the museum makers

a book about love, death and story-telling grandmas – as well as for anyone who loves museums.

‘Without even thinking I began to slide all these things from the dusty boxes under my bed into groups on the carpet, to take a guess at what belonged to whom, to match up photographs and handwriting to memories and names – in other words, to sort and classify. As I did so I had the revelation that in what we do with our memories and the stuff that our parents leave behind we are all museum-makers, seeking to make sense of the past.’

Museum expert Rachel Morris had been ignoring the boxes under her bed for decades. When she finally opened them an entire bohemian family history was laid bare. The experience was revelatory – searching for her absent father in the archives of the Tate, understanding the loss and longings of the grandmother who raised her. Transported back to the museums that had enriched her lonely childhood, Rachel also explores the stories of the early museum-makers, whose passions and mistakes were reflected in her own family.