Hi Emma,
Here at The MERL we make regular use of accessioned material in handling contexts. This is to avoid the potential pitfalls and challenges of setting up a parallel ‘handling’ collection. This includes a tendency for less ‘important’ or less
‘valuable’ material to be placed in the handleable category and other stuff to be accessioned and therefore end up inaccessible to anyone other than curators or visiting researchers. It avoids the running of two parallel systems and allows for objects to flow
between the handling and non-handling category as required or appropriate.
We use a similar process to you I think in terms of managing risk for the objects. Prior to their use in public engagement handling contexts items are assessed using a traffic light system and we work through a brief set of questions that
helps us assess relative degrees of risk for anyone handling (sharp edges, dangerous materials, etc) and for the artefacts (susceptibility to damage, wear, etc). This is a fairly subjective process but it’s the best solution we could come up with. It mitigates
against the risk of people hurting or harming themselves and at least indicates that we have thought through the potential risks involved.
We do have hands on access to old toys but we do not really allow play with these. Gloves are worn and items are handled carefully above a trolley-based handling surface. So, the traffic light system is where the similarity with your processes
ends. Hope this helps.
Best,
Ollie
From: Social History Curators Group email list <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Emma Sayer
Sent: 04 March 2020 13:55
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Subject: Using original toys in Museum environment
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Hi everyone,
We recently opened a 1950’s welfare hall at Beamish Museum which included a mother and baby clinic. Within this space I had used original 1950’s toys which children were allowed to handle and play with. It was a bit of an experiment to
see how the toys fared (on the whole surprisingly well considering our footfall last year was 800,000 visitors) however it has since been suggested to us that legally we shouldn’t be allowing children to play with toys that don’t have a CE stamp for health
and safety reasons.
Do any of you, in your lovely Museums allow children to play with original objects (I realise we are a bit unique in this sense as an open air museum) and if so, how do you get round the CE requirements and keep both children and objects
safe? Should I be looking to just source replica objects instead? I would be interested in any experience or advice people might have around the legalities of letting children handle and play with historic objects.
Also, for all you learning people out there – how do you approach learning sessions using historic toys? Is this done in a more controlled object handling way or using free play?
Many thanks in advance and I would be happy to discuss this with anyone who may get back to me as I appreciate my enquiry is somewhat convoluted.
Emma
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