We have a range of exhibitions, drop-in activities and exciting events that take place in the museum and gardens.
Events and Activities
We have a range of events and activities throughout the year, both inside the Museum and out in the Walled Gardens, see below for details…
Museum Mischief
Throughout December mischievous elves are hiding around the museum… each elf represents an important figure in Harlow’s history, see if you can find them all.
Exhibitions
We have a temporary exhibition space that is regularly changing with items uncovered from our stores, we also have seasonal displays, work made at our events, or show large collections donated to us.
Technology and Communication In Harlow
Our exhibition features technology and communication over the years. Highlighting how the various devises, like TVs, cameras and radios, have all lead to the smartphone which many of us now carry around in our pocket. Did you know that Charles Kao and George Hockham discovered that data could be transmitted along glass fibres at STL in Harlow? This provided the groundwork for fibre optic telecommunications, which forms the backbone of the modern internet.
Have a Holly, Jolly Harlow
Discover Christmases of Harlow’s past in our latest exhibition. Featuring photos of the town decorated throughout the years, a variety of Christmas cards, including school competition winners, as well as never before seen festive cartoons, taken from Harlow Development Corporation staff magazines. Drop by in December to see.
Museum at Home
If you’ve enjoyed your visit to the museum why not download one of our free printable activity sheets you can do at home.
Make Your Own Pin Hole Camera
In the 16th century, some artists used a ‘camera obscura’ (Italian, meaning ‘dark room’) with a small opening, and later a lens which would project an image of the brightly lit outside scene into the camera. A pinhole camera uses this same principle on a much smaller scale, ask for a work sheet if you are interested in making one at home.
Download here
Binary Code Challenge
Decode a message written in Binary code, and even write your own coded message. Binary code is how computers use and transfer data. Invented in 1689 by Gottfried Leibniz, it is still essential to programming today.
Download here
Make Your Own Telephone
Make a simple telephone and communicate using vocal vibrations.
Download here
Be a Digital Camera
Did you know that digital photographs are made up of coloured pixels, and the colours that they are are coded in binary? Use binary code to colour the pixels in the image, what do you see when you have finished? could you make your own pixel image?
Download here
Make a Movie
Enjoy watching your own moving image by making a zoetrope, experiment with your own image ideas.
Download here