Jewish Museum London is now delivering our learning programmes and collections displays in the community & around the UK. Come and visit us at Swiss Cottage Library from 7 March to 4 April.

The Jewish Military Museum moves in

by Sarah Fairhurst, Assistant Curator

Exciting things have been happening behind the scenes at the Jewish Museum this month. The Jewish Military Museum left Shield House and Hendon behind and moved the entire collection to our new store. JMM staff Roz (Curator, Military Collections), Niki (Learning Programme Manager) and I (Assistant Curator) have all commenced our work at Camden.

Over the
last few months all the JMM’s objects were taken off display at Shield House and, along with the rest of our collection, packed away into boxes. This was a long and delicate process as we had to make sure every single object and archive was packed to conservation standards. I even went on a course at the Museum of London to learn how to pack costume and textile materials with tissue ‘puffs’ and ‘sausages’!

image

Two ARP/Fire Warden helmets, packed in tissue ‘puffs’ 

As well as the collection every single office file, book and mannequin had to be packed in boxes to be transported to Camden.

Mountains of boxes at the Jewish Military Museum in Hendon

The entire uniform and textile collection needed to be frozen before it could be moved to Camden – made up of 71 boxes and over 100 hanging uniforms! Freezing these objects ensures that any pests such as moths and their larvae that could be living in the fabric are killed. Freezing makes sure they are not taken into the new store and let loose again!

We
hired Constantine Fine Art Handlers to move the collection (above) and rented the Horniman Museum’s large walk-in freezer in Greenwich to freeze our textile collection at -35°C. The Horniman staff had to wear special thermal jackets and gloves to
put the collection inside.

The collection was kept in the freezer for four days before the freezer was turned off so the objects could return to room temperature before it was picked up and taken to Camden.

Meanwhile, the rest of the museum’s collection was packed into trolleys and cages before leaving Hendon. This was a difficult task as the old museum was on the 3rd floor of a building with lots of narrow corridors, a very small lift and heavy doors.

image

Once everything had been packed away the old museum looked incredibly empty and we all felt very emotional about saying goodbye to the space which had been home to the museum for the last 10 years.

image

However the collection is moving to a brand new store which will be far a better place to care for it.

This is what the new store looked like before Ash, our builder, worked his magic…

After
fitting new walls, ceiling and floor, Ash and his team transformed the store. It was so exciting to have a completely empty store to move our collections into. We ensured we had built-in rails for our uniforms to hang on, specialised racking for framed objects and a grid-panel to attach large bulky items.

Unpacking the collection took a lot of time and hard work, fitting the boxes into the new shelves like a jigsaw puzzle. However, all the effort was worth it as the JMM now has a new home.

Tell Us What You Think

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *