What I did on my field trip (1)

OK, we left The Dark Place and headed west through the beautiful, autumnal Shropshire countryside and arrived at the Land of Lost Content. It's a massive warehouse literally piled high with the things we throw away: toys, games, clothes, office equipment, kitchen gear, packaging, bottles, postcards, luggage, electrical items, magazines: almost everything except for (interestingly) much on politics, sex or religion.

It's mind-boggling. The cultural choices made in archiving are fascinating and often troubling. The proprietor framed the collection as an art installation. You might see it as junk. Some of it really bothers me: there's an awful lot of racist material, particularly golliwogs. The museum's stance isn't clear: is this a fair representation of a past culture which simply didn't care about minority races, or is this material collected for other reasons?

I think the students enjoyed themselves, and learned a lot about past and material culture.

Here's a selection (click to enlarge): full set here.

WW2 Jobs for the Girls poster

Plastic Sweat Yourself Thin clothes (ugh)

50s Horlicks sign

Well-Meaning Guardian Readers Against The Bomb (that's me!)

Actual Subbuteo streakers!

Terrifying, freakish crawling doll

Enid Blyton merchandising

A romantic cigarette from Craven "A"

Tretchikoff's 'Chinese Girl' - hugely popular in the 1950s/60s

Official Girl Scout Camera