One hundred objects from the collections of museums across the country have been included in a teaching resource aimed at bringing key elements of the new history curriculum to life.
Entitled Teaching History with 100 Objects, it has been developed, written and launched by the British Museum with backing from the Department for Education.
The artefacts have been selected to trace British and world history from around 700,000 years ago to 1066 and from then to the present day. The resource is designed to support the history curriculum at key stages 1, 2 and 3 and the first lot of 20 objects became available online last week.
The first 20 objects include the famous Sutton Hoo helmet from the British Museum, which transformed our understanding of Anglo-Saxon England, Guy Fawkes’ lantern from the Ashmolean Museum, and The State Entry, a painting by Roderick MacKenzie (1856-1941) from Bristol Museum and Art Gallery depicting the proclamation of Edward VII as Emperor of India.
World history will be examined through objects including a Mayan lintel, a Roman medical encyclopaedia translated into Arabic, and a bronze vessel from Shang China.
The mummy and coffin of Asru, dating from around 700BC, and important pieces in Manchester Museum’s Egyptology collection will also feature.
A further 30 resources will be available from the end of September, and all 100 will be accessible by the end of December.
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said: “The British Museum is committed to showing how object-based learning can bring history to life.
“This project will enable every primary and secondary school child in the country to access museum objects from the magnificent to the mundane but all of which can teach us about our global history.”
Visit the website at www.teachinghistory100.org