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Alice Sage

Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Faith’s Festive Finds

By Danielle Sandwell Hello, I am a new volunteer working on the Faith Eaton project. Since joining the team I have been helping to sort through Faith’s vast collection, getting...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Les Poupées Peynet – A Doll Love Story

By Holly Tatham I’m back with more postcards! During one of the first weeks of working on the Faith Eaton project, Eloisa and I opened up one of Faith’s boxes and found a...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Faith the collector and curator

By Eloisa Rodrigues It is not easy to get into a collector’s mind and understand the reasons why someone chooses to gather selected objects to be part of something bigger....

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

A Treasury of Postcards

By Holly Tatham As Eloisa mentioned in her last post, we’ve spent days looking through and sorting out hundreds of Faith Eaton’s postcards. Whilst doing so we’ve enjoyed and...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

A Day in the Life of a Dollmaker

By Eloisa Rodrigues Holly and I have been struggling to find another word to replace “interesting” when describing Faith Eaton’s archive as we go along with the research and...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

The Faith Eaton Project: entering the private world of a doll expert

By Eloisa Rodrigues and Holly Tatham Here in the V&A Museum of Childhood’s archives there is a new dolls’ house world to be explored. Nearly 10 years ago the museum...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

At least 75% of the children behaved themselves properly

Here’s another gem from The Times in the 1920s. The perennial problem of children in museums had arisen in the letters pages, and the newspaper approached Sir Cecil...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

There are many worse places in which to spend an idle day

Dolls’ houses have long been at the heart of the displays at the museum in Bethnal Green, and as Small Stories has shown, their appeal never gets old. This article appeared...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

No Country for Old Dolls?

GUEST POST: Lauren vonBechmann gives the background to our new Small Stories trailer. One of our main aims of Small Stories is to bring each dolls’ house to life, and what...

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Caring for our collections

The Curious Collage: an 18th century dolls’ house

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Building a Dream House

As a finale to the Small Stories exhibition, we wanted to create something new. Something that would bring the story of dolls’ houses bang up to date, and reflect on some of the...

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Our projects

Super-sizing the killer kitchen

Wouldn’t you love to go into one of these little rooms and get a closer look? In the Small Stories exhibition, you’ll be able to do just that. We are re-creating rooms...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Back home in the gallery

Alongside the Small Stories exhibition, we have also been busy re-organising the dolls’ houses in the Museum’s permanent gallery. We were encouraged to re-think this gallery,...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you’ll ever do…

…If that’s the case then we’ve certainly been ambitious with our Small Stories exhibition, which involves moving 12 houses not just around the Museum but around the...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Illuminating dolls’ houses

Lighting is vital for creating a particular atmosphere at home. Do you want it to be rich or minimal, soft and warm or stark and clinical? Developing our approach to lighting...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Lounge or living room?

Sitting room or saloon? Whatever it’s called, we’ve got plenty of them in the Small Stories exhibition. Louisa in the Tate Baby House is most certainly in a drawing room, a...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Dearest daughter in law

In the Tate’s fine Manor House, Mrs Johanna Tate has received a letter from her mother-in-law. Johanna’s first pregnancy is a cause of nervous excitement, and everybody has...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Meet George Humble. How do you do?

This is George Humble, one of the inhabitants of the Box Back Terrace house. In the Small Stories exhibition, you’ll be able to meet George and the other tenants of Mrs...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

The Joy Wardrobe Part 3

On the right hand side of this early 18th century wardrobe, in bold letters several inches high, is painted “Edmund Joy 1712”. Who was this confident inscriber, who claimed...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

The Joy Wardrobe Part 2

Opening the two outer doors unveils another interesting feature of this miniature house. Each one is lined with a different patterned and coloured wallpaper. The wallpaper marks...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

The Joy Wardrobe Part 1

The first house in the upcoming exhibition, Small Stories: at home in a dolls’ house will be the ‘Joy Wardrobe’, made in 1712. It’s a strange object to start with,...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

If You Don’t Know Where You Are Going… by Tom Lloyd and Luke Pearson

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there… (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) PearsonLloyd are a commercial design...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

If a Budgie Dreamed of Being a Magpie by Bethan Wood

Drawing from her own body of work, Bethan Wood, with the help of her friend Francis Upritchard and her assistant Louisa, has created miniature versions of her own designs as well...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Into the Trees by Pantxika Ospital

“It reminds me of my uncle that built a wooden slide inside his living room for kids like me at the time, to play indoors on rainy days.” Using only cork and clay for...

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Museum life

The Longest Party Table in the World by Paul Priestman

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Llama Dreams by Donna Wilson

“I’ve called this room Llama Dreams, as it’s a bedroom full of pattern and colour, and I think it could inspire some crazy dreams if you slept here! I’m a a...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Library (a recent plan) by Emma Mawston, Liberty Art Fabrics Interiors

Emma Mawston and her team at Liberty Interiors have brought to life a library design from their archives, creating an exquisite Dream House room perfectly planned for curling up...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Molly’s Favourite Things by Molly Meg

Molly Meg Price brings together contemporary and vintage design for children. In her pop-up stores and online, she creates fun and beautiful spaces for kids (and their...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

More is More by Jessica Hayman, Rosa & Clara Designs

“My philosophy is that you can never have too much print and pattern, so this little room was a wonderful opportunity to go to town with an abundance of patterned textiles.  My...

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Small Stories at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Offline Hideaway by Dominic Wilcox

Philosopher Gaston Bachelard talks about the dream potential of different spaces. Up high in attics and garrets, the mind dreams widely with clarity. The simple form of the nest,...

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