Finding collections relating to d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people

One of the aims of our project is to make collections relating to d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people more visible – and to share some of the objects our Fellows and Trainees are discovering.

Some will have quite obvious connections to disabled people’s lives – a walking stick, some braille or images of disabled people. But we will also be exploring less obvious connections too. Sometimes the significance of an object is its owner; its part in a bigger story, or the way someone with lived experience of disability has responded to it. In this way we hope to broaden the ways that d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent stories are told.

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TREPANNING TOOL (Surgical Instrument)

before 1914

1914.76.110

This surgical instrument - known as a trepanning tool - was used to bore into the skull. This object was displayed in the co-curated gallery trail "Nothing Without Us: Experiences of Disability" at the Pitt Rivers Museum, curated by Kyle Lewis Jordan, running from 16th November 2023 - 6th October 2024.Community curation: Trepanning is one...

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Rights information: Copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Description

This surgical instrument - known as a trepanning tool - was used to bore into the skull. This object was displayed in the co-curated gallery trail "Nothing Without Us: Experiences of Disability" at the Pitt Rivers Museum, curated by Kyle Lewis Jordan, running from 16th November 2023 - 6th October 2024.

Community curation: Trepanning is one of the world’s oldest surgeries, one which scrapes, bores, or cuts into a skull. We know how trepanning was done, but the “why” remains a mystery. Sources indicate it was successfully carried out in cases of headaches or head wounds. But over the centuries, individuals whose behaviours deviated from a ‘norm’ were seen as candidates, placing the intellectually disabled at particular risk. - Brenda L. I, PhD & HoH (Hard of Hearing).

Meet our Fellows and Trainees

The Curating for Change project is running eight Fellowships over 18 months and eight Traineeships over 40 days based across 20 partner museums. Learn more about our Fellows and Trainees here.

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