Today's collections find: a yellow embroidered hula cap, part of the everyday dress of men from the Hausa who are the largest ethnic group in West Africa, mostly based in Nigeria. It is part of Reading Museum's world objects collection. 2010.163.1 Reading Museum #FridayFinds

Today's @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange theme is all about ✨glamour✨ We're sharing this beautifully illustrated catalogue for shortbreads, biscuits and cakes produced by Huntley & Palmers in 1929. Who doesn't feel this glamourous reaching for a cookie and a cuppa? 🍪 1994.21.50 🖼️

Theatre at @southstreetarts.bsky.social A new exhibition at @readingmuseum.bsky.social Music classes and events from CultureMix Arts And much more besides. Reading's #BlackHistoryMonth programme kicks off today and runs throughout October! whatsonreading.com/themes/black...

This suitcase took a long journey to the museum. It came from Jamaica in October 1957 aboard the Italian liner 'Sicula Oceanica'. The owner was a member of the Windrush generation, who significantly contributed to the UK's post-war economy. 2024.50.1 Reading Museum #FridayFinds #BlackHistoryMonth

This aircraft worker from WW2 was photographed for the Ministry of Information at Miles Factory in Woodley. The factory made 5000 new aircraft during the war and repaired damaged fighter planes. Thousands of women were employed in this industry in Reading. 1946.52.63 🖼️ Reading Museum 📷 #FridayFinds

This week’s @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange is all about animals. We couldn't miss this opportunity to share one of our favourites, the rather unfairly titled "Beauty and the Beast" by Charles Burton Barber, painted in 1878. 1931.320.1 🦚🐖 Reading Museum 📷

New Blog alert! Our Youth Panel has had a lovely year working with us and @themerl.bsky.social Find out more on our recent blog post here rdguk.info/HcMca

it's one of our favourites too! Reading has a long history of welcoming sanctuary seekers, and we are proud to officially be a Museum of Sanctuary, offering a warm welcome to all. www.readingmuseum.org.uk/get-involved/museum-sanctuary @themerl.bsky.social @readingcouncil.bsky.social

Do you want to find out more about the history of Reading? Then you still have time to book this morning's curator gallery tour at 11.30am or visit the Museum today from 11am to 5pm. www.readingmuseum.org.uk/gallery-tour-history-reading-10-objects

This plan and photograph of Huntley and Palmers' new 1930s office building in King's Road show the steel and reinforced concrete buildings that replaced the cramped and dingy Victorian offices. They were then demolished in the early 1990s. 🖼️ 1997.82.604 & 1997.130.84 📷 Reading Museum #FridayFinds

🌻The #BigRiverWatch starts today. 🖱️Download the free @theriverstrust.bsky.social app, spend 15 minutes by your local river, & complete the short survey to tell us what you see. Wildlife, plants, barriers, water colour, and every sighting matters. Get involved. theriverstrust.org/take-action/...

Dr Euan Roger, Principal Medieval Specialist at The National Archives, is the guest speaker at this year's Friends of Reading Abbey AGM and Lecture on 25 October. He'll be talking about life in St George’s Chapel during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries whatsonreading.com/venues/frien...

If you are looking for something to do in the next few weekends, why not visit Reading Museum, we will be open every Sunday in September from 11am-5pm, and Saturdays as usual 10am-5pm. Pop in, see the collections and browse in our shop! Find out more at www.readingmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/sep...

Who we love your jumper!! So glad you found the same section on our Tapestry 🤩

Heritage Open Days officially begin today! whatsonreading.com/heritage-ope... However, all of today's in-person events are already booked up, but there's some cracking online ones today, and plenty more places to visit between now and 21 Sept... 1/

Today's collections find - this beautiful Italian maiolica polychrome pharmaceutical flask was made in 1610-1620 in Sicily. It contained the medicine 'Water of Endive' and is painted in a typical palette of blue, green, ochre and yellow. 1931.433.14 🍯 Reading Museum 📷 #FridayFinds

Going #BackToSchool isn't all about lessons! Edmund Havell's coloured aquatint shows Reading School and Playground, 1816. The children are playing sports and games in what is now the Forbury Gardens. Reading School once stood on the site of today's Museum. 🖼️ 1931.96.1 📷 Reading Museum

Today's @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange theme is ceramics, so we're sharing this beautiful bird (one of a pair!) by Alan Caiger-Smith - internationally renowned potter with an expertise in lustreware and close ties to Reading. Learn more here: www.readingmuseum.org.uk/alan-caiger-... 🎨

This English delft royal portrait plate has a somewhat unflattering depiction of Queen Anne. Rumours of female favourites at court surrounded Anne’s reign. Read more about this object and other LGBTQ+ 'Untold Histories' online soon. 🍽️ 1961.240.14 📷 Reading Museum #ReadingPride

Did you know the final scene of the Bayeux Tapestry is missing? 📆 Find out more every Saturday at our Bayeux Tapestry tour (book online via our website). 🛍️ Our exclusive range of Bayeux Tapestry merchandise includes the 'Finale' design by Jan Messent. Shop online rdguk.info/zE0CW

Are you friendly, adaptable and passionate about providing great customer service? We are looking for Casual General Assistants to join our busy, vibrant team, from welcoming visitors to delivering tours Applications close 7 September 2025. Good luck! Apply: reabcli.webitrent.com/reabcli_webr...

We're hiring! Are you an enthusiastic and talented social media creator who loves museums? Join our team as Digital Content Producer (Video) and lead on TikTok and reels at The MERL and Reading Museum! Applications are open until 8 September. Apply now: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

🔎 Have you ever wanted to get behind the scenes at a museum? 🏛️ 📆 If so join our curator-led tours of our free collection store for Heritage Open Days on 17th September 💻 Places are limited so book online www.readingmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/heritage-open-days-reading-museum-store-tours-0

⭐ Tomorrow!⭐ Everybody's Welcome! Free fun for everyone in the Forbury Gardens - join us from 10am - 3pm to make creepy crawly critters and become a bug spotter 🐛 rdguk.info/Everybody_We...

Have you heard about the Empress who almost became the first Queen of England? Read more about her story and links to Reading in this new book by local publishers Town Rivers Press: rdguk.info/YtbUB #RDG #RDGUK #ReadingAbbey #WomenWhoChangedTheWorld #ShopLocal

VJ Day, 15 August 1945, marks the day Japan surrendered to the Allies after almost six years of war. Mayor Newham announced the surrender in a speech from the Queen Victoria statue on Friar Street, Reading. ☮️ 1980.36.A767.7 📷 Reading Chronicle Collection, Reading Museum

Snowdonia, North Wales, John Piper 🖼️ Shared from our collection for @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange celebrating Welsh art. Piper stayed in Snowdonia for several years, captured by the wild beauty of the area and inspired to make many drawings and paintings such as this one ©️ Piper Estate

This badge from Butlin's Pwllheli is from 1955. The holiday camp site in North West Wales was originally built as a navy training camp in the Second World War. It was a hugely popular summer holiday destination. It’s now the Hafan-y-Môr camp, owned by Haven 🏖️ 2017.99.1 📷 Reading Museum collection

'I declare after all, there is no enjoyment like Reading.... Museum's new line of Jane Austen merchandise!' Jane Austen (..well the first part is) 📚 Check out our exclusive new range featuring iconic quotes from Jane's hit novels. Buy instore or online rdguk.info/Jane_Austen_...

Ave Maria, 1928, by Mark Lancelot Symons for @artukdotorg.bsky.social's religious art #OnlineArtExchange 🖼️ Symons was a devout Roman Catholic but his unusual, highly symbolic religious art proved controversial during his lifetime. His wife, Constance Gerber, modelled for Mary in this piece.

Did you know there was an Anglo-Saxon nunnery and church in Reading, and this summer @uniofreading.bsky.social are excavating another Saxon abbey at nearby Cookham (visit until 8th August)?⛪ 📚 Find out more in our blog www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/saxon-nuns-viking-raiders-and-norman-invaders

Preliminary programme: - May 15, 2026 - archaeology tours (Silchester or @readingmuseum.bsky.social) & opening reception at @themerl.bsky.social - May 16-17, 2026 - scientific programme (@uniofreading.bsky.social Whiteknights campus) More information: spma.org.uk/pmac26 #pmac26 3/3

Catalogue image from the @readingmuseum.bsky.social collection

Red brick, yellow brick, grey brick, home. Reading houses are renowned for distinctive brickwork. Did you know this is achieved by adding chalk during the brick-making process? Berkshire Industrial Archaeology Group charts the history of brick-making in the town bit.ly/4ffLC1L #rdg #rdguk

Minicomputers like this PDP-8 look old compared to today’s PCs, but were much smaller, cheaper and more versatile than earlier ones. By 1966 DEC's PDP-8 was the world’s first mass-market minicomputer. 💻 See this PDP-8 machine and more in 'Reading's Digital Revolution' exhibition shorturl.at/wOMbh

@artukdotorg.bluesky.social #OnlineArtExchange theme is #abstract. Here’s ‘Summer Garden’ by Martin Froy, on display now! Inspired by the huge Abstract paintings of the American artworld in the 1960s, his work remains rooted in nature and reality. 🎨2025.40.1 Reading Foundation for Art Collection

📆 🍃Our annual teddy bear's picnic is taking place in the beautiful Forbury Gardens until 3pm today 🎵 Museum Rhymetime starts at 11am also in the gardens 🧸 Bring your teddy, a picnic and join the crafty fun! www.readingmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/reading-museums-teddy-bears-picnic-rhymetime-and-craft

The @readingmuseum.bsky.social comes to Reading Libraries once again this summer! Take part in FREE, family-friendly mini beast crafts and activities to celebrate natural heritage at Southcote Library on 1 Aug, and Whitley on 5 Aug. All the info: buff.ly/bGUY1wu

Happy International Tiger Day to all who celebrate, particularly to our favourite big cat from the Reading Museum collection - this sleepy guy from the lid of a Huntley and Palmers biscuit tin 🐅 🍪 Tiger tin, 1968 🔗 tinyurl.com/3u6t9b52 #InternationalTigerDay #TigerDay #HuntleyandPalmers

Looking for exciting ways to keep the kids entertained this summer? Join us at Reading Museum for a season packed with family-friendly events, interactive workshops, and creative adventures! Find out more on our website www.readingmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/fam...

📢 EXCLUSIVE In our new blog Prof Fulford @uniofreading.bsky.social exclusively shares analysis on some of the few human remains found at Silchester, including the discovery of a man with Spanish heritage in Iron Age Britain before the Roman invasion www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/people-silchester

You don't need to be a butterfly expert to get involved in the #BigButterflyCount 🦋🔎 Use our free identification guides for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to help you. Download them and take part here 👉 bigbutterflycount.org

Happy Birthday Fern! We hope you like this special cake 🍰 ...Ok maybe Jack Bryant, head of Huntley & Palmer's cake icing department, wasn't really making a dino bday cake in this 1950s photo, but if he'd known Fern we're sure he would have! 📷 1997.130.538.9 with extra🦕 🔗 shorturl.at/oajj5 @nhm.org

This Disability Pride Month we want to honour the achievements and lived experiences of those with a disability. This Moon alphabet board from our collection was created in 1845 by Dr William Moon to help him and other blind or partially sighted people read using touch ⌨️ 1933.113.1 #DisabilityPride

The new commemorative plaque marking Jane Austen’s former Reading school at Abbey Gateway was officially revealed at Reading Water Fest, go and see it underneath the historic Abbey Gateway, and find out more about the historic Abbey Quarter at Reading Museum

Did you hear the news? The #BayeuxTapestry will be showcased at the British Museum next year! Fun fact: TLA has its own version. Our replica, crafted from C.A. Stothard's sketches and engraved by James Basire between 1819-23, stretches to over 65 feet! 📷 SC/GL/BAY #History

The Bayeux tapestry is being lent to British Museum but Reading already has a Victorian replica 'Reading’s replica Bayeux tapestry is a prudish triumph!', The Guardian www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jul/15/never-mind-the-norman-bollocks-readings-replica-bayeux-tapestry-is-a-prudish-triumph

85 years ago, the Arandora Star was torpedoed. Sadly over 800 lives were lost. Giorgio Scola survived. In our latest blog Julian Scola shares his father's story—from arrest in Reading to internment in Australia. 🔗 rdguk.info/scola_LL6vF #WWII #ArandoraStar #FamilyHistory

The Bayeux Tapestry is set to be shown at @britishmuseum.bsky.social, returning to British soil for the first time in 900 years. @readingmuseum.bsky.social has a stunning replica created in the 19th century, with the added bonus of the Norman ruins of Reading Abbey nearby #history bit.ly/3TBvX2T

On 15 July 1910 a demonstration calling for votes for women took place on Station Road, Reading, around the statue of King Edward VII. The statue was used as the podium for speakers, and to display a banner with the slogan ‘Deeds not Words’. 📷 1986.83.13