34 Object Handling

Object Handling runs every Saturday at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, from 13:30 to 15:30. It's a volunteer-led drop-in session, which means there's no need to book ahead—you just turn up when you fancy it.

The whole point is to get you closer to the museum's collections than you usually can. Instead of just looking at things behind glass, you're invited to explore the stories and themes of the displays by actually touching them. They bring out objects and specimens from the museum's holdings for you to handle, and you do it under the guidance of the museum volunteers who are there to talk you through what you're holding.

It's a different way of doing a museum. Rather than walking a set route and reading labels, you spend your time with a few things in your hands, chatting about them. Because it's a drop-in, you can stay for twenty minutes or hang around for the full two hours, and you're in no rush to move on to the next thing. It's as much about the conversation as it is about the objects themselves.

If you're in Oxford on a Saturday afternoon, it's an easy one to slot in. It runs from 13:30 to 15:30 at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and since it's a drop-in, you can just drift in and out as you like.