My internship/placement has just been approved! I am very excited and although approval didn’t come till the 8 September, I have to admit I already worked there for two days. Oops that is rude, I have not introduced myself yet so allow me to do so now. I am Frances and am in my final year of a BA(Hons) degree in History at the University of Westminster. This placement is a module worth twenty credits and I jumped at the opportunity to get away from both the academic and home environment. The idea of welcoming, explaining and encouraging others to explore their own history was something that really appealed. The instructions for the volunteer position posted online, at a relatively local museum said to email a CV and letter of application but true to form, I ignored that and trotted off to the Museum of Brands in Ladbroke Grove and paid the entry fee and spent hours looking around. It was not very long before I realised that this trip down memory lane would suit me just fine so I spoke to the Volunteer Co-ordinator, Natasha Facey who was as enthusiastic as I was and offered me the volunteer position on the spot, also agreeing to be my mentor. I also spoke to the Community Development Officer a delightful American lady called Abby who told me she has funding for a three year programme working with people with dementia using reminiscence sessions. This in particular drew me to the programme, not to mention the thousands of exhibits on display depicting the past hundred plus years in branding and packaging materials.
That is enough about me because I must introduce you to the Museum of Brands based in Ladbroke Grove, London, just a short journey from home. https://museumofbrands.com/
For people who love history any museum is fascinating but this one, in my opinion is special because it feels so intimate. and personal and, because I can relate to so many of the items on display. I have read the history of and seen the Rosetta Stone but have no personal link to it, unlike my guilty pleasure, the Fry’s Chocolate Cream, which was first produced in 1853 and sold as a Chocolate Stick but re-branded to a Chocolate Cream in 1866, so by the time I was born it was already over a hundred years old!(1) That is some serious history when you think about it. This is a small, niche museum which holds a rich collection of packaging and branding through the ages. It is the brainchild of Robert Opie who as a sixteen year old in 1963, about to throw away the wrapping of a snack he had just purchased, noticed that the packaging of his favourite snack had changed. He then realised that the ever-changing branded packs of the self-service shopping era were literally being thrown away when they were in truth, evidence of a ‘prolific and dynamic’ society’. Industry produced, packaged and delivered thousands of desirable items from ‘every corner of the world’ and the packaging could not be discarded as simply rubbish. (2) He has spent many years since searching and researching the origins of the consumer revolution and collecting the very early packs and promotion material.
Twelve years later part of his burgeoning collection was shown at the V & A Museum in London in a display called ‘The Pack Age: A Century of Wrapping It Up. In 1984 he opened the Museum of Advertising and Packaging in Gloucester, the first of it’s type in Britain, this was followed by the Museum of Memories in Wigan in 1999. These were consolidated into the Museum of Brands in Notting Hill which opened in 2005 but had to relocate to the current larger building in Ladbroke Grove in 2015.
(1) Robert Opie, Remember When. A Nostalgic Trip through the Consumer Era, (London, Mitchell Beazley, 1999), p. 16.
(2) R. Opie, p. 6.
Frances at the Museum 