials that are not books nor archival records e.g. J.B. Priestley’s pipes, or a woven bag made by a follower of Gandhi. However, as you can see, our 100 includes documents, photographs, books, artworks, events, ideas and anything else we think will convey the story we want to share.
Other spaces. This site is the heart of the exhibition. We also share the stories on our twitter account @100ObjectsBrad and on our other blogs and online places.
Over to you. If there is an item in Special Collections at Bradford that has particular meaning for you, we would be delighted to hear from you. We cannot now include it in the 100, but we will tell its story on one of our blogs if we possibly can.
Why not submit an image or two to our “100 images of migration” competition with the Guardian? Doesn’t have to be a photo – any “image” resonant of migration will do – winners in Guardian Weekend magazine. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/04/migration-museum-photography-competition
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