The Hackney Museum in London documents the history of the culturally diverse community, featuring exhibitions with photographs, interviews, and objects of immigrants. Visitors can try on historical costumes and view themes presented in permanent exhibitions. The museum represents a millennium of immigration histories and patterns affecting the region, including a real Saxon boat estimated to be 1,000 years old. Hackney was once a rural setting, but the Victorian age brought about changes with a growing population and industrialisation.
The Hackney Museum was opened in 2002 in London’s Hackney district to document centuries of the community’s history, particularly culturally diverse peoples and how they came to reside there. The exhibitions feature photographs, interviews and objects of these immigrants. A sculpture created by someone born in Sierra Leone, for example, helps illustrate a child’s experience, while a printing press used by a Yiddish businessman or a variety of Nazi memorabilia tell other kinds of stories. The Hackney Museum has sought out the stories of immigrants to try and convey to visitors why they have chosen to settle in the Hackney community. The history of foreign settlers in the region dates back to the Saxons and early history of Britain.
Many of the activities at Hackney Museum are hands-on, fun especially for young people. For example, historical costumes can be tried on and a Saxon boat is ready to wait for the children to load it with goods. Visitors can also view the history of Hackney based on the themes presented in permanent exhibitions. Themes include housing areas, businesses, free speech, job hunting, a safe haven and other issues that have impacted people who have sought out the diversity Hackney has to offer. The artifacts representing the various historical periods are divided between authentic and replicas. There are also computerized touch screens.
The Hackney Museum is a small space with a big job of documenting a millennium of immigration histories and patterns affecting the region. Immigrants represented in the museum’s collections include those from Africa, Asia, Europe and India. One historical aspect of this immigration is on display under protective glass: a real Saxon boat discovered in the 1980s and estimated to be 1,000 years old. Modern times are represented in part by a 1950s kitchen.
Hackney was once a rural setting with lots of farmland. The Victorian age brought about changes with a growing population and industrialisation, turning farmland into an urban landscape. A major driver of change was the introduction of the railway to the region in 1840. Protected heritage areas include houses built in the Victorian and Georgian periods.
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