A List of Museums of School, School Life and Education

Below is a list of museums related to school and school life. I’m happy to add to it or make corrections if you have suggestions – just use the Comments form, below. Thanks.

Before the list, it’s worth having a look at these links, respectively a paper and a discussion on the role of educational museums, presented at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Porto, 2014. They throw up some really interesting questions about the value for the future of keeping track of the past:

Modern museum discovery of the exciting educational past: from exhibitions to active presentations in school/educational museums around Europe. By Branko Šuštar.
E.g.: “Constant innovation in education sometimes presents already tried and tested educational methods as new. Can we move beyond the current issues of the educational present with a view to future developments through critical analysis and a fair presentation of a problematic and sometimes dissonant past?”

Preserving the Past, Shaping the Future – The Case For A European Museum of Education? By Keri Facer, Catherine Burke and Ian Grosvenor.
E.g.: “How might we, then, create a public institution capable of addressing this challenge, capable of both preserving the multiple histories of education and mobilising and informing contemporary debate? This workshop will address the following questions with participants:

1. What are the broad disciplinary fields that would be needed to curate a ‘museum of education’ adequate to its historic and contemporary complexity?
2. What archives and collections might be brought together to populate this new museum?
3. What opportunities do digital technologies offer to create connections between existing museum collections and in fostering public debate?
4. What would constitute the basis of a programme of ‘public understanding of education’?”

Australia

Canberra
Australian National Museum of Education [Website in English]
They have a list here of their members, which looks like approximately 30 school museums spread across the country: http://anme.org.au/schoolhouse-museums/anme-members/

Croatia

Zagreb
Croatian School Museum [Website in Croatian and English]
HR – 10000 Zagreb, Trg marsala Tita 4

England

[Private Initiative, Online]
“Resources for those studying Victorian schooling and the Victorian period”
The Victorian School [Website in English]
Note: they very handily have a list of approximately 30 school museums throughout England and Wales

Barton-upon-Humber
Wilderspin National School [Website in English]
Queen Street, Barton-upon-Humber DN18 5QP

Beamish
Beamish Open Air Museum [Website in English]
Beamish, County Durham, DH9 0RG

Hitchin
The British Schools Museum [Website in English]
41/42 Queen Street, Hitchin SG4 9TS

London
The Ragged School Museum [Website in English]
46-50 Copperfield Road, London E3 4RR

Finland

Ranua
Saukkojärvi Local History and School Museum [Website in Finnish and English]
Toljantie, FI-97700 Ranua

France

Rouen
MUNAÉ – Musée national de l’Éducation [Website in French and English]
Maison des Quatre Fils Aymon, 185, rue Eau-de-Robec, 76000 Rouen

Germany

Nuremburg
School Museum [Website in German and English]
Äußere Sulzbacher Straße 60-62, 90491 Nuremberg

Greece

Athens
School Life and Education Museum [Website in Greek and English]. This site has more information in Greek: http://www.ekedisy.gr
23, Tripodon Street, Plaka, 105 58, Athens

Museum of Children’s Art / Μουσείο Ελληνικής Παιδικής Τέχνης
9, Kodrou Street, Plaka, 105 58 Athens

Note, the above two museums are within 5 minutes walk of each other, in the Plaka area underneath the Acropolis. I visited in March 2017 and both seemed extremely well run. The Museum of Children’s Art had a wide range of activities for young ones to approach art and the staff were extremely helpful.

Nerokourou, Crete
The Museum of School Life (Μουσείο Σχολικής Ζωής Νεροκούρου)
Nerokourou, near Chania, Crete
Excellent. I visited in October 2016 and wrote a blog post about The Museum of School Life, Nerokourou.

Italy

[Government Archives, Online]
National Museum of the School (Museo Nazionale della Scuola) [Website in Italian]

[Private Initiative, Online]
The Digital Museum of the Italian Primary School (Il Museo Digitale della Scuola Primaria Italiana) [Website in Italian]

Bolzano
Museum of the School (Museo della Scuola – Schulmuseum) [Website in Italian and German]
via Rencio 51/b, Bolzano, Italy

Turin
Museum of School and Children’s Books (Il Museo della Scuola e del Libro per l’Infanzia) [Website in Italian]
Palazzo Barolo, via Corte d’Appello 20/c – 10122 Torino
Two excellent museums with extremely knowledgeable staff. I had only 40 minutes for both which was nowhere near enough, suggest 90mins at least. Also very interesting is the story of the building and its owners who, in the early 19th century, started the first asilo (kindergarten) in Piemonte and introduced some of the latest French pedagogical techniques into this part of northern Italy.

Netherlands

Dordrecht
National Museum of Education (Nationaal Onderwijsmuseum) [Website in Dutch and English]
Burgemeester de Raadtsingel 97
3311 JG Dordrecht

Norway

Bergen
Bergen School Museum [Website in Norwegian and English]
Lille Øvregate 38

Scotland

Edinburgh
Museum of Childhood
42 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1TG

Glasgow
Scotland Street School Museum [Website in English]
225 Scotland Street, Glasgow G5 8QB
In the original school building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that opened in 1906.