Museum from Home

Published: 04 May 2020

While the Museum remains closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, our team have been busy working on their own projects from home for when we reopen.

Our Museums & Heritage Officer, Joanne Wilson, has been updating our Birthplace Blog with interesting information, from a behind the scenes look at the buildings past, too a look into how we look after our growing collection of books. Visit the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Blog.

One of our attendants, Kevin, has been building a series of fantastic Johnson and Lichfield history displays in advance for Christmas, where we hope to display the automata throughout the house.

Nigel, who can usually be found in our bookshop, has been examining some of our visitor books. He has been documenting where our visitors came from during the Museum’s early years, with some surprising results. Despite the long distance, people visited the Birthplace from places as far away as New Zealand!

Sarah, another of our attendants, has been creating costumes for the Birthplace from home. Pictured below is a beautiful floral bonnet that she created over Easter to go in our dressing up box for visitors to try on once we reopen.

Lastly, another of our attendants, Christine, participated in Staffordshire Day ‘at-home’ last week. Christine is a talented storyteller, who told a tale about the time that Samuel Johnson had his birthday stolen due to a change in the country’s calendar. Her wonderful story can be found on our Facebook page.

We can’t wait to welcome visitors to the Birthplace again, and until then we will continue to post any updates and reopening information on our website.