Adopt An Object
Help Hertford Museum keep Inspiring Generations with our new Adopt an Object Scheme.
Select an object of your choice from our permanent displays and for £50 your name, or the name of a loved one, will be displayed with the object for a period of 24 months. We will contact you towards the end of this period with the option to renew your adoption.
Below are a small collection of ideas available but not by any means the full list of objects. Click the link below to adopt an Object for £50 today!
Dentist’s Chair
Used at Hudsons dentist in the 1940s.
Turks Head Pub Sign
Double sided inn sign from the Turks Head, 42 Fore Street, which closed in 1824.
Nancy Dawkins Doll
Dressed doll, known as Nancy Dawkins, with accessories, circa 1730. Dolls like this were often used by dressmakers to demonstrate fashions to prospective clients.
Armadillo handbag
Handbag made from the shell of an armadillo, from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Hertford Library Clock
Clock made by Fore Street jeweller and clock maker Evan Marks in 1889, for the new Hertford Library at Old Cross.
Wooden pilasters
These formerly decorated the exterior of the Old Coffee House Inn on the corner of Maidenhead Street and Honey Lane. Rescued from a skip by the museum Curator in 1937 when the inn was demolished.
Sadie the Ventriloquist Dummy
Sadie was half of the cabaret act Kay and Sadie, with child ventriloquist Pauline White, AKA Kay. Pauline began her act aged seven in 1946 and she and Sadie continued to wow audiences into the 1950s.
Samurai Armour
The armour dates to the late Edo period, most likely the late 18th century. It was donated to the museum by Dr John Batchelor, brother in law of the museum founders. Dr Batchelor was a missionary who worked in Hokkaido, Japan, for over sixty years.
Hertfordshire Regiment D-Day Life Belt
The 2nd Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment were part of No. 9 Beach Group, clearing snipers for assault troops during the Normandy Landings.
Roman Curse Tablet
Excavated at Braughing, dating from the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. The surface is very scratched and worn so only a few individual letters can still be read, including the symbol for denarii, Roman currency.
Curse tablets usually consisted of a sheet of lead, inscribed with a curse or request, rolled up or folded and left in a shrine or sacred spring. The inscription usually related to a wrongdoing or crime and the person offering the tablet hoped to get revenge on the wrong doer through a curse.