Object December 2010

Unpacking a Museum

Unpacking a Museum was a project in the Autumn of 2010 involving The Marlborough School, Woodstock, The Oxfordshire Museum and the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust.

The project gave hands-on experience to a group of year 6 to year 12 pupils of how to develop a modern museum display, using a series of artefacts from the Museum's collection.

During their research at the museum, the pupils have been uncovering the stories behind several items including a set of World War 1 dog-tags, a piece of a crashed Zeppelin and a death plaque from an Oxfordshire soldier who died in Iraq in 1915.

However, as their display object, the pupils chose a model of the "Red Baron's" Fokker tri-plane.  Made by a retired RAF bomber pilot, Don Briggs DFC, this is now on display at the Oxfordshire Museum, along with a description of the highlights of the project and the steering column of one such aircraft shot down in France in 1917.