40 Artefacts for 40 Years: Artefact 1 – RAF Cap
This July the Museum will be celebrating 40 years since it was founded in 1976.
In celebration of this we asked 40 of our staff and volunteers to choose their favourite Museum artefact and share it with us. Some of these artefacts can be found in our 33 re-erected historic buildings, some are currently in our artefacts store waiting for use in one of the buildings that we have in storage. The Museum currently has 15 buildings in store waiting for the funds to be raised so that we can re-erect them in the future. Some of these artefacts are being conserved at present and are not on public view, whilst others are kept under cover to preserve them for the future.
You can find out more about how the Museum began in our Chiltern Open Air Museum Celebrates 40 Years blog post.
RAF Cap belonging to Flt Lt. Stephen Bacon
Siân Hammerton-Fraser, Visitor Experience Manager
I love finding ways to tell the stories of people who lived in the past, and the story of Flt Lt. Stephen Bacon, who flew during WWII, is inextricably linked with that of the Museum. During the many years that Stephen volunteered here he donated his uniform for visitors to try on, to help them see into the past and understand more about what it was like to live during the war. This is a uniquely personal way to help tell that story.