Edinburgh teen Eve Williamson has been visiting our venues and latest exhibitions. In her latest blog, she shares her experience of the Museum of Childhood.
During my free week in June, I decided to take a trip to some of the museums and attractions around the Edinburgh city centre. After spending the previous day in the City Art Centre and Writer’s Museum, I headed back into town to check out various attractions on the Royal Mile, including the Museum of Childhood. I was excited to check it out - the displays were chock full of old artefacts and, as history often focuses on specific events and skips over children’s everyday lives, I was looking forward to learning more about a topic I hadn’t explored all that much. With that in mind, I entered the museum and travelled through its various exhibits.
The Museum
The Museum of Childhood was opened in 1955 and was the first in the entire world to be dedicated to the history of childhood. In it, you walk through five galleries (though the second was closed for maintenance on my visit), each exploring different things related to childhood. The museum is, in my opinion, much larger than it feels on the outside and you can spend a good 45 minutes to an hour exploring. It is chock full of cute details, like children’s drawings on the window glass, and you can tell it has a lot of love put into it. I found it super interesting to see the evolution of society as a whole through the evolution of childhood; it’s a fascinating lens through which to view the history of Scotland. The main thing that stood out to me was how despite how different the world has been throughout the last 200 years or so, some experiences and games they played over a hundred years before I was born had me thinking “Oh I remember doing that!” and “Wow, that’s nostalgic!”. The exhibits felt accessible to everyone of all ages.
Changing Childhood
The first gallery was called ‘Changing Childhood’. It served as a visual summary of the past 200 years or so of childhood, with you seeing games and clothes and historical information about how children lived their lives. It establishes some of the key themes of the museum. The highlights of this section for me was learning more about how society came to value childhood as they viewed it as something to be cherished and protected and stopped seeing kids as just miniature adults that can do jobs for smaller people. I also liked the section on the much celebrated - and dreaded - computer. It would be remiss not to mention how aesthetically pleasing this gallery was; the exhibit flowed so well and the design choices were super cool and cleverly made, which really elevated the experience for me.
Dolls and Soft Toys
The second gallery, ‘Toys’, was shut during my visit for maintenance, so I headed off to the third exhibit of ‘Dolls and Soft Toys’. Though I am admittedly slightly afraid of old dolls (probably watched too many horror films), I still found a lot of enjoyment in it, especially when I got to the dolls I could recognise from my childhood and had a nice dose of nostalgia. I sent a photo of the exhibit to my friend who likes old dolls and owns a few herself and she absolutely loved it.
Games and Hobbies
After that, I headed to ‘Games and Hobbies’, which was probably my favourite exhibit. As I went to the Museum of Childhood at 2pm on a Tuesday before school holidays started, there weren’t many children there and yet all the interactive toys and games in that exhibit were very much getting played with. I heard people talking about toys they loved in a variety of languages and accents, saw a family of American adults play ‘Chutes and Ladders’ (I say snakes) and saw countless people excitedly pointing at different exhibits. As we grow older, it’s easy to forget how fun playing silly little games can be, so seeing adults from all over the world share their excitement and joy over childhood games, even the Victorian versions, was a lot of fun.
Children's Clothes
Finally, I went to the ‘Children’s Clothes’ gallery. The dim lighting and decoration of the gallery to make it look like an old street made it so fun and enjoyable. It was so immersive that I forgot to take any pictures (well done, Eve) and had to run back and grab one at the end. It was a great ending to a really well laid out museum and the items of clothing preserved there were amazing to see.
Overall Experience
Overall, as it probably comes across reading this, I really loved this museum. Beyond being aesthetically pleasing and very well arranged, I learnt loads about an area of history I hadn’t thought all that much about. Childhood is a major part of all of our lives and our experience of it is shaped by and shapes the world around us; just because we’re older doesn’t mean its history doesn’t matter to us anymore. As I spent more time there, I enjoyed catching glimpses of excitement on the faces of guests and hearing people from all over our planet discussing how happy seeing childhood celebrated made them feel. At the end of my trip, I went to the guidebook and flicked through pages upon pages of visitors from all around the world writing about how lovely their journey was. It made me realise how despite all of our childhoods being unique, the experience of childhood itself is universal and one that should be celebrated.
Editor's note: Please check the up-to-date opening hours for the Museum of Childhood before planning your trip. We look forward to seeing you.