AN EXHIBITION looking at the history of Huntley and Palmers has opened, celebrating its 200th anniversary.
The Museum of English Rural Life is hosting a collection of artifacts telling the stories of the people whose lives were shaped by the company to mark the bicentenary of the biscuit makers.
It has teamed up with the University of Reading, which shared exhibits from its special collections, to chart the relationship between Huntley and Palmers, the town of Reading, and its people.
Tim Jerrome, the exhibit’s curator said: “People are generally more interesting than things, so being able to use our collections and our objects to illustrate people’s lives connects a lot better,
“I suppose we’re a bit nosy, we want to know about personal lives and an artifact is only as valuable as the people who used it.”
As such, he says that people are at the heart of the exhibition.
“Events are only events because of the way people acted and the choices that they made,
“So both events and objects are kind of intrinsically linked to people and that’s why people find it so engaging.”
The exhibition features a hands-on display, where visitors may hold and examine some of the artifacts themselves, including historical catalogues and examples of the first hinged biscuit tin design.
It has also been woven into the rest of the museum’s gallery, with numerous linked or relevant items marked outside of the exhibit.
As well as this, the MERL has created the Biscuit Crumb Trail, an audio trail which charts a number of points of historical interest between it and the Huntley and Palmers Gallery in Reading Museum.
The trail links the two exhibition spaces, passing the sites of Joseph Huntley’s first shop, the ironmongers which would go on to produce the iconic biscuit tins, and, of course, the factory itself.
“We can tell the stories of Alfred Palmer who owned the MERL building, even its gardener,
“People don’t really change that much over history, they have the same worries and the same struggles.”
The exhibits include items and personal effects from Captain Robert F. Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic.
Part of the exhibition examines Henry Gibbs, a 14 year old boy who moved from Oxfordshire to work for Huntley & Palmers in 1861.
“He moved entirely by himself with no family in Reading, which shows the confidence that people had in the company and obviously how independence was expected at a younger age,
“I was able to find Henry within the wages ledger for the packing department, having found him on Ancestry previously.”
Among the exhibits is a diary with some striking penmanship and illustrations.
“We recently acquired a diary telling the story of the evacuation of many apartment employees from their factory in Paris in 1940.”
Huntley and Palmers shipped machinery to Paris in 1924, setting up its only ever overseas production facility.
The diary features a hand-drawn map detailing the route the workers took while fleeing German occupation.
“They just managed to escape the German advance and how they organised it themselves is a really fascinating, organic story that tells itself.”
He says that Huntley and Palmers is inherently linked to Reading, and vice versa: “Just physically it was so important to the growth of Reading,
“It’s really what put Reading on the map, and biscuits were distributed around the world from here.”
“In terms of family history and family memories, it’s absolutely crucial to Reading’s history.”
The exhibition forms a part of a town-wide celebration of Huntley and Palmers’ 200-year anniversary.
Special events such as a guided tour and Reading Children’s Festival will mark the occasion later in the year.
Biscuit Town: 200 years of Huntley and Palmers in Reading will be on display at the Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, from Tuesday, May 10, to Sunday, September 25.
Doors are open from 9am-5pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 10am-5pm on weekends.
For more information and access to audio guides, see: www.visit-reading.com
