Whose Landscapes? Open Spaces Society symposium
Event Information
About this event
The Open Spaces Society is Britain’s oldest national conservation body, founded in 1865 as the Commons Preservation Society.
This half-day online symposium will explore themes and sources from the Open Spaces Society collection at the MERL. Join us for short talks, discussion, poetry, artistic responses. There will be a ‘find the location’ challenge where you can explore the extensive early 20th century lantern slides collection and help us locate the landscapes. Themes include:
• Access, trespass and rights of way
• Woods and sylviculture
• Amenity and natural beauty in landscape preservation
The OSS collection at the MERL includes over 1000 lantern slides from the period 1900 to 1940. For more information on the collection, go to: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/open-spaces-society/
For more information on Dr Katrina Navickas’s project as Open Spaces Society Fellow at MERL, see https://historyofpublicspace.uk/my-oss-fellowship-at-merl-2021/
Open to all. Booking essential.
Organiser The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL)
Organiser of Whose Landscapes? Open Spaces Society symposium
The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL)
The MERL was established in Reading in 1951 to capture and record the rapidly changing countryside following World War II. In 2005, it moved to its current premises in St Andrew’s Hall, a building designed by Sir Alfred Waterhouse in 1880 for local businessman Alfred Palmer of the Huntley & Palmer biscuit company.
Today the Museum uses its diverse and surprising collection to explore how the skills and experiences of farmers and craftspeople, past and present, can help shape our lives now and into the future. The Museum has worked alongside rural people, local communities and specialist researchers to create displays and activities that engage with important debates about the future of food and the ongoing relevance of the countryside to all our lives.
The MERL belongs to the University of Reading Museums and Special Collections Service (UMASCS)
Special Collections
Our collections, which include rare books, archives and manuscripts, are substantial and varied, particularly for a University of this age and size. The University's collections also include artwork.
Museums Partnership Reading
Reading Museum and The Museum of English Rural Life work together as Museums Partnership Reading (MPR). MPR is funded by Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation scheme, to improve opportunities for diverse local communities to engage in cultural experiences and heritage through public programmes, including exhibitions, high quality learning services for young people, new online experiences and investment in volunteering.