100 Years, 100 Objects: Stories from the Collections of Lancaster City Museums

Today's episode looks at the suffragettes and how their actions helped gain the right to vote for women in the UK. Rachael Bowers, Museum Manager at Lancaster City Museum tells us about this hunger strike medal, and the amazing woman that owned it. 

We're getting stylish, stone age style as we're joined by Claire Bradshaw, the archaeology and heritage officer for the Morecambe Bay Partnership to discuss this fascinating pendant worn by someone in the Warton area over 5,000 years ago. 

Come with us as we lead you on a merry dance through history. Our object today is this beautifully carved panel which shows an early image of morris dancers. Join us as we talk to Andy Hornby and Bob Tyson who provide with the stories, and the sounds, behind this object. 

Read all about it! We're chatting to Rebekah Musk, a PhD student at Lancaster University to get the scoop on The Lancaster Gazetteer and General Advertiser, Lancaster's first newspaper that launched in 1801. 

We're joined by Dr Alexander Scott from the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool to discuss an envelope used to advocate for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and Lancaster's involvement in this trade. 

We've got a hot episode for you today as we speak to James Houghton about our fire engine and find out all about this early life-saving device and how fire fighting was organised (or perhaps disorganised!) 250 years ago.   

Why not stream a podcast about streams? In this episode we talk to Professor Bronislaw Szerszynski about the history of Burrow Beck and the other streams that flow, or used to flow, through Lancaster. 

We're shining a light on another aspect of local history in this episode where we talk to Victoria Petherick-Brian, Museum Assistant at Lancaster City Museums, about one of her favourite objects, a lighthouse reflector. 

All aboard to find out how a Lancastrian changed the face of rail travel for ever. We speak to Museum Manager Rachael Bowers about Thomas Edmondson and his revolutionary invention. If you love local history, and trains, this is just the ticket. 

Find out how animals have managed to leave their imprint on our history as we examine this Roman tile which features a dog's paw print. We speak to Harvey Fox about ancient pottery making in Quernmore and how Roman's interacted with, and loved, their dogs. 

William Woodhouse was a prominent local artist who painted the natural world and the spaces around him. We speak to Paul Thompson to find out more about this fascinating figure.  

Join us as we chat to Dr Eleri Cousins about this roman object, which is just as important for the community stories that have grown up around it as it is for its historical story. 

Join us as we chat to Dr Karen Wright about medicines of the past and how the uses, and reputation, of different drugs have changed over the years. Find out why someone would put cocaine in their eye, and what the future is for medicines derived from cannabis. 

We're finding out more about the Phoenix Foundry, which used to stand on Phoenix Street. What did they make? Who owned it? And who worked there? Find out all this and more as we speak to Emma Coffey about this little known industry from the centre of Lancaster. 

How would you find your way across the vast open ocean? Could you do it with just some wooden beams stuck together, and a bit of clever maths? We speak to Dr Joe Kinrade about this simple but essential navigation device, find out how it works, and how we have evolved from this to modern GPS being involved in everything from finding our way to making payments to drilling for resources on the ocean...

Join us for dinner as we speak to Dr Mike Winstanley about this beautiful object which served up Lancaster on a plate for anyone who wished to buy it. Find out when, how and why plates like this were made. 

A beautiful and still slightly mysterious device is at the centre of this episode. We speak to Dr Maria Walach to find out more about how it was used to predict the tides, and re-visit a figure who has appeared in our podcast before...its creator, Captain William Nelson Greenwood.  

Today we're looking at the history of one of Lancaster's most powerful families, who left their mark on the architecture and names in the City. Join us as we chat to James Houghton about the Daltons. 

Come with us back to the stone age to find out about life in Lancashire when it was a very different place. City Museum Site Supervisor Richard Whittaker shows us why this is one of his favourite objects and what it can tell us about the distant past. 

Today we're going from Lancaster to the stars. We speak with Dr Julie Wardlow from Lancaster University about the fascinating story behind this telescope, which was once a feature of Williamson Park. 

Witches, ghouls, ghosts and goblins join us for this podcast as we chat to Alys Rouncefield about a simple object which has a magical history, a hag stone. 

We talk to Andrew White about what a Georgian sailor could do to help protect himself in the event of accident or injury at sea. We dive into the history of this early insurance scheme and find out a little more about life onboard ship. 

We look at the Victorian custom of funeral biscuits and what it can tell us about how they related to death. Dr Amy Gadoud from Lancaster University joins us to talk about palliative care and how our modern relationship with the end of life has changed. 

We talk to Mel Cookson-Carter, Museum Manager at Lancaster Maritime Museum, about one of the darkest stories in Lancaster's history, the murder of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson in 1935. We discuss the case and how we relate to the museum objects that come from such sad stories. 

We chat to Professor Julia Gillen about the social media of the Edwardian age. Millions of people used postcards to send images and messages multiple times a day in what became referred to as a 'craze'. We delve into the story behind this fascinating card, and others like it.